Hall of Shame: Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Part album review, part hit-piece, and part shaman ritual. I beg your indulgence…
[First the Shaman…]
“Is everybody in? Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin”.
Brother and Sisters, gather around and hear the words. We gather today with purpose and truth, although it may pain some of you. It’s a risk worth taking.
From this moment forward, it is declared: we leave behind all of the false gods of psychedelia of the past. Those Jefferson Airplanes! The Grateful Deads!! That Pink Floyd!!! The air of tonight’s ceremony is thick with the blood, lust, and vengeance directed towards the fake heirs to the throne. All the makers of bland, boring, and tedious sounds that distorted and defamed the banner of psychedelic and space rock. There is no room for it anymore. Only the purest and truest cosmic warriors shall approach the throne of the holy Silver Machine.
Yet it is but one band and one album specifically that deserves our greatest wrath, our most toxic venom.
Here we demand the end of one of the longest reigns in the classic orthodox rock canon: the corporate, slick bubblegum of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. So I repeat: this imposter to the throne is dead! There is no argument. Alternative points of view will not be tolerated.
Brother and sisters, let’s just check our passions and calm ourselves. Tonight all will be explained and exposed. DSOTM is an anomaly, a fake that has allowed music history to be twisted and turned. Let me be clear: no album has done more harm.
[The Shaman steps aside, and now a music critic stands before the masses]
Let’s begin with a few facts. Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic Dark Side of the Moon has sold an estimated 45 million copies, outselling albums by Led Zeppelin, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Its slick and overproduced AOR rock sound was delivered to the music industry at an important transitional period. Corporate America had been awakened to the massive profits they were reaping from the counter-culture / hippie movement of the 60s. By 1973, the rock-music business was Big Business.
To understand the premise, we need to understand how commercial FM radio makes money. Advertising revenue pays the bills and creates the profits, which means that programing must be easy to sell, with lukewarm concepts, ideas, and music. Challenging and artistic music does not sell, but blandness and meaninglessness are assets, especially if that bland “product” is wrapped in a package of fake hipness. Music the kids would like without pissing off the parents. Music that touched all the right demographic groups; wealthy, suburban, with a willingness to spend mom and dad’s money on lifestyle products like records or soap or hair-spray.
What was needed by the music business in the early days of FM radio was a sound with a commercial potential that could be sold to those advertisers. Music appealing to the core rock music audience with potential to grow, a safe and generic sound that would fit the newer, more commercial needs of FM radio in the mid-seventies and beyond. In other words, music that radio programs could depend on to fit nicely and safely between CSN and Led Zeppelin in 1973. And ten years later the same sound would fit well between the Cars and Van Halen– products that would sell.
Dark Side Of The Moon fit that bill perfectly. An album that would take the hypnotic outer-space sound of early Hawkwind and Tangerine Dream in a more generic, bland and consumer-friendly direction. Whether it was Pink Floyd’s intention or not matters little here, only the fact that the music deviated space-rock from the creative path by replacing the truly revolutionary sound of, say, Hawkwind’s In Search of Space with the corporate sound and plastic “muzak” of Dark Side of the Moon. Yet, the heresy goes still deeper.
DSOTM was so enormously popular that it forever re-defined the definition of psychedelic rock and crushed the more natural and creative sound of the underground. For example, all the early hope and promise that was the 13th Floor Elevators was lost to the overproduced and programed AOR meaninglessness. The model was set in the public’s mind. Dark Side would make the corporate world (and the band) very wealthy while selling the same music over and over from one generation to the next.
[The Shaman attempts to retake the audience, only to be interrupted by the music critic]
Wait! I can see you need still more proof.
Let us explore the banality of the music itself. I found this purposeless gem floating between tracks on DSOTM: “There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark”. Well, thank you, Mr. Waters. And fuck me. But Dark Side is an entire record filled with this trite. How about this lyrical masterpiece; “The paper holds their folded faces to the floor. And every day the paper boy brings more” or “I’ve been mad for fucking years. Absolutely years, been over the edge for yonks”. Trite, distracting and meaningless.
There are hundreds of such examples. On the surface the words seem to be insightful, giving the impression that there is something important being stated. But a closer examination reveals how empty the music is, both lyrically and conceptually, little more than saccharine melodies and pop-catchiness, all cloaked in the fake sounding complexities of the studio.
Then there is the genuinely sinister lyric (and meaning) to the most popular track, Money; “Money, get away. You get a good job with more pay and you’re okay. Money, it’s a gas. Grab the cash with both hands and make a stash. New car, caviar…” What message is the band feeding its audience? This is hardly the anti-capitalist message you may expect from psychedelic hippie band. The final lament of the song that “they’re giving none away”. This seemingly light-hearted song is actually the perfect radio anthem for the sons and daughters of the corporate oligarchy.
Finally, let us discuss the most obvious indication of Dark Side Of The Moon’s pointlessness: the limited influence the music has had. There is no definable “sound”. Only a vague easy-listening studio slickness. Outside of the clean, commercial AOR sounds of Steve Wilson or the American soft-rock / yacht rock pleasantries of Ambrosia, there is very little noticeable influence on other musicians. The forward-thinking bands of today’s burgeoning psychedelic-drone scene chose the more demanding music of Hawkwind, Gong and Spacemen 3 as inspiration, while DSOTM got almost completely ignored in the process. And with good reason.
[The Shaman forces his way to the front and commands the audience]
Brother and Sisters. I have only one further question!
How to remove this musical plague from its lofty position? Mandatory quarantines until this pestilence has been removed? Or shall we build sacrificial bonfires in every town-square? Let the flames scream high into the night as the heat consumes the endless copies of the overrated catalogue?
Let us seize the day and spare the next generation! By acting collectively, we can spread the word across every continent and every kingdom. Let us proclaim the truth.
by Shawn Ciavattone
What a poof
Amen, brother
It’s great so many people saw through this rather shallow music. 👍
Shawn,
I’ve always definitely preferred early Floyd during their more experimental and psychedelic records (Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Saucerful of Secrets, etc.)
You do make many good points about how its production, the slickness of its sounds, and especially its bad hit “Money” played a part in obscuring the actual psychedelic bands of the era that were much more innovative (German kosmische musik bands).
(“Money”–how ironic that Roger Waters’ supposed critique of capitalism is, as you rightly said, actually an anthem for the corporate oligarchy, and made him and the band boatloads of $ that they then proceeded, as all “rock stars” do, to spend upon themselves and their self-indulgent lifestyles.)
“Money” is Pink Floyd’s worst song (alongside those on the bloated, bombastic, overrated, pompous The Wall–that’s the Pink Floyd album when they were all still together that I like the least–I’d nominate The Wall for the Hall of Shame.)
Maybe I should have included a line clarifying that I didn’t want my diss to reflect on those brilliant early singles or albums. (Or Syd Barrett’s solo albums). All of which I still find endlessly interesting. Even some of the early singles after David Gilmore joined the band are great. It’s that slick Alan Parsons sound and influence that I attack. And I agree about the Wall. Such a bloated piece of excrement. That’s another nomination for Hall of Shame. Another would be that horrible post-Water’s album…A momentary lapse of reason(?!).
There are worse albums.
Worse? Absolutely I think that’s true. But few albums have a negative affect on music or the music business that Darkside had. It’s “influence” is part of what I see wrong with it.
The Shaman and the music critic, this is great!. We need more episodes!.
It’s interesting how you point out the commercial purposes of this bombastic record, it kinda reminds me about Beatles’ “White Album”. Most people completely swallowed the entire pill, and they thought (and still think) that DSOFTM is one of the most mind-bending, soul-expanding and eye-opening experiences.
This is what annoys me most about the celebrated legacy of Roger Waters as the main Pink Floyd member. The shadow of Barrett slowly vanished, and people forgot about the main intentions of the band. Waters gave the music a much more friendly and easy-going tone. I’m pretty sure that Barrett would’ve led the band into a much more interesting territory.
Anyway, as Saliha says, this album tells you what to feel and what to think. That’s not the purpose of experimental music, that’s why I Get your points of view.
Great job, I had a really good time with this episode. 👍
Unfortunately, some will not believe the truth even when when they can see it for themselves. I tried to shine a light on that fact here. The legacy of this record was built on flashy design and nothing more. As writers (and people), we can only be honest and sincere and hope the those that care about real art will see clearly. As always, thank you for your comments.
I realize that there will probably be some negative feedback on this article. Went into writing it with my eyes open in that way. But I think it’s important to take on certain albums and artists that are considered “classic“ without actually analyzing their work. Pink Floyd’s catalog is held under such high regard, but under closer examination the entire argument falls apart. I like your observation about Gordon gecko. That is exactly the kind of purpose or long-term purpose that both the music and the lyrics served. It’s hardly a revolutionary or counterculture message. Quite the opposite.This was Music created for the marketplace, using all the modern tools that the system had at their disposal. I’ve always been deeply suspicious of it.
Funny story, but with this album, Pink Floyd have created a very peculiar concept that was trend-setting for future milestones in dark music, not to mention the influence on later soundtracks.
I’m afraid I just don’t see it’s influence. Nor do I find it “dark” or interesting conceptually. What exactly is the concept here? The music itself is hardly challenging. All seems rather boring and obvious. And that’s not the result of it’s age. This was always and intended to be a very commercial record.
I really, really, really wanted to have this album after everybody told me that it is the best album of all times. I really wanted to have it. Until I listened to it. Maybe this was great when it came out but it ages very poorly.
Reading any traditional review of this record can you give a young Music Pham a lot of hope that they are on the verge of discovering something truly interesting. I wonder how many people just except the main stream version?
Very overrated. I prefer “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn”. Syd Barret was the real master mind behind Floyd, not this album and “The Wall”.
I actually had a section that tried to explain that this was not an indictment of paper or Syd Barrett. Not in anyway. Piper and other early work was innovative and Truly “ psychedelic”. Thank you for your comments.
Bravo! It is safe to say that Pink Floyd is the reason why overindulgence in the studio was so common and accepted. If it was not for “Dark Side” there would have never been such studio creations like Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan or the Eagles.
I couldn’t agree more. That is exactly the point I was trying to make. The album had the effect of “crowding out“ other more innovative an interesting artist at a time when FM Radio was really solidifying its dominance of the marketplace. Appreciate your comment.