"There is no dark side of the moon really...

[Rilchiam]

…matter of fact it’s all dark."

Last line of Dark Side of the Moon, by the same guy who’s been yammering and chuckling throughout. Mr. Rilch and Friend say that he was some misfit street person they called into the studio on a whim. I was told, by another friend who’s a big PF fan, that he was one of their roadies. Anyone?

[Mudshark]

I don’t know for sure, but I have heard the roadie story before.

[Cabbage]

A lot (thought of course not all) of the spoken parts were done by Roger the Hat (“Live for today, gone tomorrow, that’s me, hahaha…”, “…short, sharp, shock…”), who was a roadie for various bands (not for Floyd, I don’t think). The spoken parts come mainly (if not entirely) from answers to a set of questions Waters asked of several people, such as, “When was the last time you were violent?”, “When was the last time you thumped someone?”

I always thought it was R the H who did the final bit you mention (and I’ve found some sites claiming that), but according to this site (which I just ran across), that part was done by an Irish doorman for Abbey Roads studio, Jerry Driscoll:

http://www.floydianslip.com/discs/dsotm.htm

The maniacal laughter came from Roger the Hat, a road manager of another band, while it was doorman Jerry Driscoll who provided the parting shot on the album, saying, “There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark,” as the heartbeat at the end of side two slowly fades to black. Beatle Paul McCartney was interviewed, though his thoughts weren’t included on the album.

This page, BTW, says it’s Roger the Hat:

http://www.cs.umd.edu/~dekhtyar/errorfest/Mabbett_guide.html

Looking at it briefly, I tend to think it probably wasn’t roadie R the H, but actually Driscoll that said the words.

Finally, as an interesting note of trivia, this page gives the following:

http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/ptr/pfloyd/interview/dark4.html

The final words are Jerry Driscoll’s. His original words were, “There is no dark side of the moon really. As a matter of fact it’s all dark…and the thing that makes it look alight is the sun.” His closing phrase, astronomically accurate yet artistically anticlimactic, was edited out.

[Rilchiam]

I see! So I wasn’t entirely right, but it still wasn’t any “random street person”. Thank you!

[Zebra]

I have also that Paul and Linda McArtny taped answers to the questions but they were so used to being interviewed that their responses weren’t ‘real’ enough to be used.