Fifty years ago, blues-psychedelic-rock band Pink Floyd recorded an album that would change the band members' lives forever.
Bassist Roger Waters wrote the songs and band members David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason combined their musical talents to create "The Dark Side of the Moon."
The album sold 45 million copies — and counting — making it the fourth best-selling record of all time, spending 974 weeks on the Billboard Top 200.
How did it happen?
Wisconsin Public Radio’s "BETA" spoke with author and musician John Kruth about his book, "Lunacy: The Curious Phenomenon of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, 50 Years On," to find out.
"To me, this album is a spook house," Kruth said. "And who doesn't like a scary movie? If we all get out the door in one piece and feeling like, OK, we've been through something cathartic — you felt like you went through something, and you had some kind of growth. This album represents a door in that way."
Once through the door, the listener is faced with a journey through depictions of madness, fear and death. Kruth speculates the album was inspired by former bandmate and leader Syd Barrett, who was with the group from 1965 to 1968.
"It was triggered by Syd," Kruth said. "As we all know, Syd is going to walk into the studio when they're making 'Wish You Were Here,' and they're not going to recognize him because he's got a shaved head, and he was overweight, and he just didn't resemble the Syd Barrett that they recognized and that they remembered."
"So yes, of course, Syd loomed all over 'The Dark Side of the Moon.' Maybe Syd was the big shadow that creates the dark side of the moon," he continued.
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett led Pink Floyd for two albums: their debut in 1967, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," and 1968’s "A Saucerful of Secrets." These two records helped define the early years of psychedelic music.
"Pink Floyd came out of the whole blues scene that was going on in London," Kruth said. "The name Pink Floyd comes from Syd's cats. He named two cats: Pink after Pink Anderson and Floyd after Floyd Council, two Piedmont Blues guitarists from South Carolina. Syd was a full-blown blues freak. That's what was happening in London at the time when they were first coming up. It was something that you could be passionate about, something that you could learn how to play. You don't have the psychedelic scene without learning your blues."
But heavy drug use, especially LSD, and mental health issues made it impossible for Barrett to continue with the band, and eventually he left. Waters stepped up as the new leader of the band and Gilmour was recruited to take over lead vocals and guitar duties.
Over the next four years, the band recorded five more records, developing their post-Syd sound — which finally came together with their eighth record, "The Dark Side of the Moon."
"I just think this album, to me, is very much like the monolith in 2001, right down to the cover, to what it continually represents in the future. It's knowable. You look at it, you think you know what it is, but it continues to reveal itself over time to other generations. And maybe they're understanding, and they're looking at it, they're hearing other things that we didn't hear in it," Kruth said.
"The Dark Side of the Moon" pulls listeners into its musical spell with a soothing slow heartbeat and reminds us to "breathe in the air." But it's also like a rollercoaster slowly climbing to the top, only to plunge to the depths with unexpected twists and turns along the way.
Kruth puts it this way: "There were so many rich aspects to work from when you start this record. It's like, OK, you're following this mood, you're following this path, and then suddenly, it's like you're literally pulled down the rabbit hole. It's like, 'Where the hell am I? I'm in another dimension.'"
Once in this other dimension, listeners go through the ticking clock collage of the song "Time" into the brilliantly improvised vocals of singer Clare Torry on "The Great Gig in the Sky."
"She's like the controlled Janis Joplin or something," Kruth said. "What Clare Torry did was that she just grabbed you right by the aorta, man, and she just pulled you in. She didn't need any words or any kind of language in her lungs to just get right to it, straight to your heart. It's quite an experience."
One of the most played songs from the record is "Money," which begins with a bassline that may have been borrowed from another source.
Kruth said Waters could have been fooling around with the bassline of Willie Dixon's "How Many More Times."
"Because it has a very similar syncopation as 'How Many More Times,' and yet there's an extra beat in there," he said. "And then what they do in the middle of that song, which is brilliant, was Dick Parry, in the middle of money — I think it was Parry that was like, 'Hey, just give me a 4/4-time signature and let me blow. Forget this odd time signature stuff.' Again, another excellent example of Pink Floyd’s dynamics where they open the door in the middle of that song and the sax just rips."
Eventually, listeners are brought to the end of the record with "Brain Damage/Eclipse" which offers a message of hope and returns to the soothing heartbeat.
"I really believe that Roger was telling us to follow the light at that point," Kruth said. "No matter what you face, no matter how dark it gets, no matter how disoriented you become, follow the light. And when you're done and when it's over, you're kind of like, you know, it's just the big sigh of relief."
If you listen close, you can hear the last words on the album spoken by Abbey Road Studios Irish doorman, Gerry O’Driscoll:
"There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it’s all dark."