Just take “The Dark Side of the Moon”, one of the greatest rock albums of all time, and release your own version, which is anything but a deadbeat after the original: The Flaming Lips (together with Henry Rollins, Peaches and White Dwarfs) took a risk in 2009 – however, with such a pronounced carelessness, one could not fail at all. While the project started out as a joke, Flaming Lips boss Wayne Coyne is serious about his love for Pink Floyd.
On the record’s 50th anniversary, we spoke to Coyne about the fascination that The Dark Side Of The Moon still holds and why Pink Floyd are more punk than many punk bands.
Mr. Coyne, when Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon came out, you were twelve years old. Do you remember when and how you first heard the album?
As far as I can remember, I owe that to my older brother and his friends. However, I didn’t hear the record the same year it came out, only a few years later. They played it over and over again and for a long time I had no idea who it was. Before that, Pink Floyd weren’t that famous, but still had something of a crazy underground band. But things really got going with “The Dark Side of the Moon”.
The Flaming Lips once played support for The Jesus And Mary Chain in San Francisco shortly after forming in the 1980s — and that’s when they covered “Wish You Were Here,” of all things. That didn’t necessarily endear you to the post-punk crowd.
Yes, that shows how totally out of touch with reality we were. Or how little we cared about things. Or what dorky we were. At the time we just thought it was cool. We really loved the song too! But yes, I don’t think a single person in the audience liked it or thought the action was great (laughs).
Why do you think Pink Floyd was the favorite enemy for many punks? For many they were almost the Antichrist, for example for John Lydon.
Yes, but John Lydon also admitted that he actually loves Pink Floyd. They were just the most obvious target. Musicians and bands like to have an enemy — to be able to distance themselves from something. But we never did that. We’ve always loved punk rock and classic rock, country music and jazz.
You once said that Pink Floyd was much more punk than the punk bands of the time.
Yeah, listen to the Syd Barrett solo stuff. The man is really his own boss. He plays by his own rules and doesn’t allow himself to be interfered with. At first I liked that about punk rock: there were no rules, you could do whatever you wanted. That’s why when we started The Flaming Lips we had so much confidence — we could make music because we really had no idea what we were doing. That was a great grace. To me, punk rock means just doing your own shit, not giving up and not caring about what other people think.
What do you think makes “The Dark Side Of The Moon” so timeless?
There are just really great songs on it. It’s perfect — but it’s also the same song over and over again. The album doesn’t try to be dynamic at all, getting louder and quieter. It’s the same song with some weird instrumental passages in between. It creates a mood, a state of mind. Roger Waters, who can’t help but be angry all the time — and this in combination with David Gilmour and Richard Wright, two mild-mannered, extremely nice British musicians. The combination between these poles makes the magic. In short: great songs, great sounds, great vocals, great harmonies, great ideas.
In 2009 you released your own version of the album — with Henry Rollins, Peaches and White Dwarfs. How did that come about?
We were playing at this hippie festival and they asked us to play a long set. Two or three hours late at night — we don’t usually do that. We took a look at some of the longer tracks from “The Dark Side Of The Moon”. When our album “Embryonic” came out, we needed some solo tracks for iTunes. I jokingly suggested to Apple that we could just record “The Dark Side Of The Moon”, we already had a few songs on it. They took it seriously and asked if they should send a producer over. It was funny with Henry, by the way: He was the only person my age who hadn’t known “The Dark Side Of The Moon” before.
Actually, have you ever spoken to anyone from Pink Floyd about the record?
No, but like the Beatles, there’s a kind of unwritten rule: if they don’t want you to put the record out, they will definitely let you know. We always joked that when we were recording we would see a black helicopter circling over the studio. All of a sudden, people would jump out of that helicopter, destroy our studio and say, “Don’t do that again.” But seriously, I think Roger Waters and Nick Mason would actually be fine if they heard it. Simply because they are open to interpretation I think. With Roger Waters, I’m not sure I would ever want to meet him in a confrontation. I mean, I love Roger Waters and I’d like to talk to him. I guess I just wouldn’t address our version right at the start.
So Waters would circle the helicopter over your studio?
Yes, probably.
In your opinion, is there a weak point on “The Dark Side Of The Moon”?
Yes, for me that is “money”. I would just never want to listen to the song, I keep switching.