Dark Side of the SuperMoon

In honor of tonight's "supermoon" (the moon will be at its closest to the Earth) I was thinking about songs about the moon.  Lots of good ones: "Blue Moon", "Moon River", "Blue Moon of Kentucky", "Fly Me to the Moon", "Shine On Harvest Moon."  But the one I particularly like is Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" (okay, not really a song, but a whole album.)

This album is incredible.  The songs sort of melt into one another, but each one is unique.  "Brain Damage" always catches my ear.  The lyrics, particularly.  It talks about "the lunatic" on the grass, in the hall, in "my head" (where the singer chuckles, the lunatic laughing?).  One line goes: "You raise the blade, you make the change, you rearrange me till I'm sane."  Lobotomy, perhaps?  Another great line: "There's someone in my head, but it's not me."  At the end of the song the lunatic is chuckling again.  Laughing at us, I suppose.

This song is sometimes mistakenly called "The Dark Side of the Moon" due to this line returning in the lyrics.  It goes directly into the next song on the album, "Eclipse," even on radio play, so it is sometimes believed that the two are acutally one song.  (Queen's "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" are also two separate songs, but are often played together.)

"Money" is in 7/4 time (each measure has 7 beats), later going into 4/4 for the guitar solo.  And it was made before digital assistance.  So the artist had to clip and paste every single cash register sound together just right to get the rhythm correct.  Amazing.