Speak To Me/Breathe | The Dark Side of the Moon Project

this video is brought to you by curiosity stream by signing up to curiosity stream with the link in the description you'll also get access to nebula where you'll be able to see the rest of the videos in this series before they come to YouTube find out more after the video [Music] for many people myself included Dark Side of the Moon is the crown jewel in pink floyd's catalog the band started recording it in 1972 when their most iconic lineup was at their most productive they were pushing boundaries and experimenting making use of cutting-edge technologies at the time synthesizers tape groups and multitrack recording and the engineering was done by Alan Parsons one of the greatest ever to work a studio console even the artwork is near perfection created by the legends at hypnosis and on top of all of this the album is a high concept lyrical masterpiece that delves into everything that makes up human life upon release Dark Side of the Moon was immediately met with commercial and critical success it topped billboards album chart and stayed there for an incredible 741 weeks that's 14 years taking all this into account it's no surprise that Dark Side of the Moon is often lauded by fans and critics alike as one of the greatest albums ever recorded over the next eight videos we're gonna take a real close look at why that is we're gonna explore the lyricism musicality and history of Dark Side of the Moon and we're gonna try to come to a deeper understanding of why it's so magnificent welcome the Dark Side of the Moon before it all begins before the beautiful melodies before the polished solos before the heart-wrenching lyrics we open on a single heartbeat it's a simple touch but it gets the humanity that's at the core of Dark Side of the Moon it provides a universal starting point and that heartbeat will eventually come full circle in the finale out of this heartbeat grows an overture of sorts foreshadowing the rest of the album Dark Side of the Moon is at least in the broadest sense an album about life it's about the stresses and struggles that make human existence what it is it's about all the noise that constantly surrounds us and about trying to cut through that noise to find truth beauty and meaning and all of these things begin from the same place from being thrust into the world and greeting it with a heartbeat and a breath speak to me is a birth in the form of a sound collage it's made of bits and pieces of sound that will appear throughout the rest of the album there's the ticking clock of time the cash register of money Claire Tori's vocals from the great gig in the sky the helicopter from on the run and the madman's laugh from brain in a minute-long swell Pink Floyd shows us all that is to come among this sound collage is a pair of spoken word parts to these spoken word parts are members of studio staff and various people in Pink Floyd's entourage while the band were working on Dark Side of the Moon Roger Waters recorded interviews with all of these people he will put them in front of a microphone in a darkened studio and show them flash cards the questions would start easy asking about foods and colors before moving into deeper questions about the subjects lives questions like when was the last time you were violent followed by were you in the right the two answers featured on speak to me focus on madness foreshadowing another theme that will drive Dark Side of the Moon in fact it's not just present on this album one of Pink Floyd's biggest fascinations across their entire career was mental illness a big reason for this is Syd Barrett a former frontman who experienced serious struggles with mental illness and eventually had to be kicked out of the band the presence of Syd Barrett is felt throughout Dark Side of the Moon with musings on how modern life can bring about madness speak to me is an overture a glance into everything that will come in the album and then it erupts seamlessly into breathe we emerge from the chaos into a mellow peace a minute of instrumentals before the lyrics open with a simple command that opening line breathe in the air had been used by Roger Waters on another song three years earlier also called breathe waters worked alongside Ron gießen on that track which was created for a documentary about human biology called the body though it opens on the same line the lyrics and music to water song with dicen are quite different from the Dark Side of the Moon track and this is because of his bandmates well waters wrote all the lyrics for Dark Side of the Moon the song is brought to life by musical contributions from Richard Wright and David Gilmour Wright wrote the keyboard piece that provides the basis of the song inspired partially by Miles Davis's landmark album kind of blue atop Wright's keyboards David Gilmour's guitar soars and calming waves Gilmour used a lap steel guitar to get part of the song subtle sound while the other comes from a piece of technology called a unified the unified was a foot pedal that created phasing effects for the guitar embracing new music technologies was a key part of Dark Side of the Moon so it's fitting that it should play such an important role in the opening track the lyrics to breed seem to be apparent talking to a child giving them life but telling them not Tony it's an introduction and the story of a person's potential the smiles they'll give the tears they'll cry but it comes with a somber reminder in the end you are the sum of your experiences this sentiment is something that will be mirrored later on in the album's climax Eclipse the second verse of breathe serves as an exploration of one of the broadest themes of Dark Side of the Moon modern life it seems of the way that you'll spend your life toiling working to try to make it too bad only to wake up and do it all over again because it does in the second half of the verse Gilmore admits that this doesn't have to be the only option though if you ride the tide if you follow the safe path you'll live long and fly high but not everybody rides the tide some prefer to chase after the biggest waves live on the edge and go for glory but as Gilmore Singh is this comes at a cost the risk of ending your life all too many great minds ride that big wave and when it comes crashing into Shore they burn out along with it breathe hints at the glory that can come from breaking from the mold and trying to create beauty to find your own fulfillment but it also says that this is a risk it's an introduction that already starts to dive into the difficult choices of modern life and these discussions will continue to flourish throughout the album these parallels are part of what makes Dark Side of the Moon so great musical lyrical and philosophical concepts visited in the first track play out over the course of the next 38 minutes it's not that Dark Side of the Moon is the only album ever to do this but I think few have done it with such clarity and cohesion every track on Dark Side of the Moon can stand alone as a song but also feels connected a tiny intricate piece in a vast puzzle and so speak to me and breathe are a fitting opening sweet showing us the world that we're about to be violently thrust into as the album continues this video is the first in a series that's going to look at Dark Side of the Moon track by track from here on out I'll be releasing a new video in the series every month but if you can't wait for that all of the videos will be coming out early on nebula nebula is a streaming service created by and for independent creators it gives us a place to create outside of the restraints of YouTube the first four episodes covering the first side of Dark Side of the Moon are all already up on nebula and the rest will be going up the minute I finished them and even better you'll get a year nebula free if you sign up for curiosity stream if you've watched enough of my videos you probably know the deal with curiosity stream they've got thousands of documentaries on all kinds of topics personally I've always been a bit of a space nerd so I loved watching hack the moon unsung heroes of Apollo and if space is in your thing curiosity stream has thousands of documentaries on science art history and everything in between so give it a shot now by going to curiosity stream comm slash polyphonic not only will that give you access to curiosity stream but you'll also get access to nebula where you can be one of the first to watch the rest of the Dark Side of the Moon project I would love to do more of these deep dives into albums going forward and support and curiosity stream and nebula will go a long way to help make that feasible so thanks for watching and thanks for supporting my channel you

Channel: Polyphonic

Views: 273,095

Rating: 4.9756427 out of 5

Keywords: polyphonic, music, video essay

Id: uvOovXwXz1U

Length: 10min 19sec (619 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020

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