The Dark Side of the Moon / Обратная сторона Луны

an album by Pink Floyd
a film by Alexander Tatarsky

Is there anything to say about the now 50-year-old classic that hasn’t already been said? I seriously doubt it but, as I am in a nostalgic mode now, I’ll say, I mean write, something anyway.

It was not until 1977 that I heard The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety (as it happened with Revolver), once again thanks to that previously mentioned leather briefcase. (Which also hosted Deep Purple, Elvis, Grand Funk, Shocking Blue, Simon & Garfunkel, Slade, Wings, and much more.) And not just “heard”: listened to it dozens of times. The theme I liked the most was The Great Gig in the Sky. I couldn’t make a sense of its title though: my pocket English dictionary provided only one meaning of gig, viz. “a long light rowing boat”. What?

I remember my disappointment on seeing for the first time the LP cover, already in the ’80s. It looked cheap, as an inaccurately copied picture from the school physics textbook would.

Original LP cover. Dude, where is the seventh colour?	A better illustration of a triangular dispersive prism.

The closing words of wisdom came from the Abbey Road Studios’ doorman Gerry O’Driscoll:

There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact it’s all dark.

Curiously, in Russian the album is referred to as «Обратная сторона Луны», that is, “far side of the Moon”, which is a more correct term as far as astronomy is concerned. Then again, “dark side” lends itself to puns such as The Dark Side of the Moo, The Dark Side of the Moog, Dark Side of the Spoon etc. etc., not to mention The Force connotations. While The Far Side for me is forever associated with the comic by Gary Larson. Nothing wrong with that. Come to think about it, Larson would create better cover art for the album.

When I finally got my own copy, it was the 30^th Anniversary hybrid CD/SACD edition. I don’t have the equipment to play SACD but the CD layer sounds great — and different from the original 1973 mix. I’ve been happy with it for the last 20 years; in any case, splashing out €250 on the 50^th Anniversary deluxe box set is out of question.

Tributes and references — including self-references — are abound. Dub Side of the Moon remains my favourite: it’s both true to and different from the original. In Alan Parker’s film The Wall, the teacher humiliates a student by reading the latter’s poem to the class. The poem turns out to be “no less” than Money.

Teacher: What have we here, laddie? Mysterious scribblings? A secret code? No! Poems, no less! Poems, everybody! The laddie reckons himself a poet! “Money get back, I’m alright, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack. New car, caviar, four star daydream. Think I’ll buy me a football team.” Absolute rubbish, laddie. Get on with your work!

Thought I’d something more to say. Oh well.

Moving on: in 1983, Alexander Tatarsky made an animated short named «Обратная сторона Луны». It has nothing to do with Pink Floyd’s classic, apart from the title that is. All the voices, in pure gibberish, were furnished by Aleksey Ptitsyn. Watch out for that accordion rendition of Giya Kancheli’s Chito-Gvrito from Mimino (about 1:30).

In memory of Rick Wright (1943—2008) and Alexander Tatarsky (1950—2007).