what the album was about, but still, a lot
of people, including the engineers and
the roadies, when we asked them, didn’t
know what the LP was about. They just
couldn’t say, and I was really surprised.
They didn’t see it was about the pressures
that can drive a young chap mad. I really
don’t know if our things get through. But
you have to carry on hoping. Our music
is about neuroses, but that doesn’t mean
that we are neurotic. We are able to see
it, and discuss it. The Dark Side of the
Moon itself is an allusion to the moon and
lunacy. The dark side is generally related
to what goes on inside people’s heads, the
subconscious and the unknown.’
Despite Gilmour’s confidence there
was still no sign of a new album. A year
later on 16 November 1974, Melody
Maker published an interview with Rick
Wright that was quick to touch on the
increasingly large gap between Dark
Side of the Moon and the next Pink Floyd
album: ‘It’ll be a two-year gap between
Dark Side and the next one, and that’s
too long in my opinion. We have never
been a prolific group in terms of records.
We average about one a year over our
whole career. It’s not a policy to work
like that; it’s just the way it happens. We
have a deal with the record company
that makes us do about seven albums
in five years, which is one album a year
and maybe a couple of film scores. It’s
very easy to make that deal. Dark Side
of the Moon has been in the English
charts ever since it was released, which
is quite amazing. We all felt it would do
at least as well as the other albums, but
not quite as well as it did. All our albumshave done well in this country, but Dark
Side was number one in the U. S. and
we never dreamed it would do that. It
was probably the easiest album to sell
in that it was the easiest to listen to, but
it’s success has obviously put some kind
of pressure on us, and that is, what to
do next. We have always tried to bring
out something different with our next
release and it would be very easy now to
carry on with the same formula as Dark
Side, which a lot of people would do. It’s
changed me in many ways because it’s
brought in a lot of money and one feels
very secure when you can sell an album
for two years. But it hasn’t changed my
attitude to music. Even though it was
so successful, it was made in the same
way as all our other albums and the only
criteria we have about releasing music
is whether we like it or not. It was not a
deliberate attempt to make a commercial
album. It just happened that way. Lots of
people probably thought we all sat down
and discussed it like that, but it wasn’t
the case at all. We knew it had a lot more
melody than previous Floyd albums,
and there was a concept that ran all
through it. The music was easier to absorb
and having girls singing away added a
commercial touch that none of our other
records had.’
This ‘commercial touch’ has been
striking a chord with audiences ever since,
and The Dark Side of the Moon continues
to be a perennial hit. Frequently included
on rankings of the greatest albums of
all time, the album has proved to be as
timeless as it was ground-breaking, and
there is no doubt that it’s legacy will
endure, creating generations of Pink
Floyd fans in decades to come.Dave Gilmour on stage in 1975.DO YOU WANT SOME MORE...?
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