Great Gig In The Sky

"Great Gig in the Sky"
By Nick Wehunt
Many sensory attributes of any given object or occurrences are not obvious at first glance. Putting on the CD "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd is something I have done thousands times since I started working with my mentor, Walter. His association with this experience from the beginning obviously triggers memories that impact my listening.
As the music begins, or at least after "breathe" becomes reality, I can smell the musty, damp aromas of my mentors hundreds of record albums --- packed into crates and seemingly everywhere. This smell is distinct and not easily mistaken for something else. I smell wet vinyl and even taste it in my mouth, but they’re no records around me. I am listening to a CD on a laptop computer in a library cubical.
I can see myself holding the album cover, flipping it back and forth, making sure the album is perfectly snug in its sleeve. I can see the album art presented as it is supposed to be. Though I am merely looking at an interpretation of that album cover, squeezed into a plastic shell. The experience now with "Dark Side of the Moon" either exactly mirrors my past experiences with the album, or to a degree, does not focus sharply on those particular memories. For example, sometimes when I throw the album on, it comes back in an overwhelming tidal wave, and other times not so much.
There are other sights, smells, and sounds which stream into my mind as "Money" finally begins, nearing the closing of the first side of the album. As those cash registers begin to chime in, I can actually see the filth, criminal elements, danger, safety---despair, anger, satisfaction, anxiety, confusion, and realization. This is what "Dark Side of the Moon" looks like.
"Us and Them". Side two. I can see Walt getting up from the desk to turn the album over. He turns the album over in the most gentle and careful way a human could possibly do it. He does this, because he doesn’t no want to hurt the album in anyway at all. I can incense and weeks of old newspapers stacked in the corner of the room. I can taste the pizza, still a few slices left. But I’m not there and he’s not here and I don’t need to turn over the album. "Dark Side of the Moon" is just one listening experience these days, not side-one, side two. But my mind still hears the distinctions.
As the music winds down somewhat into "The Lunatic is on the Grass" about Sid Barret. For me to say that I must explain Sid Barrete. Some say he had schizophrenia and others say he had Asperger syndrome, either way people think he was a little bit on the loony side. Incidentally, It’s funny that I start thinking about what it is that makes a man crazy, or not. Who decides? What if the "decider" is crazy?
I finish up with the Pink Floyd and close it back into the plastic case. As I put the CD into the case, I feel the weight of the vinyl in my hand. I push it into the album cover. I sit the album back into the plywood crate. As I walk across the lawn to my ride home, I realize that I just may be the lunatic on the grass.