I never said I was frightened of dying…

Well, today I am IMMENSELY bored, so I feel the urge to do something. And so I will. Today’s lovely lecture will be on perhaps the best concept album ever made, one that is very well-known across the world, has been linked with the Wizard of Oz, was in the album charts for almost 15 years and is one of the best-selling albums of the world. No, it’s not Spiceworld, it’s Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Now, other albums I’ve reviewed (all two of them) were talked about on a song-by-song basis, but this is a more complicated album than that, so I’ll try a different approach.

To summarise, the album is about life. It’s split into ten different songs, including some pure instrumentals, a rhythm based around tills and the dropping of money, the sound of clocks chiming, even a woman screaming (sounds odd, works well). It’s varied, to say the least. Anyway, as I said, the album is effectively about life and it’s happenings.

The album starts with the soft pounding of a drum, a heartbeat. In the background you hear bits of life – “I’ve been mad for fucking years, absolutely years”, the sound of a ticking clock, the sound of money, a roller-coaster climbing a hill, finally ending in a climatic bit of screaming -, you’re then launched into Breathe (that previous bit was Speak to Me). You’ll have probably heard this (other than Money, it’s probably the most well-known song on the album). Now, let me start you off on the life theme of this album. Speak to Me is life in the womb, you hear snippets of the world around you, before the big scream leading into (go on, guess!) birth, hence the name Breathe.

On the Run, a fully instrumental bit (rather electronic, really), follows. This is about fear of travel (on a plane in particular), ending with a big explosion as the album quietens down. The aftermath of the explosion is turned into quiet ticking, then lo and behold! Alarm bells ringing! Clocks chiming! Time is just a great song, with brilliant lyrics talking about how life slips away and a fantastic electric guitar solo in the middle.

Still with me? Good… Seamlessly at the end of Time, you’re lead back to Breathe (Reprise), a great little touch. The final note of this leads into the next, rather unusual song, The Great Gig in the Sky. A beautiful piece of piano playing starts this off, with some rather true words following:

“And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do; I don’t mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There’s no reason for it—you’ve gotta go sometime”

Then the song leads into the screaming and wailing, not something from your everyday song. It’s bizarre, to say the least. The next track, Money, is more normal. You’ll have heard this one, and it has a tune you just can’t forget. The themes for these two songs are rather obvious, death and human greed.

Us And Them, the next track, is the theme of war and human struggle. Exciting stuff, eh? A quieter and more sombre song than the rest of the album, as well as being the longest (clocking at 7:50 – nothing on the 23:44 of Atom Heart Mother, of course). Any Colour You Like is another instrumental. It’s very cheerful, but I have no idea what this song’s about. Nice, though.

The last two songs, now. Brain Damage is about madness, probably written about Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd’s former leader singer, actually went a bit mad and left the band (who, incidentally, died a few weeks ago). Eclipse is a fitting end to the album, acting as a sort of eulogy in a way, then ending with the famous line “there is no dark side of the moon really, matter of fact it’s all dark…”

DSotM is, at the end of it, one of those albums that everybody on the planet should hear at least once. It has helped pave the way for modern rock along with Sgt. Pepper’s, Revolver, Led Zeppelin IV, A Night at the Opera and more. Any self-respecting fan of rock music should simply listen to it.

A definite 10/10, methinks. Anything less would be a crime.