Pink floyd books

[rdbaron02]

I was curious about what book about pink floyd is the best.
I have noticed a few books, and i was thinking about reading Which One's Pink?. Have any of you read any of these books, or that book in particular. Please, leave imput, thanks.

[larry]

I've been reading Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey by Nicholas Schaffner.

The author claims to be Pink Floyd's FIRST American fan due to his mother buying a copy of Piper in 1967 when she visited Britain before it was relased in the US. It could well have been one of the first pieces of Floyd material to arrive in the States.

The book was published in 1991 so doesn't cover The Division Bell or Pulse tour. (Amazon shows a 1992 paperback too but it has a different cover to my book so it's probably been reprinted since I bought it).

The book is heavily biased towards the first few years of Floyd. In fact the entire first half is devoted to 1965 to 1970. There are detailed accounts of just about everything Floyd did in the late 60's regarding the underground scene and so anyone who wants a bit more background info on how Syd went off the rails and was booted out, it's here. The author certainly goes into great detail examining just how too much LSD did for Syd in the end.

1970 to 1973 gets a much lighter going over than the early years and from then on he more or less devotes one chapter to each album but to be fair, they are longish chapters.

He goes into more detail between 1973 and 1979 - the "classic years" as I call them going into the meanings behind the albums and their artwork and the obligatory stories of Syd wandering into the WYWH sessions is included. As you'd expect, the spitting incident on the Animals tour and its implications for Roger regarding the birth of The Wall are explained in adequate detail.

Because The Wall was an album, performance AND a film there is a lot of space given over to it along with some interesting anecdotes about the production and Gilmour losing his patience with Bob Geldof during the recording of a song for the film when Geldof wound Dave up by singing it in a thick Irish accent.

The Final Cut gets less space but you'd expect that after The Wall. The author almost brushes over the whole legal business of the mid 80's and the action moves on to Momentary Lapse rather too quickly for my liking. I'd have liked some more juicy gossip on the break up and the court cases but maybe he was being sensitive over the whole issue.

The last part of the book details the Delicate Sound tour and highlights just how far Floyd had come since the early years.

Overall it's a good book - a good introduction for the novice Floyd fan but the author does assume that the reader is aware of the key events in Floyd's history and owns at least some of the albums.

And if you're the biggest fan in the world and don't own it I'm sure you'll read something in it that you didn't know before!

[malkavian]

i've only read the book about Syd Barrett and the Dawn of Pink Floyd myself... i really enjoyed it though. Seems politely and it is a very interesting piece of work. I recommend it. It's not a very expensive book either really. Paperback and all.

[rdbaron02]

The book "which one's pink?" caught my eye at first, does anyone know anything about this book. Saucerful of Secrets sounds pretty good, i'll give it a look, maybe check the library. Then, again how long it takes me to read, i might as well buy it.

[CharadeYouAre]

I kinda had the same question, but what's a good book that is mostly about the later years after 1970?

[piper22]

Ive started to read the saucerful of secrets book by Schaffner also and i`d have to say it is quite enlightening. if anyone is looking for a pf book i would recomend it

[rdbaron02]

I just ordered saucerful of secrets, waiting for it to come in the mail. Im creaming in anticipation