NOTE: This website is frequently updated. Last update 2011
INDEX
SONG BY SONG GEAR GUIDE AND SOUND CLIPS ••• MY DARK SIDE GEAR ••• MY SOUND CLIPS ••• DARK SIDE BOOTLEG SOUND CLIPS
BEST CDs VERSIONS and REMASTER HISTORY ••• SPOKEN WORDS ON DARK SIDE
Below are clips from various live performances of DSOTM and some DSOTM demos, out-takes, and early mixes. These give a glimpse into the range of Gilmours guitar tones and how they have changed over time, as well as how the songs themselves have changed and developed. There are also other interesting facts and tidbits I have picked over the years, as well as a complete transcription of every spoken voice heard on DSOTM. A really great documanetary about Dark Side of the Moon is the 2003 Classic Albums DVD "Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon" that I highly recommend. It is full of interviews with all four band members, engineer Alan Parsons, and others. It covers just about every aspect of making the album.
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On left is the ultra rare Toshiba-EMI vinyl pressing of DSOTM from around 1978, featuring a photo from the 1977 Animals/In The Flesh tour. Middle and right photos are from the 1973 DSOTM tour.
"We all fight small battles between the positive and the negative in our everyday lives, and I'm obsessed with truth and how the futile scramble for material things obscures our path to a more fulfilling existence. That's what DSOTM is about. And despite the rather depressing ending with Brain Damage and Eclipse, there is an allowance that all things are possible, that the potential is in our hands." -Roger Waters
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Pink Floyd in 1972. The "Eclipse" pre-album tour
"SPEAK TO ME / THE HEARTBEAT INTRO" CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1972. Rainbow Theatre, London. This section was called the "Heartbeat Intro" at this time. Interestingly, a bootleg of this same 1972 show was released on vinyl almost a full year before Pink Floyd would release their official studio album version.
This first part of DSOTM was just called "The Heartbeat Intro" in 1972. In the later studio sessions it was changed to "Speak to Me". That title originated with DSOTM recording engineer Alan Parsons in the studio. Parson would test the mic levels in the recording sessions for Roger Waters' questionaires by asking the interviewees to"Speak to Me".
"I thought the album needed some kind of overture and I fiddled around with the heartbeat, the sound effects and Claire Torry screaming until it sounded right."
-Roger Waters on the intro to DSOTM
"BREATHE" CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - Breathe demo. Roger Waters, circa 1971. Breathe was an idea originally written by Roger Waters and Ron Geesin for the film soundtrack, The Body, and the opening line of Breathe actually appears in one of Roger's songs in The Body.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1974. Wembley, England. This track includes both "Speak to Me" and "Breathe". In "Speak to Me" you can make out what the voices say very easily and hear the edit on the "f" word.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1975. Los Angeles Sports Arena, California. Wish You Were Here Tour.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1994. Torino, Italy. The Division Bell Tour. Gilmour had long ago retired his Black Strat and was now playing his red strat with EMG-SA pickups. David Gilmour remembers using a Fender pedal steel slide guitar for the studio recordings, but Roger Waters said he remembers David played this with his strat on his lap..
MP3 Sound Clip - David Gilmour playing an acoustic version in 2003.
MP3 Sound Clip - David playing just the guitar part in 2003. Black Strat through an Uni-Vibe.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 2008. Speak to Me / Breathe from the Live 8 Pink Floyd reunion.
MP3 Sound Clip - David Gilmour and Richard Wright live 2006. Milano, Italy. I believe this tour was the first time David ever played the slide guitar intro himself live. For other parts he played his Black Strat, brought out of retirement.
David adjusting his Binson Echorec II
"ON THE RUN / THE TRAVEL SEQUENCE " CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - A studio out-take of "On the Run". David Gilmour was running a loop on the Synthi-A synthesized in the DSOTM studio sessions for this part. Roger heard the Synthi-A loop that David had made and then created his own that he liked better and re-worked the track. On the album version you can hear an airport announcer saying something like this: "Have your baggage and passport ready and then follow the green line to customs and immigration. BA flight 215 to Rome, Cairo and Lagosyou".
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1975. Los Angeles sports Arena.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1987. Rosemont, Chicago.
Original in-album sticker art by Hipgnosis. There were two stickers using identical art, each with slightly different colors representing day and night.
"TIME (with Breathe Reprise)" CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1974. Empire Pool, Wembley, England. A much different and much longer intro. The clocks on the original recording were not Pink Floyd's idea, but something engineer Alan Parsons recorded as a test for a Quadrophonic Sound system that he presented to the Floyd to use for this song.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1975. Los Angeles Sports Arena. Wish You Were Here Tour.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1987. Omni, Atlanta. A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Gilmour is playing his red strat with EMG-SA pickups.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1987. Final live performance from '87 MLOR tour. Gilmour is playing his red strat with EMG-SA pickups.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1994. Torino, Italy. The Division Bell tour.
MP3 Sound Clip - David Gilmour and Richard Wright live 2006. Milano, Italy.
MP3 Sound Clip - David Gilmour and Richard Wright live 2006. Dortmund, Germany.
"BREATHE REPRISE / HOME AGAIN" CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1973. Earl's Court.
MP3 Sound Clip - David Gilmour and Richard Wright live 2006. Milano, Italy.
Original in-sleeve album inner sleeve art by Hipgnosis, with a heartbeat spectrum graphic idea by Roger Waters
"THE GREAT GIG IN THE SKY / THE MORTALITY SEQUENCE" CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - David Gilmour playing the slide guitar parts - from Classic Albums DSOTM DVD, 2003.
"MONEY" CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - Acoustic demo. Roger Water's original demo tape.
MP3 Sound Clip - Early pre-release rough mix, 1973. From the "One Side of the Moon" bootleg. "Money" was the second song to be recorded in the DSOTM sessions in 1972. this is avery different mix of the guitars and the end bits. The spliced tape looped recordings in the beginning and throughout the song were created by Roger Waters.
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David Gilmour with the '69 Black Strat in 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1974. Empire Pool, Wembley, England.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1975. Los Angeles Sports Arena. Wish You Were Here Tour.
MP3 Sound Clip - David Gilmour live 1984. About Face tour.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1987. Final live performance from MLOR '87 tour.
Original in-album band poster art, and great pyramids of Giza (from an infrared photo) poster art by Hipgnosis.
"US AND THEM " CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - Early pre-release rough mix, 1973. From the "One Side of the Moon" bootleg. "Us and Them" was the first track to be recorded in the Dark Side of the Moon sessions in 1972. The mix is very different in this version, with more of a jazzy feel to it. The original song was written in 1969 by Richard Wright during the creation of Pink Floyd's contributions to Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriski Point film soundtrack. Originally an instrumental piano solo known as The Violent Sequence, the song would have been used over slow-motion scenes of student and police riots at UCLA. Antonioni rejected the song, but the Floyd later reworked it and Roger Waters wrote lyrics to fit it into the context of Dark Side of the Moon.
MP3 Sound Clip - Rick Wright playing a paino version in 2003.
MP3 Sound Clip - David Gilmour playing the guitar part in 2003. Bill Lewis custom guitar through a Leslie rotating speaker or possibly a Uni-Vibe.
"ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE / DAVE'S SCAT SECTION" CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1972. Rainbow Theatre, live. From the pre-album release Eclipse (A Piece for Assorted Lunatics) tour. David Gilmour jamming to the "Any Colour" chords. This piece is also known as "Dave's scat section" on some bootlegs. The synth-like sound you hear harmonizing with the solo guitar is supposedly David singing with his mic going into the Leslie rotating speaker cabinet, although that's not what it sounds like to me. I think this is the EMS Synthi Hi Fli effect processor, set for a milder effect than what was used later for the studio recording.
Here is Roger Waters' explanation of the songs title.
"In Cambridge where I lived, people would come from London in a van - a truck - open the back and stand on the tailboard of the truck, and the truck's full of stuff that they're trying to sell. And they have a very quick and slick patter, and they're selling things like crockery, china, sets of knives and forks. All kinds of different things, and they sell it very cheap with a patter. They tell you what it is, and they say 'It's ten plates, lady, and it's this, that, and the other, and eight cups and saucers, and for the lot I'm asking NOT ten pounds, NOT five pounds, NOT three pounds . . . fifty bob to you!', and they get rid of this stuff like this. If they had sets of china, and they were all the same colour, they would say, 'You can 'ave 'em, ten bob to you, love. Any colour you like, they're all blue.' And that was just part of that patter. So, metaphorically, 'Any Colour You Like' is interesting, in that sense, because it denotes offering a choice where there is none. And it's also interesting that in the phrase, 'Any colour you like, they're all blue', I don't know why, but in my mind it's always 'they're all blue', which, if you think about it, relates very much to the light and dark, sun and moon, good and evil. You make your choice but it's always blue."
"BRAIN DAMAGE / THE LUNATIC SONG " CLIPS
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1972. Rainbow Theatre, London. From the pre-album Eclipse (A Piece for Assorted Lunatics) tour. This was known as the "Lunatic Song" at this time. The Richard Wright keyboard solo with delay did not exist at this point. An early version of Brain Damage, then called "The Dark Side of the Moon", was written at the time Pink Floyd's album Meddle and was being recorded.
MP3 Sound Clip - Studio outtake #1
MP3 Sound Clip - Studio outtake #2
MP3 Sound Clip - Pre-release rough mix, 1973. From the "One Side of the Moon bootleg".Missing the mad laughter from the final mix and features extra guitar soloing from David.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1973.
MP3 Sound Clip - Pink Floyd live 1975. Los Angeles sports Arena.
MP3 Sound Clip - Roger Waters playing an acoustic version in 2003.
David Gilmour at Wembley, Empire Pool 1972, playing a sunburst strat
"ECLIPSE / ECLIPSED " CLIPS
On the studio recording, during and after the spoken words "There is no dark side of the moon...", you can hear a repeating sound, barely a whisper, until the heart beat fades out. You need to use headphones at the maximum volume to hear it. Some people who have anaylized this with high end audio gear say it sounds like a small chamber orchestra, though I can not make this out. Supposedly, on some versions of the CD (not mine!), you can hear an orchestral version of The Beatles' song "Ticket to Ride" faintly in one channel. Some have said this is from George Martin's orchestral adaptation of the Beatles album Help! Listening to my vinyl version, two CD versions, and 5.1 version, I think this may be a bunch of crap, but there is definitely something there.
David Gilmour from a 1973 DSOTM show
DAVID GILMOUR QUOTES ABOUT DSOTM
"I really can't remember exactly how it happened—just that at some point Roger came in and said that instead of just one or two lyrics for individual songs that we had already been working on he had got an idea that was going to run through the whole album. Having Roger coming up with a cohesive idea of what the whole thing was going to be about was very good. We had explored some of that area before when we did a thing called "The Man and the Journey" which was a live thing we did in 1969. That was the story of the life of a person. But I think we all thought—and Roger definitely thought—that a lot of the lyrics that we had been using were a little too indirect. There was definitely a feeling that the words were going to be very clear and specific."
-2003 Rolling Stone
"At one time, it was called Eclipse because Medicine Head did an album called Dark Side of the Moon. But, that didn't sell well, so what the hell. I was against Eclipse and we felt a bit annoyed because we had already thought of the title before Medicine Head came out. Not annoyed at them but because we wanted to use the title."
-Echoes/Glenn Povey
There have been numerous masters of Dark Side of the Moon on CD at the time this article was written. Some better than others. A full list of the various master can be found here. I purchased the first DSOTM CD version in 1984. It was not a very good master, but CD mastering was still in its infancy at the time, and the vinyl versions were still superior. There was a period in the early 2000s were CD masters had the high and low sound levels all crush up to high peaks in order to make all CDs have similar relative volumes, known as the loudness wars. Unfortunately mastering this way causess the music to lose all of the subtle volume changes of the different instruments and vocals in the mix, causing much of the richness and depth to be lost. Fortuntaely DSOTM was not affected so much by this fad. This album was recorded and mixed very well from the start, so even the worst CD masters still sound very good, bot overall, most of the masters after the original 1984 master sound excellent. It is hard to make an album like DSOTM sound bad!
MFSL REMASTER - In 1988, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab created a new CD master (the 7th) using the original master tapes as the source. This version was released in 1988 on the EMI/Harvest Records label. It was a gold UltraDisc CD, catalog number UDCD 517. I have heard many of the other masters since then, and I can say that the MFSL master was not only the best version up to that point, but one of the best masters of DSOTM ever. I even compared this to my Harvest vinyl version when I first bought it and I thought the MFSL version was superior. When the music gets quiet, it is quiet and subtle, when loud, it is loud and rich, and all of the fidelity I hear on the old vinyl disk is here. Nothing dull and bland like the early disks, or crushed up to one level like some of the later disks. Unfortunately it is out of print now, but can occasionally be found on ebay.
SHINE ON AND 2Oth ANNIVERSARY REMASTERS - In 1992 DSOTM was remastered again (8th master) for the Shine On boxed set by Columbia records. I have only heard and compared this this version once, and it sounded very good as I recall. In 1993 it was remastered again for the 20th anniversay CD (9th master). This version, mastered by Doug Sax, was OK, but it was not better than the MFSL version to my ears, and maybe even a bit crushed. Sounds OK though. Most of the current CDs available worldwide as of 2009 are made using this 20th anniversary master. Interestingly, this rerelease made it to the #4 spot in the UK charts. The original 1973 album made it to #2, thirty years prior.
30th ANNIVERSARY REMASTER - In 2003 there was another remaster by James Guthrie for the 30th anniversary, both in stereo and SACD 5.1 surround. The SACD version is good, if you have a SACD player and 5.1 surround sound system, but the remixed stereo version (10th master) on that SACD disk is as bland as the early CD releases to my ears, maybe worse. Guthrie was able to locate the original drum tracks for this master. Previous masters used a second generation drum track copy, including the original album mix. The same 2003 master was used in the Oh By the Way Pink Floyd boxed set released in 2007. I like the SACD 5.1 version because its a slightly different mix, and it is a different experience in 5.1. It could have been better though. The mix is a bit too tame in the surround. Money and Time must be heard in 5.1 though. This surround version is completely different from the original 1973 quad mix by Alan Parsons.
2011 EXPERIENCE / IMMERSION EDITIONS REMASTER - Released in the 2011 DSOTM Experience and Immersion editions was yet another remaster (12th master) by James Guthrie. The early word is that this remaster corrects some of the problems with Guthries previous master, which was not bad, and may be the best master yet of DSOTM. The 5.1 mix from the 2003 SACD is also included on a Blue Ray and DVD in this set, as is the original Alan Parsons Quad (four channel stereo) Mix from 1973. These releasesd also include an early, work in progress mix of DSOTM by Alan Parsons.
QUADS AND BOOTLEGS - There are a few other mixes of the album available on the web on various bootleg sites that are worth a listen. Alan Parsons' original 1973 quad (four channel stereo) DSOTM mix is only interesting to the tiny number of people that have an old quad system, but even listening to this version in two channel stereo is interesting. It was officially released on vinyl and tape, but bootlegs of the Quad that can be burned to CD or played on quad systems have been available for many years. There are also bootleg quad versions compatible with DVD audio. The quad mix is a different animal to the original stereo version, but very cool. There is also a version of early mixes of the DSOTM songs that have been bootlegged. Some of those tracks can be found on this website. Those bootlegs are usually named as DSOTM "demos".
Have you ever wondered what exactly the spoken voices sprinkled all over DSOTM are saying and who said them? I have, and it has been an obsession of mine since I was a kid. If you listen to the album enough, it is easy to make out exactly what is said. Over the years I have read in various sources about who said which lines, so I put together a list of all the spoken words, in album order, and who I believe spoke each of them. Most of these have been verified by the band or crew. Most were responses to Roger Waters' flash card questions given to people working in and around Abbey Road Studios at the time the album was being recorded in 1972. The interviews were Roger's idea and approximately 20 questions were asked on cue cards, including, "are you afraid of dying?", "when was the last time you were violent?","were you in the right?", and "What does the phrase 'The Dark Side of the Moon' mean to you?" Roger recorded and edited the clips for the record, choosing the best and most spontaneous responses. They were supposedly all recorded in one night, just before the first mix was created.
MP3 Sound Clip - Roger the Hat Interview. This is the whole interview Roger Waters gave to Roger "The Hat" Manifold, Pink Floyd's road manager.
"I've been mad for f**king years, absolutely years. I've been over the edge for yonks. Working me buns off for bands so long. I think, crikey."
-Chris Adamson, Pink Floyd roadie - Speak to Me
"I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the m ost of us are. It's very hard to explain why you're a madman, even if you're not a madman."
-Gerry O'Driscoll, doorman at Abbey Road Studios - Speak to Me
"...have your hand baggage and passports ready and then follow the green line to customs and then to immigration. BA 255 to Rome, Cairo, Lagos. May I have your attention please. This announcement ____ ___ passengers on BA 255 to Rome, Cairo, Lagos. Will you please ____ ___ at this time... "
- Heathrow Airport PA announcer - On the Run
"Live for today, gone tomorrow. That's me. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha"
-Roger "The Hat" Manifold, Pink Floyd's road manager - On the Run
"...And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don't mind.
Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it. You've gotta go sometime."
-Gerry O'Driscoll, doorman at Abbey Road Studios - The Great Gig In The Sky
"I never said I was frightened of dying."
-Puddie Watts, wife of Pink Floyd road manager Peter Watts (father of actress Naomi Watts) - The Great Gig In The Sky
"Huh, huh, I was in the right."
-??? - Money
"Yes, absolutely in the right!"
-??? - Money
"I certainly was in the right."
-Gerry O'Driscoll, doorman at Abbey Road Studios - Money
"I was definitely in the right. That geezer was cruising for a bruising."
-Puddie Watts, wife of Pink Floyd road manager Peter Watts (father of actress Naomi Watts) - Money
"Why does anyone do anything?"
-Gerry O'Driscoll, doorman at Abbey Road Studios - Money
"Yeah!"
-??? - Money
"Why does anyone do anything?"(repeat)
-Gerry O'Driscoll, doorman at Abbey Road Studios - Money
"I don't know, I was really drunk at the time!"
-Henry Mcullough, short time guitarist with Paul McCartney and Wings - Money
"After he just told me he was in plugged in to number 2, he was asking why it wasn't coming up on fader eleven. So after yelling and screaming and telling him why it wasn't coming up on fader eleven, it came to a heavy blow, which sorted the matter out."
-Chris Adamson, Pink Floyd roadie - Money
"Why does anyone do anything?"(repeat) - Money
-Gerry O'Driscoll, doorman at Abbey Road Studios
"I don't know, I was really drunk at the time!"(repeat) - Money
-Henry Mcullough, short time guitarist with Paul McCartney and Wings
"I mean, they're gonna kill ya, so if you give 'em a quick short, sharp, shock, they won't do it again. Dig it? I mean he got off lightly, 'cause I would've given him a thrashing, I only hit him once. It was only a difference of opinion, but really, I mean good manners don't cost nothing do they, eh?"
-Roger "The Hat" Manifold, Pink Floyd's road manager - Us and Them
"I can't think of anything to say except...(laughter)"
-Peter Watts, Pink Floyd's road manager (father of actress Naomi Watts) - Brain Damage
"I think it's marvelous (laughter) "
-Peter Watts, Pink Floyd's road manager (father of actress Naomi Watts) - Brain Damage
"There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter-of-fact it's all dark"
-Gerry O'Driscoll, doorman at Abbey Road Studios - Eclipse
Roger Waters (1943) - Bass Guitar and Vocals, Nick Mason (1944) - Percussion
Rick Wright (1943 - 2008) - Keyboards and Vocals, David Gilmour (1946) - Guitar and Vocals
RETURN TO GILMOUR TONE BUILDING HOME
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Article written in 2009. Updated 2010, 2011. Copyright Kit Rae.