60. Pink Floyd--The Dark Side of the Moon

 #60. Pink Floyd--The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Top-Notch Songs: "Time," "Money," "Brain Damage/Eclipse," "Us and Them."

Album Depth Songs: "Speak To Me/Breathe," "The Great Gig In the Sky," "On the Run."

Weak Links: "Any Colour You Like."

Stand Out Lyrics: "And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."--"Time."

"The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older. Shorter of breath and one day closer to death."--"Time."

"Money, it's a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash."--"Money."

"I'm in the high-fidelity first-class traveling set."--"Money."

"And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon."--"Brain Damage."

Dark Side of the Moon


Album Cover: 10 out of 10. Simple. Iconic. Fantastic. Perfect.

Comments: I felt legally and morally compelled to include this album on this list. No list of "best" or "favorite" albums can be written without a mention of "Dark Side of the Moon." If I tried to leave it off of this list, the List Police would have hunted me down and rescinded my list-making license. 

I did, initially, think about leaving this album off the list. I thought, "Sure, it's a great album, but is it really one of my personal favorites?" But then I gave it another listen, and damn, there's a reason it gets so much acclaim! It's so good from start to finish, with "Any Colour You Like" being the only truly forgettable song. Maybe I take the album for granted because it is so popular. Maybe all the airplay of the songs on classic rock radio has left me comfortably numb to the album's greatness. (Speaking of "Comfortably Numb," Pink Floyd's other massively popular album "The Wall" does not make my Top 60 list, not because of a lack of greatness, but because of an overabundance of "Weak Link" songs.)

One interesting side note to this album is the story of Clare Torry. She's the young British session singer wailing away on "The Great Gig In the Sky." At the time, in 1973, she was paid the regular amount for a day's work as a session singer. But, after the album sold a few gazillion copies she thought just maybe she should be compensated more for helping the band join that high-fidelity first-class traveling set. She sued, and in 2005 (32 years after making the recording) agreed to an out of court settlement for an undisclosed amount of cash she can grab with both hands and make a stash. In album pressings post 2005 she is also credited as a co-writer for the song. Good for her!


Up next: Looking for greener pastures.



 

Comments

  1. darenolsonJanuary 14, 2021 at 8:53 PM

    The Dark Side of the Moon is a great album to start with because it is the epitome of what can happen when a band sets out to create the whole album as a holistic listening experience and not just a collection of individual songs that are disconnected. Yes, the individual songs are good as single works, but when you put all together and listen to them all at once in the order they're listed in, you get a much more rewarding experience. Tip of the hat to this choice!

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