Maps of Music

The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Where the lyrics of The Dark Side of the Moon take you, and where it was really made.

The album was first called Dark Side of the Moon, but that title was dropped in favour of Eclipse after another band had used it, and it returned to the original name only after that band's album failed commercially.

Key places

Recorded at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road) (1973)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — The album was recorded at EMI Studios, now Abbey Road Studios, in London. The sessions took about 60 days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973, and the album was signed off here on 9 February 1973. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• The Dark Side of the Moon: eighth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd
• Released 1 March 1973 by Capitol Records in the US, and 16 March 1973 by Harvest Records in the UK
• Developed during live performances and conceived as a concept album
• Themes include conflict, greed, time, death, and mental illness
• Snippets from interviews with the road crew and others are placed alongside philosophical quotations

Background

• Bassist Roger Waters proposed the album at a band meeting at drummer Nick Mason's home in North London, during a tour
• The concept focused on the pressures of the band's arduous lifestyle and the mental health problems of former member Syd Barrett
• The provisional title Dark Side of the Moon was changed to Eclipse after the discovery that another band, Medicine Head, had used the title
• The new material premiered at The Dome in Brighton on 20 January 1972
• The work was performed for the press at the Rainbow Theatre on 17 February 1972, more than a year before release

Recording

• Recorded at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London, in about 60 days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973
• Staff engineer Alan Parsons was assigned to the band and handled many aspects of the recording
• The sessions used Studer A80 16-track recorders, multitrack recording, and tape loops
• Analogue synthesisers were used, including the EMS VCS 3 and a Synthi A
• Session singer Clare Torry performed on "The Great Gig in the Sky"
• The album was completed and signed off at Abbey Road on 9 February 1973

Cover

• The gatefold LP sleeve was designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie
• Storm Thorgerson designed the image of a prism dispersing white light into a spectrum
• Keyboardist Richard Wright requested a "simple and bold" design that would represent the band's lighting and the album's themes

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright; David Gilmour joined in 1967.
• Among the first British psychedelic groups, gaining an early underground following at the UFO Club.
• Known for extended compositions, sonic experiments, philosophical lyrics and elaborate live shows.

Members

• Nick Mason on drums (1965–present).
• Roger Waters on bass and vocals (1965–1985), becoming the primary lyricist after Barrett's departure in 1968.
• Richard Wright on keyboards (1965–1981, 1987–2008), who died in 2008.
• Syd Barrett on vocals and guitar (1965–1968), who died in 2006.
• David Gilmour on guitar and vocals (1967–present).

Career

• Concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979) made them one of the best-selling acts of all time.
• Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982) won two BAFTAs.
• Reunited with Waters for Live 8 in 2005; the last studio album The Endless River came out in 2014.
• Released 'Hey, Hey, Rise Up!' in 2022 in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Sold over 250 million records; inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2008.

Reception

At release

• Melody Maker's Roy Hollingworth found Side One difficult to follow but praised Side Two
• Steve Peacock of Sounds said he would unreservedly recommend the album to everyone, even to those who had never heard the band's music
• Loyd Grossman reviewed the album for Rolling Stone in 1973 and praised its richness
• Robert Christgau found the lyrical ideas clichéd and the music pretentious, but called the album a "kitsch masterpiece" (Christgau's Record Guide, 1981)
• The band, except Wright, boycotted the press reception held at the London Planetarium on 27 February 1973

Reappraisal

• The album has received widespread critical acclaim and often appears in lists of the greatest albums of all time
• Rolling Stone ranked it 43rd on its 2003 and 2012 lists of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and 55th in 2020
• Rolling Stone and Q have both listed it as the best progressive rock album
• The Observer ranked it 29th in its 2006 list of The 50 Albums That Changed Music
• The Guardian ranked it 37th in its 1997 list of the 100 Best Albums Ever
• Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd edition, 2000) placed it at number 9

Records

• Reached number one on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and charted for 996 weeks as of January 2026
• Reached number one on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart on 28 April 1973
• Gold certification in the US by April 1973
• Certified 15× platinum in the US on 4 June 1998
• Certified 14× platinum in the United Kingdom
• Estimated worldwide sales of about 45 million by 2013, making it the band's best-selling release and the best-selling album of the 1970s
• Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The first track recorded was "Us and Them" on 31 May, and "Money" followed seven days later
• For "Money", Waters made tape loops from money-related sounds, including coins thrown into a mixing bowl in his wife's pottery studio
• Parsons recruited Clare Torry for "The Great Gig in the Sky", and she was paid her standard session fee of £30
• Several interview responses were given by Gerry O'Driscoll, the studios' Irish doorman
• In the 1990s, some fans claimed the album was synchronised with The Wizard of Oz, but Parsons denied any connection
• Some early pressings have a faint orchestral version of the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" after "Eclipse"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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