Pink Floyd hit the heights with The Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973. In one massive leap, they went from a cult band of sorts to rock royalty. In many ways, the shock of the rise damaged the band irreparably, even as they went on to make more incredible music in later years.
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You probably know the music to this classic album pretty well. But you might not know some of the factual information that adds to the lore of one of classic rock’s bona fide masterpieces.
A Lawsuit Changed Writing Credits
For 30 years or so, the writing credits for “The Great Gig In The Sky” belonged solely to Rick Wright, Floyd’s keyboardist. And it’s true that Wright composed the sad, stately piano piece at the heart of the track. But what about the vocals? Clare Torry got the gig as a studio musician. She was paid a flat fee for her work. She improvised the anguished, wordless vocals.
Since no notes were written out for her, she started to realize years down the road that she might have been wronged. After she sued in 2004, Pink Floyd reached a settlement with her. The credits on the song for all releases of the album since read “Wright/Torry.”
“Money” Almost Previewed a Bizarre Concept Album
Sound effects played a big part in Dark Side Of The Moon, and would continue to do so throughout the rest of Floyd’s catalog. On “Money”, the song that starts Side Two and earned the most radio airplay out of all the songs on the album, Roger Waters spliced together recordings of clinking coins, cash register drawers, and other monetary sounds to mimic a rhythm bed.
Struggling for an idea of what to do in the aftermath of Dark Side, Pink Floyd briefly considered an album called Household Objects. It would have taken that idea of non-instrumental music to the extreme. They recorded a few songs with only sound effects and appliances found in the home before abandoning the idea.
“Us And Them” Was Rescued From the Rejected Pile
Pink Floyd wrote most of The Dark Side Of The Moon in the year or so before recording it, extensively workshopping the songs and sequence on the road. The main exception was “Us And Them”, one of the album’s standout tracks. It dates back to 1969, when Pink Floyd was contributing music to a film by famed Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni.
Rick Wright composed some somber piano chords and originally entitled it “The Violent Sequence”. Antonioni turned it down on the basis of it being too sad. Floyd resurrected it for Dark Side, freshly adorned with some of Roger Waters’ most poignant lyrics, to create “Us And Them”.
You’re Hearing Voices, but No Beatles
Since The Dark Side Of The Moon centers around the theme of sanity (or lack thereof), the idea to utilize random voices as a way of mimicking a manic inner dialogue was a stroke of genius. To make this happen, Roger Waters conducted a series of interviews with folks who happened to be hanging around the studio at the time. One of those people was none other than Paul McCartney.
Waters and company felt that the ex-Beatle’s responses didn’t quite fit what the record needed. However, Henry McCullough, who was a member of Wings, did make the cut. You can hear his comments quite clearly at the end of “Money”.
Syd’s Shout-Out
Because Dark Side Of The Moon deals with madness, you can trace some of its influence back to Syd Barrett. Floyd fired their original artistic catalyst because his mental issues, which Barrett made worse through drug use, became too much for the band to handle.
Floyd would go on to reference Barrett in a far more specific fashion on the albums Wish You Were Here and The Wall. But “Brain Damage”, the penultimate track on the record, includes a line that obviously hints at Barrett’s problems: “And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes.” Barrett had been in such a band.
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