Pink Floyd Fan Discovers That 'Dark Side Of The Moon' Lines Up With 'Animals'
Today, Pink Floyd enthusiast Nigel Thurgood announced in his blog, 'Dark Side of the Wall', the discovery that the band's classic 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon is perfectly aligned with the 1977 album Animals.
A long-time believer in the "The Wizard of Oz -- Dark Side" theory (known by fans as "Dark Side of the Rainbow" or "If I Only Had a Brain and the Earth's Only Natural Satellite"), which claims that Dark Side of the Moon follows the arc of the popular Judy Garland film, Thurgood claims a similar connection between two of the band's finest albums.
"You have to hit 'play' on Dark Side [of the Moon] the moment that Roger Waters sings the first line in 'Pigs on the Wing (Part 1)' on Animals, and the results are amazing," says the perspicacious Thurgood. "Then the similarities just keep on coming... no way could they be coincidental."
Thurgood points to a number of turns where the albums line up uncannily, including the opening chord to "Breathe" coming in just as "Dogs" begins, and some crazy sound effects in "On the Run" coming in just as "Dogs" decrescendos before David Gilmour's classic guitar solo.
Inspired by the revelation, Thurgood is now investigating other ways Dark Side of the Moon may align with seemingly unrelated media, such as several speeches by President J. Edgar Hoover and the first two episodes of 21 Jump Street.
"These connections go much further than any of us thought before," claims the Floydian analyst. "They're much sneakier than 'Oz -- Dark Side', because no one would ever suspect any band of doing this kind of thing, which is why they're so obviously brilliant!"
Not all are convinced that even Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz are aligned, but converts to Thurgood's "Dark Side of the Animals" theory seem to be made whenever it is put to the test.
"The clocks in 'Time' go off just as Gilmour's second solo in 'Dogs' comes to an end, and it's like, 'Wow!'" said Liverpool resident David Bryner, a Floyd fan and reader of Thurgood's blog. "Or when the band sings, 'Thought I'd something more to say' on Dark Side and then Waters' vocals come in on 'Dogs' after a long instrumental breakdown -- totally intentional. It has to be. There's no sane argument to the contrary."
Skeptics wonder what the point would have been of the band attempting such an awkward maneuver, to which credulous fans have an answer.
"Of course, you have the organ breakdown in 'Us & Them' and the organ motif reprise in 'Pigs', which makes for brilliant thematic consistency," said Mojo Magazine music critic Paul Bellington. "Most obvious of all is that 'Money' starts just as the vocals on 'Pigs' come in, which is clearly a tip of the cap to the band's -- or at least Waters' -- socialist sensibilities."
Bellington expanded the notion of the "Dark Side -- Animals connection" in an article for the magazine. An excerpt:
"The line, 'The lunatic is on the grass' comes in at the part of 'Sheep' where the grazing sheep get agitated and kill the pigs. This can only be proof of the band's highly developed ability to weave motifs together. The band was, in fact, dabbling in 'mash-up' long before it became popular and accessible given digital technology. I'd go as far as to say that years from now people, will not be talking about Pink Floyd in terms of albums; rather, their whole streak from Dark Side to The Wall will be considered one album, probably with each record capable of being played simultaneously for additional layers of meaning and complexity."
Believers claim that the alignment works consistently throughout the album, and is not limited to just a few moments of concomitance.
"Of course, it only works with CDs, which just goes to prove how far ahead of their time they were, given that CDs wouldn't exist until years after Animals came out," emphasized Thurgood.
Doubters remain, however. Most point to the fact that Animals ends a full minute before Dark Side comes to completion, and also that the surviving band members have all vehemently denied contriving one album to line up with the other.
"It's really just an amusing notion that we would do any such thing," said former Pink Floyd bassist and lead songwriter Roger Waters in an interview with the BBC. "But even if we had, that bloody Gilmour and Mason would doubtlessly take full credit, which is pure bollocks."
