Dark Side of the Moon

Two nights running I've woken up in the middle of the night and resorted to listening to Dark Side of the Moon - Monday night the real thing, tonight a covers version which came free with Mojo. What to say? I'm old enough to remember it coming out in '73. It didn't so much become a classic, as arrive fully-formed, instantly iconic: from its perfect sequencing of tracks, the way they run into each other, begging to be played all the way through; its state-of-the-art production; its combination of accessible and avant garde; its dark lyrical themes of madness; its ahead-of-its-time sleeve... Of course PF were a bit miserable, aloof, their earlier albums patchy affairs and anything post-Animals mostly dire, but the importance of DSOTM cannot be denied. Suffice it to say that the cover versions CD, by bands you've never heard of, is the kind of thing you play once only. Not exactly bad but ultimately fairly pointless.