I am still amazed that there ever was a time when I didn’t know of Pink Floyd. As much as I loved Kansas, Boston, Styx, and Journey, Pink Floyd would eventually eclipse them all. I began The Academy Days the year that The Wall was released. I remember sitting in Mrs. Lind’s Biology lab freshman year and another kid singing “We don’t need no education” it seemed silly to me. The use of the double negative only re-enforced the need for education. I didn’t know that was Pink Floyd. I didn’t know anything about The Wall. In a couple of years I’d be completely immersed in it but that comes at the end of The Rise And Fall Of ’84.
It was some time after that excerpt in Biology that I’d get my formal introduction to Pink Floyd. That introduction would come from a guy named Chip. Chip was my cousin Flavia’s boyfriend for a while. That was how I met him. To me, Chip seemed like some kind of pop music scholar. He always had cool music. In fact I think that he had some input in all those albums that Flavia was buying me for Christmas.
Somewhere during The Academy Days Chip gave me a copy of Dark Side Of The Moon on cassette. I really liked Dark Side. The orchestration and production of such cool songs was impressive. I would listen to it now and again but I was still a few years away from my true Pink Floyd awakening. I consciously remember thinking a couple things about Dark Side back then. I recall thinkng about how skilled they were to create such a thing. I also remember that it was an album that you could NOT put on then go to sleep. Although much of it is soft and soothing, each side has raucous elements that will wake you up.
Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon Here it is at it was intended to be heard. One long amazing piece.