Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #222940 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-31
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Synopsis
"The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd" is the ultimate companion to the band that changed the sound and scale of pop music forever. Features include: The Story: from the Syd Barrett era, the Dark Side Of The Moon phenomenon to their transformation into one of the world's biggest bands, The Music: 50 essential Floyd songs and the stories behind them, plus all the albums and recording sessions, side-projects and solo careers, Floyd On Film: the movies and film soundtracks from "The Wall" and "More to Zabriskie Point" and Pink Floyd at Pompeii, Floydology file: the cover versions, rarities, DVDs, books and websites. From the psychedelic "happenings" of 60s London to the arena gigs, world tours and Live 8 reunion - it's all here.

Customer Reviews

Nicely structured and well documented effort
Hmm. I do not quite agree with the previous comment. I thought the author was still generally partial and objective. I'm a big Roger Waters fan and I thought for many solo albums of Roger, he was rather harsh and gave a very good review to Gimour's On an Island. But, from my point of view, while I did not agree on all of the authors review and top-50 song selections either, I like the fact that an author gives his own perceptions and I think many of the comments were well balanced with the good, the bad and the ugly for each album and/or situation, whomever member was involved. (i.e.: about the Final Cut "there was no easy entry for the casual fan here" AND "For those prepared to enter its chilly embrace, The Final Cut's rewards are not inconsiderable"

While a given album may be popular, that doesn't necessarily mean it is a well made album and that it has artistic merit or rigor in the composition of the music or lyrics. Same with a movie. While "Back to the Future" may be fun to watch, it has not the artistic qualities and deep-thought rigors of "2001: A space odyssey" and/or "Stalker".

Appreciation of a piece of art (music, movie, novel, etc.) is all in the eye of the beholder and it all relates to one's personal emotions, but I think the author does a solid effort in highlighting technical, lyrical and emotional forces and weakness of each album. The book is well documented with plenty of quotes from the band and for once, we have in-depth comments on the solo material and careers of each member (without focusing necessarily on Syd).

Richard

Far too biased
As a long-time fan of Pink Floyd, I bought this without even skimming it in a shop first, but I wish I had. While it is ostensibly a reasonably comprehensive history of the band, the author's personal bias intrudes in too many places. Toby Manning is a fan of the Waters-era Floyd, and seems to loathe the post-Waters material. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the list of 50 essential Floyd songs - AMLOR and Division Bell are represented by a single track (Wearing The Inside Out), while no fewer than 4 tracks from The Final Cut (regarded by many as one of Floyd's poorest albums) are included. Interestingly, Mr Manning then criticises Gilmour for including 5 tracks from AMLOR and TDB on the Echoes compilation, with only a single Final Cut track - a case of the pot and the kettle?

While it is fine for Mr Manning to have an opinion and to state it, the sneering tone used whenever he is discussing the post-Waters material leaves a bad taste - the Floyd deserve a less partisan approach.