“Very successful”: Roger Waters on why ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ was the first complete album
Despite it literally being part of my job, sometimes trying to understand the success of an album is totally futile. Let’s take The Dark Side Of The Moon, for example. I could tell you that the album is epic and expansive, an actual world within a record that allows you to be fully immersed in the music. I could talk about the technical effort the group put into it, or the way it paid off in sales, being deemed a ‘blockbuster’ record that boosted the entire industry. But I can’t tell you, with any accuracy, why that all worked so well, but other albums didn’t. Sometimes things just happen like that.
An album comes out at the right time with the right sound to capture a moment. Or, sometimes, it’s even more random, standing completely alone in the current landscape and appearing like a shiny beacon of the future. But a lot of the time, especially with the kinds of albums that have gone on to be timelessly beloved classics, there’s no one clear answer I can give. So I’m passing the mic to someone with perhaps more clarity, especially on his own project – over to you, Roger Waters.
Typically, I’d say that’s futile too. Even an artist can’t fully explain themselves. While an album is obviously the brainchild of its creator, that’s often exactly why they’re the worst person to speak on it. It’s impossible to be objective. Even years, or in this case decades, later, that album will always be coloured by personal context. It will sound like the days spent in the studio, the atmosphere in the room, the conversations between bandmates, or whatever was happening at home after recording wrapped.
Artists often can’t see the wood for the trees in the same way that fans or outside observers can’t quite understand the trees, not having the level of knowledge that the record’s makers do. Either way, no one is all that primed to talk on these things; sometimes, an album simply becomes an all-time favourite by luck, myth or magic.
But in Waters’ eyes, there are reasons why The Dark Side Of The Moon worked, or at least he has some theories about why Pink Floyd’s 1973 album became the sensation it is.
Overwhelmingly, it felt like an album that shouldn’t have worked. The group were coming out the other side of some major upheaval after getting rid of Syd Barrett and then hiring David Gilmour to come in and helm the ship. With The Dark Side Of The Moon being the first true example of what his control would look like, there was major potential for a flop.
To Waters, though, that context and tension made it great, leading to the cautious yet bold approach the record benefits from. “It’s very well-balanced and well-constructed, dynamically and musically, and I think the humanity of its approach is appealing,” he said, crediting the more human side of the truly epic album for part of its success.
Overwhelmingly, though, Waters’ thinking comes down to one simple argument: “It’s satisfying”.
While some records feel like an itch unscratched, leaving you wishing there was just one more track or a slightly bigger solo at one point, this one definitely doesn’t do that. It’s a complete package, feeling like a full orbit of the planet tied up with a neat bow as the band focused on making a cohesive thing.
Not only does that make it great to listen to over and over from start to finish, but it also gives the album the benefit of being pioneering. “I think it was probably the first completely cohesive album that was made,” Waters said, before declaring it as “A concept album, mate!”
Attempting to understand the success of an album is often futile because it simply comes down to a gut feeling a lot of the time. Waters had that from day one with this record. “I always thought it would be hugely successful,” he said, predicting his own victory miles ahead.
