Summary of the Japanese booklet from the Dark Side of the Moon 50th anniversay SACD release

[Niebla de Fuego]

​For those of you who are wondering about the contents of the 20-page Japanese booklet that came inside the 50th anniversary SACD release: I scanned it and ran it through a OCR software, and then copied the text on an on-line translator.

Of course, automatic translation from Japanese is not the best and requires careful human revision to get a proper text. Instead of copying the tortuous to read text that the machine translation produced I offer you a summary of what is understandable from the text:

(*Note: "Madness" is the name given to the album in Japanese kanji)

There are four short essays, as follow:


The first essay is titled "Madness, Memories, and a Record" written by Naoki Tachikawa on January 2023.

The author remembers the 1971 Hakone festival and his expectations for the Pink Floyd visit to Japan in March 1972. He tells the anecdote of how the band wanted the lyrics to be translated into Japanese for the audience to understand, and how the leaflets containing the lyrics were translated and printed to be distributed to the audience in a matter of hours prior to the show on March 6, 1972.

There are also snippets of an interview to "Music Life" magazine where the Floyd explain how lights are a part of the performance, and how the sound has improved with each new tour. (If I understand correctly, the photobook that accompanies this release contains material from that interview on March 1972.)



The second essay is called "The rest of the dream was a world nobody knew". Written by Masanori Ito on January 2023.

Here the author recalls his experience as a teenager seeing the first Tokyo 1972 show, and the huge amazement and confusion him and all the crowd experienced when listening the then-unkown Dark Side suite. He also recalls an unannounced FM broadcast of a recording (audience?) of that 1st Tokyo show the day afterwards on a radio station.




The third essay is called "The immeasurable appeal of the 5.1ch surround mix of 'Madness'" by Akihiko Takeda, written also on January 2023.

Here the author goes into detail of the multichannel releases of the album: mentions the quad LP, the use of quad sound on the shows, and the 2003 SACD release, as well as the 2011 immersion release and the several multichannel versions contained in it. Then goes on a song by song description of how the surround sounds, instruments and voices are experienced throughout the album.



The fourth essay is called "A Classic and Enduring: Madness half a century after its release". It is written by Hiroyuki Ayuzawa.

Here the author describes the importance of the album and how it stands among several of the best seller pop/rock albums of all time. Then talks about the composition process and how the music evolved during the live performances.

There's nothing really new in this essay, as it mostly a historical description on how the album was born (things every fan already knows or can easily find on the internet).

Then the essay describes each song including some production details (which are also already well known by now).

It ends with a brief mention to the material included in the 2011 Immersion boxset, and also mentions the 2021-2022 "official bootlegs" releases noting their poor quality but their historical importance to appreciate the evolution of the album. And closes with a biographical note of each of the additional musicians and vocalists that participated in the album.




The last part of the book contains the Japanese lyrics of the album.

There's also a small disclaimer stating that the reproduction memorabilia may not be exactly identical to the originals as some phone numbers on them may have changed in the intervening years.

And the last page is just the technical details on SACD and DSD.


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