Darkside Facts

[Pain_Man]

Waters Returns to the "Dark Side"

 

Can you imagine if Floyd did reunite? It would be the biggest tour of the year, outselling everyone. Probably the most expensive as well. I could see the cheap seats, nosebleeders even, going for $200. With the ""good" seats I could easily imagine $600+. But it would be great fucking show!

 

The more relevant portion of the article, giving final numbers I'd been looking for for years...

 

News of the tour comes as Dark Side marked another milestone. As of this week, the concept album became the first to log 1,500 weeks on Billboard charts.

 

Released on March 17, 1973, Dark Side entered the Top 200 chart at number 95, the top debut of the week. And much to everyone's surprise, including the band itself, the LP with the rainbow prism remained there for a whopping 14 years--or 736 consecutive weeks--before finally falling off the charts in July 1988.

 

The album briefly resurfaced on the Billboard 200, before the magazine broke up its charts and created a separate Top Pop Catalog Album list, where Dark Side logged another 759 weeks and counting. The 1,500 weeks is almost double the runner-up, Bob Marley and the Wailers' Legend, which has spent 845 weeks on various charts.

 

All told, Dark Side, which contains the classic cuts "Breathe," "Money," and "Us and Them," has sold more than 40 million copies.

 

 

It's been on the charts continuously since it debuted. The only reason it "fell off" was because of an arbitrary decision by Billboard. The album never left the charts.

 

I remember when it was released on DVD in '86, for two or three weeks it ws the No. 1 album in the country.

Edited May 11, 2006 by Pain_Man

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Pink Floyd hit their peak in 1994 with the Pulse tour (IMO). Would I pay to see them these days. What a silly question! Of course I would.

[Pain_Man]

Pink Floyd hit their peak in 1994 with the Pulse tour (IMO). Would I pay to see them these days. What a silly question! Of course I would.

 

 

IMO, without Roger, it's the David Gilmour Band. And the albums are Gilmour solo albums. Floyd without Waters is like the Beatles without Lennon or Zep without Pagey. In other words, it ain't Floyd. Unfortunately I missed the Live8 reunion. Didn't care about the cause (it seems these causes always target my wallet; no thanks, the greedy hand of the government already takes way too much as it is), but would have loved to have seen them together, especially since they were broken up before I was really aware of their existence (1980).

 

The Final Cut is an amazing album--Water's puerile politics aside. It was recorded with a revolutionary process that didn't sound so good on vinyl but sounds astounding on CD. I don't know of another album that's used the process (it was invented by an Italian engineer, if memory serves, there are some details in the liner notes). Gilmour and Waters were so much on the outs over that LP and other issues, that Gilmour demanded his name be taken off the album as a producer. Thus The Final Cut, up to now, describes the band's fate to a tee.

 

Later when Gilmour decided to cash in on the name with bad music and worse lyrics ("On the Turning Away" is so nauseating I couldn't even finish listening to it and then I had to run for the pink liquid), all I need is some zillionaire rock star lecturing me on civic duty . Though Waters' sued to stop the desecration, unfortunately British courts refused to stop Gilmour's blatant greed.

 

It really, imo, can't be disputed that it was Waters' brilliance that made Floyd one of the four most successful acts of the 70s (in order of sales: Zep, Floyd, the Eagles & Fleetwood Mac).

Edited May 14, 2006 by Pain_Man

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Funny, ain?t it. Roger Waters didn?t seem to be missed a great deal as Pink Floyd continued along their merry way. Well, I didn?t miss him. I thought The Final Cut sucked bigtime but that?s just me. ?Pulse? epitomised Pink Floyd at their best.

 

It really, imo, can't be disputed that it was Waters' brilliance that made Floyd one of the four most successful acts of the 70s (in order of sales: Zep, Floyd, the Eagles & Fleetwood Mac).

I hope you?re joking as you seem to have missed one or two. KISS spring immediately to mind with a gold or platinum record for every album released between 1974 & 1982 with the exception of The Elder (1981). I have trouble believing the four acts above were making 100 million dollars a year. KISS had reached that by 1980.

 

<huge KISS fan mode off>

[kevdriver]

Would be cool for Floyd to reunite . Pulse was a fantastic album but I also spent a lot of time listening to Uma Guma album and the Animals album.......... . Saw them here in Ottawa when they did a surprize outdoor concert at our civic centre......... holy shit , that was a night to remember..... errrr well I remember some of it anyways, Planes crashing into the stage, these two huge flower like things rising up from below the stage and opening up to do a lazer show in the dry ice cloud that was released. I would definitly see them again.

 

 

 

Being older and more mature now....* cough cough * I might even remember the concert afterwards.

Edited May 14, 2006 by kevdriver

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

A reunion would be pretty snappy. I wonder if they ever thought they?d be more popular than ever..... almost 40 years after they started.

[kevdriver]

funny thing is, you mention floyd or album titles they have produced and some of the kids now a days just look at you like you were the plaque............ meanwhile all you hear through their ear phones are rap and this new wave stuff. Nothing wrong with that music but it certainly lacks the creativity that the music from Floyd and say Zepplin times inspired.

[polopony]

driving to work yesterday they mentioned that Dark Side of The Moon has been on the charts continously for 15,000 weeks .I have a huge collection of LP,s with lots of Floyd and I bought them for about $2.50 new some years ago .I recorded all new albums to cassette so they are all in great condition

[kevdriver]

Yep, same here Polo. Moved everything from LP to CD. Mind you had to flood a couple of LPs, especially the older ones that had been through a few parties............... . Do have the original pulse CD though that came with a built in flashing red LCD on the side of the case, apparently they only put these LCDs in the first release CDs any future ones were missing the it. Been through 5 batteries so far............

[Pain_Man]

Funny, ain?t it. Roger Waters didn?t seem to be missed a great deal as Pink Floyd continued along their merry way. Well, I didn?t miss him. I thought The Final Cut sucked bigtime but that?s just me. ?Pulse? epitomised Pink Floyd at their best.

 

It really, imo, can't be disputed that it was Waters' brilliance that made Floyd one of the four most successful acts of the 70s (in order of sales: Zep, Floyd, the Eagles & Fleetwood Mac).

I hope you?re joking as you seem to have missed one or two. KISS spring immediately to mind with a gold or platinum record for every album released between 1974 & 1982 with the exception of The Elder (1981). I have trouble believing the four acts above were making 100 million dollars a year. KISS had reached that by 1980.

 

<huge KISS fan mode off>

 

It's all opinion. As I said I don't consider anything without Waters to be Pink Floyd. But that's my opinion.

And their creative peak will always and forever be Darkside with Wish You Were Here and The Final Cut following respectively. I do know that "The Wall" tour was one of the most successful of the 70s.

 

Total record sales to date: 73.5M units (Hah! They've outsold Streisand! Thank God. )

 

Personally, I never got the whole "glam rock" thing--from T. Rex and Bowie to Kiss and Motley Crue.

 

I am using only American sales figures. And Rush, my favorite band, has sold more albums than Kiss. Kiss isn't even in the Top 20.

 

Given their relatively modest record sales, I find it hard to believe Kiss was making anywhere near $100M/yr in the 70s. I'm no student of Kiss so I could be wrong. I could more easily believe they made $100M for the entire decade.

 

Total sales to date for Kiss: 19M units

 

And Led Zeppelin still holds some single-day attendance records. Total sales to date: 109.5 M units.

 

 

Rush toured with Kiss the early days, before they surpassed Kiss commerically, and it sounds like Kiss was a complete disaster backstage. They make these observations on D2 of R30

Edited May 18, 2006 by Pain_Man

[Pain_Man]

Never seen or heard of this CD. Sounds like it might be a UK only thing. Regardless, I'd hold on to that. It's probably quite a collector's item.

 

 

Yep, same here Polo. Moved everything from LP to CD. Mind you had to flood a couple of LPs, especially the older ones that had been through a few parties............... . Do have the original pulse CD though that came with a built in flashing red LCD on the side of the case, apparently they only put these LCDs in the first release CDs any future ones were missing the it. Been through 5 batteries so far............

[Pain_Man]

funny thing is, you mention floyd or album titles they have produced and some of the kids now a days just look at you like you were the plaque............ meanwhile all you hear through their ear phones are rap and this new wave stuff. Nothing wrong with that music but it certainly lacks the creativity that the music from Floyd and say Zepplin times inspired.

 

<Pain Man RANT ALERT! Pain Man RANT ALERT!>

 

You're being far too polite. The music today not only can't hold a candle to the Beatles, Zep, Yes, Tull, Floyd, Rush, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, ELP, et al, IT COMPETELY SUCKS ASS. (Sorry Shamus, but I never did get the Kiss thing; much prefer Gene Simmons as an actor.)

 

It's just absolutely terrible. It's assembly-line, rock-by-numbers garbage. There hasn't been a decent complete album since Rush's Presto in '89.

 

The reason music sales have fallen 10 out of the last 12 years is because a.) there are only THREE record companies in the world (Sony BMG, Universal-Vivdendi & Time-Warner) and b.) the music COMPLETELY SUCKS ASS.

 

I cringe when I hear the trash that's praised today and want to vomit when I hear these twerps called "artists." Even rap, by which I no means a big fan of, in the old days had NWA who actually had something to say and Dr. Dre's first album was absolutely hilarious (esp after a serious and sesh.

 

 

 

God, this shit today almost makes me long for the likes of MC Hammer. At least he was straight up about what he was ripping off.