Time really does fly

So it's time to start writing my research paper. Here's a rough outline:

I. Historical Background of Pink Floyd

- See blogs: "This would be helpful, right?"

II. Define hippie/psychedelic rock and discuss how Pink Floyd embodies hippie values

- See blogs: "Progressive/Psychedelic Rock," "Superzap Them All With Love!"

III. Track Pink Floyd's shift from hippie/psychedelic rock group to progressive rock group

- See blogs: "Articles That May Be Helpful," "What's the difference?"

IV. Discuss in depth the progressive rock movement and how Pink Floyd fits the definition of a progressive rock group

- See blogs: "Prog Rock," "Prog Rock Revisited"

V. Introduce punk rock movement and its relationship to progressive rock movement

- State explicit distinctions

- See blogs: "Some Scholarly Articles," "Mark Andersen Talk"

VI. Show the connections between the punk rock movement and the progressive rock movement, using Pink Floyd and DSOTM as an example

- See blogs: "Breathe, breathe in the air," "Some DSOTM Facts & NME Review," "Money, it's a hit!," "Is it really all dark?," "Us & Them," "Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day," "More Dark Side Reviews"

For right now though, I'm gonna go eat some turkey!

Questions

Interview:

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/pinkfloyd/articles/story/5937470/dark_side_at_30_roger_waters

I stumbled across this written Rolling Stone interview with Roger Waters that addressed the spoken parts on DSOTM. I thought this was worth exploring, since a lot of songs I've posted here on my blog have spoken parts. In the interview, Waters says, "I wrote questions down on a set of cards, and they were in sequence. Whoever was in the building came and did it. They would read the top card and answer it -- with no one else in the room -- and then take that card off, and do the second one. So, for instance, when it said "When was the last time you were violent?" the next one said, "Were you in the right?" It provided essential color for the record. The questions that provided us with the best material were the ones about violence." I agree that the voices on the album add texture and depth to the album (Just think “Great Gig,” “Money,” “Us And Them”). I think the layering of the voices also serves to pull people together. It reminds us that humanity is not perfect, and all people share similar experiences. It’s sort of along the same lines as what Waters was saying in that 2007 interview: “It’s ok to have bad feelings about things and to experience pain, and this and that, and that we don’t have to live in an anodyne world where nothing hurts.”

gobble, gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ever heard the rumor that The Dark Side of the Moon is perfectly synced with The Wizard of Oz? Supposedly, if you start the Pink Floyd album immediately after the MGM lion roars for a third time, several coincidental themes begin to emerge when watching the movie and listening to the album at the same time. Although Pink Floyd has denied purposefully syncing the album to the film, one cannot deny the many parallels between the two. For example, Dorothy is balancing on the fence just as "Balanced on the biggest wave" plays in the track "Breathe." The ominous introduction of "Time" plays when the witch enters the scene on her bike. Moreover, consider the uncanny similarities between the scene with the house in the sky and "The Great Gig in the Sky," which plays in the background (See above clip). What's more is that "Money" starts just as Dorothy enters Oz, and the movie switches to color. I'm not sure if I'll mention this in my final paper, but I have to admit that pairing the film with the album really helps to emphasize the themes of The Dark Side.

2007 Interview with Roger Waters

I think this short interview with Roger Waters offers a bit of insight into the success and meaning behind The Dark Side of the Moon. It's amazing that it's been over 30 years since the release of the album, and people are still talking about it. Roger Waters comments on the timelessness of the album in the interview: "I think The Dark Side is a very interesting piece of work because successive generations seem to attach to it with equal enthusiasm." So how exactly has The Dark Side of the Moon lasted the test of time? Why is it so appealing to such wide audiences? Roger Waters says, "In terms of its politics and philosophy, it kind of gives people, when they're young, permission to think for themselves, in a way." This is a theme evident in several tracks on the album, from "Breathe" to "Time," illustrating the progressive values of individuality and autonomy. Waters's message is similar to the punk Do-It-Yourself ethic. At the same time, however, the punk movement seems to value the group over the individual. This idea is also seen on DSOTM with tracks like "Us And Them," which encourage people to come together by pointing out our collective failure to connect with one another. Roger Waters once said in a different interview that "Us And Them" is about "the political idea of humanism."*

*"A variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world and often rejects the importance of belief in God."

More Dark Side Reviews

In the 1973 Rolling Stone review of DSOTM, Loyd Grossman says that the album has to do with the "fleetingness and depravity of human life, hardly the commonplace subject matter of rock." Grossman notes that "Time," "Money" and "Us And Them" offer the best glimpse into the album's overall meaning. Grossman also mentions the different techniques used on the album, including "synthesizers, sound effects and spoken voice tapes. The sound is lush and multi-layered while remaining clear and well structured." Rolling Stone praises Dark Side as a "fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites but demands involvement."

According to a 1973 review in the Montreal Gazette, Pink Floyd "does not concern itself with snappy intros and cutoffs or quick changes in tempo. Its music just drifts and drifts then drifts some more." Reading these different reviews, it has become quite clear that Pink Floyd is in fact a progressive rock group. Their tracks are more like compositions, strikingly different from punk rock songs that are short and simple. Pink Floyd qualifies as a progressive rock band if we consider their use of instruments like the saxophone, electronic keyboards, synthesizers and various electronic effects. Another progressive characteristic is Pink Floyd's literary lyrics that have to do with introspection and social issues. We can also consider Pink Floyd progressive because the group orchestrated such elaborate light shows and stage effects that often made the band members seem secondary in performance. Quite the opposite, the punk movement was all about stripping everything away and bringing the artist down to the level of the audience.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

Time - Pink Floyd

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking

Racing around to come up behind you again.

The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.

Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way

The time is gone, the song is over,

Thought I'd something more to say.

So, this is the fourth track off of The Dark Side of the Moon. The song is the second longest on the album after "Us And Them." The clocks in the beginning were all recorded separately in a watchmaker's shop and were fused together to form the opening to the song, full of ticking and chiming. The song clearly comments on the passing of time. The first verse suggests that we're all wasting our time waiting for someone else to point us in the right direction. According to Vincent Amendolare, the second verse comments on the "futility of trying to outrun time." According to Roger Waters, "This idea in Time is a similar exhortation to Breathe. To be here now, this is it. Make the most of it." Therefore, although the song may sound depressing and negative, it is clear that Waters is implying that we must make the most of our lives.

Mark Andersen Talk

Here are some notes I took during Mark Andersen's talk at the Fall for the Book event:

• Stresses "the now," as opposed to history or past
• Washington DC punk underground is most influential
• Dance of Days doesn't tell the whole "punk story," wanted to capture the essence, truth, credibility
• Punk and politics, the world ("life is political")
• Art and politics cannot be separated
• DC as punk mecca, as opposed to DC as a town that "imports culture"
• Punk rock cannot be understood without understanding 1960s counterculture (hippie)
• Idealistic, "would-be revolutionary," dull, boring rock Straight-edge, drugs = liberation? remnants of 60s counterculture (Hendrix, Joplin, The Doors)
• Emergence of "hardcore" punk, punk rock new wave counterculture became like hippie culture, punk was "lost," "straight jacket"
• Punk is something ongoing, values, spirit, "living it out"