Brain Damage Eclipse Pink Floyd

Brain Damage, Eclipse Album: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
by Pink Floyd

This is probably about insanity, something the band was quite familiar with. Ex-singer/guitarist Syd Barrett's experiments with hallucinogens caused his unfortunate fall in the late '60s.

Many people consider this and "Eclipse" one song because they run seamlessly together at the end of the monumental album, The Dark Side of the Moon. Radio stations usually play them together.

The line, "You raise the blade, you make the change" is a reference to frontal lobotomies.

The line, "And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes" is a specific reference to Syd Barrett's propensity for playing the wrong song on stage during his "episodes" towards his final days with Pink Floyd, which subsequently led to his dismissal.

Many people believe that The Dark Side of the Moon synchs up with the movie The Wizard Of Oz (beginning the record just as the third roar from MGM lion is displayed). This song plays while the scarecrow sings "If I only had a brain."

The lyrics, "The lunatic is on the grass" do not refer to the drug marijuana, but rather actual sod. Roger Waters based the line on the signs that state "Stay Off The Grass" and how he thought anyone who disobeyed the signs was crazy. The line, "Got to keep the loonies on the path" supports this, meaning that people must not get off the path and onto the grass.

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.