In my previous column I promised to explain why I feel that Stereo Review Magazine recommended the “Dark Side of the Moon” LP as a good way to demonstrate a stereo system. Pink Floyd designed much of the sound to emanate from one speaker to another, as in the beginning of the song “Money.” Also, there are very-low-frequency sounds, such as the helicopter noise in the song “Speak to Me,” and there are very-high-frequency sounds, like the clocks in the beginning of “Time.”
The range of sound that the human ear can hear is from 30 hertz to 20,000 hertz — hertz meaning cycles per second. My dad connected an oscilloscope to his stereo, and I witnessed what appeared to be a pure sinusoidal waveform on it during the low-frequency notes of one of the songs.
It was only later in my life, when I studied electronics, that I realized what I had witnessed.
My first exposure to Pink Floyd was this record. A childhood friend of mine, Joe, was in college at Howard University. We would get together, drink tea and play chess in the basement of his parents’ home.
The good thing about the LP’s is that there are no bad songs on it or anything that would make you want to change the music. It starts with the sound of a heartbeat and an instrumental with sound effects from the other songs to come. This includes a person speaking with a seemingly British accent. Then there is an interesting message in the second cut, “Breathe in the Air,” followed by another instrumental, “On the Run.”
The next song, “Time,” was one that I could truly relate to at that point in my life. It was the early ’70s, the Vietnam War was still going on and they had stopped the draft three months before I graduated from McKinley Technical High School. A neighbor of mine had told me that his draft number was 351. They had stopped at 350.
I had not gone to college directly after high school, and at the time, I felt that I’d dodged a bullet. So there I was playing chess as opposed to going on a mission with a rifle in my hand, to a foreign land. I had no idea what my profession would be, but as I entered the field of biomedical engineering, as a technician employed to service and maintain analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic medical instruments, I moved from my parents’ home to an English basement apartment. It had a fireplace and was located at 10th St. and Independence Ave. SE.
At this particular time, the lyrics of “Time” came true: “Home, home again … It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire…” The final lyrics announced the last song on side one, “The Great Gig in the Sky.” However, this song has no real lyrics, only the sound of a woman (Clare Torry) moaning in three segments of the music. The first segment sounds like anger and anguish. The second sounds like repentance. And just before the third segment starts, if your system is loud enough, you’ll hear her say, “I’m not afraid of death.” The last segment sounds to me like acceptance of her fate.
I’ve noticed an interesting thing about the album cover: There’s one LP in it, but it was designed to hold two. The front cover displays a single beam of white light hitting a prism and being dispersed into the spectrum (rainbow) of visible light. As you turn the cover over, the spectrum passes through another prism and comes out as a single beam of light again.
I feel that the cover is indicative of the quality of the music and its message, a continuum of the life cycle we all face.
Next, I’ll share with you side two of this magnificent stereophonic composition and how the lyrics and sound effects have entertained and inspired me.
