Eclipse

Album: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
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Songfacts®:

  • The closing track on Pink Floyd's famous Dark Side of the Moon album, this seamlessly follows "Brain Damage" to close it out - radio stations almost always played the songs together. The album was well into production but didn't have an ending until Roger Waters came up with the song. It reprises some lyrics to the opening track "Breathe" ("All that you touch, all that you see") before closing out the album with the words, "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."

    This closing statement is the voice of Gerry O'Driscoll (often misspelled "Jerry Driscoll"), who was the doorman at Abby Road studios, where the album was recorded. His is one of many random voices that show up throughout the album; Waters recorded people around the studios, looking for spontaneous thoughts, and Driscoll, with his sincere delivery and Irish accent, made the finished piece. He can also be heard on the track "The Great Gig In The Sky" (the line that begins, "I am not frightened of dying...").
  • Dave Gilmour recalled to Rolling Stone in 2011: "I remember working hard on making it build and adding harmonies that join in as you go through the song. Because there's nothing to it - there's no chorus, there's no middle eight, there's just a straight list. So, every four lines we'll do something different."
  • The working title for the Dark Side of the Moon album was "Eclipse: A Piece For Assorted Lunatics." They began working on it during rehearsals for their concerts, and performed early versions live during shows in 1972. This was an era when bands could spend a year refining songs by playing them at concerts before heading into the studio. These days, any such performance would be quickly recorded and distributed.
  • If you put on your headphones, turn down the bass and listen carefully to the right channel at the end of this song, you can hear what sounds like "Ticket to Ride" by The Beatles in a Muzak-style while you are still hearing the beating of the heart. No one in the Pink Floyd camp has talked about this as far as we can tell, which gave the many owners of the album yet another talking point. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Gerardo - Monterrey, Mexico
  • Dave Gilmour told Guitar World February 1993 about Chris Thomas' role on the album: "Chris Thomas came in for the mixes, and his role was essentially to stop the arguments between me and Roger about how it should be mixed. I wanted Dark Side to be big and swampy and wet, with reverbs and things like that. And Roger was very keen on it being a very dry album. I think he was influenced a lot by John Lennon's first solo album [Plastic Ono Band], which was very dry. We argued so much that it was suggested we get a third opinion. We were going to leave Chris to mix it on his own, with Alan Parsons engineering. And of course on the first day I found out that Roger sneaked in there. So the second day I sneaked in there. And from then on, we both sat right at Chris's shoulder, interfering. But luckily, Chris was more sympathetic to my point of view than he was to Roger's."
  • The heartbeat on this song brings Dark Side of the Moon full circle, closing the album the same way it opens: with the heartbeat heard on the opening track "Speak To Me." The heartbeat is actually a kick drum processed to sound like a pulse.

Comments: 59

  • David from Vancouver, B.c.Okay, I take it back. I just listened to a different, older CD version of Eclipse. It is in the right channel, and at the very, very end of the track, I can hear a piano tinkling out part of Ticket to Ride. My bad.
  • David from Vancouver, B.c.Well, I can hear the very faint music immediately following "There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark" that Geraldo mentions, but I hear it more in the left channel than the right and it doesn't sound anything like Ticket to Ride to me. Sounds like it's being played on an organ of some kind. And to me, it does sound like tape bleed as others here have suggested as opposed to some faint noise being picked up by a microphone. Just my 2¢. Also, it's so faint (at least to my aged ears) that to throw out a good take because of it would be insane.
  • Stanj from Tyler, TxI interperate this as a man life. From birth to death. Speak to me- birth, breathe - childhood, on the run - rebelious teenage years, Time - he wakes up in his 20's and realizes he has gone nowhere. All of hist friends seem to be happy but he "missed the starting gun," great gig in the sky - he finds a woman, Money - he finally finds a good job and he is doing the things he wants to do, us and the - they start a family, any colour you like - is a continuation of of their golden years - brain damage - she has died and he is put into a home, Eclipse - he finally dies the album starts with a heartbeat and ends with one showing life is a cycle a child is born and it starts over. An ABSOLUTE masterpiece.
  • Joey H from Fredericksburg, VaI see the dark side of the moon as a concept to life, I mean it involves all the main aspects. This is the end of of a persons life after everything, the so called flash of your whole life before your eyes, I mean listen to the lyrics. It's summing up everything a person has done in their life time. An amazing outro to an album.
  • Jimmy from Galicia, SpainI personally think you are a bit stupid if you think Dark Side of the Moon refers only to insanity. It refers to much more bigger things.''The Dark side'' (metaphorically) refer to those things we think we know but, the floyd is here telling you ''hey! maybe things are not as they seem!'', ''insanity'' is an example of that: why do we think they are insane? because they dont think as most ppl do.? that's why '' the lunatic is on the grass'' they do or say things most ppl wouldn't, but WHO says what is right or wrong?

    That's why, personally, think ''eclipse'' sums up the whole album: ''all you touch, see, feel.... seem to be perfect, and all under the sun seem to be in tune...BUT you know what?? THE SUN IS ECLIPSED BY THE MOON, which is 400 times smaller, and that can lead us to another interpretation: from here, we see the moon and the sun equal in size, so we, in the past, could logically have thought they are the same size, BUT you know what? maybe things are not as they seem!
  • Terry from Wickford, RiThe "Ticket To Ride" melody is from an orchestral arrangement of the song, not the actual Beatles song and the question as to how it wound up there is one I've never gotten a satisfactory answer to. Was it playing elsewhere in Abbey Road loud enough to bleed through to the tape when they were recording the "heartbeat" effect with the bass drum? Was it a bleed from a tape that was re-used? With the Floyd being the perfectionists they were, it seems odd that any mistakes would be allowed. There is also that little tape speed jump at the end of Great Gig...on purpose? Or a glitch? With the Jerry Driscoll quote at the end...this was one of many taped responses from all sorts of folks who were hanging around Abbey Road at the time and Roger recorded people's responses to all sorts of questions written on notecards and then spliced the more interesting ones throughout the album mix. "Have you ever been violent?" "when was the last time you thumped someone?" "Were you in the right?" "What does the Dark Side of the Moon mean to you?" Paul and Linda McCartney were two of the respondents, but their answers weren't used, because they sounded too polished and not "everyman" enough. Back to the tape issue, though...what is known is that the Master transfer, in order to use Dolby, had to be dubbed down to another tape, so even the actual Master tape is not a pure recording. So, given that, they may have room for some mistakes and tape bleed...sounds plausible, but one doesn't want to believe that Alan Parsons and George Humphries and the band would have allowed this...maybe it was seen as acceptable rather than re-record...who knows?
  • Brad from Lexington, KyThe perfect way to sum up all the themes of the greatest and most complex album of all time in a single track under 2 minutes. My hat goes off to you Roger.
  • Chloe from St. Louis, Mothe "ticket to ride" ending isnt particularly hard to hear- i just turned my ipod up alllll the way and listened right after he said "there is no dark side of the moon, really..." i can distinctively hear the "dont know why shes riding so high" part.
  • G from Potomac, MdI don't think it's actually Ticket to Ride. It has the "she's got a ticket to ride" melody and then some other stuff
  • Chloe from St. Louis, Moi personally think that the dark side of the moon simply represents insanity. its a mindset more than anything else- 'if your head explodes with dark forebodings too'- when you disconnect from reality- 'ill see you on the dark side of the moon'- we'll enjoy our mutual insanity.
  • Oldpink from New Castle, InEverything under the sun is in tune
    But the sun is eclipsed by the moon
    The perfect closer to a perfect album.
  • Mick from Las Vegas, NvSyd Barrett shone like the sun but was eventually eclipsed by the moon. The dark side of the moon was the unfathomable distance Syd was from Roger. I'll see you on the dark side of the moon. Shine on you crazy diamond!
  • Niall from Limerick, IrelandWhen the Sun is eclipsed by the moon the original dark side of the moon is now no longer dark and we are now at the dark side of the moon. We are the ones who are crazy......
  • Susan from Westchestertonfieldville, VaThe " Classic Albums" bio on this album is fantastic..great interviews with the artists themselves.
    ps I have a crush on David Gilmour..pass it on
  • Mike from Hartford, CtFrom The Bible - ("The Message"- a modern translation), Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verses 3 through 5...
    >>What's there to show for a lifetime of work,
    a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes--it's business as usual for old planet earth. The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again--the same old round.<<
    Doesn't this sound as though it could have been a lyric from Dark Side Of The Moon? As I said before, DSOTM and Ecclesiastes' themes and message are very similar.
  • Mitchell from Adelaide, AustraliaI agree with the guy who said its amazing how the tiny little Moon can eclipse the Sun, its metaphorical in some sense, you should value everything because something small can take it away.

    Personally this song is to remind me at least once a day to actively touch, taste, smell, look and listen and damn well enjoy it because it could all become eclipsed by the moon.
  • Allison from A Little Ol' Town In, MiI listened to this song during the lunar eclipse a few months ago
  • Brett from Chilliwack, BcI think this song is really dissapointing but true. It goes with Brain Damage which is about media and conformity, and how those things set your life up and they can make it like a living hell and that you need to go through with it and you are not the only one. But then this song comes on, and is basically saying "All that ever happens in life is pointless because we're all going to die anyways. The whole song lists things that happen in every day life, and all the memories ull have by the end, and "Everything under the sun is in tune" meaning everything is great and life is awesome "But the sun is eclipsed by the moon" meaning everything is taken away by the moon.
  • Olivia from San Francisco, CaI think that this song is definately open for interpretation. But the entire song in my opinion is about life experiences. I think that anyones interpretation is correct. There is no right or wrong interpretation. Maybe the sun is an expression or a personality. And the moon is someone, something, (maybe a thought ) that hinders such a personality.
  • Sheeberson from Wrightsville Beach, NcHas Gerado lied to me?

    Damn you, Gerado.

    I trusted you.
  • Luke from Campbell, CaAdding on to what Patrick said, we revolve around the sun while the moon revolves around us. Our day to day concious life is the moon, which reflects a (changing) amount of the truth, unity, and equality in life (the sun), but the sun is eclipsed by the moon. In an eclipse, the moon is all dark and blocks out the sun at the same time. The light of life isn't visible. This is the mental phenomenon of going crazy like Syd did, which the whole album deals with.
    Additionally, I have a theory of what the light refracting through the prism means. Simply, the light from the sun contains all the colors and beauty of nature.
    The waning moon of the world worries me.
  • Adam from Minetto, NyHello, for any of you that would like to really hear Ticket to Ride at the end of the song, go to this website:

    http://members.cox.net/stegokitty/dsotr_pages/uncle_henry.htm

    About halfway down, there is an mp3 excerpt of that part with the bass turned way down so it is easy to hear. Theres also some good imformation about that song and the rest of the album syncing up with The Wizard of Oz.
  • Steveb from Spokane, WaThis is the existentialist's anthem. Everything is as it is and its all because of the collection of every little human and every little action. Everything under the sun is in tune, it represents that existence is true and beautiful, but ends on a disturbing note that the moon is eclipsing it all out... the moon being all the trivial little horrors that keep us blind to the beauty... this wretched perspective caused by the wretched individual egos of each person. Patrick from Buffalo is dead-on, and that is also the sort of feeling I live for... the one that most tend to ignore because its "creepy." And, on an irrelevant note to its maening, the beatles song was just a mistake and was edited out after a a reissue of dark side, but not on the first CD release I believe.
  • Gerardo from Monterrey, MexicoIf you have a software that can get rid of the heart beating sound, you can really hear the music.
  • Brian from Highland, IlThis it my interpretation:

    Everything you say, do, that can be, etc; is dwarfed by the greatness of orb we call the Sun. But, you know what? As great as the sun is...it's still eclipsed by the moon.
  • Manuel from Santo Domingo, OtherThe last line of this song is really up to interpretation. I think that the last line of this song talks about the sun as the element that brings forth light, but evntually, the moon will eclipse the sun. This can be aplied to human life. We are alive during the day, and the during the nigt we sleep. The light is what brings life to us, without the sun we would be dead, all of us. The moon too, is vital to the survival of everything on this planet, but the sun is even more esential. Look at all the other planet and they have moons, but no life. They barely recieve sunlight. We all life thanks the light, to the sun, but the sun is eventually eclipsed by the moon, or death. I is worth mentioning that the Sun too, will die out eventualy, the moon will just stay there, it is already dead. These are just my thoughts. Brilliant philosophical and musical album.
  • Daniel from Perth, AustraliaI think this is an amazingly underrated Pink Floyd song. The lyrics are excellent in the way that they compare all the people on earth.
  • Matt from Omemee, CanadaI hear ticket to ride every single time, it's definately out on the cd version of it, just turn the volume up alot
  • Patrick from Buffalo, NyI think Ashley from Moncton, Canada has a good idea there, but that doesn't creep me out, it's that sorta feeling I live for.

    My humble opinion: The 'Sun' is the collective unconscious of humanity, the way we're all connected. Though we're all different, we're all one. The 'Moon' is your conscious self, in this reality we've come so acustomed to living in. Everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon. To me this means that everything (Waters lists a few of the more common things) is in harmony, and it's that 'everything is one' feeling you always hear about for people on acid, but the moon, your consciousness, blinds you from this realization, until you die, (which is when the 'dam' should burst, rather than too soon like it did for Syd, shown in Brain Damage stanza three) I think lunatics are people who can see past the 'moon' and at the sun.

    And down to the last line: There is no dark side of the moon really, as a matter of fact it's all dark. This is true. The only thing that makes it look light is the sun. Well this is a simple thing. There isn't a specific side of the moon that is dark, because it's rotating and the light is constantly shifting across the face of the moon. If it weren't for the sun making it light, it'd all be dark (duh). But, we never see a certain side of the moon, it just so happens to rotate at the speed it revolves around earth, so the far side of the moon would be concidered the dark side.

    So in retrospect: Everything is in tune in the collective unconsciousness, but your individual consciousness dulls (or at the very most, blinds) you to the onesness of the universe. Those who are on the Dark Side of the Moon, I think, are those who are on the side of the far side of consciousness and experience the unity of the universe.

    I suggest listening to King Crimson's Red. I read someone's opinions and they ruled out that Any Colour you like is about because of it's lack of lyrics. Red has no words, but I feel it's a metaphore for that 'creepy' feeling Ashley described, but on a larger scale - one's awakening to the unity of the universe, and everything else you'd expect from an acid trip. One more Red Nightmare is one's second awakening.
  • Dave from New York, NyThe myth goes that people would go insane on nights with full moons. Hence the name "lunatics." This whole album is based on the moon and in my mind, mental insanity. At the end of Eclipse, the lyrics go, and the sun is eclipsed by the moon... it means the common sense and everything that once was "in tune" will be distorted by the moon, or insanity.
  • Echoe from Conversano, ItalyRoger wrote Dark Sise of the Moon to show all of the different kind of people there are on the Earth.
  • Joe from Palos Heights, Ilok here's how to hear Ticket To Ride. Go to iTunes, turn on the equalizer and have the first 5 bars completely down and the other five completely up. Then, get a pair of beastly headphones on, go to around 1:29, and just crank it up. Listen closely, it starts up right after "there's no darkside of the moon... actually it's all dark" and goes until the song ends.
  • Leia from Buffalo, NyI think that this song is commenting on how life is insignificant. he lists everything in life and in the end uses the sun as a metaphor for life and the moon for death. so everything in life is in tune but then you die and everything you did in life was pointless.
  • Mike from Hartford, CtRead the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. It is very similar in many ways to the themes and ideas on DSOTM.
  • Ed from Ottawa, CanadaThe darkside of the moon I think is supposed to refer to insanity...something that isn't really there practically speaking, but people believe in it. Everything under the sun is in tune...sanity. But, the sun is eclipsed by the moon refers to producing insanity I think. The clever part is that when they say...there is no darkside of the moon after all, it's all dark. They're saying that we're all crazy. Only a theory.
  • Brian from Altoona, Paanyone who thinks the floyd did acid and pot constantly while making this album is constantly doing acid and pot
  • Aylin from MontrealThis relatively short track manages to bring to a stunning close the greatest album in history.
    "There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact it's all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the sun."
  • Tom from Norman, OkI figure it talks about every aspect of life, then saying it is all in tune... however, with the moon being thrown in there, and tying into Brain Damage, it's suggesting that no matter how ordered we want things to be, there will always be some lunacy there to keep things interesting.
  • Nick from Solvang, CaIf this album is really a concept album, then this is what this song means to me. It's about thinking too much about what your life has been. The opening line is somewhat from Breathe. "All that you touch, and all that you see, is all your life will ever be."
  • James from Toronto, Canadaya. water's greatest lyrics ever...other than us and
  • Stefan from Tacoma, Wai think that "everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon" thing means that we all go our own ways but need each other in the end... thats just what my mind tells me.
  • Stefan from Tacoma, Wai think it means that everything revolves and depends on one another.
  • Hinge from Melbourne, Australiai don't think i ever noticed "ticket to ride" playing at the end, but i know that the man who said, "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark," was Jerry Driscoll, who was doorman at Abbey Road Studios, where DSOM was recorded. so there's a bit of a beatles link...
  • Phil from Niagara Falls, Canadafor years i watched Dsom sitting in my fathers extensive collection, and at some point i said to myself "alright F8ck this, i've watching that cd sitting on the shelf for years, its time to listen to it" and that lead me to Eclipse, the first song i heard from the album.
  • David Corino from Hawley, PaI have herd Ticket to Ride at the end of DSotM, its there just very faint. Just crank it up really loud on your headphones of stero.
  • Charles from Bronxville, NyI believe the heartbeat at the opening of the song is a mother's heartbeat. From withing the womb, the baby can hear the world outside. The rush and cry is the birth at which point what must the newborn do? BREATHE. (Name of the opening cut). It (the album) may be a comment on Syd Barrett (yet again) and his descent into madness. Roger was really deeply affected by his friends illness.
  • Jeanette from Irvine, Cais the muzak at the end high or low? i listened really hard but heard nothing...
  • Jeanette from Irvine, Cadoes anyone know what "there is no dark side of the moon really. matter of fact its all dark" mean? its that whisper at the end and i sort of think its part of the key to understanding the album so i just want to know if anyone thinks they know what it means??
  • Ashley from Moncton, CanadaI can't believe I actually heard that little piece of music at the end. It's impossibly hard to hear and I only ever heard it once. I had headphones on full blast at 2 am when it was perfectly quiet. You can hear it a little bit when the voice is on, and it's loudest at 1:48 and then its loudest point after that is 1:53. It's neat
  • Bill from Erie, PaI think that this song is about death, and the way your life supposedly flashes before your eyes when you die. That All, you do, all you save, all you buy, et cetera would be your recollections of life, and you die when the sun is eclipsed by the moon.
  • Helen from Newie, Australiaum geoff, I think "everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon" makes perfect sense. If by some chance everything - life - is aligned, chaos isn't eliminated because the sun - source of order/"in tune" - is eclipsed by the moon.
    maybe. haha. hard stuff to explain, this floyd. but that's just what it meant to me, and I really do think that the published lyrics are the correct ones.
  • Elysia from Hamilton, New ZealandAwesome climax to an utterly amazing album, I wish the radios over here would play this after Brain Damage, it simply fades out and is such a let down. This is my favourite album of all time and the ending of this song leaves you feeling that you have just finished an amazing journey with the artists themselves, amplified by drugs - but even straight has the same effect, sizzles through mind, body and soul..
  • Gerardo from Monterrey, MexicoYou need to listen very hard and at ease of mind to discover the Ticket To Ride melodie at the end of Eclipse. I Found it in the 25 anniversary release of the album. Greetings
  • Ashley from Moncton, CanadaThis song is about how every single thing that has ever happened, everything that is happening now and everything that ever will happen in the future, every little single detail on everything on earth and in time and space, everything is connected, and everything that you do and say and even think makes up the future. I started thinking about that one night and it started to creep me out.
  • E from Vancouver, CanadaI can't hear anything... maybe the Beatles riff is only on vinyl... a lot of the album was edited out when released on CD.
  • Joel from Umea, SwedenGeoff, its "everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon". I looked on the lyrics that is writen on the album.
  • Steve from Philly, Pawell i have heard a weird sounding riff sort of thing at the end of eclipse, turn it up louder, and listen until the very freakin end. it is sort of a screech of a guitar riff. i didnt know it was a beatles song
  • Takashi from Tokyo, JapanUmmm, I listen to the song REDICILOUSY LOUD in Headphones, but I don't hear the muzak version of Ticket to ride. How odd...
  • Geoff from Wayne, Paseems like everyone on the internet has the final line as:
    "everything under the sun is in tune, but the SUN is eclipsed by the moon"
    that is not what i hear when i listen to the song, and, it doesn't make sense.
    i think the real lyrics are:
    "everything under the sun is in tune, but the SOUND is eclipsed by the moon"
    ie. the moon puts the everything under the sun out of phase, and hence you go crazy.
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