Was it just the "commercial" quality of some of the "songs?" Personally, I doubt it. For prog-rock to become not only cross-musical but cross-cultural was something none of us who were around at the time could ever have conceived of. Yet even bearing the burden of so powerful a "symbol," Dark Side stands on its own as a musical and production achievement with few equals, either then or since. Dark Side became that "thing," for reasons which may never be understood. Most importantly, as was true immediately after the assassination of JFK - when the youth of America was looking for something "upbeat" to "fill the hole," and The Beatles materialized almost magically to fill that void - the youth of America in 1972 was looking for something to latch onto. The Apollo moon missions had just ended in 1972, Nixon had just been re-elected, the anti-war movement was at its peak, the "acid" culture was still thriving, and America was in the throes of a post-60s re-self-assessment and as "polarized" as it had been in quite some time. What exactly led to the almost unspeakable success of this album? There is probably no definite answer, but rather an indeterminate zeitgeist at the time of its release. Numerous reissues most of which use the Das Boot remaster. Stereo remastered & Multichannel 5.1 remixed (Das Boot Recording) remaster (Doug Sax The Mastering Lab, 1992)
remastered (AcousTech)ĬD Harvest - CDP 7 46001 2 (1984, UK/US/Europe)ĬD EMI - CDDSOM 20 (1993, Europe) 20th Anniv. LP Harvest - SHVL804 (2003, Europe) 30th Anniv. Doris Troy / backing vocals Releases information Nick Mason / drums, percussion, tape effects Roger Waters / bass, lead vocals (9,10), VCS3, tape effects Richard Wright / keyboards, lead vocals (4,7), VCS3 (8,9) & Synthi A (3,4) David Gilmour / guitars, lead vocals (2,4,6,7), VCS3 Some releases combine tracks 1 & 2 and therefore show only 9 tracks Line-up / Musicians