Everything Under The Sun Complete Guide to Pink Floyd Book
A new book called Everything Under The Sun Complete Guide to Pink Floyd by Mike Cormack has been published by specialist publisher The History Press. The book stitches together a rich tapestry of information and presents it in an interesting narrative.
Order from: Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Book Contents Overview
The book is split into 4 parts in terms of organisation. The first part is a walk through the songs of the band in the chronological order in which they were released. The author blends together several sources of information in the analysis of each song from his personal opinion of the songs, the lyrical themes, the recording process, reflections on the social and political landscape of the time. At first, I thought that a little odd in terms of an approach, but its actually very readable because I am looking for the next nugget of interesting information or anecdote.
The second part is a chronology of the band. It covers concerts and record releases and is presented in data tables. If you are writing a history of Pink Floyd timeline like I am then this information is a valuable source for that kind of project. If you are new to the band and analytically minded, then the tables of data would allow deep study of the band. Other people may not be as interested in this information chapter, perhaps preferring a more visual fly through the bands history like the timeline on this site.
The third part of the book is a bootleg guide. A bootleg is a recording that audience and crew members made of the band when they performed live for example and this would have been pressed on LP or duplicated on cassette and sold. Many people these days find it is time well spent to collect recordings of the band, available for free on the internet, to perhaps relive a concert they attended, or indeed hear a concert performed and recorded before they were even born! As you can imagine, one of the disappointing things about bootlegs, which is one of the reasons record companies wanted to erase them, is the quality can often be very poor. Stuffing a microphone in the sleeve of your old leather jacket with the recorder literally shoved into your boot, might not record the band at their best. The low quality sound is not good for the band’s image. However, this book Gives a comprehensive list of the recordings available, track listing and other miscellaneous information about the recordings. Then there is a great feature of the book. The bootleg recordings are rated by the author Mike Cormack in terms of their audio quality.
The fourth and final chapter of the book are the interviews the author has done with Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt, recording engineer James Guthrie and Steve Mac, singer from the Australian Pink Floyd tribute show.
Initial Impressions
My initial impression of the book’s concept, from its main chapiters, was to ask myself why would someone need a book like this. But, actually, its a really interesting read. The book gives much praise to early Pink Floyd led by Syd Barrett and talks about how there was great pressure on Syd for example to deliver exceptional pop songs after the release of See Emily Play. Syd was an “arty” person who had a disorganised way about him. This contrasted greatly to the Architectural types in Roger and Rick who are very methodical and structured around this time. They studied Architecture together at the London Polytechnic. Indeed, in a video interview Roger was once asked if his study of Architecture was reflected in his music. I think a better question would have been does having the type of personality that leads one to study architecture also leads the person to approach music in a certain way compared to Syd Barrett. That is a whole book in itself.
Review: Should I buy Everything Under The Sun Complete Guide to Pink Floyd?
I think many fans would enjoy this book, particularly if you are the analytical type who is interested in their chronology, bootleg recordings and like to analyse their songs. The bulk of the book (254 pages our of 409) is the breakdown of the songs, the anecdotes and analysis. I think most people would find that interesting. Chapter 2 data tables, chapter 3 bootleg guide may be slightly more specialist and not of primary interest to a good bulk of people. And chapter 4 interviews give interesting perspectives and stories. Overall, its probably worth getting hold of a copy. I like mine.
Order from: Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Links – The History Press Publisher website ISBN 9781803995359
