upon listening to the flaming lips cover of "dark side of the moon" some floydian memories washed over jd.  the first time he heard of pink floyd was as a young teenager he read a feature about them in the glossy rock mag "circus." "atom heart mother" had just been released, and the article gave the history of the space rock band losing its leader, syd barrett, and moving further from psychedelic pop songs to the experimental spaceways of their canterbury light show freakouts, and scoring outre film soundtracks.

atom heart was a twenty minute suite unlike what jd had heard before. of course he was familiar with the sounds from the west coast folk blues rock psych thing and had been blown away by the grand otherworldly mythical sounds of "in the court of the crimson king."  king crimson was a record store clerk's recommendation and the audacious album cover sealed that purchase, and jd remembers all about the first time "21st century schizoid man" played on his turntable. the british underground was very much underground and it was totally ignored by the san fran based newspaper "rolling stone" (as was the nyc velvet underground, the stone just didn't get it - they had their sights and ears on los angeles.) it took sounds much longer then to advance from britian to the east coast, months from the west.

jd wasn't sure about atom heart - cows on the cover didn't totally make sense, but it surely was unassuming and non-pretentious.  the sounds weren't that heavy and there was brass and orchestra, but a motorcycle revving off as the music drove to cresendos was pretty cool. jd was intrigued enough to purchase ummagumma and the live rendition of "astonomy domine" sent him into overdrive, blew his mind and changed his perceptions- and this was a little before he practiced what he read in "electric kool aid acid test."  jd hunted out the rest of the catalogue, even finding imports of syd barrett's solo "the madcap laughs" and "the body" by roger waters and experimental composer ron geesin. he dug up the floyd's soundtrack work, and bought "meddle" when it arrived.

one day he and a friend drank some of that kool aid, and during that particular day away from high school visited a mcdonalds at lunchtime. waiting in a line of about twenty they inched toward the counter. finally they were asked for their order. jd looked at the cashier and realized he was not hungry in the least, he turned to his freind who also declared he had no appetite at all! and the two burst out laughing and walked out doubled up in giggles while the lunch crowd looked on incredulously. he spent the afternoon with his pissed off girlfriend in a field.  he imagined her his nurse on a let as she kept a stern watch from yards away. later after making it back to school to catch the bus ride home, jd told his friend he has to come to his house and hear this epic called "echoes" by a band called pink floyd which will sonicly replicate the mind melding trip taken that day.

next stop was a ticket to finally see the floyd at merriweather post. the band was in a row , a straight line across the very front of the stage, including nick mason on drums, equalitarian, unlike any set up jd had seen. the wall of speakers from floor to ceiling was mammoth. they played a thirty minute "echoes", "watch the axe, eugene" and the punishing "one of these days" and they previewed some of "dark side of the moon" which was yet to be released. jd had always marveled how the floyd were simple musicians who made the most with least, especially david gilmour's lush fat guitar work. the show was only aided by smoke and lights. the spring of 1973 would change everything. the floyd had worked its way to cult status in the us and the tour jd saw drew a few thousand at the pavilion. next time he saw them it was at the washington arena with over twenty or so thousand, film and inflated pigs and stuff, but not as magical as the post show.

jd bought dark side on release day and shortly after he dropped the needle he knew this was gonna be it. obviously not the whole gigantic blow up, but the album was a cohesive synthesis of all they'd been working toward - from "if", "alan's psychedelic breakfast" and "funky dung", the soundtrack "more" with the rocker "nile song", and "echoes" - culminating in this, their masterpiece -space left for the earthly sounds they leaned toward from "grantchester meadows" to "obscured by clouds."  the "secret" love of floyd jd and his freinds shared was about to be shared by millions. a couple of jd's friends even cried "sell out."  a few months later in the summer, jd found himself in the back of a smoke filled van riding the countryside while dark side played on an eight track on continuous loop for the entire day. he realized he was the only passenger who'd heard of pink floyd a season earlier. jd had a fanciful thought that maybe the world is progressing, on it's way to a better place. 

so floyd became so huge five years after their early flame out in '68 with their aborted early us tour and syd's descent after he had enchanted london on floyd's first and classic "piper at the gates of dawn". they put out a couple very good albums after dsotm. then with "the wall", bassist roger waters had a midlife crisis, became a tyrannical asshole, relegated keyboardist richard wright to "employee" status and blew away the democracy that had worked so well, and quit. gilmour, mason and wright would turn the band into a crass beach boys touring spectacle with even more stuff (think current u2 tour).

so what does jd think of the oklahoma punk psych band flaming lips covering dark side in it's whole, thirty-seven years later? he hears those early sounds, the unpolished experimental simple players finding new sounds of the pre-dark floyd banging away. the ghosts of the early floyd shine. even shades of pink's later "welcome to the machine" peek through, and jd swears on "any colour you like" the guitar duels even turn into the riffing of neil young and danny whitten on "down by the river." the darker forlorn of the moon is twisted in the joyful neon purples and yellows and oranges of the lips psychedelia. "money" is changed to a ska electronica funky piece that dances around the original off beat - poignant as the "naughties" ends. and an absolutely rip roaring version of "eclipse" should not be missed. guest vocalist henry rollins, losing his growl provides straight ahead wondermint to the take, and sexy punker peaches roughs up the etheral wails. the lips interpretation gleams the beauty in the rockers, slowing them down, and they rock out the ballads.

on some web site message boards there seems to be alot of indignation about the lips doing this, like how dare they. it's funny cause i wasn't too enthralled with their miles davis homages in "embryonic." they just struck me as chichi and specious. here i feel more truth and humor, and the lips are given/create a flow that works which their last two albums lacked - maybe this workout will get them back on track.  the same spirit of adventure and inventiveness, and the psych pop of early floyd has marked the flaming lips brilliant record history. wayne coyne of the lips in a recent pitchfork interview discusses the irony of how floyd was slagged by punk rock (johnny rotten's "i hate pink floyd" t-shirt (it was '77 and that inflated pig floyd)) while actually starting off with very punk rock ideals - learning their instruments as they went (especially syd and roger) and pushing the boundries of conventional pop - and jd would add putting cows on their album cover, and that 'astronomy' riff that hawkwind made a career of.  he mentions how the lips were admonished for playing floyd's "wish you were here" opening for jesus and mary chain, which he shot back he felt it actually was a very punk thing to do.

interpreting and reinventing classics is nothing new, it's long tradition has shown through campfires and jazz and rock from blues to elvis, beatles, stones, (think pussy galore's cover of the stone's "exile on main street") and all through different styles and sounds and time and place.  it is a handing down of culture and is progressive.  and the moon in the flaming lips hands is just downright punked, and their two minute "eclipse" just fuckin' slays.