June 15th 2011, Total Lunar Eclipse. A Total Solar eclipse is rare event, partial ones happen quite often. Last total Lunar Eclipse happened on July 16 2000. For the amateur and professional shutterbugs and sky-gazers a rare celestial event is always welcome unless you are staying in Mumbai, where the monsoon clouds have flooded the skyline.
A perfect day then to remember the lunatics -The Dark Side of The Moon – A Chartbuster album from Pink Floyd, one of the greatest rock albums in the history. Released in 1973, TDSOTM remained in charts for an epic 741 weeks i.e. till 1988, longer than any other album in history. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon)
TDSoTM has amazing numbers – a good mixture of drugged vocals and tranced instrumental.
Speake to Me – Purely instrumental from Nick Mason with below dialog being used as an album opener
“I’ve been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, been over the edge for yonks, been working me buns off for bands…”
“I’ve always been mad, I know I’ve been mad, like the most of us…very hard to explain why you’re mad, even if you’re not mad…”
This really sets the theme of TDSoTM – lunacy; whether this was inspired by Syd Barretts (the original Pink Floyd founder) deteriorating mental condition is not confirmed.
Breathe – A song which can convert anyone, who hasnt heard Pink Floyd, into a fan. Mad, crazy lyrics (Roger Waters mainly), a heady mix of eclectic guitar solos and synthesised psychedelic music, the interspersing of dailogs and also cult lyrics makeup the main USP for this band.
Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don’t sit down it’s time to dig another one.
Isnt this what life seems nowadays??
Time – Try this song as your alarm clock tone and see how you jump out of the bed every morning. The song starts with an amazing slow tick,tock of assorted clocks, hastening into a loud synchronised alarm ringing of probably hundreds of clocks together. If that cant jostle you out your slumber, nothing probably can!
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
Impressed, read the entire lyrics (http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/time-dark-lyrics.html)
The self irony depicted by the last lines
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I’d something more to say.
sums it up all.
Money – If you ever wanted to listen to money clinking, cash register ringing and a song which sums up all good and bad about money, this is the song.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise it’s no surprise that they’re
giving none away.
Why were Time and Money included in this album? Probably cause they got classified as “things that make people mad”.
Brain Damage – The baddest and the maddest song of the album. Word of caution: The “lunatic” will stick to your head after listening to this song.
The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.
Go ahead and make your own meaning of the above. Which are the folded faces you saw in todays newspapers???
And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.
The 3rd line above vividly describes what Syd Barrett would be feeling after his disagreements with other band members on what Pink Floyd should play.
The album also has chilling instumental only songs – On The Run, The Great Gig in the Sky, Any Colour you like. You can find the entire lyrics of the album (http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/dark-side-moon-lyrics.html)
Do remember always though…
“There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it’s all dark.”: Roger Waters, Eclispe
rutumvachmim 