The Curious Case of The Dark Side
You are bound to get contrasting answers when you ask veteran Pink Floyd fans about their choice of favourite songs. And that's expected given the myriad of songs they came up with during their heydays. What will strike you as odd is the fact that many will claim 'The Dark Side of The Moon' as the best progressive rock album in history but very few songs will actually make it into their list of favourites ('Time' is an obvious exception to this as it is the greatest song ever to be written in the history time. Hah). And it remains an anomaly worth investigating.
RS fan-boys for Floyd gave their half-a-cent worth on this one. “I still look towards the Piper at the Gates of Dawn as their best. It was the first after all,' says Munawar. It was a time when Barrett was in full flow and his musical genius was evident for all to see.“ According to Bareesh “I'm-a-pink-elephant” Hassan, The Dark Side of the Moon wasn't even the first most popular progressive rock album. “That would be In The Court of the Crimson King,” he affirms, from behind his large hipster glasses. Although we don't like him anymore, he has a point. King Crimson were the frontrunners of the genre but Floydians all over have always claimed that this was a 'prog rock album that's not prog.' And resident model and part-time bassist Rumman Kalam thinks that even the lesser known albums are worthy of the same superlatives as TDSOTM.
Which brings us to the question, what's the deal with this album then? Well, it could be that it was one of the first successful concept-led approach to mainstream contemporary music. And listening to the entire album in one go gives you an idea of why this is so damn popular. The songs in Dark Side are not meant to stand apart as individuals. They're all parts of one another, inexplicably linked with a connection that's hard to point out. But it's there somewhere in the minute pauses between the songs and that's when you realise that this truly is a work of art. And if you are unsure of all the hype, like I was, just kick back and take a trippy ride through outer space and once you do reach the Dark Side, you're bound to stay there.
