#DarkSide40
40 years ago, on 31st March 1973, the album *“Dark Side of The Moon”* by Pink Floyd made its first appearance in the UK charts. It was to remain in the charts for 5 years, finally exiting in May 1978.
It went on to sell approximately 50 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling albums of all time. The strange thing was, although other best sellers like “Thriller” and “Rumours” sold similar numbers, they were commercial accessible albums with tracks that appealed to people aged 8 to 80. Dark Side wasn’t like that. It was “Prog-Rock” and back in 1973, the only people who listened to prog-rock were hippies, left-wingers and members of the underground movement. When it was first released, me and my friends wouldn’t have been seen dead with it. We were into Bowie, T. Rex, Alice Cooper, Slade and Roxy Music. But somehow, over a period of time the album grew on everyone, and by the spring of ’74 it was very cool to be seen with a copy of “Dark Side” tucked under your arm. It had gone from being “underground” to being “cool” and album sales shot up. All this is not really surprising, when you consider the content of the album. It’s about physical violence, travelling, money, religion, madness and death, subjects not easily ignored. It’s a brilliant album, and if you haven’t heard it before, then go download a copy now and check it out.
It is definitely in my top five favourite albums of all time, and I can’t see a day when it will lose its slot in my all time favourites.
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