The Clouds and the Moon

In February (17th - 20th, 1972) Floyds were playing in Rainbow Theatre in London. These concerts were critically acclaimed as a turning point in the Pink Floyd's career. In addition of their past classics they premiered The Dark Side Of The Moon. This piece represented a musical change, focusing on the fears and problems of everyday life, rather than the post-psychedelic space trips that the earlier music suggested.
All the performances were sold out and the audience was amazed by the lightshow and the quadrophonic sound.

The Financial Times: "If anyone else attempted a visual and aural assault it would be a disaster; the Floyd have the furthest frontiers of pop music to themselves."

The RoIo "Pink Floyd Live" was recorded at the Rainbow. It's professional looking sleeve meant that it sold 120.000 copies, because people thought it was the group's next official album.

The real one was released on the 3rd of June. The music was written for the soundtrack of the film "La Valee" directed by Barbet Schroeder with whom the band previousely worked on "More" film.

Obscured By Clouds

SONG	WRITTEN BY	VOCALS	TIME	RATING
Obscured By Clouds	Waters,Gilmour	----	3:05
When You're In	Waters,Gilmour,Wright, Mason	----	2:23
Burning Bridges	Wright,Waters	Gilmour,Wright	3:24
The Gold Is In The...	Waters,Gilmour	Gilmour	3:03
Wot's...Uh The Deal	Waters,Gilmour	Gilmour	5:05
Mudmen	Wright,Gilmour	----	4:17
Childhood's End	Gilmour	Gilmour	4:30
Free Four	Waters	Waters	4:11
Stay	Wright,Waters	Wright,Waters	4:02
Absolutely Curtains	Waters,Gilmour,Wright,Mason	----	5:51

Dave: "We've had huge arguments about what exactly to do on the soundtrack. Roger has certainly got a bit of an obsession about making the whole album into a one subject deal, into what you might call a concept album."
But it didn't come to this. The songs were written around several themes and perfectly coresponded with the movie but weren't what the band was doing on the stage in these days. It was clear that the new album should be out very soon.

Floyds were on holiday in July and August and in September "Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii" film was premiered at Edinburgh Theatre. It was directed by Adrian Maben and contained live versions of Echoes, One Of These Days, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Careful With That Axe, Eugene and A Saucerful Of Secrets.

In the beginning of the year 1973 Pink Floyd were recording their new album and were also working on the ballet music for Roland Petit but has never been completed. The idea was to do "A Thousand And One Nights" ballet together with Nureyev, Roman Polanski and Roland Petit but nobody had any idea of what they really wanted to do.
Roger: "We all sat around this table until someone thumped the table and said ,"What's the idea then?" and everyone just sat there drinking this wine and getting more and more pissed..."

On the 4th of March the group started the US and Canada "The Dark Side Of The Moon" tour and on 24th of March the album finally saw the light of day.

The Dark Side Of The Moon

SONG	WRITTEN BY	VOCALS	TIME	RATING
Speak To Me	Mason	----	1:10
Breathe In The Air	Waters,Gilmour,Wright	Gilmour	2:47
On The Run	Gilmour,Waters	----	3:51
Time	Mason,Waters,Wright,Gilmour	Gilmour,Wright	5:54
Breathe reprise	Waters,Gilmour,Wright	Gilmour	1:11
The Great Gig In The Sky	Wright	Clare Torry	4:47
Money	Waters	Gilmour	6:23
Us And Them	Waters,Wright	Waters,Gilmour	7:48
Any Colour You Like	Gilmour,Mason,Wright	----	3:25
Brain Damage	Waters	Waters	3:50
Eclipse	Waters	Waters,Gilmour	2:06

The album was spectacularly successful both in Britain and US, reaching number one positions and staying there literaly for years.
Rick: "We approached this album in exactly the same way as any other album that we'd done except that this album was a concept one. It was about madness, about one's fear and about business..."

On The Dark Side Of The Moon there were also recordings of answers of various people to a set of questions like "Have you ever been violent?", "When was the last time you thumped someone?" and so on. The laughter on Brain Damage for example was done by the famous roadie Roger The Hat who was asked about the death and said: "It's one of those things which never goes out of fasion..." and then began to laugh on and on.

The album went on to sell over eight million copies and reactivated all other albums to sell in very large numbers.
Nick: "I don't think it was five times as good as Meddle or eight times as good as Atom Heart Mother which is how it sold... a question of being in the right place at the right time."

From June till November Pink Floyd had been presenting the The Dark Side Of The Moon album in Europe and US using crushing planes and spectacular rockets to amaze the audience. At the time the band reached all the goals rock band tend to aim.