Originally Published: 2003-04-13

The number one album rock classic is now 30 years old and available in a new hybrid edition including a 5.1 surround sound mix. A new pressing on vinyl even includes the original goodies, plus an additional poster by Hipgnosis design guru Storm Thorgerson. The release has sold over 40 million copies, keeping its exclusive pressing plant in Germany busy full-time for years. DSOTM was number one for only one week on the Billboard charts but hung around for another 591 consecutive weeks between 1976 and 1988! Obviously it provided a soundtrack for a generation, a kind of mellowing out of the psychedelic era that FM radio was created for. The lyrics concerned the pressures of a being in a popular band (six years before The Wall) but was more noted for its subtext about madness that Roger Waters has built a career on since the drug-induced breakdown of the group's founder, Syd Barrett (who only needed two albums for the subject from his point of view). First performed live, in 1972 as "Eclipse," DSOTM contained unused bits written for previous albums ("Us And Them" was 21 minutes in 1970) which just happened to flow well together, guided by Alan Parson's genre-defining and Grammy Award-winning recording job (which included a session with some clocks in an antique shop). With this classic Pink Floyd's progressive rock experiment surpassed their wildest dreams, when all they wanted to do was express themselves beyond the two-minute pop format of the mid '60's.

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