If you’ve ever dug through a pile of moth-eaten band T-shirts at your local Value Village, you’re most likely familiar with Pink Floyd. Since 1965, the prog-rock band has gifted the world some of the most incredible psychedelic music ever recorded. Listen to your dad’s favorite radio station for about an hour and you’re likely to hear at least one of their compositions (likely Money or Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2). Die hard fans will assert that their favorite Floyd album is one you’ve never heard of, like Animals, Atom Heart Mother, or possibly Ummagumma. But for the rest of us normies, the band’s most iconic album is The Dark Side of the Moon. This year it’s turning 50.
Whether or not you’ve listened to the album is irrelevant to its legacy. Since 1973, the iconic cover art has been endlessly printed on dorm room posters, T-shirts, and other random bits of memorabilia. It’s likely that at some point in your life, the image of a beam of light penetrating a triangular prism and splitting into a rainbow has occupied some amount of real estate in your mind. While gearing up for the album’s 50th anniversary, the “rainbow” cover was reworked into a suitable logo. Hilariously, a handful of conservative boomers and trolls angrily took to Facebook, accusing the band of going “woke.” Obviously, the band’s long history of pairing socially conscious lyrics with searing guitar solos has been lost on this crowd.
Another reason for the album’s enduring legacy may be the conspiracy theory which has grown up alongside it. The “Dark Side of the Rainbow” theory claims that listening to the album while watching the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz produces a strangely synchronous experience.
All this supplementary trivia is fascinating, but what about the music itself? The album begins with a frightening cacophony of sounds and screams before melting into the beautiful opening number “Breathe (In The Air).” Then, a harrowing assortment of synthesized bleeps and bloops hurry us along to the next song, “Time.” The lyrics are haunting and existential: “And then one day you find / ten years have got behind you / no one told you when to run / you missed the starting gun.” Next, we arrive at “The Great Gig in the Sky” featuring stunning vocals by Clare Torry (this song is at the center of a recent TikTok trend in which users attempt to recreate her incredible performance). “Money,” the most radio-friendly cut on the album kickstarts side two, which is chock-full of songs that explore the inescapable realities of human existence. “Us and Them,” “Any Colour You Like,” and “Brain Damage” delve into greed, war, lunacy, and death, before culminating in a breathtaking finale.
Dark Side of the Moon remains a timeless classic to this day. If you have forty-two minutes and fifty seconds to spare, I suggest you put on some headphones, tune in, and take a journey to the outer limits of space.
Matthew Iddon was born at an exceptionally young age. He aspires to one day become old. He currently resides.
