I first heard ‘Money’ on A Date With You when I was about 15. I switched on the radio just a few seconds after it started. That bassline and the guitar solo blew my mind and I was scandalised by “don’t give me that do-goody good bullshit”. Unfortunately, I had no clue what this song was called and maddeningly the compere didn’t announce anything when it finished. It took me months to figure out what the song was called and who the band were. I remember trying to describe the song as “coins falling” to friends?. But once I found out, I’ve owned a copy of this album since I was 18, and, probably will till the lunatic is in my head!

Where do I start? This is one of those rare albums where there is not a single bad track – IMHO there are only two other such albums ‘Rumours’ by Fleetwood Mac & ‘Dire Straits’ by Dire Straits (dissenting comments to be posted below please ?!). From the first chords of ‘Speak To Me’ to the final chords of ‘Eclipse’ it is mesmerising. This ‘concept’ album was designed to focus on all the things that make people go crazy and was a response from the band being sick and tired of touring. The songs runs through the emotional palette from Calm (Breathe) to Greed (Money) to Fear (On The Run) to Death (the Great Gig In The Sky), Conflict (Us and Them) and Lunacy (Brain Damage /Eclipse). ‘Money’ was the stand-out single on the album and became a huge success. ‘Time’ , with its quadrophonic alarm bells and it’s lament about ,er, the passage of time is a close second. For me, though, every song is fantastic and perfect.

The lyrics haven’t left my mind in the intervening decades.  “ The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death”   and “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way” and “Money, it’s a hit, Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit”,   and   “The lunatic is on the grass”,       “There’s someone in my head but it’s not me”….i can sing every line of every song (don’t worry all you Smule champions, the singing is in my head?!)

 The music is even more fantastic. Gilmour on lead, Waters on bass, Mason on drums and Wright on keyboards – every riff, every bassline, every synth shift, drum beat…the whole thing is about as perfect as record could be. And in true Pink Floyd style, every track has the most amazing psychedelic sound effects – alarm clocks, cash registers, metronomes, heartbeat…..beautiful! The entire album was produced at Abbey Road studios by a young sound engineer from EMI called Alan Parsons – yup, the guy who later launched ‘The Alan Parsons Project’!

The manic laughter on ‘Brain Damage’ & ‘Speak to me’ is the band’s road manager, Peter Watts (actress Naomi Watts’ dad). And those voices – bloody brilliant! Apparently, one day Roger Waters grabbed pretty much everyone in the Abbey Road studio and recorded their responses to a set of questions. One question everyone was asked was “When were you last violent?” Henry McCullogh, The Wings bass player talked about a fight with his wife the night before. Next question was “And were you in the right?”….his epic response , that’s n the record was  “I don’t know I was pretty drunk at the time” !! And that is the prefect line on which to stop this post ! I’m off to listen to TDSOTM for the umpteenth time….