Dark Side Of The Moon

[Stiggs]

Could someone explain to me how Dark Side Of The Moon works as a concept album? Like how are Great Gig In The Sky, On The Run, and Any Colour You Like are important, as well as the flow of meaning throughout the songs? I'd appreciate it a lot. Dark Side is my second favorite CD, but I'm sure that if I understand what it's completely about it prolly would become my favorite, topping The Wall.

[pinktim]

It is all about life.

Great Gig In The Sky is about dying.

On The Run focusses on the stress and pace of life.

Any Colour You Like is actually a song that the band developed to join the rest of the album together.

One of the concepts that is not discussed about the album is that it is one continuous song from beginning to end, although the album originally came out in vinyl form meaning there was a break when one turned the album over. Another part of this is that the album, like other Pink Floyd albums, actually runs on from ending back to beginning. Run the cd on a continuous play on the player. The heartbeat at the end is the heart at the beginning.

The last song on the album, Eclipse, puts the whole thing into perspective. And, remember that the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon.

[sound_chaser]

As Tim says, Dark Side Of The Moon is about life and how we as people get through it. To have sold so many copies worldwide shows that its appeal is universal. It transcends cultural barriers. There are so many lines on the album where you think, “Yes, that’s exactly what it’s like for me too!” The theme of the album, is something to be felt intuitively, rather than intellectualised over. With this album, Roger Waters, proved himself one of the world’s great songwriters. Musically, Pink Floyd had always been special, but here Waters elevated himself as a lyricist into the same ranks as Bob Dylan and John Lennon. Waters is often condemned for the gloomy nature of his lyrics, but I think he casts a perfect reflection of how life is for a great many people. What isn’t often mentioned though, is that along with those gloomy lyrics, are expressions of love, compassion and hope. I think the positive aspects of his writing, are one of the reasons that’s D.S.O.T.M, was so successful. His message at the end, is that you can triumph over adversity; life can be good if you want it to be. That is a recurring theme in Waters subsequent writing. I’ve thought of him before as a healer, because he has a gift of reaching into your soul and showing you a way out of your particular despair!

[djproject]

Speak to Me: the beginning of life

Breathe: live life, live for others, live for the earth, striving high is vanity (this is almost Ecclesiastes neatly summarized into less than three minutes)

On the Run: exactly how it is

Time: the path of life on the map is often misread (wasting time, not making time, rushing to meet the goals)

Breathe (Reprise): work makes man tired and there is a search for peace and serenity

The Great Gig in the Sky: the ultimate peace (death)

Money: the materialistic pursuit (especially when greed is thrown into the mix)

Us and Them: the factioning based on anything

Any Colour You Like: unlimited wants, limited resources [title is derived from the Model T advert... any colour you like as long as it's black, my observation is based on the fundamental principle of economics]

Brain Damage: insanity and difference of perception

Eclipse: life is good and yet there is a darkness to it.

Another reason why the prism cover works: the single thing called life is broken apart by both music and lyrics to create different colours.

Neat eh? And you thought it was just a gimmick to make certain people to buy posters for dorm room decoration

[pinktim]

And, it was great as a poster in a dorm room as well as an apartment.

Black light adds another dimension.

Some very good points made here that I need to put into my database for future reference.

Thanks,

[David Smith]

ok, i'm going to give what i think, probably the same as that other guy's, but here we go:

(This is with referance to the book Which One's Pink where much of tese ideas are lifted.)

This is done with the sun and moon being representative respecifully as the good and bad of life. The album is all about what can cause people to go insane.

The Dark Side Of The Moon: This is the great unknown.

Speak to me: Someone is born.

Breathe: A mother telling her son/ daughter of the capitalist society and that constant work will reward. A thought that takes away inspiration of creativity and can lead to growing insanity.

On The Run: Travelling constantly and not knowing where life is going to take you, feling that you're going to die before you truely discover what's going on (hence the plane crash in it.) Again, a thought of insanity.

Time: Spending the first while of your life wasting/ killing time but when it comes down to it you missed the starting gun. The character then tries to get ahead and chase the good in life (the sun) but can't manage because of their late start. A situation that may cause mental stress.

Breathe reprise: This character has the balance between working and relaxing, but they don't have religeous beleifs and fear the afterlife. A lack in beleifs can also cause insanity.

The Great Gig In The Sky: This character denies a fear of death to try and protect themselves from their feelings. Inside they are screaming. The live a life of denial and often try and hide their real thoughts isloating them.

Money: A fall from grace, the character begins (it's an arrogant musician by the way) talking about the good of money and making arrogant statemtns. After verse 2 the riff begins and the guitar effect become double tracked to show a rise in fame for our musician figure but it plays one chorus before being demoted to a single tracker again to show a fall from grace. After this fall the character calls money a crime but because we're all to greedy with what we have the world will never get equality.

Us And Them: The divisions between men made from the war and the mistreatment of many people (the front rank all sent off to die while the generals are behind their lines perfectly safe.) The second verse compares war to chess and that awkward position at the end when just the king's left and moves up, down and round and around the board, witht his to work the pawns are useless. a rioter puts up a poster about this but a riot policeman tells him to move on. The final verse shows that these divisions still are a reality but the business man just walks past the down and out, and because he gives no money like evryone else the old man dies although he just needed the money for tea and a slice to satisfy himself. We created our divisions back in the war and they still exist.

Any colour you like: Comes fromt he phrase "Any colour you like, they're all blue." It's about thinking you get a lot (e.g a choice) when in reality there is a lack of options.This is shown on the cover with a white line being divided by a translucant prism in to a spectrum of colourful lights. But on the original LP the back shows the colours continue before infusing in to another white line. This is about thinking you get more than the reality and feeling let down.

Brain Damage: The character dismisses the character in time and the character in money as lunatics. The character slowly doupts his own sanity and wishes to be treated. The chorus is sang from another narrator who assures the first character that no matter what happens he feels the same way sometimes. Everone does, and no matter what, they will meet in the great unknown (the afterlife, or, the dark side of the moon so to speak.)

Eclipse: The song is about all the above situations and more. The ultimate message is that this world is good, but sometimes the bad stuff seems to outweigh the good, but really, the good is still presant even if you cant see it (the sun being eclipsed by the moon.)

The album ends on the hearteat fading out to show the deat of our original character and ends with a trip to the afterlife. With that we leave on the observation that there is no dark side of the moon, evil doesn't exist, it's just a reflection of good, and that without goodness it can't be real. This is because the moon is all dark and the purety of the sun is reflected upon it (as in good and evil.) The afterlife is the mystery of evil because as a whole death is not good, but in that respect it's not really bad doing, it's a natural end.

[Powderfinger]

The Dark side of the Moon is about the dark side of life. Some themes: money and tine are about the bad things on earth. Us and Them and Any colour you like is about racism. Brain Damage about insanity, Great Gig in the sky about dying. About Breathe and On the Run I'm not sure.

[Marshall]

In the EPK interview, RW seemed to be saying that Time at least was about the time pressures people have in a hectic, get everything done yesterday kind of world. That's the impression I got from it.

But to me personally, it seems to be that we shouldn't let life pass us by as we fritter and waste our hours in an offhand way, expecting or taking for granted that all the things we do in life and enjoy will always be around. Because they won't. All the opportunities we let pass us by because we're wasting time watching TV or surfing the net or even chatting in forums.

Don't live in the office, but don't squander all your time on unimportant things either. Go out and enjoy a beautiful day for instance. And as a magazine ad I saw recently said, "The next time you take a sick day, don't forget to pack your sunscreen."