Thursday, October 29, 2009

Pssst: Dark Side's still caviar, four star

Our list of favorite albums changes through the years as we hear new music and artists and our musical palettes continually expand. The choices also get harder over time.

Today I would be hard-pressed, after all I've heard, to name a Top 5 -- I'm just not able to be that restrictive and confining with my choices. But I can tell you one album that lived on my list for a very long time:

Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon.''

And I must not have been alone. On this date in 1983 "Dark Side'' became the longest-charting record of all time by racking up its 491st week on Billboard's Hot 200 album chart. It wouldn't slip off the list until it had been there an astounding 741 weeks.

This choice coincided with the purchase in college of a new Pioneer stereo system and top-of-the-line Koss headphones, which made the listening experience deep, dark and deliciously satisfying. (Another album purchased near the same time would also stay on my list for several years: The Doors' "L.A. Woman.'')

"Dark Side'' is almost too obvious to be a Personal Six String Sanctuary Tout (PSSST). But it would make even less sense to ignore it, so there it is, No. 14 on a growing list of music we just plain dig and shouldn't be without.

David Gilmour was not a shitty guitar player, and Roger Waters could write lyrics, as "Money'' attests:

Money, get away
Get a good job with good pay and you're okay
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

Money, get back
I'm all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack
Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit
I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet

Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're
giving none away


I've gotta find a new set of headphones.

1 comment:

  1. Without a doubt, the best lights out, headphones on album of all time

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