wow
somewhere along the lines of 16-17 years ago, i laid my hands on something i have yet to see again. i remember it vividly, rifling thru the used LP bin at a music store on Central Ave. in Albany. at the time, i was starting to get really heavy into Pink Floyd and wanted to get some of the records because i understood what they would ultimately mean to me, even back then.
so here i am, looking thru the Pink Floyd section when i come across a copy of Dark Side of the Moon. it took me a moment to understand why they wanted $25 for it as the copy in front of it was considerably less ($5-7 most likely). then i noticted the little bright pink sticker stuck onto the plastic that had a profound little handwritten phrase on it.
QUAD VERSION
i suddenly realized what i was holding in my hand. and at that very same moment realized with much dispair, i didn't have $25 or a record player plugged into a system that could play in Quadraphonic. but i wanted it anyways, because it was an important recording.
the basic idea of quadraphonic recordings was that you had sound coming from 4 distinct speakers - left front, left rear, right front, right rear. and back before the advent of dolby surround sound systems (dts, etc), this was the only way to hear something with more than 2 channels. it came out in the early 1970's, but never caught on, i think primarily to the need to buying a 2nd amplifier that would be hooked up to the rear speakers, so it was too expensive for most people. Pink Floyd was one of the few bands that attempted to take advantage of this, and while touring, were one of the only bands that actually employed a quadraphonic sound system with their live shows. i've read plenty of reviews of shows where people were amazed at how the cash registers at the beginning of Money sounded like they were coming from all over the place. Only 3 Pink Floyd albums were ever released in quad format -
Atom Heart Mother
Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
i think i've managed to actually touch all 3 at one point in time or another, but was Dark Side of the Moon that left the lasting impression. (all were more than i could afford at the time)
so, here we are, 16+ years later and i have my hands on the quad version of Dark Side of the Moon. thanks to the modern technology of DVDs, a halfway decent dolby surround amplifier and the internet, i have it. and for the first time in a few years, i've actually listened to the studio version of Dark Side of the Moon. and all i can say is wow. i know in 2003 for the 30th anniversary, an SACD version was released that had a redone 5.1 version, but i don't have a cd player that plays SACDs, so i can't hear it. (that was probably the last time i listened to studio version of Dark Side of the Moon)
so, with eyes closed, volume up, i listened to a version of Dark Side of the Moon that most people have never heard before. and it was wow. i won't bother to try and review it other than to say i heard things that i hadn't heard before and that it was really fucking cool.
really fucking cool.
many years ago, Alan Parsons was the person responsible for engineering the quad version of Dark Side of the Moon, and in 1975, he wrote an article for Studio Sound magazine which is pretty cool talking a bit about it and the challenges of bringing it to life in concert. well worth a read.
and this was well worth a listen. Us and Them has never been a favorite song of mine, but i enjoyed it in full glorious quad...
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