{"id":45,"date":"2002-10-11T03:23:43","date_gmt":"2002-10-11T03:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/macphoenix.com\/?p=45"},"modified":"2022-12-10T22:04:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T03:04:29","slug":"dark-side-of-the-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/2002\/10\/dark-side-of-the-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Side of the Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Start your CD\u2026 now.<\/p>\n

This week, I\u2019ve been going mad with songs stuck in my head that I absolutely can\u2019t stand. Shit by Boston and Journey and that stupid \u201cComplicated\u201d song by that poser-riotgrrrrl from Canada<\/a>. It\u2019s okay if you like that stuff, but it sure doesn\u2019t belong stuck in my brain. But it\u2019s all cool. I just pop in Dark Side of the Moon<\/em>, and breathe deeply of the most fucking awesome album ever made.<\/p>\n

Am I a Floyd fan? I guess you can say that. Roger Waters<\/a> gave me the strength to survive high school. That probably wasn\u2019t his goal, helping pimply-faced adolescents get through their rough hormonal years, but there it is. And before I know it, ten years has gone behind me. I survived thanks to Floyd.<\/p>\n

I probably haven\u2019t listened whole to the album in five years, but just recently, I went to a laser show<\/a> that played Dark Side<\/em> in its entirety. I realized that I missed it. Diggin\u2019 it through my headphones. Eatin\u2019 a little sushi. Floyd and wassabi. That\u2019d wake me up!<\/p>\n

The problem with Dark Side<\/em> is that it is totally overplayed on the radio, but song by song. The album is a dish, meant to be consumed whole. All the time that I\u2019ve been hearing each individual song on the radio, minus \u201cOn the Run,\u201d \u201cGreat Gig in the Sky,\u201d and \u201cAny Colour You Like,\u201d I had forgotten how incredible the album is. The album is sung almost entirely by David Gilmore, with some help by Rick Wright, which makes it fairly unusual in the Floyd discography<\/a>. Dave has a great rock-singing voice, slightly soft and rough at the same time. Rog, for all my love and adoration for him, may he be praised, doesn\u2019t have the same caliber voice. But the vocals on Dark Side are smooth and softly spoken. Magic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not frightened of dying. Any time will do. Why should I be frightened of dying? There\u2019s no reason for it. We\u2019ve all got to go sometime. Death is obviously the counter-point to life. Eternity is no bargain. Since we are a mere glimmer in this universe<\/a>, every moment is vital and brilliant. Our lifespan is perfect to do SOMETHING. Every something that we do adds up, making civilization something special, making history move, making life precious and worthwhile. It is because we die that we can live.<\/p>\n

The most overplayed song on Dark Side<\/em> is \u201cMoney.\u201d Lord knows I change the station whenever I hear it on the Classic-Rock stations<\/a>. Still, just hearing that fuzzy, thick bass line is so satisfying after listening to \u201cGig.\u201d Perfection. Then there is that really, truly amazing guitar solo. I\u2019ve seen Dave play the shit out of it live\u2026 in the rain\u2026 the pouring rain\u2026 and he just wouldn\u2019t stop\u2026 not even after a half an hour of playing it\u2026 oh God when will he stop\u2026, but on the album it is just right. An obvious demonstration of how great Floyd was when they acted like a band. Meddle<\/em> and The Wall<\/em> have a bit of this synergy to, but nothing like Dark Side<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A war for oil? I don\u2019t know. Most conflicts do tend to boil down to us vs. them, the have-nots vs. the haves. The lengths that people will go through to try to keep the crap that they have from falling into the clutches of those who want what they have is pretty great. Right now, I see this inevitable conflict in the current battle over copyright vs. public domain<\/a>. Our inevitable conflict with Iraq scares the shit out of me. I certainly don\u2019t want a nasty dictator to have access to nuclear weapons, but that goes for a lot of countries, not just Iraq. When has America had success installing a friendly regime after invading and waging war with a country? Won\u2019t that whole area destabilize further prompting a lot more anti-American feelings from the down and out?<\/p>\n

\u201cAny Colour You Like\u201d is my favorite track on Dark Side<\/em>. Wedged between \u201cUs and Them\u201d and \u201cBrain Damage,\u201d it is just a bit of psychedelic tinkering that messes with your head when you listen to the album through headphones. Reminds me a lot of Yes, who also tinkered a lot on their albums. Yeah, I admit it, I like Prog Rock<\/a>. You gotta problem with that? Fuck you, you Journey-loving prick.<\/p>\n

Ah, the breakdown of communication between men and between ourselves. Explored thoroughly in \u201cBrain Damage,\u201d by Roger Waters. Sure, it could have to do with drug use, which most people believe, and is supported by the Syd Barrett<\/a> reference, \u201cand if the band you\u2019re in starts playing different tunes,\u201d since by all accounts that is what happened to poor acid-burned-out Syd. But it is about any type of madness, not just drug induced, and how it separates us from others.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t think of anything else to say<\/a>. (Just say anything.) (Laughter.) Nothing that\u2018s nice. (Another chuckle.)<\/p>\n

This blog entry didn\u2019t really match up to Dark Side of the Moon<\/em>, really. As a matter of fact, it was all daft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Start your CD… now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-silliness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nj3d-J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":926,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/macphoenix.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}