Dark Side of the Moon: An Honest Review Pt. 4
Album Review Blog Series
By: Clark Sutfin
Side Two cont.
This is the final article in this series. It will cover the last two songs on the album: “Brain Damage”, and “Eclipse”.
“Brain Damage” is a song that is related to Syd and is referred to in this song as “the lunatic”. Roger Waters is the lead vocalist instead of David Gilmour and Richard Wright because of his closer connection to Syd.
The lead guitar plays a fairly repetitive riff for the melody and the drums plays a repetitive rhythm on the high-hat. During the chorus, all of the instruments, including the background vocalists, come in suddenly and changes the mood of the song.
I think the line “I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon” is important because it also includes the name of the album. I think that the dark side of the moon could represent a side of yourself or someone else that are hidden from everyone else (like you can not see the dark side of the moon). Because the theme of this song is insanity, I think it is saying that if we do not stay in control of the hidden side of us, it could drive us insane.
The final track on the album is “Eclipse”. This is also sung by Roger Waters. On the radio, this song is played right after “Brain Damage” which is cool because you get the feeling of it being one song like you would if you listened to the album itself.
It opens with the full band playing and an organ soloing leading into the lyrics. There is no chorus or definable verses in the song, it just sounds like one big verse. During the singing the music gradually builds up with a crescendo and adding more parts to the music including choir like voices and small guitar riffs.
To me, the lyrics describe the similarities and differences we share as humans. The song ends with the same heartbeat like drum pattern that started the album in “Speak to Me” which symbolizes death.
Because of the heartbeat beginning and ending the album, I feel like listening to the album was supposed to be like a journey through the stages of life and encountering various obstacles and pressures along the way. Dark Side of the Moon has a very cool concept of each song focusing on a certain aspect of life, while the album as a whole focuses on the stages of life.
One last tidbit about this album; It syncs up pretty damn well to the movie “The Wizard of Oz”. People either call it “The Wizard of Floyd” or “The Dark Side of Oz“. My favorite synchronization is when the song “Money” starts and the movie switches from black and white to color, as in it costed more money to produce color film back then.
Thanks for joining me on this album review journey! I hope you enjoyed reading as I did interpreting and writing!
