Pink Floyd announced yesterday (January 19) that they will release a Dark Side Of The Moon 50th anniversary box set, and revealed that they will also launch a new The Dark Side Of The Moon experience at London's word-famous Planetarium, where the band first held the original press launch for the album in February 1973.
But in unveiling a new logo to mark the iconic album's 50th anniversary celebrations, the prog rock legends seem to have unwittingly found themselves immersed in the latest 'culture wars' debate.
It seems that certain less... enlightened followers of the band on Facebook have interpreted the new logo's inclusion of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet bars, the colours visible when white light passes through a triangular prism, as featured on the album's world-famous artwork designed by Hipgnosis, as a signal that the group are now "woke", and championing LGBTQ+ rights. And therefore, in their eyes, the group must be CANCELLED, immediately.
"Lose the rainbow, you’re making yourself look stupid!" writes one commenter... and it gets worse...
"Sad to see a band that was once great has gone full WOKE!!!." writes another fan. "I loved your music before, NOT LISTENING NOW!"
A third commentator states: "No librul [sic] agenda for me today. Thanks, Pink. Fan for 63 years and never listening again. I miss when the songs were about cats and gnomes! Bring back syd, hed never stand for this left wing nonsense."
Another confused fan asks, "What is the connection between pink Floyd master piece & LGBT ??? WTF...."
"Yeah, cuz I always hear Pink Floyd fans saying “I wish Pink Floyd was more gay”." tuts another upset follower.
"From this moment I don’t listen to this band" an ex-fan writes.
Understandably, true Pink Floyd fans are highly amused by this display of ignorance from the anti-woke brigade, and have been quick to point out a few relevant facts.
"Imagine claiming to be a Pink Floyd fan for longer than I’ve been alive, and still knowing nothing about them" writes one poster.
"The triangle is a PRISM" another commenter points out patiently, for the benefit of the hard-of-thinking. "That’s the whole concept of the cover and why the white light spectrum is coming out of the other side of the triangle. I have low expectations of people on the best of days but boycotting Pink Floyd (as if it would matter) because you don’t understand prisms and can’t remember the original cover is beyond parody. Unbelievable."
"I'm amazed at all these bigots getting upset over the rainbow," another comment states. "How can they not know/remember that the Iconic album, "Dark Side of the Moon", featured a prism refracting light into a rainbow as its cover art."
Another post states: "The prism already had a rainbow, and you'd be a fake fan to say Pink Floyd hasn't always accepted queer folks. The Wall was pretty clear that homophobia is vile."
"Came here after screenshots were shared in another group, and I wasn't disappointed lmao," writes another fan. "I love how incredibly narrow minded people are. Makes for good laughs."
In a simple, but brilliantly cutting comment, another fan writes, "Some people here took 'we don’t need no education' too seriously."
Check out the comments here.
Explaining the origins of the album's artwork to Rolling Stone in 2017, Hipgnosis co-founder Aubrey “Po” Powell said, "I was looking through an old French physics book, and there was a photograph of a glass paperweight with sunlight shining in through the window, and it created a rainbow prism. Storm [Thorgerson, Powell's Hipgnosis partner] looked at me and said, "I’ve got it: a prism. It’s all about Pink Floyd and their light show'."
The forthcoming The Dark Side Of The Moon box set will be available through Warners on March 24. It includes a CD and gatefold vinyl of the newly remastered studio album and Blu-Ray and DVD audio featuring the original 5.1 mix and remastered stereo versions. The set also includes an additional new Blu-ray disc of a Dolby Atmos mix plus CD and LP of The Dark Side Of The Moon - Live At Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974.
