David Gilmour has dismissed a few Pink Floyd myths in his time, but one lesser-known belief is to do with the recording of The Dark Side of the Moon.
Gilmour, alongside Roger Waters, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason, would pull together arguably their best album in the mid-1970s and reshaped the progressive rock genre with The Dark Side of the Moon. While fans have claimed you can sync the album up to The Wizard of Oz or that you can hear The Beatles‘ Ticket to Ride towards the end of the album, these theories have been debunked. Gilmour would even weigh in on The Wizard of Oz claim, dismissing it out of hand.
He would also break down how the band recorded the album, with many believing the best bits of The Dark Side of the Moon were recorded while on tour. This is not true, according to Gilmour, who says that while the band did a lot of honing songs for the album on the road, it was not enough to come back from the tour with a full-blown album.
Speaking with Record Collector in 2003, Gilmour said: “That’s slightly a myth. The Dark Side of the Moon was fashioned out on the road, because we started playing and honing it, but it wasn’t that common. Things like Echoes we had done live, and later, with the Animals stuff, we had done the two tracks on the ’74 tour. They were part of the oeuvre before being unleashed officially, but The Dark Side Of The Moon was the one where the belief comes from, and it did help make it better, as we were pretty well conversant with the music.”
Gilmour has been outspoken about other Pink Floyd myths too, debunking many of them in the same interview. His thoughts on The Wizard of Oz overlap with The Dark Side of the Moon was made clear in this interview, with Gilmour suggesting the link is “ludicrous”.
He said: “Of course not! That’s one of the most ludicrous things that’s come out, and it just runs and runs and runs. I mean, we’re obviously to blame for some of these stupid things ourselves, but that one, God knows where that one came from.”
Despite believing the link between The Wizard of Oz and The Dark Side of the Moon to be complete nonsense, Gilmour did say he had tried to sync up the album with the film. Fans of Pink Floyd believe that, if you start playing the album as soon as the MGM lion roars, the album will perfectly sync up with the film.
Gilmour investigated this for himself, saying: “Oh alright, I did try it once, actually. It didn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever. I wouldn’t bother. It’s better to listen to the words rather than to find out about little Dorothy and her red shoes!”
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