DSOTM 40 years old today

A few thousand will see it performed live in its entirety tonight at the NIA in Birmingham 

Listened to it how many times? Wish I had a tenner for each time I had.

( I think it was actually released a little later in the month - not the first? Who cares - it deserves a 40th birthday airing!)

Erh, once!

I would never consider it to be the best album of all time....but perhaps it needs more listening too before I make that judgement.

Jason.

Goodness. Am I that old? I remember buying it when I was 17. Happy memories. It has been played many times over the years. 

Hello Steve

I bought my copy in March 1977, when I was 14. Strange (and a tad depressing) to think that it had only been out four years when I first bought it...

It has aged extremely well,  think - musically, lyrically and conceptually. I think people will still be listening to it a century hence.

Steve, it was released 40 years ago today in the States, a couple of weeks later in Blighty. The press reception - which the band, with the exception of Rick, famously boycotted - was on 27th Feb in London.

I will give it a toast with a nice wine before we  take our seats tonight then - may it have many more birthdays

Not as old as me. Bought it in 1973 when I was 25, (not quite a first pressing [no solid blue triangle]).

Next to King Crimson probably one of the best concept albums IMO. 

Bloody kids! 

Ye', 

        Mine's 37 years old and I sometimes feel like he needs his nose wiping.

Often this album has been voted the best album of all time. Dark Side of the Moon is 40 today. How many times do you think you have listened to this great work?

With the risk of being banished to forum room 101 for the following admission..  I have never listened to .

Beg , steal or borrow it and let us know what you think.

Any format will do. 

It would be interesting to know what age groups think of this work.

Graeme ,  A sensible suggestion, However my prejudice dictates that the best album from the 70's ever is " Never Mind the Bollox " by the Sex Pistols .   and i cant risk changing that

I will have to give in eventually and listen to it and I will let you know ..i freely admit it must have something about it to be mentioned 40 years after release

Cheers TWP

You're obviously not of my generation. Maybe the only thing in common is your association with Trevor Francis. The Sex Pistols weren't perhaps the most gifted musicians in the industry, but were perhaps at the start of a new genre. It will be interesting how you view the two.

I have never listened to NMT Bollocks.

Jason, it's not the best album of all time by a long chalk (and I've never met anyone who think it is). It's not even the best Pink Floyd album!

However, it is a really remarkable piece of work - virtually everything about it is perfect. One of the most fascinating ways of listening to it is to compare the final mix the Floyd made at the end of 1972 with the finished item (this mix is available on the DSOTM Immersion box set). They all took a tape home for Christmas and came back after the break all feeling that there was something missing. So, in the first two or three weeks of 1973 they added the bits that completed the album. The most significant of these were Clare Torry's vocals on TGGITS, the addition of STM and the taped responses to Roger Waters' questions which are scattered (well, carefully placed is a better description) throughout the record. There are a few less notable tweaks as well, but they are all important to the finished record.

What comparing the two does demonstrate is the Floyd's remarkable attention to detail, as well as the acuity of their judgement.

So DSOTM isn't the best record ever made, but it is the most perfectly realised album ever.

Everything about it works, and works together, beautifully - the recording, that gorgeous warm rich sound (I think the first couple of minutes, when Breathe burst forth, is the best beginning to an album I've ever heard), the use of electronics, Fat (then Thin) Dave's guitar, Rick's keyboards, the singing (Gilmour, and his harminising with Wright), the sax, the female backing vocals, the sound effects, the cover, and, most of all, the tunes.

We should also consider Roger Waters' lyrics. He dismisses them as "a bit lower sixth" nowadays, and in some ways they are. But they are direct, simple, readily comprehensible, occasionally poetic and deeply and universally resonant. They hold as true now as they did in 1973.

I think it is, and will be for a very, very long time, a key work in the history of popular - indeed any - music. It never dates, and I doubt it ever well. Long after we've all shuffled off to that great dealer demonstration room in the sky, people will be listening to it.

It may well turn out to be the single most enduring artefact of the rock era.

PS - Its weakest track, Money, is also its most famous. Odd how things pan out...

graeme,  i detect your a wednsday fan ? if so hope you dont enjoy the result tomorrow as much as i do.

I agree the Sex Pistols were not talanted musicians as Pink Floyd were , its like comparing apples and oranges and i am old enough to not bother with the my bands better than yours nonsense ..

Yes so i will give it a listen and let you know what i think, i imagine i will like it.I have spent  a lot of time expanding my musical horizons into genres previously i would have  dismissed. partly for wanting to hear somthing new and partly due to  music threads on this forum.

Big H  , if you fancy a challange Have a listen to NMTB interested to know what you think 

TWP

TWP, I think you do the Pistols down a bit - Steve Jones was a great guitar player, and the band had stonking tunes and great riffs. NMTB is a bona fide 70s classic.

To be fair, none of the Floyd, Gilmour excepted, were virtuosi. Wright was a fantastic keyboard player, but he was all about mood and texture rather than Emersonian or Wakemanesque flash. By most measures Waters and Mason were only an adequate rhythm section (they plod rather than swing). But they were perfect for Pink Floyd. A Floyd with, say Jones and Bonham or Cobham and Clarke just wouldn't work.

They (Floyd) were very talented though, because of their ear for a tune, their feel for the slow build, their understanding of space and structure, their mastery of the studio and their eye for important details. And for a while, their inventiveness, thoughtfulness (they are the most thoughtful of the great rock acts)and  judgement about what to add or to leave out was unrivalled.

Their best music is above all deeply heartfelt. Gilmour hardly ever plays fast. He's all about feel. The whole band is about feel more than anything else. Their music actually isn't complicated (it might be complex but that's another matter). That's the great irony - one of the most emotionally powerful and resonant bands of all time are routinely dismissed as technocrats.

Do let us know what you think Jason.

Jason, what the hell did you do during your psychedelic youth mate? 

I've played DSOTM more times than I care to remember, originally on LP and in recent decades CD.  I still enjoy it today.  For many years my CD was the beautifully packaged 20th anniversary version but a friend suggested the 30th anniversary version - a hybrid SACD/CD - was better.  It is. Much. 

And, Kevin, while I agree that Money is the most well know track and not the best, I must say that I come to appreciate it more and more.  What was a regular disco 'blast' in the 70s and 80s has an under-appreciated complexity and the shifts in timing are a delight.

I shall make a point of giving the album a celebratory spin this weekend.

MDS 

Well, you're middle class now, better have another listen . Great album.

No, I haven't, not using FB much. Couldn't spot it just now though. Ping me a message... was it about the Arro I posted or else?

The 1974 Live version (with Echoes) is my favourite version.  Both performance and dynamics.  G