The Making of Dark Side of the Moon
Director: Matthew Longfellow
Episode credited cast:
Roger Waters, Storm Thorgerson, Nigel Williamson (journalist), David Fricke, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Nick Mason, Robert Sandall (Journalist and broadcaster), Alan Parsons, Chris Thomas (mix supervisor), Bhaskar Menon
Ask a million people to name the greatest rock album between 1960 and 1980, and you’ll probably get a thousand different answers. But a plurality, perhaps even a majority, will reply “Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd”. I would be one of them. (Two other LPs, “Wish You Were Here” and “The Wall” would surely be in the top ten).
DSotM wasn’t just groundshaking; it was Earthshattering. Not only was it one of the earliest and greatest “concept albums,” it was musically and vocally inventive, switching effortlessly from the standard 4/4 signature of rock to 7/8 of jazz and back. Innovative synthesizer work, combined with sometimes stunning lyrics, and the amazing wordless vocals of Clare Torry made for an utterly unforgettable work. It’s nearly impossible to hear a couple of bars (or any given ten seconds) from any point in the album without identifying exactly which album it came from, and usually which song. The album cover by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis is itself iconic and probably the most recognizable album cover of them all.
Matthew Longfellow’s 48 minute documentary on the making of Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most informed and relevant examinations of how this masterpiece came to be. Featuring interviews with most of the surviving band members, along with director Alan Parsons and Thorgerson, it paints in intricate detail how the album evolved, and how they brought about the sophisticated and highly experimental musical processes into a lush, emotional, stirring whole. It speaks of the influence of Syd Barrett, and how Torry was asked to sing of loss and desolation and only got paid thirty quid for it.
If there is any documentary about DSotM that needs to be watched, it is this one.
The documentary confirmed something I had always deeply suspected, and was central to the appeal the album had for me: at the very heart of it lay the phrase “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.” It is the emotional and thematic core of the work. And it’s not just England.
Now on Amazon Prime.