Best Album Ever?

[Haole]

Tom Waits--Bone Machine

[floydian slip]

There is only one answer to this, Pink Floyd's - Dark Side of the Moon.

There are a few words that can be said about this Album. Some of the choice ones I like to use are
"You are on crack if you dont like this"
"Best-album-ever"

It was released in 1973 It stayed on Billboard's top 200 album chart until April 23, 1988, the longest of any album, ever.
Its success was so great--legend has it that there was an EMI factory which did nothing but make "Dark Side of the Moon" CDs--that it enabled the album's U.S. chart run to top 730 weeks.

article from the Washington Post 9years ago
20 Years Ago, 'Dark Side of the Moon

Copyright 1993 The Washington Post
April 28, 1993, Wednesday, Final Edition
HEADLINE: One Giant Step for Pink Floyd; 20 Years Ago, 'Dark Side of the Moon' Began Its Cosmic Trip

BYLINE: Richard Harrington, Washington Post Staff Writer

It was 20 years ago today that Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" went to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It stayed there only a week.

"I thought it was a good record," recalls Roger Waters, the British band's songwriter and bassist. "It happened to strike a certain chord at a certain time with lots of people."

Still, Waters and Pink Floyd had no particular commercial expectations for "Dark Side of the Moon," based on the fact that none of their seven previous albums had so much as dented the Top 40 in the United States. "We'd have danced naked around the Lincoln Memorial if we'd thought it would sell records," Waters says. And that wasn't in Capitol's marketing plan, because there was no marketing plan.

This album didn't need one. Though its stay at the top was brief, "Dark Side" hung around on the Top 200 chart for a while longer -- well, actually, for 724 consecutive weeks (740 weeks altogether). It didn't drop off until July 13, 1988.

That 14-year stretch is considered one of pop music's untouchable records (the next longest run: "Johnny Mathis's Greatest Hits" at 490 weeks). Michael Jackson's "Thriller" may have sold the most copies ever -- 40 million -- but it only spent 122 weeks on the album chart.

Although it is still officially listed as having reached "gold" status for sales of 500,000 copies, "Dark Side of the Moon" has sold more than 25 million copies, including 12 million stateside. The problem is that the Recording Industry Association of America didn't institute its "platinum" status for million-sellers until January 1976, and refuses to certify anything retroactively. When Billboard introduced a back catalogue chart in 1991 (to monitor sales of reissued albums), "Dark Side of the Moon" entered and has been there ever since, currently at that unfamiliar No. 1 spot.

While "Dark Side of the Moon" was charting, disco, punk and new wave all came -- and went. As did Waters, who left Pink Floyd in 1983, later sued the other members to keep them from using the name Pink Floyd, and remains harshly critical of their subsequent work (more on this later).

Twenty years ago, Pink Floyd had envisioned a box containing bumper stickers, posters and other treats, but Capitol was too cheap, particularly since this was the band's last record before switching to Columbia. (In fact, Pink Floyd took a royalty cut so that posters could be included without raising the cost of the original record.) Now Capitol has released a limited-edition commemorative edition of "Dark Side" -- in a box, containing a newly remastered holographic picture CD, a color booklet and postcards.

"Dark Side of the Moon" was released on March 31, 1973, its first notes striking that certain chord (actually bouncing back and forth between an E minor and A major on "Breathe In the Air"). As Waters puts it, "it's gone on striking chords with people." It's become something of a rite of passage for generations of rock fans, and it still sells more than 1 million copies every year.

Why?

Certainly the reviewers at the time didn't spot anything special, including British critics who called it "a stereo fetishist's wet dream" and faulted the album for "too much sound effects, too little cohesive music."

In Rolling Stone, the "Dark Side" review ran below those for Judee Sill's "Heart Food," Alice Cooper's "Billion Dollar Babies" and "Best of Bread." The reviewer noted that the record "seems to deal primarily with the feelings and the depravity of human life, hardly the commonplace subject matter of rock," and called it "a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement."

It demands involvement right from the start, actually, with the slow cosmic heartbeat of "Speak to Me." The songs that follow -- "Breathe In the Air," "Time," "Money," "Us and Them," "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" -- do seem obsessed with alienation, the banality of everyday life and the inexorable encroachment of death, a world-weary pessimism that the Times of London attributed to "the melancholy of our times."

"It was more realistic than a lot of pop music," Waters, who wrote all the lyrics, says from London. "The end of the record is pessimistic, except that it allows that all things are possible and that we human beings, individually and collectively, must have our potentials and possibilities in our hands. We make decisions and do things that make our lives more positive or negative -- whether the positive is couched in terms of the amount of love that we exchange with our family or friends, or whether we allow the dark sides of our past to overtake us and make our lives more negative.

"We all fight small battles in that war between the positive and the negative, between good and evil, between God and the devil, however you want to couch it, every day of our lives," says Waters, who turns 50 this year. "I'm obsessed with truth and how the futile scramble for material things obscures our possible path to understanding ourselves, each other and the universe in ways that will make human life more fulfilling for all human beings. That's what 'Dark Side of the Moon' is about, and what most of my records have been about."

When he says "my records," Waters is talking about Pink Floyd's four post-"Dark Side" albums and his three solo albums following the acrimonious split in 1983. Before "Dark Side," the band still operated in the shadow of singer-writer Syd Barrett -- who, along with Waters, keyboardist Rick Wright and drummer Nick Mason, was a student at Cambridge University, where Pink Floyd coalesced in the mid-'60s. (The band took its name from two American blues singers, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.) With their electronic rock and mind-expanding light shows, Pink Floyd became the darling of the London underground, but Barrett lost his mind to drugs and left in 1968, replaced by guitarist-singer David Gilmour.

For the next several years, the band was best known for its exploratory jams and movie soundtracks, its sonic architecture serving as a blueprint for the progressive rock movement. What it lacked was songs.

"Nobody else in the band could write lyrics," says Waters. "There were no other lyricists after Syd. David's written a couple of songs but they're nothing special. I don't think Nick ever tried to write a lyric and Rick probably did in the very early days, but they were awful."

According to Waters, who is seldom reticent in criticism of his former band mates, when he told the others his ideas for "Dark Side," "they went, 'Okay, that's a good idea.' In the 'histories,' it always comes out sounding like 'we' did this and 'we' did that and 'we' decided it was going to be a concept album.

"But there was none of that. There was never any question of sitting around and discussing what we might do. I have to say it's not all my work -- I only wrote all the lyrics and two-thirds of the songs. Gilmour's contribution was very slight. The other major influence is Rick Wright, who did the music on 'Us and Them' and the instrumental 'Great Gig in the Sky.' "

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios on its brand-new 24-track equipment, the album came together over a nine-month period, and as it developed, "it sounded special," Waters recalls. "When it was finished, I took the tape home and played it to my first wife, and I remember her bursting into tears when she'd finished listening to it. And I thought, yeah, that's kind of what I expected, because I think it's very moving emotionally and musically. Maybe its humanity has caused 'Dark Side' to last as long as it has."

There was also the sound of it -- the album's only Grammy went to Alan Parsons for "Best Engineered Album of 1973"; it launched his own recording career with the Alan Parsons Project.

One thing that struck Waters when he listened to it recently was "how loud the sound effects -- the cash registers [on 'Money'], the clocks [on 'Time'] -- were mixed. The record very much focuses on important information, so if it's a vocal you can hear it, if it's a guitar solo you can hear it and if it's a sound effect you can hear it. That's because the drums are very quiet all the way through the record. That's one thing about the record that sounds really old-fashioned because these days we tend to have drums up really loud, which leaves less space for other information."

Waters says that 'Dark Side's" sonic reputation -- not only was it the most popular tool to demonstrate hi-fi equipment in the '70s, but it was voted the most popular soundtrack for sex shows in Amsterdam -- is overblown. "I think the sonics derived directly from the ideas and because of the ideas. Space is the important thing in good-sounding records, and certain elements were allowed to exist very much in their own space. That's why the record sounds good."

It looked good too, with its now-famous cover, by the Hipgnosis design firm, showing white light refracting into a rainbow prism, homage to the old light shows (it made Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest album covers of all time). Oddly enough, "Dark Side of the Moon" almost required a different name because a band called Medicine Head had released a similarly titled album the year before. That album stiffed and Pink Floyd dropped its alternate title, "Eclipse."

There also was a downside to "Dark Side."

Though its records had never sold particularly well, Pink Floyd had built a loyal cult following through its mind-bending performances, which attracted reverential audiences. But with the success of "Dark Side," the audience changed not just in size -- the band was now playing in sports arenas and stadiums -- but in character. Instead of listening, it began demanding the group's first and only hit single, "Money."

"That's why after 1977 I refused to play stadiums," says Waters, "because the larger the audience, the whole thing becomes more about commerce and less about communication, music, human feelings and values."

Those same issues exacerbated the tensions that had been building within the band, though Waters says the line in "Brain Damage" that gave the album its name -- "And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon" -- is actually about Syd Barrett. But after "Dark Side," he says, "It started to turn sour."

Waters believes Pink Floyd was finished at that point, but it made four more albums, the most notable being 1979's "The Wall," which also still sells 1 million copies a year.

[BuzzB2K]

There is only one answer to this, Pink Floyd's - Dark Side of the Moon.

There are a few words that can be said about this Album. Some of the choice ones I like to use are
"You are on crack if you dont like this"
"Best-album-ever" ...

What he said...

[theflaco]

• 
  1. Speak To Me / Breathe In The Air
  2. On The Run
  3. Time
  4. The Great Gig In The Sky
  5. Money
  6. Us And Them
  7. Any Colour You Like
  8. Brain Damage
  9. Eclipse

[Haole]

Originally posted by floydian slip
There is only one answer to this, Pink Floyd's - Dark Side of the Moon.

There are a few words that can be said about this Album. Some of the choice ones I like to use are
"You are on crack if you dont like this"

Pass the rock, then.

I mean, it's a classic, but is it something that I even think of listening to anymore? Naah.

[JackUzi]

"Dark side of the moon" is a neat album to listen to when your ozoned. But the lyrics are lame, lame , lame. "Money" is just a terrible song too. Fuck rock stars singing about how much they hate money. How much did this production extravaganza cost to make, eh? I wouldnt rate Roger Waters as a lyricist. There's something sneery about him. A lot of the album is hackneyed too. Like the start of "Time" starts off with a cacophony of clocks...you see?!..time, geddit?..how clever. "DSOTM" was the kind of thing I thought was well deep at 14 but now I see Roger Waters for the misanthropic, spoilt shithead he is.

[assorted]

yah; dark side is pretty pretentious and hippy-bad... guess i'm on the rock too.

i can't even being to think of a best album; it's all just personal preference after all so here goes...

you'll note that most are from the late eighties to early nineties; go figure as that's my teenage-college years.

nirvana - in utero/nevermind - yep. i'm on that bandwagon.

clash - london calling - the best punk album from the period. some were more original, some more influential; and nyc started it and was way grittier; but this one is just somehow definitive.

public enemy - it takes a nation of millions - the best rap album after rap was firmly introduced. one of the first albums to introduce rap/metal (she watch channel zero) and a much cooler merger of fun, anger and politics then anything KRS-ONE has ever attempted. I'm like an old guy with rap now; I just shake my head and sigh. It's a shame California gangster crap won the rap style that took over America. NYC rap was so much cooler.

bob dylan - the freewheeling bob dylan - as folk goes; this is pretty fucking good. bob dylan was brilliant when he was a teenager/early twenties. what the hell happened?

neil young - harvest - another brilliant guy that went to shit. i can still listen to this album which says a lot.

springsteen - nebraska - one of the most depressing albums i've heard. it's hard to make an album more depressing then joy division's closer yet i think this one is. a great indictment of america; a scalding folk album. it just kicks ass.

janes addiction - nothings shocking - a much better and more rocking break out alternative album then anything by the red hot chili peppers. janes addiction up to this point were a nice merger of LA glam rock, punk and art rock. the next album drifted way too far towards art rock and perry farrell never recovered from his own ego.

joy division - closer - a pretty influential band and album. quite fun depressing stuff. the lead singer killing himself right after making it helps it's myth of course.

pixies - surfa rosa - it's either this or the repalcements as the band that trancends punk/new wave and brings "college rock" to a new level in the eighties. i vote for the pixies and this album over "ma take out the trash" by the replacements. the pixies were just more original, wittier, and flat out more creative then the sloppy, shitty rock act the replacements sound like at later listening.

radiohead - ok computer - maybe it's not a classic yet; but i think the critics are right and it will be. radiohead are taking rock in the only direction it can go: electronic. this album is one of the better mergers i've ever heard.

guns n roses - appetite for destruction - this album rocks. fuck you. it does. and sure they wouldn't exist without aerosmith. i don't care and fuck aerosmith. they didn't make appetitie for destruction. hehe.

velvet undgerground - velvet underground and nico - while the hippies were fucking off and later selling out the all black wearing anti-hippie velvet underground quietly influenced music for the next 30 years and counting. noone noticed at the time. guess everyone was too stoned riding a bandwagon and listening to donovan or something.

hehe; that's my 2 cents.

maybe in a few years i'll be putting something by fatboy slim or moby or one of the other computer geek bitches on these lists; just not yet.

[floydian slip]

Hey Jack Uzi, mdneer and assorted, do you own a copy of DSotM? (or previously)

[Haole]

Yep. Scratched warped vinyl, indeed, somewhere out in my garage. Owned 'Wish You Were Here" too a zillion years ago, and I kind of liked that better. Neither has enough of what I need to distinguish as an all-time favorite, though. If I was stuck on a desert island with DSOTM, I hang myself from a palm tree. Sorry, don't mean to insult your taste, just interested in what fellow Napsterites consider creme de la creme.

[assorted]

Originally posted by floydian slip
Hey Jack Uzi, mdneer and assorted, do you own a copy of DSotM? (or previously)

yah; on cassete i had dsotm and meddle by floyd. on cd i had the wall, the final cut and wish you were here. the wall was the first cd i ever purchased and i'd listen to it over and over on headphones. back then (15 years or so ago) i'd have said "the wall" was my fav of the bunch. now i'd probably say meddle.

[JackUzi]

I have "DSOTM" on vinyl. I listen to "Relics" or "Meddle" more than "DSOTM".

[dead_frog]

I like OK computer as well, but I don't think I have anything that I feel is the best of all time... I get bored with everything, eventually. But I come back to the good ones, naturally. I think I actually like Kid A more than ok computer.
And Nirvana's good too, as you said.

Best LP ever?!?!??!!
you are never going to get agreement on this one

You cannot possibly compare the likes of Pink Floyd to Motzart or to The Crystal method... to find the best album you would have to divide up by genre, and era in shich it was released... you could say have a BEST Classical Rock Album but not a best of all time... some of the best shit is still to come... as soon as we gagMrs Spears.

[JackUzi]

Nirvana-"Nevermind" "In utero" Yep, I'm on that bandwagon too. Wouldnt be interested in music if it wasnt for these albums
Miles Davis-"Kind of blue" I know fuck all about jazz but I know this is heavenly
MC5-"Babes in arms" Fiery rock n' roll at its finest
The Stooges-"Funhouse" Ditto
The Smiths-"hatful of hollow" Teen angst ahoy!
Sonic youth-"Sister" Sonic youth are one of my favorites. The most innovative rock bands ever. I f there is any problem with this album its that it's too short. "Daydream nation" is brilliant as well
Pavement-"Slanted and enchanted" Kings of good melody. Indie-rock with lyrics about Grolsch maidens and one night plays.
Beach Boys-"Pet sounds
Fatboy Slim-"Better living through chemistry" The ultimate party album
Beastie Boys-"Pauls boutique"
Public Enemy-"It takes a nation..."
A tribe called quest-"Midnite marauders"
Daft Punk-"Discovery"
Sex Pistols-"Nevermind the bollocks" SCREAMING BLOODY MESS!!
Jimi Hendrix-"Electric ladyland"

[twinspan]

In no particular order:

• A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Stumbled across this album on import in '90, bought it on a whim, never looked back. Wore the vinyl out in no time, bought the CD too, and the cassette copy is about the only thing I still use my old walkman for.
• Curtis Mayfield - Superfly. Isaac Hayes may have hit big with the Shaft soundtrack, but this is the real thing when it comes to Blaxploitation albums, in fact any kind of album
• Tom Waits - The Best of ...(heheh, I know that's cheating, but that's the tape I had. Light the incense, roll the joint, put Tom on deck 1 and, yes, Dark Side of the Moon on deck 2, and light up. Ahhhh...
• Public Enemy - It takes a nation... Yup, groundbreaking, merciless, pumping, whatever adjective you care to throw at it would probably be an understatement.
• London Symphony Orchestra (con. Klaus Tennstedt) - Der Ring, Wagner. What can I say? He was a megalomaniac, he was an anti-semite, he was a lot of things people wouldn't like. But damn! what a work. DSOTM for the 19th century?
• Al Green - Let's Stay Together Simply some of the best singing and songwriting ever combined in one album. I'm an atheist, but when I hear Al on this album, I can't help but think God himself put this man on Earth to show us the Way...
• AC/DC - Back in Black. First cassette I ever owned (found it inside the first ever walkman I ever owned, never did find out why it was there). Track after track of headbanging, rump-shaking rock. I guess they had something to prove after Scott Bonner died, and prove it they did.

Not necessarily representative, but considering albums as a whole, these are the ones that stand out for me.

[dead_frog]

The best albums are the ones you put together yourself, as you're the one best equipped to satisfy all your musical tastes.



ching ching!

[nanook]

Originally posted by dead_frog
The best albums are the ones you put together yourself, as you're the one best equipped to satisfy all your musical tastes.



ching ching!

yep!!!!!!!!!!!

[daddydirt]

Originally posted by Crypticon
Best LP ever?!?!??!!
you are never going to get agreement on this one

true.....but nevertheless i nominate


Derek & the Dominos - Layla (and Other Assorted Love Songs)
1. I Looked Away
2. Bell Bottom Blues
3. Keep On Growing
4. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
5. I Am Yours
6. Anyday
7. Key To The Highway
8. Tell The Truth
9. Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?
10. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
11. Little Wing
12. It's Too Late
13. Layla
14. Thorn Tree In The Garden

honorable mention

The Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet
1. Sympathy For The Devil
2. No Expectations
3. Dear Doctor
4. Parachute Woman
5. Jig-Saw Puzzle
6. Street Fighting Man
7. Prodigal Son
8. Stray Cat Blues
9. Factory Girl
10. Salt Of The Earth

[floydian slip]

http://www.napsterites.net/undergrou...ine=1017617676


That should be on an album cover. I'd buy it just for that.

[Jader]

Originally posted by JackUzi
Nirvana-"Nevermind" "In utero" Yep, I'm on that bandwagon too. Wouldnt be interested in music if it wasnt for these albums

Good call.

This was the album that got me into music as well. Okay, so I listened to a lot of G 'n R, Def Leppard, Slaughter, etc in the late 80's but I was young and it was just cool music. I never really associated with it nor did it provide me with any sort of image.

It wasn't until Nirvana's Bleach came out that I really started to *enjoy* music for what it was worth -- without seeing it on MTV. Actually, Mudhoney broke into the whole grunge genre first, but it was Nirvana that gave it a face.

My vote goes to Nevermind.