LISTENING IN: It’s Time to mark Pink Floyd milestone
Laser Floyd. Two words that said it all about Pink Floyd and a generational right of passage (totally sober, of course) in the years following the 1973 release of the band’s epic, now iconic album “Dark Side Of The Moon.”
In Toronto in those days, the show unfurled and swirled at the McLaughlin Planetarium beside the ROM, a sound and vision sensation across the 360-degree dome. Now 50 years later, the Planétarium de Montréal is ready to blow our minds again, presenting the album in all its spacy glory, in surround sound and with the help of the latest technology, if not actual lasers.
Showing on Wednesdays starting May 3 at 6:35, 7:35 and 8:35 p.m. through June 21, then moving to Fridays at 8:45, p.m. for the rest of the summer (until Sept. 1), the album will be played out in its entire 42-minute format, featuring classic songs like “Time,” “Money,” and “Us and Them.”
Called a “colossus of classic rock” and a “psychedelic masterpiece” by Rolling Stone, the album has sold over 45 million copies and spent an unbelievable 18 years in the Billboard Top 200 chart. Its iconic black prism cover is instantly recognizable and emblazoned on countless T-shirts.
Such is the album’s stature that Planétarium de Montréal says it is the only show of its type it has ever authorized; moreover, the production was embraced by the band and included assistance from Pink Floyd’s long-time creative collaborator Aubrey Powell.
“Each song has a different theme; some futuristically looking forward, and some a retro acknowledgment to Pink Floyd’s visual history, all relating to a time and space experience, embracing up-to-the-minute technology that only a Planetarium can offer,” organizers write.
To help get you in the mood, here’s a remastered concert rendition of “Time” from 1994, itself a visual masterpiece.
Lyrics
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun
But it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you’re older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation
Is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over
Thought I’d something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away, across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
First published at Travel Industry Today
