Pink Floyd dropped Paul McCartney's contribution to 'Dark Side of the Moon' because he was trying to 'perform'

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Paul McCartney and Wings' Red Rose Speedway are 50 years old now, and in 1973 they almost had a bit of overlap in the recording studio. While the former Beatle recorded his classic record at Abbey Road Studios, Pink Floyd was down the hall working on their famous concept album.

During the recording process, the psychedelic rock band decided to interview various people around the studio, and they asked Paul to contribute. However, the singer-songwriter's addition wasn't exactly usable.

Pink Floyd added voices as segues in 'Dark Side of the Moon'

Dark Side of the Moon was already a cohesive story when Roger Waters devised an idea to link all of its tracks even further. He and the band interviewed staffers and anyone else around Abbey Road Studios and added the audio snippets to the mix as segues.

The band asked their volunteers a series of questions about subjects ranging from the simple "What's your favorite color?" to the deeper "Are you frightened of death?" Here is a list of Waters' questions (per TheDarkSideoftheMoon.co.uk):

1. "Why do rock and roll bands split up?"
2. "When was the last time you thumped someone?"
3. "Why did you do it?"
4. "Did you think you were in the right?"
5. "Do you still think you were in the right?"
6. "Are you frightened of dying?"
7. "Why are you frightened of dying"
8. "Do you ever think about the dark side of the moon?"
9. "Do you think you’re going mad?"
10. "If so, why?"
11. "What do you think of The Dark Side Of The Moon?"

In John Harris' The Dark Side of the Moon: The Making of the Pink Floyd (per Newsweek), Waters is quoted explaining, "Each person would read the top card and answer it—with no one else in the room—and then take that card off and do the next one.

"So, for instance, when it said, 'When was the last time you were violent?' they would answer that, and the next card said, 'Were you in the right?' The idea was to stimulate people to speak in ways that would provide essential color for the record."

Besides the random laughter and echoing voices, two people say, "I've always been mad," and "That geezer was cruisin' for a bruisin'."

One of the most memorable audio snippets came from the recording studio's doorman, Gerry O'Driscoll. Answering a card that asked what he thought about the album's title, O'Driscoll answered, "There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark." In "The Great Gig in the Sky," he also says, "And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it – you've got to go sometime."

Meanwhile, Patricia "Puddie" Watts, wife of road manager Peter Watts, gave the quote, "I never said I was frightened of dying."

Pink Floyd dropped Paul McCartney's contribution to 'Dark Side of the Moon'

Paul McCartney was one of the famous people Waters interviewed. However, he surprisingly didn't make the final cut. You'd think that Pink Floyd would love to add a snippet of a Beatle on their album, but Paul didn't exactly give the band what they wanted.

"He was the only person who found it necessary to perform, which was useless, of course," Waters told Harris. "He didn't want to give anything away. I thought it was really interesting that he would do that. He was trying to be funny, which wasn't what we wanted at all. We needed people that were open and direct."

Pink Floyd left Paul's audio on the cutting room floor, but they did include Wings guitarist Henry McCullough (per Radio X). He says, "I don't know... I was really drunk at the time" at the end of "Money."

Paul McCartney still appears on 'Dark Side of the Moon' (sort of)

Even though Pink Floyd chose to leave out Paul's contribution to Dark Side of the Moon, the former Beatle still briefly appears on the album, well, sort of.

Listening closely to the end of "Eclipse," the album's final track, you can hear a piece of an orchestral version of The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride." According to Rolling Stone, O'Driscoll apparently had the 1965 track on in the background while Waters recorded him.

So, Paul wasn't completely left out. He also doesn't seem to have resented Pink Floyd for keeping his contribution to Dark Side of the Moon out. He loves the album. Many fans are still curious about Paul's answers, though. How did he "perform" exactly?

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