Why Pink Floyd? Up through Dark Side of the Moon

Why Pink Floyd? week continues as well on the Music Of Our Heart Blog. Today’s post focuses on several aspects of Pink Floyd that help answer Why Pink Floyd? for me.

Why Pink Floyd week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon features MGMT performing “Lucifer Sam” off The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

1) My first lengthy encounter with the music of Pink Floyd was in the 1970  film Zabriskie Point by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni. Pink Floyd’s music was the most memorable feature of this surrealistic movie. I made a special point of seeing this film based upon an article I read about Antonioni and Pink Floyd in Rolling Stone magazine. I came away from this movie with the visual nature of Pink Floyd firmly planted in my psyche.

2) My next intervention with Pink Floyd was the album Meddle which I was introduced to again as a music backdrop at a fellow college student’s place. “Echoes” was the selection on Meddle that intrigues me with its evolving dynamics to this day.

3) My next visual experience was the 1972 film, Pink Floyd: Live at  Pompeii. This was a surround sound concert of Pink Floyd filmed without an audience on the floor of an amphitheatre in Pompeii. There were many interesting and novel cinematic techniques. You were taken to the heart of the sun by the director, film crew and Pink Floyd. I saw this in the movie house where the large screen amplified the sound and video experience.

Dark Side of the Moon

I was fortunate to see Pink Floyd with my fiance’ Rosemary in April 1973 at the Palace Theater in Waterbury. I purchased the $6.00 tickets to this concert at Rubber Match Waterbed in New Haven, a Ticketmaster ticket outlet (remember those…). The concert was oversold and we ended sitting on the stairs in balcony that night. I am very proud to say I  saw Pink Floyd perform Dark Side of the Moon on March 18th, 1973 the day after it hit the U.S. charts. As everyone knows Dark Side of the Moon spent 741 weeks (15 years) on the charts from 1973 to 1988. This ranks as one of my top three concerts of all time out of more than 400+ concerts I have attended in 42 years!

I purchased a copy the first week it was released in March of 1973 at Cutlers in New Haven. I actually got in trouble with the WNHU-FM station manager because I played it from beginning to end one day during our July 1973 début week. I had violated the playlist policy that was in force at the station at the time. (3 songs from the A list, 2 songs from the B list every hour…) Having seen Pink Floyd perform Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety four months earlier I just had to repeat that experience for my listening audience.

Related articles

• Why Pink Floyd? Product Day in North America (musicofourheart.wordpress.com)
• Why Pink Floyd? Week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (musicofourheart.wordpress.com)

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