Dark Side Part 9

So there is more contributing to our sense of Dark Side Of The Moon’s coherence than just the recurrence of ideas such as heartbeats, loops, spoken word fragments, lyrics about madness and mortality etc.etc…. And it arguably comes down to one of the most tried and tested sequences in western music. Yet this is done without us taking much notice and across such a long span of time.

Eagle-eyed readers may have noted how the four chord progression which straddles the final moments of “Brain Damage” and the beginning of “Eclipse” - namely, B minor to E minor to A to D - matches the progression from “Speak To Me” to “Breathe” to “Time” to “Us and Them” if we include the B of the opening helicopter drone! So maybe the signature chord progression was VI-V-II-I all along! I’ll let you argue that one out amongst yourselves….

To finish, I want to draw attention to how the long-term harmonic structure of Dark Side Of The Moon organises the shape of the album into neat symmetrical proportions. “Breathe” and “Breathe Reprise” bookend the opening sequence of songs where our chords II and V dominate. In turn, this forms a bookend balanced by another at the other end of the album where the latter four songs of the album are centred round the harmonic keynote of D (chord I). Between these two ‘song suites’ seemingly bound as they are by harmonic relationships, “Great Gig In The Sky” and “Money” function as a spectacular interlude to the process.

Creating bookends to an album was something that seemed to be a signature trait of the 70s Pink Floyd from here on… Wish You Were Here of course was bookended by “Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1- 5” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9”. Animals was bookended by “Pigs On The Wing 1” and “Pigs On The Wing 2”. Something even more ingenious, of course, was used on The Wall to create that sense of departure and return. That is, by making the beginning of Side One follow on from the end of Side Four so that ‘this’ would be where ‘we came in’….

Dave Sanderson is a musician/songwriter/teacher with his own website promoting his latest album 'Songbook'. For more details visit http://www.flowerbedmusic.com.