Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon - excuse me THE Dark Side… - turned 50 years old last week so I sat down and took the ride for the first time in ages. And because I have a nice copy on my shelf, I did so with the record, like I did when I discovered it in college about 1986. Then we were stoned and in the dark, like God intended. This time I had a few lights on.
As a rule, I don’t consume 1970s classic album rock like a lot of stereo-heads do. The closest I get is Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and the Grateful Dead. Mostly from that era I love jazz, funk and fusion, but I don’t return to Led Zeppelin, David Bowie or The Rolling Stones, as much as I respect them. Dark Side, however, transcends. It’s a sonic journey, a stunning achievement of conception, design and execution. I listened not with nostalgic ears on (also not my trip with music) but as a fresh, enthralling experience.
How did they even put this together before digital audio workstations? Making this layered, stereo shifting collage happen with only analog tape and relatively few inputs is kind of impossible to imagine. The barrage of sounds and voices that grow and explode into the warm bath of “Breathe” is a total thrill ride. The other masterpieces are, auspiciously, “Time” and “Money.” The Floyd boys dig into those mega-sized, life-defining subjects without sounding like jerks. I love the sadly funny line “hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way” and the jagged time of “new car, caviar, four star, daydream/Think I'll buy me a football team” is excellent. But mostly I love the sonics of the whole thing and the instrumental connecting songs “On The Run” with its spectacular synthesizer pulse and the long, silky guitar jam on “Any Color You Like.” It’s an album that begins and ends with heartbeats, and it feels like you’ve arrived somewhere by the end.
I looked up my edition of the vinyl, and somehow I managed to acquire the somewhat coveted SMAS-11163 Harvest edition which is apparently worth between $25 and $350. I don’t know where or when I purchased my copy, which is frustrating. The gatefold cover with the inside art that makes a heartbeat EKG out of the rainbow is a touch I forgot about. The bottom line is that my copy is very clean and sounds fantastic. This is an album I can honestly say lacks something as I sit here now with the digital stream. It’s an album made for the stout, rich sound of vinyl and given the investment I’ve put in my system in the past few years, I’ve never heard this album sound nearly as good as it did this weekend. Five stars. Holds up
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