PINK FLOYD’S DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Thirty nine years ago this month Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon and began to ascend up a unique, near gravity defying musical arc of fame, success and unique musical accomplishment, unlike any artist before or since.  

Where Floyd went with their music, others did not follow. For them, no lurid tales of rock star excess or well worn and formulaic songs about the normal tired old themes.  Pink Floyd were very, very different. With a near disdainful remoteness from the world of rock, pop and fandom, they inhabited a distant, cold and refined realm, quietly removed from Rock's vulgarities in a distinctly polite, slightly disapproving, rather English sort of way.  

Starting off in the late 1960s, Pink Floyd’s first 2 albums were a startling psychedelic juxtaposition between childhood nursery rhymes, madness and LSD; those 2 albums being more or less kaleidoscopic windows into Syd Barrett’s state of mind, even though by the second album he was almost out of the band, contributing only one song, the last two, whispered lines of which remain a haunting refrain to a life that went forever out of control

“and what exactly is a dream

And what exactly is a joke……”

Barrett never recovered from Pink Floyd or the 60s drug scene and after Floyd, was never able to perform as a serious artist again, dying a recluse, in Cambridge, in 2006.

Barrett was replaced by guitarist David Gilmour, whose arrival, with his lucid, soaring signature guitar sound, signalled the start of the endless rise of Pink Floyd. The first few Gilmour years saw a couple of good releases that foreshadowed what was to come; from the dreamy soundscapes of Meddle to the strange, semi disturbing images of More to the overlengthy, ramblings of Atom Heart Mother.

However, it was with 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon that Pink Floyd went from being just another really good rock band to something far greater.  Dark Side was the first of a series of almost unbelievable Pink Floyd releases that launched them on their own private trajectory across the rock ’n roll sky. Dark Side was a simply stunning soundtrack to the lurking madness within each of us, set against the thin transience of life and the quiet and measured pointlessness to it all.

 

Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time

Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say

Striking a magical balance between sleek yet pounding music and lyrical madness, and recorded almost 40 years ago now, Dark side, like its concepts, remains timeless, neither in nor out of vogue. Standing beyond the fickle tides of easy fashion and bland popularity, it marks the cold juncture between the simple yet comforting illusions we use to comfort our passage through this life with the cold starkness we must all ultimately face.

“For long you live and high you fly

But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race toward an early grave”

Quite simply, it is a remarkable piece of music and set an almost impossibly high standard for future Floyd releases. Floyd’s greatness is not just because of Dark Side, it’s also because of the music they then went on to create in its enormous wake. Dark Side was only the beginning of a journey unique to modern music….

It was followed by Wish You Were here in 1975.  For me, this album was icy in its remoteness, its haunted emptiness served as a soundtrack to the collective despair of the human condition, epitomised by its art work and title track. The stark isolation of each soul trapped in a harsh, jeering world, inhabits songs like Welcome to the Machine:

“Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.

Where have you been? it’s alright we know where you’ve been”.

 There was the mocking illusion of corporate success and the empty ambitions of society in “Have a Cigar”, where eventually all our dreams and achievements wither and fade. Ultimately, we are no more than pawns on someone else’s chess board. Wish You Were Here reminds us that, set against the tides of time, the mark we leave in this world is a small, vapourish thing of little worth.

From here Floyd moved on to Animals in 1977, an altogether heavier album, but which evolved the same themes of despair, but with a sharper, savager edge. Coming to the fore now was Waters lacerating cynicism and anger at the world, howling out of song like Dogs:

“You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to

So that when they turn their backs on you
You’ll get the chance to put the knife in.”

Elsewhere he turns on the fate of the mindless masses and the isolation of the individual in an overcrowded world. Each of us imprisoned in our small controlled and contrived lives, blinded, cajoled and manipulated by authority in all its forms. And, ultimately, led like sheep through the over-managed years of a short futile existence towards that final rendezvous with a blank cold doom.

“What do you get for pretending the dangers not real?
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well-trodden corridors into the valley of steel”.

After Animals it became more and more the Rogers Waters show. Yes, The Wall was great, but for me at least, it was not quite the same. After the Wall came “The Final Cut” practically a Waters’ solo piece. The Final Cut remains to this day quite possibly the world’s bleakest record, by the world’s most miserable man. A work of art? I guess so, yes, but a particularly unenjoyably 45 minute listen.

The rest is history – Floyd broke up, then were reformed by Gilmour a few years later (absent a furious Waters) , law suits, acrimony and disillusion followed as they lived out the lyrical cynicism of their past. Gilmour did manage  2 more (very good) albums before a final calling it of a day 1994 in the face of a still overwhelming demand for more of Floyd’s music, which is unabated to this day. There was a strangely uncomfortable one-off reunion in the mid 2000s that only served to taunt several trillion fans with the flashbacks of what was and the illusions of what might have been. Such is the ethereal, tantalising magic of Pink Floyd, which like its dark moon, is seemingly always, just, there, but out of reach….

Yet Floyd’s Dark Moon still casts its shadow down the decades and across the myriad landscapes of modern music. It’s very unlikely there will ever be another release that sends its incedible, echoing sonic shockwaves out so far and for so long. Likewise with the slowly distancing Floyd, of the five who at one time or another constituted the band, only three now remain alive. The ghosts of rumours of reformations surface from time to time. The London 2012 Olympics is perhaps last great chance, but as time continues and Waters and Gilmour age, so the likelihood recedes……and there are unlikely to be any pretenders to their frozen, shimmering crown.

“And if the dam breaks open many years too soon

And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon................”

THE LONG SHADOW OF THE DARK AGES

In the Middle Ages, and long before that, certain “facts” held indisputable sway in the minds of our  ancestors.  It was taken as fact, for instance, that the earth was flat (and you could actually fall of it), devils really existed, as did witches who could fly and change shape (like the characters in True Blood). Our ancestors believed the stars and the sun all revolved around our planet and the northern lights, they were sure, were the spirits of their dead ancestors. The list goes on and on…..

Science has gradually rolled back most of these beliefs, with  demonstrable fact and proof replacing superstition and cult belief.  Whilst there was a certain delightful logic to the assumption that, if the earth was in fact as flat as a table, then you probably could have sailed off its edge, it is one of those hilariously quaint assumptions relegated to history. However, some of these equally implausible, yet more unpleasant beliefs from the dark ages have been curiously resistant to the tides of civilisation, logic and common sense.

In the USA, Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum really seems to believe, not only that a physical entity called Satan exists, but that he has taken a personal decision to attack America via its academics (one could be forgiven for wondering if Wall Street’s denizens might not have made a more plausible target of Mr Satan…). How Mr Santorum actually "knows" this is not clear, however its incongruous to hear such beliefs espoused from someone who would be expected to deal with incredibly complex economic, financial and international / diplomatic challenges if he became President and from whom a balanced, reasoned and enlighten outlook on the world is essential. Not so apparently with Mr Santorum.

In London witchcraft murders by children of children have taken place giving expression to beliefs of terrifying and primitive barbarity in the world’s capital of Finance. A grisly and blood curdling tale of torture and murder of a child emerged in court, followed by the police confirming that this sort of thing took place more often that generally acknowledged....

Elsewhere in the UK right now men of the cloth (no women please) are turning various bright and bilious hues at the thought of gay people getting married. Indeed, Archbishop Rowan Williams has hurried off, beard in tow, to see his counterpart in the Vatican to confer, amongst other things, about this dreadful state of affairs. Given the Vatican’s seeming near tolerance of child abuse amongst its own clergy, one might have assumed the good Archbishop could have found a more appropriate figure with which to confer over this delicate matter. Setting that to one side however, why is there this reluctance to finally let go of a mind-set of deeply ingrained prejudices that stretches back centuries.

Elsewhere, in the Middle East, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad believes that, a few years ago, he had a paranormal experience whilst addressing the United Nations, and that he was bathed in light from heaven whilst all the other leaders of the world were frozen before him during his speech (perhaps it was just incredibly dull, but, somehow, I doubt it). He is convinced his main mission in life is to pave the way for the return of his messiah. Ahmadinejad believes that when this happens it will be the end of the world – a sort of glorious conflagration.  This man is seeking to build a nuclear bomb. Along with the Mullahs and Ayatollahs, amongst whom he counts as a moderate, they harbour a world view (and sense of fashion) hardly changed since the time of the crusades and before. They are considerably less enlightened than Saladin who in fact battled the Crusaders about 900 years ago and who was much admired as a cultured and chivalrous man, which cannot be said for all his heirs. It’s as if we are regressing and we rush forward.

How is it in an era of near unbelievable progress where humans are making incredible and wonderful strides in science, medicine and technology, that the black shadow of these often near primitive and deeply unpleasant beliefs and prejudices still fall about us? Perhaps these and other belief systems run on some form of “ancient program” in the human mind that, having evolved with us over millennia, predisposes the human condition to this kind of way of thinking? That’s probably a question for someone like Steven Pinker (unless Satan’s got him), but how else is it explicable that obviously intelligent and well educated people hold onto beliefs that are as misplaced today as a belief in a flat earth was in the dark ages and before?

Sean Penn and the ghost of Galtieri

Couldn't help laughing at the latest twist in the Falklands saga; its Sean Penn to the rescue.  Perhaps unable to solve the intractable problems of Hollywood (rampant egos, recreational substance abuse and infinity swimming pools), Mr Penn has once again chosen to tackle those terrible world problems more suited to his enormous status in the great cosmic order of things. What might those be - nuclear war in the Middle East; Famine and terrorism in the Horn of Africa; Syria and the death of the Arab Spring?   

Er…nope. Matters of much greater seriousness - the Malvinas…

That’s the Falklands and the nasty Brits, an easy choice for a vitriolic (and monstrously bad tempered) left winger like Penn.  The Brits, in Mr Madonna’s fevered mind, still stand for all those evil things like colonialism (and what more proof do you need that to find a couple of thousand Brits living on a reasonably large stone in the south Atlantic), illegal wars, bad weather at Wimbledon and so on.

With new best friend, Mrs President of Argentina, Penn is now adding his weight (no chortling please) to the debate. Once again, Argentina wants the Falkland Islands back which, of course, has nothing to do with the rumour of oil in the whereabouts. General Galtieri must be laughing in his grave to find his cause now being advanced by a self-righteous Hollywood featherweight like Penn. All the more is the irony if one considers that,  in his day the grim Generalissimo would almost have certainly have considered detaining Mr Madonna as a dangerous left wing-liberal type.

EINSTEIN IS STILL RIGHT – AND IT’S THE ELECTRICIAN’S FAULT

Late last year the scientific world was just about rendered speechless when it was discovered that neutrinos could, apparently, travel faster than light.  Gasp - this surely proved that anything was possible if Einstein could be proved wrong. All sorts of fantastical things could be true and, yes, perhaps we are even being visited by aliens – why even David Icke might be right and we could all be about to become cold blooded….

Sadly for the world’s conspiracy theorists, UFOlogists and mumbo jumbo addicts, Einstein is still to be proven wrong. Nope, those darn neutrinos were not travelling faster than light; it was down to…experimental error, specifically the fibre optic cable attached to a GPS receiver.  How disappointing but I guess that will cost the electrician his job.  

More excitingly though – experimental error was exactly what I predicted in my blog on 27 November ( http://douglaswhitworth.blogspot.com/2011/11/could-ufos-exist-more-exciting-news.html)  How remarkable! Now, I would never suggest that I have any gift for predicting this sort of amazing outcome, however if anyone would like their palms read……

GREEK TRAGEDY

There is a gut-hollowing hopelessness to the predicament of Greece. They are stuck between either staying put in a place where it is almost certainly fatal for them to remain, or of going to an alternative destination that is almost unbearable to contemplate.  Every evening TV screen are filled with a semi-serialised horror show depicting the seemingly inevitable collapse of the world’s oldest democracy amidst scenes of mob chaos and shallow political manoeuvring. Meanwhile a level of austerity is being imposed upon it by Europe’s leaders, who are so obsessed with sustaining their fiction of a united states of Europe, that it is closer to a form of economic vandalism than anything vaguely resembling a solution.

The truth is, for Greece, there is now no solution that is not almost disastrous.

The best analogy I can think of this that Greece is like a critically failing aeroplane with fatal engine and structural problems and the only airports far outside flight range . The pilots (that’s the Greek politicians, unfortunately for the Greek people) have 2 options:

Option 1: Do nothing. This requires that the pilots deny the crisis is as bad as the flashing cockpit dials and the screaming, bulging eyed passengers might otherwise hint at and instead listen to the ranting of the distant air traffic controllers (the Eurozone leaders) telling them that they have to “adopt tough austerity” by jettisoning all their fuel to lighten the load so they can stay up a bit longer (the austerity measures).

Option 2: Believe the evidence in front of their eyes and get their plane out of the sky and on to the ground as quickly as possible - whilst they still have an element of control, whilst the engines are still just stuttering and the brakes might still just work and whilst there is still have a bit of a choice as to where they bring it down.

Option 2 is Greece going for a semi-disorderly default that will see it leave the Euro, adopt a new drachma, and at least hope it can escape partially intact with some longer term prospects for post-crash recovery.

Option 1 is to stay the path they are on and to “see how long they can keep their bird in the sky”. In that case, pity the ordinary Greeks when it does come plunging down in an uncontrolled spiral out of the Eurozone sky.

Its decision time…………

The US Civil War

Last year was the 150^th anniversary of the start of the US Civil war and we visited Shiloh, Gettysburg and Bull Run, scenes of some of the war’s most famous battles.  There is something deeply disturbing about a civil war where a nation turns upon itself, often with terrifying savagery, and so it was with the US Civil war that began in 1861. Yet, it stands part from so many other such wars, not so much for how it was conducted, but how it concluded and how that shaped not just the future of the USA, but arguably the entire world.

 Unlike so many civil wars that leave their bitter legacies and hates to be transmitted down through future generations, occasionally even bubbling to the surface in renewed conflict (the Balkans), the US civil war concluded in a quite remarkable fashion considering the virtual charnel house of death and slaughter it had become, with over 620 000 soldiers dying and untold havoc being wreaked upon the citizens of the affected states.  That this remarkable ending was possible at all was down to President Lincoln’s overwhelming desire, even during the darkest days of the conflict, for national reconciliation (certainly not shared by all those in his own Gov’t). In this Lincoln was fully supported by two key Union generals, namely US Grant, himself a future president, and WT Sherman (who had terrorised Georgia and the Carolinas in 1865 with his march through those states), both of whom who concluded quite dramatically generous surrenders with their southern opponents. In the case of Sherman this was at great political risk to himself when he accepted Confederate General Joe Johnson’s surrender after Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathiser. Such was the bond between Sherman and Johnson that 26 years later Johnson was a pallbearer at Sherman’s funeral, one month before his own death.

But this remarkably sane, far-sighted approach was matched by key figures in the South, who took their lead from their iconic hero, General Lee. The scourge of many Northern armies in war, at the critical moment it was Lee who, against the wishes of the Confederate President (Davis), prevented his  Army of Northern Virginia leading the South into years of guerrilla warfare, which could have had devastating implications for the future unity of the entire USA. Instead he matched Lincoln’s desire for reconciliation in deed, both in the manner of the surrender and the peaceful disarming of his army (and with it any real Southern prospect of a continuing guerrilla struggle) and thereafter by personal example in how he then lived out the few remaining years of his life.

Such dramatically reconciled endings to wars of great savagery are very rare. That it happened as it did, now looking back 150 years, conceals from us just how improbable such a scenario was at the time, and how it all turned on the enlightened outlooks and actions of such a frighteningly small handful of individuals. This is even more remarkable given that the most important figure in all this, Lincoln, was assassinated before all the Southern armies had even surrendered, which left the hopes for a reconciled peace hanging by the barest of threads in the chaotic, febrile atmosphere of the last few weeks of the war in 1865.

This is not to deny there was terrible post war hardship in the South and great mourning across the entire country for the loss of life. Likewise, Southern resentment at the wars’ outcome even today is not completely absent. Yet, within a few decades, the US was fighting as a single, united nation in the 1^st World War, and thereafter in the 2^nd World War, where such involvement was ultimately pivotal to the future of a free western Europe. Thereafter the USA went on to become the world’s most powerful country and one of its greatest democracies. Had the South won, or, more likely, been able to force a bitter, resentful truce, a deeply wounded, highly polarised nation and a dramatically weakened country split in two would probably have emerged, unable to realise its potential or wield the strength it does today. This would inevitably have affected its involvement, even its participation, in both world wars. Conceivably, it could have meant an Imperial Japan dominating Asia today, no D-Day invasion and the Iron Curtain quite probably being drawn across Europe along the coast of France.

Perhaps, nearly 150 years on, we are yet to appreciate the impact that the civil war in America had on the world in which we find ourselves today and the lives we lead within in it.

  Visit civil war photo gallery

Three Kim's for the price of one.....

Amid a torrent of tears that was a bizarre as it was chilling, last month the next Kim-in-Line took over in North Korea. Kim Jong-un succeeds his father, Kim Jong-Il, who in turn succeeded his own father, Kim ll-sung, in a sort of succession of Stalinist like Royalty. For the long suffering people of what’s euphemistically called the Hermit Kingdom, this must be like some recurring nightmare.  

And a recurring nightmare it is. Like some twisted Hotel California, it seems that although the Kims check out from time to time, they never leave. Take Granddad Kim (let’s call him Kim 1). Notwithstanding his status, whilst alive, as a fire-breathing, godless Stalinist, it seems there was a bit of a change of heart after the cessation of his more basic bodily functions. As his last breath faded away, a niche was miraculously found for him in the rather overcrowded market of the afterlife.

In life Kim 1 studiously followed the job description of “Really Mad Dictator” to the letter and beyond. He was President of the Republic, as well as simultaneously Chairman and General Secretary of the inevitable (Korean) Workers’ Party. Even Uncle Joe Stalin allowed another minion to take the ceremonial role of President. Not Kim 1. He was the megalomaniac generalissimo’s generalissimo.  It seems though that his megalomania exists beyond the grave, for he is now even designated in North Korea’s constitution as their “Eternal President” beaming down upon his starved and impoverished people like some distant, benevolent god from huge posters all over Pyong Yang.

He was succeeded by Kim Jung Ill (Number 2), who has also now of late departed this life.  Kim 2 apparently suffered a heart attack due to physical and mental over-work, the Korean News Agency dutifully informed the world. He was, we are told, on his train, travelling to offer "field guidance" to workers, when he died. The mind boggles, but I guess those workers will get over the disappointment given time ….

Kim 2’s status in the great beyond is still to be clarified – no one can be too sure what will happen to him, it’s all a bit tricky because his Dad’s already secured the top job – perhaps Kim 1 will magnanimously allowed him observer status from his constitutional perch in the afterlife. All this would of course be silly farce if it weren’t for the fact that Kims 1 and 2 were brutal monsters who after their grim terms as life presidents could still be used for propaganda purposes in times of national emergency. Such is the level of madness and indoctrination in North Korean propoganda. 

This is especially dangerous given that, as its neighbours are so acutely aware, North Korea “has the nuclear bomb”. The only shaky consolation is that it doesn’t yet appear to have sufficiently reliable missile capability to launch it with a more than even chance it won’t fall back on top of them. Relying on a sort of national nuclear embarrassment is hardly the greatest deterrent for those its its shadow.

But, back to the story of succession. Kim 2 was succeeded by Kim Jong-un with what now must qualify as genetically inherited “despotism”. Kim 3 looks like a particularly bad tempered cherub, with his weirdly round and expressionless chubby face. Unknown and seemingly unknowable, it’s hard not to believe he is the next blank canvas of terror to be stretched across his impoverished nation. In the impenetrable world of North Korean politics it’s impossible to predict what will happen next, save for the fact that the misery and pain of the citizens of what is, not so much a Hermit Kingdom, but one huge merciless Gulag, will continue with the 3^rd Kim.