The Dark Side of the Moon Trivia
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This Dark Side of the Moon trivia quiz has 79 free questions with answers about the Pink Floyd album that stayed on the Billboard 200 for the better part of two decades. The easy end covers what any fan knows: the year it came out, the prism on the sleeve, the singer who wailed through The Great Gig in the Sky, the film people sync it with and the single that gave the band its first American hit. From there it goes into how the record was actually made: the garden shed where the demos were cut, the coins thrown into a pottery-studio mixing bowl, the clocks recorded in an antique shop, the synthesiser that runs On the Run, the flashcard interviews with roadies and a doorman, the Beatle whose answers were cut, the press launch the band boycotted, the working titles that came and went, and the arguments over the mix. The expert questions reach into chart statistics, tribute albums, a Mars rover, an Olympic opening ceremony and a flight announcement to Lagos. Every answer was checked against the album's Wikipedia article and the articles for its individual tracks, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 79 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was The Dark Side of the Moon released?
1973
The album was released in March 1973, first in the US on 1 March, more than a year after the band first played the whole suite live in January 1972.
Q 02The prism sleeve was designed by which design studio, which had also done the band's cow and ear covers?
Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis, the studio of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, presented the band several designs; all four members chose the prism, which George Hardie drew.
Q 03'Money', the band's first US hit, peaked at which position on the Billboard Hot 100?
13
'Money' peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's first US hit single; Cash Box placed it at number 10, and the single edit cut most of the solos.
Q 04Most of 'Money' is written in which unusual time signature?
7/4
'Money' is mostly in 7/4, an unusual meter for a rock hit; the band shifts to a straight 4/4 for the guitar solo before returning to 7/4 at the end.
Q 05Which saxophonist, an old friend of David Gilmour, was booked to play on the album?
Dick Parry
Dick Parry, a Cambridge friend of the band's guitarist, played the saxophone solos on 'Money' and returned to play on Wish You Were Here.
Q 06Which session singer improvised the wordless vocal on 'The Great Gig in the Sky'?
Clare Torry
Clare Torry, a session singer suggested by the engineer, recorded her wordless improvisation in a few takes on a Sunday and left believing the band disliked it.
Q 07How much was the 'Great Gig in the Sky' vocalist paid for her session in 1973?
£30
The singer was paid £30, the flat Sunday session fee, and only learned she was on the record when she saw her name in the credits in a shop.
Q 08After a 2004 lawsuit, 'The Great Gig in the Sky' is credited jointly to the vocalist and which band member?
Richard Wright
Richard Wright wrote the chord sequence on piano; after the vocalist's suit was settled, later pressings credit 'The Great Gig in the Sky' to Wright and the singer jointly.
Q 09Which EMI staff engineer engineered the album at Abbey Road Studios?
Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons, then an EMI staff engineer at Abbey Road, engineered the album and went on to form the Alan Parsons Project in 1975.
Q 10On which earlier Pink Floyd album had the album's engineer worked as an assistant?
Atom Heart Mother
Atom Heart Mother, released in 1970, was the engineer's first Pink Floyd credit, as an assistant; he had also assisted on the Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be.
Q 11The album's initial run on the Billboard 200 lasted how many nonconsecutive weeks, from 1973 to 1988?
736
It included one unbroken stretch of 593 weeks, and it went back on the chart in 2009 once catalogue titles were allowed again.
Q 12By 2013 the album had sold roughly how many copies worldwide?
45 million
An estimated 45 million copies had been sold worldwide by the album's 40th anniversary, which places it among the best-selling albums of all time.
Q 13Which band member received a rare solo writing credit for the opening sound collage 'Speak to Me'?
Nick Mason
Nick Mason is credited alone for 'Speak to Me', the heartbeat-led collage that opens the album; the bassist later said the credit was a gift to give the drummer publishing income.
Q 21Which drums dominate the two-minute passage after the clocks in 'Time'?
Rototoms
Rototoms, tunable shell-less drums, carry the two-minute passage after the clocks in 'Time', played by the drummer over a muted tick-tock on bass.
Q 22'Time' ends with a one-minute reprise of which earlier track?
Breathe
'Time' closes with 'Breathe (Reprise)', a roughly one-minute return to the album's second track, with new lyrics about coming home cold and tired.
Q 23Which two members share the lead vocal on 'Time'?
Gilmour and Wright
Gilmour and Wright split the vocal: Gilmour sings the verses and Wright the softer bridge, his last lead vocal on a Pink Floyd album until 'Wearing the Inside Out' in 1994.
Q 14Which track grew out of 'The Violent Sequence', a piano piece written for the film Zabriskie Point?
Us and Them
Its 7:49 running time makes it the longest track on the album.
Q 15Antonioni rejected 'The Violent Sequence' as too sad because it made him think of what?
Church
Church is what it made Antonioni think of: he told the band the piece was beautiful but too sad, and it was shelved for about three years before this album revived it.
Q 16Under what working title was 'The Great Gig in the Sky' performed live in early 1972?
The Mortality Sequence
'The Mortality Sequence' was the early organ instrumental with spoken-word tape over it; by the album sessions it had become a piano piece topped by a wordless vocal.
Q 17The pulsing sequence of 'On the Run' was built by entering eight notes into which synth?
EMS Synthi AKS
The EMS Synthi AKS, a British suitcase synth with a built-in sequencer, played the eight-note loop sped up; even the hi-hat-like pulse came from the synth, with no second machine to sync.
Q 18Which guitar-and-keyboard jam filled the 'On the Run' slot in the band's early 1972 shows?
The Travel Sequence
'The Travel Sequence' was the guitar-led live jam the band played in 1972 before 'On the Run' was written; its studio version stayed unreleased until the 2011 Immersion box set.
Q 19'On the Run' evokes the anxiety of travel, and in particular which fear of the band's keyboardist?
Flying
Flying was the keyboardist's particular fear; 'On the Run' plays on it with running footsteps, an airport announcement and a closing crash that suggests a plane coming down.
Q 20Where were the ticking and chiming clocks that open 'Time' recorded?
An antique clock shop
An antique clock shop supplied the ticking and chimes: the engineer had taped each clock there separately as a quadraphonic test weeks earlier, and the band put it on 'Time'.
Q 24What did the band call 'Brain Damage' during live performances and recording sessions?
Lunatic
'Lunatic' was the band's name for 'Brain Damage' on stage and in the studio, after its opening line 'The lunatic is on the grass'.
Q 25The themes of madness on the album were inspired in part by the decline of which former member?
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett, the band's original frontman, left in 1968 as his mental health collapsed; he famously turned up unrecognised at the 1975 Wish You Were Here sessions.
Q 26Who sings lead vocal on 'Brain Damage'?
Roger Waters
Roger Waters sings lead on 'Brain Damage', the song he wrote about madness; Gilmour encouraged him despite his doubts about his own voice and sang it himself on the 1994 tour.
Q 27What was the job of Gerry O'Driscoll, whose spoken answers about dying and the moon appear on the album?
Doorman
Doorman at Abbey Road Studios, Gerry O'Driscoll gave the closing line 'There is no dark side of the moon really, matter of fact it's all dark' and the 'I am not frightened of dying' lines.
Q 28Which famous couple's answers to Roger Waters's flashcard questions were cut for 'trying too hard to be funny'?
Paul and Linda McCartney
Paul and Linda McCartney, recording Wings' Red Rose Speedway at Abbey Road at the time, were interviewed but cut; the band felt their answers were performances rather than candid replies.
Q 29Which Wings guitarist contributed the spoken line about being really drunk at the time?
Henry McCullough
Henry McCullough, then Wings' lead guitarist, was interviewed while his band worked in the same studio complex; his 'I was really drunk at the time' answer appears on 'Money'.
Q 30The repeated manic laughter heard on the album was recorded by which member of the band's crew?
Road manager Peter Watts
Road manager Peter Watts supplied the manic laughter heard on 'Speak to Me' and 'Brain Damage'; his daughter Naomi Watts later became a Hollywood star.