21. Rock Goes The Gospel - Pink Floyd "Money"

The Pink Floyd Track "Money" Is on the second half of the album "Dark side of the Moon" When released this album was a formidable concept album. The album is a cautionary tale in two parts. The first half of the album explores the philosophical and physical ideas that can lead to a person's insanity, and describes living a life that goes unfulfilled. The second half of the album is a kind of madness in it's own right, as it explores the root causes to the problem mentioned in the first half of the album.

"Money" begins in an unusual time signature and lots of studio effects. Pink Floyd were using a new 16-track recorder, which allowed them to layer sounds much easier, but complex studio techniques like this still took a long time to do in 1973, as there weren't digital recorders and samplers available like we have today. If you wanted to copy and paste something, you had to do it the hard way - with a razor blade and splicing tape

Pink Floyd takes advantage of the limits of technology during this time period (or the necessary pause in the album) to change how they are going to continue discussing the topic of insanity and living an unfulfilled life. The first half of the album takes a more hands on and personal experience with the subject matter, while the second half of the album explores the subject matter in more philosophical type of setting.

Money is about greed and the illusion of a life well lived that comes with having an excess of wealth. The first verse of the song focuses on the excesses of money, consumerism, and peoples desire to grab and horde as much cash or wealth as possible. The second verse continues with the subject of the desire to grab more money, while also introducing the lengths people will go to in order to protect the money and possessions they have acquired. The third and final verse focuses on the negative philosophical issues that money brings to a society, which include the ideas that ordinary people will never be able to increase their stash of money to match the wealthy, and the idea that money is the root of all evil. The cash registers and money sounds that are used to underscore the whole song sound mechanical and lifeless. The mechanical money sounds are like a metaphor for the way people mechanically work the same job day in and day out for 40 plus years. People of course work harder, motivated by earning more money, but a lot of people ultimately waste their lives with this mentality. So the idea with the song Money is that the concept of wealth is one of the illusions or ideas that can be the cause of a person wasting their life, or it can be used to ruin the lives of others.

As Money fades out a spoken voice dialogue describing a fight begins. This is a segue into Us and Them which deals with conflict and inequality. It's inclusion on Money instead of Us and Them suggests that money is also a cause of conflict.

In the song lyrics for "Money, we find the poignant lyrics "Money so they say, is a root of all evil today" This paraphrase from the New Testament - 1 Timothy 6:10: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil."

Money, get away

Get a good job with more pay
And your O. K.

Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands
And make a stash

New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

Money get back
I'm all right Jack
Keep your hands off my stack

Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that
Do goody good bullshit

I'm in the hi-fidelity
First class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet

(Sax and guitar solos)

Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly
But don't take a slice of my pie

Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil
Today

But if you ask for a rise
It's no surprise that they're
Giving none away
Away
Away
Away
Away...

"Hu Huh! I was in the right!"
"Yes, absolutely in the right!"
"I certainly was in the right!"
"You was definitely in the right. That geezer was cruising for a bruising!"
"Yeah!"
"Why does anyone do anything?"
"I don't know, I was really drunk at the time!"
"I was just telling him, he couldn't get into number 2. He was asking
Why he wasn't coming up on freely, after I was yelling and
Screaming and telling him why he wasn't coming up on freely.
It came as a heavy blow, but we sorted the matter out"

Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount tackles the same problem as Paul. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24). This verse comes at the end of a passage in which Jesus tells us to “lay up treasures in heaven” (v. 19). Here, Jesus likens a “love of money” to idolatry. He refers to money as a “master” we serve at the expense of serving God. We are commanded by God to have “no other gods” before the only true and living God (Exodus 20:3; the first commandment). Anything that takes first place in our lives other than our Creator God is an idol and makes us guilty of breaking the first commandment.

Jesus had much to say about wealth. His most memorable conversation about money is His encounter with the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16–30). The young man asks Jesus what he must do to obtain eternal life, and Jesus tells him to follow the commandments. When the man tells Jesus that he has done all that, Jesus tests his ability to obey the first commandment and tells him to sell all his possessions and give it to the poor and to follow Him. The young man couldn’t do this; his wealth had become an idol—it was his master!

After this encounter, Jesus turns to His disciples and says, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:23–24). This is a hard saying, especially for people who live in today's rich society. Jesus is saying that wealth is one of the biggest obstacles to coming to faith in Christ. The reason is obvious: wealth becomes a slave master in our lives and drives us to do all sorts of things that drive us further and further away from God. The good news is that what is impossible for man, entering into the Kingdom of God, is possible with God (Matthew 19:26). Even if you leave faith out of this Jesus gives good advice. "Don't let money rule you life as it will drive you away from all that is good and wholesome, for the love of money may be a burden that you cannot bear" 

Jesus might agree with Pink Floyd's expose on "Money" as wealth is one of the illusions or ideas that can be the cause of a person wasting their life, or it can be used to ruin the lives of others.

What do you think about Money?