He is almost half a century old but he can be said to be a youngster: those of you, even among the less elderly, wallow in the immense discography of world rock (but not only) know well that Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon is a milestone in the history of music.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Money and death, madness and cosmic sounds, and then the passage of time, the conflictual relationship with the other from oneself and the mental alienation, The Dark Side of the Moon (titled Dark Side of the Moon in the 1993 CD edition ) turns 49 today.
It was in fact 1973, after Watergate and the end of the war in Vietnam, that Pink Floyd released in the States with Capitol Records that album that will remain in history. Registered in historians Abbey Road Studios of London, from June 1972 to February 1973, ed eighth album by the British band, is considered one of the best albums of all time, by both critics and simple enthusiasts.
An immediate success that lasts over time
The Dark Side of the Moon immediately became one of the best-selling albums in the world and remains in the top 25 positions of the best-selling albums in the United States of America, still present on the Billboard 200 with more than 930 weeks of permanence, of which 741 consecutive, to which must be added the over 1100 weeks in the Top Pop Catalog Albums introduced in March 1991.
In the United States the vinyl of the English quartet was released before the establishment of the platinum disc (January 1976), for which it was awarded with only one gold disc until February 16, 1990, when they were given another 11 in platinum. On June 4, 1998, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded 4 more, making it reach 15.
In 2003, the year of publication of the hybrid edition on CD and SACD, The Dark Side of the Moon again reached the top of the Billboard charts with 800 thousand copies sold in the United States.
The traces
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In the minds of the Fantastic 4 - Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright - the album was initially supposed to tell the pressures and difficulties of life as a musician: then, The Dark Side of the Moon came to talk about wealth and war, madness and existentialism, death and loneliness.
The five tracks on each side actually represent the various stages of life and it is no coincidence that the album begins and ends with a heartbeat sound.
Speak to Me and Breathe tell about the most futile elements of life and the importance for everyone to live their own existence; On the Run, instrumental, brings back the anxiety caused by the fear of flying, while Time deals with the way in which the rapid passage of time is able to totally control a person's life. This track is followed by the theme of solitude retreat and the classic retreat of old age, in the song Breathe (Reprise). The first part ends with The Great Gig in the Sky, a metaphor for death.
The first B-side track is Money (the album's most commercially successful song), which ironically talks about greed and consumerism, while at the center of Us and Them is ethnocentrism and war and in Brain Damage, mental disorder. and at the same time the right to remain different rather than passively undergo a social homologation. The Dark Side of the Moon ends with Eclipse, which exposes the concepts of otherness and unity, inviting us to recognize the characteristics common to all human beings which, as the concluding verse solemnly suggests, still elude the human being because "the sun is eclipsed by the moon".
We leave you with Money, to juggle the greed, the wealth of the few and the very current consumerism:
Fonti: Rolling Stone / The Guardian
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