Iconic producer and engineer Alan Parsons recalled what it was like to work with Pink Floyd on their legendary album “The Dark Side of the Moon” and how the band members handled the whole process.
It’s no secret that “The Dark Side of the Moon” is one of the most influential albums of all time. Although the band was credited for the production, all of these incredible songs wouldn’t have sounded the way they did without Parsons, who was the engineer for this process at the legendary Abbey Road studio. His talents and skills would also shine in The Alan Parsons Project.
Appearing in a recent interview with Rick Beato, Parsons looked back on the making of “The Dark Side of the Moon,” offering (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
“We’d do two weeks at a time, two-three weeks at a time. And I was actually going out with the band to do their front-of-house, to do their live sound. And I was still doing other sessions at Abbey Road for other people, but I worked very hard to make sure that I never missed a Pink Floyd session because… Didn’t want to share the credit with anybody else.”
And who would want to share the credits for such a landmark project? Going more into the matter, Beato asked Alan how they recorded David Gilmour’s guitars, to which he replied:
“As far as David Gilmour’s guitar overdubs, we did most of it actually in the studio. He’d be out there with the headphones on. But on occasion, we ran a long cable into the into the control room.”
When you have such an ambitious band, it’s probably no surprise to know that the interpersonal relationships were, at least a little bit, strained. While it’s obviously common to be critical of each other’s work, Alan says that the positive reinforcement may not have been so pronounced.
“They were all critical of each other’s performances and not afraid to say,” he continued. “If David Gilmour had produced an incredible guitar solo on something, Roger might say, ‘I think that might be all right, David. Thank you.’ [Laughs] Pretty, sort of low-key ‘congratulations.'”
Nonetheless, Alan says that everything is in order and that, overall, the process was pretty enjoyable. At the same time, he laments the current situation where Roger Waters and David Gilmour aren’t exactly on speaking terms. During the interview, Alan said:
“They all got on really well. Making ‘Dark Side’ was a joy. I mean, everybody was into what they were doing. Everybody was friendly. It’s terribly sad that the rift exists between them now.”
