During a recent interview with The Sun, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason shared an interesting anecdote about Paul McCartney and his wife Linda almost singing to one of Pink Floyd’s hits. In 1970s, Abbey Road was a busy recording studio where both Pink Floyd and the McCartney family were known to frequent.
The creation of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ was both enjoyable and challenging for the band, with Roger Waters leading the way creatively. It’s not surprising that Waters often took most of the credit, but Nick Mason had some doubts about one particular aspect of the album. Specifically, Mason claimed he was responsible for adding the sound of pre-decimal coins to the track ‘Money,’ but Waters took credit for it. Mason and Waters would often debate who actually came up with the idea, but Mason remained convinced he was the originator.
Mason then went on to discuss the recording of ‘Money,’ revealing that Paul and Linda McCartney were almost featured in the song during the section with various voice snippets. However, the decision was made not to use their voices because they were too recognizable.
The drummer of Pink Floyd talked about his disagreements with Waters and the possibility of featuring Paul McCartney in one of their songs.
“Well, Roger and I discuss this [taking credit for the coil sounds] at length almost every time we meet, but I definitely made it, yes!
[He continues by discussing how the McCartneys’ voices almost made it into ‘Money’] But they were too distinctive. We didn’t want people to pick up on a celebrity element. Interestingly enough, Henry McCullough [Wings guitarist] and his wife were used on our record.”
While it would have been interesting to have the McCartneys make a cameo appearance on “The Dark Side of the Moon,” Pink Floyd ultimately decided against it. They felt that having well-known rock stars featured on the track “Money” would distract from the song’s message about capitalism and overshadow its anti-capitalist lyrics.