about, ‘the political idea of humanism,
and whether it could or should have
any effect on any of us.’ The lyrics
range from going to war in the first
verse, to themes of civil liberties, colour
prejudice and civil rights in the second,
and the thought of passing a down-and-
out on the street and not helping in the
third. The voices of sundry roadies and
Wings guitarist Henry McCullough
and his wife can be heard responding
to Roger’s flash cards. Dick Parry shines
again on sax, replicating the breathy
sound similar to that on Gandharva by
US electronic duo Beaver & Krause.
Any Colour You Like
Written by Wright, Mason and
Gilmour, this was an instrumental
filler bridging Us and Them and Brain
Damage. Originally called Scat, it
features the ubiquitous sound of the
VCS 3 synthesiser with a long tape
echo, as well as more conventional
instrumentation. The final title came
from a favourite catchphrase of roadie,
Chris Adamson, ‘You can have it any
colour you like’.
Brain Damage
This Roger Waters song is, perhaps,
most strongly linked to Syd Barrett. As
Waters later told Mojo, ‘That was my
song, I wrote it at home. The grass (as in
the lunatic is on the grass) was always
the square in between the River Cam
and Kings College chapel. I don’t know
why but when I was young, that was
always the piece of grass, more than
any other piece of grass that I felt I was
constrained to keep off. I don’t know
why, but the song still makes me think
of that piece of grass. The lunatic was
Syd, really. He was obviously in my
mind. It was very Cambridge-based,
that whole song.’ The final line name-
checks the title of the album, ‘I’ll see you
on the dark side of the Moon,’ and the
maniacal laughter was by Pete Watts.Eclipse
Sensing the album needed a proper
conclusion, Roger Waters wrote Eclipse.
The lyrics suggest that while the
human race has the potential to live in
harmony with nature and itself, this is
depressingly never the case. Despite the
gloomy lyrics, the song has an uplifting
feel – sung by Waters, with Gilmour’s
harmonies and Doris Troy’s voice
thundering alongside them. It is Gerry
O’Driscoll who adds the cryptic final
spoken-word coda about the real nature
of the dark side of the Moon.Speak to Me
The overture, a sound collage, saw
Waters generously give Mason a song
writing credit that he later came to
bitterly regret. The various spoken
pieces about madness come from
roadies Pete Watts and Chris Adamson,
and from Gerry O’Driscoll, the doorman
at Abbey Road studios where the
album was made. Waters had devised
a series of cards containing twenty
questions that ranged from, ‘What
does the phrase dark side of the Moon
mean?’ to, ‘Are you afraid of dying?’
Everyone the band could get their
hands on in Abbey Road including Paul
and Linda McCartney, who happened
to be making an album there, were
asked to respond and then taped. The
McCartney answers were discarded, as
his responses were regarded to be too
measured.
Breathe
Adapted from a piece Waters had
written for The Body documentary
in 1970. Roger claimed that the lyrics
‘are an exhortation directed mainly at
myself, but also at anybody else who
cares to listen. It’s about trying to be
true to one’s path.’ Gilmour provided the
vocals, both lead and harmony, and the
guitar part, which he played on an open-
tuned Stratocaster across his knees.
On the Run
This number came from Waters and
Gilmour experimenting with a VCS
3 synthesiser – creating an eight-
note sequence similar to the one Pete
Townshend had been doing on Baba
O’Reilly. The point of the track was
to express the stress and pressures
of everyday life – and so a whole
menagerie of sound effects were
added such as airport sounds over the
footsteps of a passenger desperately
rushing for the plane, and a train sound
that was actually played by a guitar.
It was another roadie, Roger the Hat,
who is heard speaking the line, ‘live for
today, gone tomorrow’ – a response to
one of Waters’ card questions.
Time
A stunning group composition. Waters
would later admit that during the
making of the record – he was twenty-
nine at the time – he suddenly felt as
if he’d grown up; that childhood and
adolescence were just training for
adult life. Ultimately it’s about making
the most out of life, not wasting it.
Again the song is characterised by a
dominating sound effect – clocks ticking- the basic sound created by Waters’
Fender Precision Bass and Mason’s
Rototoms. However, it was engineer
Alan Parsons that added all the real
timepieces after Waters told him the
song’s title. The other dominating
characteristic about this number was
the backing singing to Gilmour’s lead
vocal provided by Barry St John, Doris
Troy, Liza Strike and Lesley Duncan.
The Great Gig In the Sky
This stunning composition keeps up
the progression of power. For many
years this song was credited solely
to Rick Wright until an out of court
settlement in 2005 finally resolved that
the piece should be jointly credited to
Clare Torry. Based on a sequence of
piano chords written by Wright, this
song addresses the omnipresent fear of
death and mortality in life. Originally
intended as an instrumental sequence,
and featuring some blinding guitar
from Gilmour, the vocals were only
added a couple of weeks before the LP
was finished. Clare Torry – a young EMI
staff songwriter who had only recently
begun to do a few sessions as a singer,
provided the improvised vocal and her
strikingly gutsy vocals take the song to
an unforgettable climax. Wright later
adapted the song for a Neurofen advert - and they say rock ’n’ roll is dead!
Money
A Roger Waters composition in the
unusual 7/8 time signature. The track
has self-explanatory lyrics about the
evils of greed and rock-star wealth.
Waters certainly saw some of the songs
on this LP as being about the lately
departed Barrett. The rhythmically-
sequenced loop of the cash-till sound
effect gives the song a lot of its bite,
and a touch of irony, as record store
cash registers around the world would
soon be ringing up millions of sales to
its tune. Also featured is Dick Parry, an
old Cambridge pal of Gilmour’s, whose
sax solos added a new dimension to the
Floyd sound.
Us and Them
A superb piece co-written by Waters
and Wright. In time-honoured Floyd
fashion this composition was based on
another piece that had been lurking
around for ages. The song’s origins
were in a piece rejected by Antonioni
for Zabriskie Point called The Violence
Sequence. Based on a chord sequence by
Wright, Waters claimed the song was
A track-by-track journey through
Pink Floyd’s ambitious 1973 masterpiece