Psychoanalyst Daniel Levitin Psychoanalyses Dark Side of the Moon on NPR
While limited use of psychedelics can, “in the context of spiritual growth and therapy,” be “positive,” herculean doses such as those taken by Syd Barrett are not.
“But sometimes the ego can dissolve and dissociate, and you become crazy,” neuroscientist and super-Pink Floyd fan Daniel Levitin told NPR’s Leyla Fadel in a discussion of the Dark Side of the Moon’s 50th anniversary, March 1, 2023.
“Syd was unreliable as a bandmate,” Levitin, author of “This is Your Brain on Music,” said.
“He missed gigs. He was paranoid. And on stage, he would sabotage the performances or not play at all. His bandmates tried to get him to a psychiatrist, but he wouldn’t go. And so they kicked him out in 1968.”
Five years later, the band released Dark Side, an album oozing with “themes of madness and alienation,” as Levitin puts it.
“We can’t know for sure which specific lyrics were about Barrett, as opposed, more generally, to mental anguish,” he said. “But listen, the very first thing you hear on the record is that haunting heartbeat and some machine sounds and voices. And I always imagined it as a mental hospital.”
Five decades on, Levitin says Dark Side of the Moon is “a cultural touchstone” - something highly personal to Pink Floyd that’s become universal.
“That final lyric where ‘the sun is eclipsed by the moon - maybe it’s a metaphor,’” he says. “Syd was the sun of the band, the brightest spot. And (Roger) Waters was the moon and overtook him.”
3/2/23