T-shirt #133: Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon 1972

T-shirt #133: Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon 
- Rainbow Theatre - 1972

I did not choose the "Concert T-shirt" category for this shirt. Obviously, this is a concert T-shirt, but I cannot claim I was at the Rainbow Theatre of London in 1972 for the culminating performances of Pink Floyd's sixteen date UK tour of their new and unrecorded piece of music entitled The Dark Side of the Moon.

After all, I was ten years old when all of this was happening.
I had not even heard of Pink Floyd yet.
But it is cool to have the shirt.

This retro shirt is available online (mostly through eBay). It was a gift from my best friend Tom Meyers, also known as the Lord of Chaos.

It's rather odd that I did not own a Pink Floyd T-shirt prior to my friend sending me this one.

But sadly, Pink Floyd is one of the few bands or artists that I dearly love that I have never seen live. And now with the death of Richard Wright (2008), there's no chance for a reunion of the foursome (not counting the era in which they were a five-some, including the brilliant Syd Barrett.

There are amazing resources online for this seminal rock concert series, starting with Pink Floyd's own site and historical timeline.

PINK FLOYD - TIMELINE - 1972

One site provides the tour program from those shows in 1972:

PinkFloydz.com Rainbow Theatre Tour Program

There are FLAC bootlegs available for download on a guitars site:

[FLAC] Pink Floyd - 1972-02-20 - Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London

All four shows are available as downloadable bootlegs via:

VIVA LES BOOTLEGS

There's also a great history of the bootlegs for this show and "restored" versions at

BIGOZINE2

Amazingly, there's a You Tube "video" ... or rather a still shot with the bootleg recording.

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Pink Floyd Rainbow Theater London 20-02-1972

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If you want to get crazy, there's NINE HOURS of the complete RAINBOW TAPES (all four shows) on You Tube along with a huge selection of other stuff: the director's cut of the Live at Pompeii movie, Complete 1973 Earls Court concert, Pink Floyd Live at the BBC 1970-1971, and so much more. You Tube has become a Pink Floyd's fan paradise.

Fans of Pink Floyd--those well acquainated with every note and nuance of Dark Side of the Moon--will find this recording of one of the early performances of the album to be quite different than the eventual 1973 studio recording. In fact, listening to it now, I am inclined to argue that some of the choices here in the live version work better than the choices for the studio album, especially in the instrumental ending to "Breathe."

Then again, some of the changes made for the studio album were quite wise, such as the vocals for "Time" and the addition of Clare Torry's vocals to "Great Gig in the Sky."


"Time" is one of my all-time favourite Pink Floyd songs. Do you feel a list coming? Oh yeah...

My first Pink Floyd album was 1975's Wish You Were Here, which I did not own until 1979 shortly before the release of The Wall, my second Pink Floyd album.

I listened to these albums repeatedly over the years; however, in the last 20 years or so, I have found it increasingly difficult to listen to the entire album of The Wall, which I find incredibly depressing and upsetting.

The core three albums Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), and Animals (1977) are the triumvirate of my love for Pink Floyd with the first side of Atom Heart Mother as an honorable mention.

In college, when trying to stay up for three days straight to get work done at the end of the quarter, I would "power nap" to any of these albums: too caffeinated to sleep, I would have a lie down while listening to the album and be somewhat refreshed afterwards.

Animals has probably become my favourite of these three albums, and it is definitely the one I have listened to the most and find the most complex and enduring. As much as I love Wish You Here, I find "Welcome to The Machine" and "Have a Cigar" a bit tedious and find that I would rather just listen to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-IX" uninterrupted. I do adore Dark Side of the Moon and have decades of enjoyment from it, and I do not tire of it, but there's something about Animals, which seems more sophisticated and has managed to grow with me through the years.

Once again, I cannot indulge in a lengthy love letter for Pink Floyd as Grading Robot must robotically dispense with all of this WORK. But I can see more Pink Floyd love letters being featured on this blog before the 365 days runs its course.

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PINK FLOYD - "Time"  (Wembley, 1974)

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Amazingly cool video... Oh how I wish I had seen them live.

TOP TEN FAVORITE PINK FLOYD SONGS

1.  "Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-IX"
2. "Time"
3. "Dogs"
4. "Atom Heart Mother Suite"
5. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"
6. "Wish You Were Here"
7. "See Emily Play"
8. "Comfortably Numb"
9. "The Great Gig in the Sky"
10. "Learning to Fly"

COMICS I read Fatale volume three the other day. It was VERY EXCELLENT. This "noir"-esque series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is SUPERB, and it would be one of my top five recommendations for anyone, especially non-comic readers, to try of the current crop of comics (along with things like Saga,  Optic Nerve (obviously), Daredevil (need a superhero choice), and Lazarus... Okay, and FABLES because I need a DC pick to go with the Marvel pick and the THREE Image picks). READ COMIC BUZZ REVIEW. WEEKLY COMIC BOOK STACK Not a very exciting week. Because of skips and delays, it's difficult to compare this month to last month at this time. Guardians of the Galaxy takes first this week instead of third like it did on June 26th simply because none of these other comics can be ranked higher and other issues came out June 26th that did not come out this week. I am loving Daredevil, though I often rank it lower because I want to give it my full attention and want it first up in night #2 of the week's comic reading. However, X-Men, which is enjoyable but not amazing, takes a back seat to Daredevil and Guardians this week simply because of the nature of the week. I would place Optic Nerve on top of the stack because I do dearly love it as explained in T-shirt #98. BUT it looks as if Tomine is experimenting with a different style, and I often delay gratification on comics like that one until I can just focus on it when I am alone and not likely to be interrupted. I did not get the last Defenders read yet, but it was actually next up on my stack before buying this week's comics, so it stays ranked in the new comics. And I sprung for the $7.99 Inhumans reprint because I love the Inhumans and the giant-sized comic features great art by Neal Adams, whom I have mentioned many times on this blog (such as in T-shirt #83). COMICS FOR 1307.31 Guardians of the Galaxy #005 Daredevil  #029 X-Men # 003 Uncanny X-Men #009 Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #1 Optic Nerve #13 Fearless Defenders #006 (back log) Fearless Defenders #007 (this week) Something Inhuman This Way Comes: Black Bolt (reprints: one shot) BACK LOG Batman Incorporated #13 FF #010 Indestructible Hulk #011 The Ultimates #28 Uncanny X-Force #009 Uber #4 - chris tower - 1308.01 - 9:16