Nothing is as significant as insignificance. Every day, our paths are criss-crossed with events filled with insignificant events, insignificant materials, insignificant people, yet they appear at largesse all around us. Ain’t all that significant?
The brightness of the day, ... and the darkness of the night..
The shortening of the shadows towards the noon, .. and their lengthening towards the night..
The purposeless motion of slow moving fans, .. or rather the unending spiral of air traced out by its blades..
The perfect circle of a neglected mark from a from a paper cup with half drunk tea..
The musical madness of a traffic signal.. the rhythmic beat of the motor with the irregular notes of the honks..
Lifeless pages flipping over, .. each describing a life...
The two motions of a face, smile and frown.. as in two sides of the same coin..
The raindrop falling upon parched earth, spreading green around ...
The splitting of the light by the prism...
All insignificant events, all significant in an abstract sense, yet how common, how beautiful.. Dark Side of the Moon is all about that, its about everything that is so really entrenched in our lives that they just cannot assume any stance of significance..
In my review of rock classics, I had included ’’Dark Side Of The Moon’’ (DSOTM) in my list, not just as an album, because DSOTM is not just an album, its an continuous experience. it describes various facets of life in one tune..
The album begins with ’’Speak To Me’’. This number begins at slow beat and low sounds, which keeps building up, bit by bit, until it explodes into a calm, a calm preceded by a dying scream.. its like the mayhem involved when an aeroplane launches and then, the nothingness felt when it floats.. Its like getting thrown into a vacuum..
Then, the calm is transported into the next track ’’Breathe’’. This track uses the slide guitar to an create an amazing floating effect. This number speaks about being true to one’s belief’s, because life, by itself, is insignificant, its the actions done that count towards the path taken.. Don’t give up after success, because there is more to do...
Urgency sets upon in the next track ’’On the Run’’, signifying a run, an escape. An amazing experiment with sound, its got all the commotion one would expect with a run, the pant of the staggering breath, the manic laughter of problems, the zooms of vehicles.. All of this suddenly drowns into a sudden silence..
A silence broken by the simultaneous ringing of clocks, followed by the tick tocks, of clocks, of pulse, of time.. The number is called ’’Time’’. This number tells about the manner in which we attach insignificance to time. The way we think that there is a lot of time to do stuff, when we suddenly realize that the time we counted upon has lapsed.. Then, the way we fight a losing battle against time, trying in a breathless way to beat that judgement day, which slowly but surely looms around.. The routine followed by the insignificant things everyday, everytime..
Followed by the next track, ’’Breathe reprise’’, describing the onset of old age, when we finally attach significance to those little things, the prayers, the religion.. Are we too late?
The next track is ’’The great gig in the sky’’. It speaks of death and religion.. Should one fear death? If so, why? It’s got to come some time, ain’t it? The track includes great wailing chorus, with great drumming.. The chorus is done by Clare Torry, who incorporates great scale of pitch reach, melancholy at times and frenzied at other.. amazing melody..
The track is followed by, of all the things in the world, melodies of a the flipping cash register. Called ’’Money’’, This, I guess, is the most popular track of the album, includes some cool saxophone and some amazing guitaring.. The tracks speaks of just what it suggests it does, Money.. simple and plain, no two ways about it.. Money looks good in my hands, but does not look good in other’s hand.. How cool eh?
The upbeat mood of the previous track is drowned into soulful tunes in ’’Us and them’’... It starts with a real cool sax display.. It speaks about war and violence.. There is always two sides of a story, .. however the story is one.. delving into fights, seemingly insignificant.. differences of right and wrong.. common things forgotten..
The next piece is a piece that fits into the album, than have some real meaning to it.. Its called ’’Any Colour you like’’.. An excellent piece of solo guitaring again, its a perfect transverse from what is to what is to come..
Which brings me to the final two..
Called ’’Brain Damage’’, it speaks of the madness of a mind.. When the world around seems to be confusing, when everything seems so strange.. when the light of sanity is shattered by the prism of madness into the various colours of insanity.. When the mind is ruled by insignificance.. The amazing end liner, ’’I will see you on the dark side of the moon’’.. Embracing lunacy.. Amazingly abstract lyrics, composed by Roger Waters, this one can be called the title track.. Why is it not? Insanity rules right?
The mindless melody is followed by the finality.. ’’Eclipse’’, again composed by Roger Waters.. The best possible way to close the magic, this track speaks of life as it is... Yes, in all that we do, we sense, there is method, everything is in tune, however whatever happens, don’t rule out insignificance, because finally the great Sun is eclipsed by the insignificant moon.. Oh my God, what a climax!! The song was supposed to end with the words
’’There is no dark side of the moon really. As a matter of fact it’s all dark... ’’
but, was eventually replaced with
’’Everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon..’’
The DSOTM is, undoubtedly, a classic.. Many reviews may be written about it.. But I felt the only way to honour this piece of abstract art would be to describe not the superficial music behind, but , rather, to explore the enigmatic core of its psyche..