in early 1973, about a year before kiss relased their debut self-titled album, pink floyd relased 'the dark side of the moon'. having previously released a handful or so of albums (some of them film soundtracks), and dumped 'crazy diamond' syd barret (too much lsd evidently?), pink floyd had something of a 'breakthrough' album in 'dark side'. i shall leave it to others to determine whether this was/is a good, bad or indifferent phenomenon. either way, it's pretty much a classic album in the eyes (or ears) of many, myself included. 'the great gig in the sky' is one of a number of stand-outs moments, for mine.
the album was recorded at london's abbey road studies and in fact paul mccartney & wings were also recording an album there at the same time. i noticed that alan parsons (presumably he of 'project' band carrying his name) was sound engineer.
the 'little voices' heard throughout were provided by a number of people. some key phrases, such as "no i'm not afraid of dying - why should i be? ..." (at the start of 'great gig'), and "there is no dark side on the moon, really; matter of fact it's all dark" (at the end of the album) were provided by the irish doorman at abbey road.
it's tempting to propose that the second-last track 'brain damage' was inspired at least partly by syd barret. the first verse begins "the lunatic is on the grass" and the chorus finishes with "and if the band you're in starts playing different tunes / i'll see you on [insert album title here]".
the last track, and thus the album, ends with "everything under the sun is in tune / but the sun is eclipsed by the moon".
a bit of an exploration into bipolar disorder (which at that time wouldn't have been known by that term i'm sure) perhaps? either way, this album explores territories which neil armstrong did not in his propsoed "giant leap for mankind" ...
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