Dark Side of Laughter

Obviously,  everyone today has heard of Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga. Years back everyone had listened to The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Today, not too many have heard of Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra, although other bands have stuck with us through the decades. For one, AC/DC has their album, Back In Black, and it made it back onto the list of Billboard Top 200 as of 2013, ranked at #73. Other bands like Van Halen and Journey, however, have not earned anything like that recently, but they have kept our attention for years after years. 

Among those bands is a band named Pink Floyd. They started producing music in 1965, and have continued to be well known group all the way up to today. They were, of course, one of the rebellious rock bands that parents of that decade would never let their children listen to. Today, the tides have turned, and some parents praise their kids for listening to the music they used to listen to without their parents knowing.  

Image courtesy of Amoeba Music

Based off of pop culture, and the t-shirts everyone wears, Dark Side of the Moon is Pink Floyd's 

most-known record. Assuming everyone knows Pink Floyd, this has probably been the record that is on every old rock fans' playlist. On the record, there are the hits Money, Us and Them, and Brain Damage. These songs are four of their most played songs at concerts and other gigs.

Although almost all of Pink Floyd's songs are good, there is something that is just a tad eerie and disturbing about them.

That would be the evil, ominous cackle hidden in a few songs. 

This "laugh", is not nice, it's terrifying, especially if you're listening when you're alone. The laughter in the background can be found in Not Now John, Money, Wish You Were Here, Brain Damage, and Welcome to the Machine.  A few of these songs are on the Wish You Were Here album, which revolves around Syd Barrett and his illnesses. 

In short, Syd had illnesses because of how chaotic his life was. He would always travel around,  get told what to do by his managers, and how to do it by the band. Eventually, he had used drugs, had preformed poorly in some concerts, and gotten himself removed from the band. However, Syd did write great songs as a member of the band. Most of the songs were written with odd lyrics, mostly compelling people with rumors that they were written insanity or suicide. Thus, resulting in the laughter.

The only thing really terrifying is what happens when listening to the songs with laughter. Songs like these have caused mental instability momentarily while the music is playing. During the songs, things have broken, caused by anger resulting from the music. Hockey sticks, wooden benches, pens and pencils, drumsticks, and bones have been broken, guaranteed.

One last thing. Yes, Welcome To The Machine is popular, but the music video has been played only at concerts.The entire video was hand drawn, filled with corpses and blood. Have you been brave enough to watch it?