The Dark Side of the Moon - Interpretation

TheLunatic · 08-16-2011, 03:32 PM

This is my first post, so excuse me if I have accidentally placed this thread in the wrong section of the forum. It may be moved wherever is appropriate.

I wanted to discuss my interpretation of this phenomenal album and hear other peoples' ideas on the subject. Many friends of mine have very obscure, unique interpretations and the album is so abstract that it is hard to tell whether or not there can ever really be a sole analysis of truth. The Dark Side of the Moon can be anything you want it to be, and personally it has taught me a lot of things.

Before you get the wrong idea, no I was not on drugs when I came up with this. But you know, I could see why you might think so after you read what I'm about to tell you.

The album is played out like a story and the songs flow directly into each other. If you have never listened to the entire album chronologically, I strongly recommend it. I'm going to assume most of you have some knowledge of what the album sounds like so I don't need to describe the songs in depth before analyzing them. Keep in mind that these are all my opinions and I am in no way stating that my ideas are an objective truth about the album.

The first song is Speak to Me / Breathe. This song describes the running of rabbits and choosing to believe not what you are told but what you can feel. It makes me feel completely at home and naive in a way that I have not discovered enough about myself.

That's when On The Run starts. The song is obviously supposed to emulate the noises of travel, more specifically airports and plane crashes, but I feel like the metaphor extends past the physical and the "travel" aspect is a voyage through reality. As reality falls away and we crash, the universe begins to expose itself in layers and unravel as we begin to learn what it really is to "look around" and "choose your own ground."

Time is the first of four human flaws that is presented to us. This section of reality is here to bring closure to the fact that we depend on this abstract idea of time so much when really it doesn't exist and only binds us to our fears of dying and worries of losing track of our youth. Time is, in my opinion, the best song on the album because of its wise nature as it reveals the difficulties associated with measuring life in segments. After listening to this song, it is as if we become more selfless when we choose not to depend on time itself.

The Great Gig in the Sky is, by my interpretation, about pleasure. I read somewhere that the vocals are supposed to sound like an orgasm, which definitely seems accurate. Although the song is incredibly beautiful, pleasure is one of the human flaws that is required to remove before we can achieve selflessness. Think of it like this is our final glimpse at the beauty of pleasure before moving on to the more troubling flaws.

Then comes Money. It describes plainly and accurately why any system revolving around money is a mindless, greedy game used to gain power. "Money, So they say, Is the root of all evil today." At this point in the album it seems as though the stakes are getting higher and the flaws are being presented as more and more dangerous. Plain and simple, we are being told that one cannot possibly be selfless and depend on money at the same time, because all money can be is one's ego represented through material and power. It's almost as if the album is saying, "You do not need this." Appropriately, the consequence of money leads to the theme of the next song.

Us and Them is about war, and more specifically, the psychology of war. Us and Them seems to me as the most complex song on the album, because it isn't simply preaching the evils of war; it is presenting them in a desperately sad, depressing and pathetic aspect of human nature. This journey toward selflessness that I have been describing ends here as we understand that, if anything, we cannot participate in war or any of the evils associated with war. This becomes the final step in cleansing the human mind of all of its faults, and suddenly we become omniscient.

Any Colour You Like is shown to be extremely powerful and and represents the success of becoming selfless and the loss of the ego. There isn't much to say really, because I can't say I've ever lost my ego or if that's even possible in terms of human life. All this song does is represent that thought, and the feeling that you can do anything. Then, just as the mind begins to rationalize that you can't do anything, and that you can't lose your ego as I just explained, Brain Damage hits.

Brain Damage seems obviously inspired by Syd Barrett's decline into insanity and the song questions who is really insane and how one who is sane can truly know that they aren't a lunatic. There is a lot of suppression going on, talk of staying off the grass and keeping the loonies on the path. To drop down from total loss of ego to insanity is a big gap but the transition is sensible. We live insane lives, comprised of lust, greed, wars...we let the ticking clocks of time dictate when things happen in our lives and we live for the pleasures that appear from time to time.

Eclipse is the acceptance of our human flaws. It is a compromise that we can try to remove the self but never really succeed, and that losing the ego isn't necessarily a good thing in the world we live in exclusively. The sun is this idea of selflessness, while the moon blocks out the sun as the human flaws. The eclipse allows a glimmer of light to emerge around our flaws so we can come to terms with what lies beyond our selfish lives.

And that's my interpretation.

Rob Rock · 08-16-2011, 05:11 PM

There is no dark side of the moon really...matter fact it's all dark.

Well done on your interpretation on this great album. You've certainly motivated me to go listen to this one again. I think I'll see things a bit differently now that I've read this.

On a side note, have you ever seen the Pulse DVD, which has them doing the entire album as part of their set? (I'm assuming you're not old enough to have been at that concert, correct me if I'm wrong) Probably the best concert DVD I've ever seen. It's amazing that a band who created so many obscure sounds in the studio managed to recreate that to perfection in a live setting.

Guybrush · 08-16-2011, 06:47 PM

These are some interesting interpretations, but it strikes me as a little odd that you would choose to interpret this album as the songs meanings have already been both analysed and explained. It's no mystery what these songs are about, you can just check it's Wikipedia page or watch a documentary on the making of.

You may still do it for fun or as a mental/emotional excercise I guess.

You've got a lot of it right, although not all of them. The Great Gig in the Sky f.ex is not about pleasure, but about dying. There's not much mystery, really. There are some spoken samples were people talk about death and if you reflect on the song title a bit, it shouldn't take long before you imagine what that great gig in the sky might refer to. Although it may sound orgasmic, Clare Torri's singing is supposed to be a wail.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roger Waters

It was something that Rick had already written. It's a great chord sequence. "The Great Gig in the Sky" and the piano part on "Us and Them," in my view, are the best things that Rick did -- they're both really beautiful. And Alan [Parsons] suggested Clare Torry. I've no idea whose idea it was to have someone wailing on it. Clare came into the studio one day, and we said, "There's no lyrics. It's about dying -- have a bit of a sing on that, girl." I think she only did one take. And we all said, "Wow, that's that done. Here's your sixty quid.

Your interpretations of Us and Them and Any Colour You Like are also, I believe, a bit off. Other than that, good job!

TheLunatic · 08-16-2011, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Rock

There is no dark side of the moon really...matter fact it's all dark.

Well done on your interpretation on this great album. You've certainly motivated me to go listen to this one again. I think I'll see things a bit differently now that I've read this.

On a side note, have you ever seen the Pulse DVD, which has them doing the entire album as part of their set? (I'm assuming you're not old enough to have been at that concert, correct me if I'm wrong) Probably the best concert DVD I've ever seen. It's amazing that a band who created so many obscure sounds in the studio managed to recreate that to perfection in a live setting.

Actually I'm only 17 years old. I'll check out that DVD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

These are some interesting interpretations, but it strikes me as a little odd that you would choose to interpret this album as the songs meanings have already been both analysed and explained. It's no mystery what these songs are about, you can just check it's Wikipedia page or watch a documentary on the making of.

You may still do it for fun or as a mental/emotional excercise I guess.

You've got a lot of it right, although not all of them. The Great Gig in the Sky f.ex is not about pleasure, but about dying. There's not much mystery, really. There are some spoken samples were people talk about death and if you reflect on the song title a bit, it shouldn't take long before you imagine what that great gig in the sky might refer to. Although it may sound orgasmic, Clare Torri's singing is supposed to be a wail.

Your interpretations of Us and Them and Any Colour You Like are also, I believe, a bit off. Other than that, good job!

I've read many various interpretations of the album and I'm fully aware of the analysis that you're speaking of. I'm also just plain convinced that there is no singular objective truth of this album and no one way to interpret it. If Pink Floyd wanted to make it as obvious as that, they would have written Dark Side as a narrative essay, not unlike The Wall. (Not to undermine the complexity of The Wall, it just tries to deliver certain themes while, in my opinion, Dark Side has no specific message.) Maybe I'm wrong, but saying that Dark Side has only one interpretation is a pretty bold statement. I've heard many different interpretations which rise above the standard "analysis" of the lyrics or anything like that. The music itself, the feel of the album and the flow of the themes makes it pretty damn abstract. My interpretation was just an idea I had while listening to it, and I feel like it's as legitimate as any other analysis.

TheNiceGuy · 08-18-2011, 08:19 AM

I must say you've done pretty well here in summing up the songs meanings. Even though it seems Great Gig is more about death your interpretation of it being about sex is one that fits in reasonably well, bar the part where the man is talking about death at the start of the song. But you're ideas of Eclipse are great and really do sum up the whole album.

08-16-2011, 03:32 PM	#1 (permalink)
TheLunatic Groupie Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 2	The Dark Side of the Moon - Interpretation This is my first post, so excuse me if I have accidentally placed this thread in the wrong section of the forum. It may be moved wherever is appropriate. I wanted to discuss my interpretation of this phenomenal album and hear other peoples' ideas on the subject. Many friends of mine have very obscure, unique interpretations and the album is so abstract that it is hard to tell whether or not there can ever really be a sole analysis of truth. The Dark Side of the Moon can be anything you want it to be, and personally it has taught me a lot of things. Before you get the wrong idea, no I was not on drugs when I came up with this. But you know, I could see why you might think so after you read what I'm about to tell you. The album is played out like a story and the songs flow directly into each other. If you have never listened to the entire album chronologically, I strongly recommend it. I'm going to assume most of you have some knowledge of what the album sounds like so I don't need to describe the songs in depth before analyzing them. Keep in mind that these are all my opinions and I am in no way stating that my ideas are an objective truth about the album. The first song is Speak to Me / Breathe. This song describes the running of rabbits and choosing to believe not what you are told but what you can feel. It makes me feel completely at home and naive in a way that I have not discovered enough about myself. That's when On The Run starts. The song is obviously supposed to emulate the noises of travel, more specifically airports and plane crashes, but I feel like the metaphor extends past the physical and the "travel" aspect is a voyage through reality. As reality falls away and we crash, the universe begins to expose itself in layers and unravel as we begin to learn what it really is to "look around" and "choose your own ground." Time is the first of four human flaws that is presented to us. This section of reality is here to bring closure to the fact that we depend on this abstract idea of time so much when really it doesn't exist and only binds us to our fears of dying and worries of losing track of our youth. Time is, in my opinion, the best song on the album because of its wise nature as it reveals the difficulties associated with measuring life in segments. After listening to this song, it is as if we become more selfless when we choose not to depend on time itself. The Great Gig in the Sky is, by my interpretation, about pleasure. I read somewhere that the vocals are supposed to sound like an orgasm, which definitely seems accurate. Although the song is incredibly beautiful, pleasure is one of the human flaws that is required to remove before we can achieve selflessness. Think of it like this is our final glimpse at the beauty of pleasure before moving on to the more troubling flaws. Then comes Money. It describes plainly and accurately why any system revolving around money is a mindless, greedy game used to gain power. "Money, So they say, Is the root of all evil today." At this point in the album it seems as though the stakes are getting higher and the flaws are being presented as more and more dangerous. Plain and simple, we are being told that one cannot possibly be selfless and depend on money at the same time, because all money can be is one's ego represented through material and power. It's almost as if the album is saying, "You do not need this." Appropriately, the consequence of money leads to the theme of the next song. Us and Them is about war, and more specifically, the psychology of war. Us and Them seems to me as the most complex song on the album, because it isn't simply preaching the evils of war; it is presenting them in a desperately sad, depressing and pathetic aspect of human nature. This journey toward selflessness that I have been describing ends here as we understand that, if anything, we cannot participate in war or any of the evils associated with war. This becomes the final step in cleansing the human mind of all of its faults, and suddenly we become omniscient. Any Colour You Like is shown to be extremely powerful and and represents the success of becoming selfless and the loss of the ego. There isn't much to say really, because I can't say I've ever lost my ego or if that's even possible in terms of human life. All this song does is represent that thought, and the feeling that you can do anything. Then, just as the mind begins to rationalize that you can't do anything, and that you can't lose your ego as I just explained, Brain Damage hits. Brain Damage seems obviously inspired by Syd Barrett's decline into insanity and the song questions who is really insane and how one who is sane can truly know that they aren't a lunatic. There is a lot of suppression going on, talk of staying off the grass and keeping the loonies on the path. To drop down from total loss of ego to insanity is a big gap but the transition is sensible. We live insane lives, comprised of lust, greed, wars...we let the ticking clocks of time dictate when things happen in our lives and we live for the pleasures that appear from time to time. Eclipse is the acceptance of our human flaws. It is a compromise that we can try to remove the self but never really succeed, and that losing the ego isn't necessarily a good thing in the world we live in exclusively. The sun is this idea of selflessness, while the moon blocks out the sun as the human flaws. The eclipse allows a glimmer of light to emerge around our flaws so we can come to terms with what lies beyond our selfish lives. And that's my interpretation.

08-16-2011, 05:11 PM	#2 (permalink)
Rob Rock Groupie Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Chitown Posts: 3	There is no dark side of the moon really...matter fact it's all dark. Well done on your interpretation on this great album. You've certainly motivated me to go listen to this one again. I think I'll see things a bit differently now that I've read this. On a side note, have you ever seen the Pulse DVD, which has them doing the entire album as part of their set? (I'm assuming you're not old enough to have been at that concert, correct me if I'm wrong) Probably the best concert DVD I've ever seen. It's amazing that a band who created so many obscure sounds in the studio managed to recreate that to perfection in a live setting. __________________

08-18-2011, 08:19 AM	#5 (permalink)
TheNiceGuy Living under the bridge Join Date: May 2011 Location: Australia Posts: 317	I must say you've done pretty well here in summing up the songs meanings. Even though it seems Great Gig is more about death your interpretation of it being about sex is one that fits in reasonably well, bar the part where the man is talking about death at the start of the song. But you're ideas of Eclipse are great and really do sum up the whole album. __________________ My Music Review Blog-It's Only Rock 'n' Roll There is no Dark Side of the Moon really, matter of fact it's all dark...