Brain Damage

To understand this song, you have to understand the concept of the album. The entire album describes different periods of a humans life – in particular, the life of ex band mate Syd Barrett. From birth (breathe) , to fame, to wealth (money), to madness (brain damage, dark side of the moon), to death (great gig in the sky)

This song in particular is referring to Barrett’s madness. In particular, Walters attempts to help the (then) recluse recover

“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”

This is referring to Barrett’s condition, and his habit of being child like. Often, in his illness, reminding Walters of how Barratt was as a child. Walters is stating that Barratt acting like a child (running about, throwing things) was bad, and that he “had to keep the loonie on the path”. Stating the “grass” represented madness (acting like a child) and the path was sanity (being a grown up.

“The lunatic is in the hall, the lunatics are in the hall, the paper holds their folded faces to the floor,and every day the paper boy brings more”

This simply refers to Barratt not responding to anyone. During the period, he barely left his bedroom, and when visited, was noted to have months worth of post, letters, newspapers, magazines piled up in his hall. Walters is stating that this is another sign of his madness.

“And if the dam breaks open many years too soon and if there is no room upon the hill”. This is stating that “the dam has broke” and that Barratt has gone mad, from the pressure “too soon”, as in young.

“and if your head explodes with dark forbodings too,I'll see you on the dark side of the moon”. Basically stating that Barratt was in a dark place, that had driven him insane. As with the album “The Dark Side of the moon” is Walters imagery for madness. As in, if you “go to the dark side of the moon”, you have gone mad.

“The lunatic is in my head. 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 here's someone in my head but it's not me”. Walters is stating how his best friend going mad had got to him, and how he feared he was going the same way, with “the lunatic is in my head”. “You raise the blade, and rearrange till I’m sane, you lock the door and throw away the key”, he is referring to the various medical treatment used to combat madness, as well as enforced incarnation in a mental hospital – where Barratt was for 6 months before the song was written. “There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me” is Waters referring to the fact that the various treatments Barratt had taken had changed him, and he did not recognise his childhood friend anymore.

“and if the band you're in starts playing different tunes. I'll see you on the dark side of the moon”. Probably the most famous line and incident on the album. While Barratt was in the band, and growing very ill, he did very odd things in practice. One of them was his habit of suddenly starting to play different songs when they were practising. So Waters is saying “when the band your in starts playing different tunes”, as in, Barratts first symptoms, “we’ll see you on the dark side of the moon” – you’ve gone mad.

The main theme of the song is Barratts madness, and how it affected Waters, who was a very close friend. Waters uses the imagery of “the dark side of the moon”, as a description of the dark side of the human mind – ie madness. And states that if uou’ve seen the dark side of the moon, then you have gone mad.

However, he’s not just claiming Barratts mad, but a lot of people are in general. And stating that if Barratt is mad, and is being operated on, then maybe he should be as well, as he felt that a lot of symptoms Barratt displayed, he had as well. Another feature of the song is Barratt’s haunting voice, mixed over the top. Although, very ill, and very sad, Barratt often turned up at Pink Floyd recording sessions to watch. Something that supposedly broke Waters heart, and inspired him to write many of the latter songs about his long time friend.