The “gift” that helped break up Pink Floyd
Although it is most certainly their masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon was the beginning of the end for Pink Floyd. The pinnacle of their creative and commercial success, the album sowed the seeds for the breakup of the group’s classic lineup and the acrimonious departure of Roger Waters 12 years later.
Even Waters himself has been open about naming the classic concept album as the record that “finished” his old band. When speaking to Chris Salewicz in 1987 about his second solo effort, Radio KAOS, Waters commented: “But of course, Dark Side Of The Moon finished the Pink Floyd off once and for all. To be that successful is the aim of every group. And once you’ve cracked it, it’s all over. In hindsight, I think the Pink Floyd was finished as long ago as that.”
In the years since its release, it has been noted that amid the immense sound collage of the Dark Side of the Moon overture, ‘Speak to Me’ had a significant hand in the breakdown of inter-band relations. Famously, the track features no lyrics, apart from parts of the conversation tapes that the band recorded by people they invited into the studio to answer a series of questions, as well as a brief clip of Clare Torry’s iconic wailing from ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’.
An incredibly multifaceted number for its time, ‘Speak to Me’ also features several sound effects and intensifies until it segues into the first performance on the album, ‘Breathe’. Often, the pair are taken together and played as one on the radio, and later releases have even merged the duo.
Stoking the prominent theme of mental decline across the record, the song features recorded lines such as, “I’ve been mad for fucking years, absolutely years. I’ve been over the edge for yonks, been working with bands so long. I think ‘Crikey’.”
Perhaps the most famous, however, is: “I’ve always been mad, I know I’ve been mad, like the most of us have. Very hard to explain why you’re mad, even if you’re not mad.”
This sentiment, which was informed by the very public and tragic collapse in the mental health of Pink Floyd’s original frontman, Syd Barrett, was also heightened by the crazed laughter of Peter Watts, the group’s road manager. He was the father of Mulholland Drive actor Naomi Watts and would tragically die of a suspected heroin overdose at age 30 in 1976.
However, for all of the tangible references to the heartbreaking story of Syd Barrett, ‘Speak to Me’ would also play a part in the collapse of the most successful iteration of the band. It’s a rare number in the sense that it is the only effort by Pink Floyd to give all composing credits to drummer Nick Mason – who rarely wrote tracks – who claims he created it himself. However, Waters and keyboardist Richard Wright would later describe it as a “gift” to Mason, which only soured relations. It was a supposed insult to his talent.
Listen to ‘Speak to Me’ below.
