‘Dark Side of the Moon’: The moment Roger Waters knew Pink Floyd had “cracked it”
Roger Waters, founder of Pink Floyd, is a rare example of someone who would be justified in resting on their laurels. The man created one of the most successful rock bands and albums of all time, but he is clearly not one to sit back and relax. Waters has embarked on an illustrious career both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist ever since the 1960s, and even now, at a ripe 81 years old, he shows no sign of stopping yet.
His most stratospheric success, of course, needs no introduction – Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon was released in 1973 and has since revelled in over half a century’s worth of seismic plaudits, roundly considered one of the greatest albums ever produced in music history. It’s even at the point of having become the subject of its own urban legend – we all know the seemingly debunked but still swirling allegations about The Wizard of Oz – which makes the album a crucial artefact in understanding the evolution of rock music. But even in the time of the calm before the storm, Waters knew his band were on to something special.
He recalled a striking memory when he knew The Dark Side of the Moon was not just another run-of-the-mill record. “I took it home and played it to Judy [Trim], who was my first wife,” he explained. “And when it finished, I turned to say, ‘What do you think?’, and she was sitting there crying. I feel quite emotional now because I thought, ‘I mean, we’ve cracked it. Look at that! That is very special.’”
Trim had a lot to be thanked for in having the intuition to realise the album was a mark of genius. That buoying vote of confidence set Waters and the rest of the band off on a trajectory of superstardom and legend, topping the US charts that year as well as scoring into the top three of a whole host of other countries. It has since been certified multiple times platinum in all these places and has even been a cultural influence in various areas, from Radiohead’s OK Computer to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Not bad for one 43-minute record.
Despite the unfathomable acclaim and wealth it brought about, Waters was determined not to shut up shop after The Dark Side of the Moon. He said: “We achieved something, Pink Floyd, with that record. We could well have gone, ‘We’re done’, like The Beatles did – but we didn’t. We were too frightened to do that.”
It was just as well because it turns out they still had a lot in them left to give. Waters even subscribes to that same view: “In a way, I’m glad we still did struggle on, because we did some good work after that. There’s Wish You Were Here and Animals and The Wall and The Final Cut. Those were made [afterwards], those four albums, and they’re a pretty solid block of work.”
While The Dark Side of the Moon did more than enough, musically and financially, to set Pink Floyd up for life, their decision to keep working only went to show what true rock legends are made of – the tenacity to continue chasing more. He couldn’t possibly have envisioned how far it would go, but it’s fascinating to think on that fateful day Waters played Trim the iconic record for the first time, he caught the first glimpse of a fate that would be sealed in fame.
