DanG
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2001
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After the discussion in the "Calling All Dinosaurs" thread in this forum, I decided I had to listen through Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here to get a feeling of what they really meant, how well they each worked as complete albums, and how each track fit in. I originally wanted to respond to specific comments by Halberstram and Neruda, but then decided I should just say what I think each album means and let that stand on its own. So here goes.
But before I get started, after listening to Dark Side and then Wish, I thought that both were equally cohesive, even though the structures and meanings were different.
Anyway, I thought that Dark Side of the Moon was meant to represent a dream. For the most part, the music is very abstract, with many voices (including the back-up vocals Hal hates), many images floating in and out. The music also flows from one idea to the next somewhat like in a dream; in the beginning, we slowly drift into the music, then at the end we slowly drift out, finally hearing nothing, somewhat like when you wake naturally and lie in bed, awake, but with the eyes closed, slowly readjusting yourself to the physical world.
The song "Money" feels uncharacteristically awake, sticking out like a sore thumb in the generally spacey album. But I thought that it works very well -- most of the album is so distanced from the earth and all its mundanity; "Money" makes me feel like I'm jumping back into Earth's atmosphere, living again in our culture which values all things ephemeral. The simple chord structure and driving beat, so recognizable as the trademarks of most rock music, bring a false feeling of return to the normal kind of music you might put on in the background of a party or burn on a "mix" CD to listen to while driving to work. But we soon go back to the dreamy music of "Us and Them," and we realize once more that we're really still asleep.
Sleeping and night-time dreaming do not comprise the fabric of Wish You Were Here, though. Wish seems to me to be an album which signifies almost exclusively the thoughts of a person awake. Perhaps I'm just trying to fit the title into the music, but I really felt a longing and nostalgia throughout almost all of Wish. But while at first it seems possible that these thoughts and feelings are part of a dream, the lyrics clearly indicate that these thoughts are reminiscings, probably of a person.
We're interrupted, though, by machine-noises. I'm not sure I understand what it's supposed to mean -- is it that we're at work? Is life "the machine?" My idea is that "Welcome to the Machine" is when we're being told the way that life works. We're also told, I think, about whom we are reminiscing. We shouldn't be thinking about someone who's a "raver," "seer of visions," "painter," "piper," and "prisoner," but a regular man driven by earthly pleasures. The real man behind this "crazy diamond" "always ate in the steak bar" and "loved to drive in his Jaguar." We're told that it's natural to dream of people as more than they are; it's how society makes us think. But we can't mistake a common fortune-seeker for a "legend" and "martyr." We start drifting off into a day-dream again, but are snapped back to reality as we realize that we're in a crowd of people.
With "Have a Cigar," we're still among people and are still awake. Somewhat like with "Money," this song doesn't seem to fit in. Although "Cigar" is more groovy and a bit more tripping than "Money," it still seems too "average" to fit into the quite pensive album. But again it fits in, like "Money" does in Dark Side, as a separation of sorts from the rest of the generally hazy album. As the lyrics stop and just the instruments play, it's like we're again lost in our own thoughts.
This time we leave our thoughts when we realize that we're actually listening to the radio; we switch to another song and as the solo guitar starts to kick in, we get lost again, and we seem to hear the voice of the "big star." He cautions us against letting people change our minds. Don't let people convince you that your dreams of people being more than the sum of their simplest actions are empty. In this song, "Wish You Were Here," we find that it's the star that we're thinking of who wishes we were with him; after all our deep thought and analysis, all we find are "the same old fears" -- so let's finish with this useless waste of time.
As the voice goes away and the music fades out, the wind interrupts our thinking, though we soon go back to our thinking and day-dreaming. The music here seems to be rather confused in the sense that it feels to me like it's quickly-wandering thought; eventually it stumbles upon the "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" theme, and like with thought, we fixate upon that and go back to our earlier thoughts.
We know now how it may be wrong to think of the "big star" as perfect and as a legend, but we don't care... "Shine on you crazy diamond!" We might as well keep on "basking in the shadow of yesterday's triumph, and sail [together] on the steel breeze." I feel it's like we actually are trying to meet the "crazy diamond."
The music slows down, and for the first time in the album it has an air not only less melancholy, but more honestly so... kind of like a clear conscience.
We hear some music that to me represents the rhythmical machine-like world that we're leaving behind --
-- and then we come back to a melancholy theme, which eventually drifts off into another random and seemingly unrelated theme, as though our thoughts have totally left the whole subject of the entire album before, like in real thought.
So to recap. quickly, I thought Dark Side was meant to represent a dream of the 45-minute or so length of the album. Thus, it seemed to work together so well for Neruda. Wish, though, comes across to me as a collection of thoughts, as though it's the chronicled thoughts of a day. Once in a while we're reminded of reality (kind of like in Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods") by sounds or because someone starts talking to us. So Wish doesn't necessarily take place in exactly the 44 minutes 24 seconds it takes to play the music. Thus it might not seem as unified to some.
Yet I think both albums are just as cohesive; Dark Side of the Moon tells me about the cheapness of transient pleasures in the format of a dream, and Wish You Were Here tells me about how we should think by helping me experience the thoughts of another person. So I find it difficult to judge the two relative to each other, since I think each was completed successfully and very well, but in different ways.
I'm sorry this message was so long, but if you got this far, it would be great if you would comment.
But before I get started, after listening to Dark Side and then Wish, I thought that both were equally cohesive, even though the structures and meanings were different.
Anyway, I thought that Dark Side of the Moon was meant to represent a dream. For the most part, the music is very abstract, with many voices (including the back-up vocals Hal hates), many images floating in and out. The music also flows from one idea to the next somewhat like in a dream; in the beginning, we slowly drift into the music, then at the end we slowly drift out, finally hearing nothing, somewhat like when you wake naturally and lie in bed, awake, but with the eyes closed, slowly readjusting yourself to the physical world.
The song "Money" feels uncharacteristically awake, sticking out like a sore thumb in the generally spacey album. But I thought that it works very well -- most of the album is so distanced from the earth and all its mundanity; "Money" makes me feel like I'm jumping back into Earth's atmosphere, living again in our culture which values all things ephemeral. The simple chord structure and driving beat, so recognizable as the trademarks of most rock music, bring a false feeling of return to the normal kind of music you might put on in the background of a party or burn on a "mix" CD to listen to while driving to work. But we soon go back to the dreamy music of "Us and Them," and we realize once more that we're really still asleep.
Sleeping and night-time dreaming do not comprise the fabric of Wish You Were Here, though. Wish seems to me to be an album which signifies almost exclusively the thoughts of a person awake. Perhaps I'm just trying to fit the title into the music, but I really felt a longing and nostalgia throughout almost all of Wish. But while at first it seems possible that these thoughts and feelings are part of a dream, the lyrics clearly indicate that these thoughts are reminiscings, probably of a person.
We're interrupted, though, by machine-noises. I'm not sure I understand what it's supposed to mean -- is it that we're at work? Is life "the machine?" My idea is that "Welcome to the Machine" is when we're being told the way that life works. We're also told, I think, about whom we are reminiscing. We shouldn't be thinking about someone who's a "raver," "seer of visions," "painter," "piper," and "prisoner," but a regular man driven by earthly pleasures. The real man behind this "crazy diamond" "always ate in the steak bar" and "loved to drive in his Jaguar." We're told that it's natural to dream of people as more than they are; it's how society makes us think. But we can't mistake a common fortune-seeker for a "legend" and "martyr." We start drifting off into a day-dream again, but are snapped back to reality as we realize that we're in a crowd of people.
With "Have a Cigar," we're still among people and are still awake. Somewhat like with "Money," this song doesn't seem to fit in. Although "Cigar" is more groovy and a bit more tripping than "Money," it still seems too "average" to fit into the quite pensive album. But again it fits in, like "Money" does in Dark Side, as a separation of sorts from the rest of the generally hazy album. As the lyrics stop and just the instruments play, it's like we're again lost in our own thoughts.
This time we leave our thoughts when we realize that we're actually listening to the radio; we switch to another song and as the solo guitar starts to kick in, we get lost again, and we seem to hear the voice of the "big star." He cautions us against letting people change our minds. Don't let people convince you that your dreams of people being more than the sum of their simplest actions are empty. In this song, "Wish You Were Here," we find that it's the star that we're thinking of who wishes we were with him; after all our deep thought and analysis, all we find are "the same old fears" -- so let's finish with this useless waste of time.
As the voice goes away and the music fades out, the wind interrupts our thinking, though we soon go back to our thinking and day-dreaming. The music here seems to be rather confused in the sense that it feels to me like it's quickly-wandering thought; eventually it stumbles upon the "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" theme, and like with thought, we fixate upon that and go back to our earlier thoughts.
We know now how it may be wrong to think of the "big star" as perfect and as a legend, but we don't care... "Shine on you crazy diamond!" We might as well keep on "basking in the shadow of yesterday's triumph, and sail [together] on the steel breeze." I feel it's like we actually are trying to meet the "crazy diamond."
The music slows down, and for the first time in the album it has an air not only less melancholy, but more honestly so... kind of like a clear conscience.
We hear some music that to me represents the rhythmical machine-like world that we're leaving behind --
-- and then we come back to a melancholy theme, which eventually drifts off into another random and seemingly unrelated theme, as though our thoughts have totally left the whole subject of the entire album before, like in real thought.
So to recap. quickly, I thought Dark Side was meant to represent a dream of the 45-minute or so length of the album. Thus, it seemed to work together so well for Neruda. Wish, though, comes across to me as a collection of thoughts, as though it's the chronicled thoughts of a day. Once in a while we're reminded of reality (kind of like in Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods") by sounds or because someone starts talking to us. So Wish doesn't necessarily take place in exactly the 44 minutes 24 seconds it takes to play the music. Thus it might not seem as unified to some.
Yet I think both albums are just as cohesive; Dark Side of the Moon tells me about the cheapness of transient pleasures in the format of a dream, and Wish You Were Here tells me about how we should think by helping me experience the thoughts of another person. So I find it difficult to judge the two relative to each other, since I think each was completed successfully and very well, but in different ways.
I'm sorry this message was so long, but if you got this far, it would be great if you would comment.
