There are rock albums and there’s a rock canon. Yes, it’s March 2026, time to revisit The Dark Side of the Moon by British band Pink Floyd that released on March 1, 1973. An album so addictive that it should’ve been outlawed.

In 1973, the band was eight years old and no stranger to either success or tragedy. Founding member Syd Barrett, credited for early hits like Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, was no longer a part of Pink Floyd. The devastatingly handsome Pink Floyd frontman and songwriter had to leave in 1968, when the band was just three years old, owing to his worsening mental health. Syd died in 2006, aged 60, out of the limelight for decades.

Syd’s presence looms large in The Dark Side of the Moon, arguably Pink Floyd’s biggest, most philosophical musical extravaganza.

Especially in Brain Damage. Written, composed and sung by bassist Roger Waters, it has spectacular guitar chords by David Gilmour that give the song its moody, melancholic yet unhinged vibe. Nick Mason keeps the drums minimal for the “heartbeat” effect, intensifying the accents leading to the song’s emotional crescendo. Richard Wright provides the atmospheric textures on the synthesizer and the Hammond organ.

And who can forget that manic laughter that adds to the brooding soundscape? Credit goes to Peter Watts, the band’s road manager at that time.

The lyrics are, to put it mildly, haunting:

The lunatic is on the grass/ The lunatic is on the grass/ Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs/ Got to keep the loonies on the path....

And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too/ I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon....

And then it gets chilling:

The lunatic is in my head (*laughter*)/ The lunatic is in my head/ You raise the blade, you make the change/ You rearrange me ‘till I’m sane/ You lock the door and throw away the key/ And there’s someone in my head, but it’s not me

There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me. It may be the best line in history to convey the pain of mental illness.

The brilliance of Brain Damage swings from the interpersonal to the interstellar and lands with a thump on the heart.

Of course, The Dark Side of the Moon has other timeless tracks — Us and Them, Money, Breathe, Time — all layered pieces of music that evolve as you listen to them over the years. But Brain Damage is for the lonely, misunderstood times. Brain Damage is for the Syd in all of us.