Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd are my favourite band, have been since 1974 and always will be although Rachmaninov wrote my favourite piece of music. I had to read this book (read the reviews on here) and was not disappointed. It is, as others have written here, a very well researched and well written piece giving an unbiased (I think) view of what Pink Floyd are/were about. I think Nick Mason is quoted (ish) as saying that were their children to behave like the members of the band then they would be very upset with them. Childishness abounds, sniping, rising to the bait, pissing competitions (my gig's bigger than yours) but taking a step back it's just human nature really and I see this around me all the time - I am often involved! What makes it slightly different for me is that these guys didn't want for anything in the end and still they bitched, very acidly, about each other. You see money isn't everything..............apart from the song that is................. and talking of that, I find it incredible (anorak mode on) that when I saw them live in 1994 the video to Money showed an HS125 (executive jet) rather than a Lear Jet - given Mason and Gilmour's aviation knowledge and (as mentioned in the book) the attention to detail I am surprised they missed that one. Mark Blake it to be congratulated on this fine work, and also because he bothered to answer my e-mail about it! Excellent Rob Sawyer

Most of these reviews say mostly the same thing: it's a very good book, detailed occasionally to the point of tedium in some places and mainlining more on the personalities than the music by and large. As such, it's a portrait of the archetypal English sixties stereotype, where the old tryptych of sex and drugs and rock-n-roll are indulged to excess by all parties in exactly that order. You will be hard pushed to find a book with as many double-barrelled names in it. Every one of us wanted to be there, and I personally regret that I missed it by about ten years, just long enough to know exactly what I'd missed by the time punk came along with a new, but equally imaginary version of reality. I doubt if I'm alone in recognising two Floyds - separated not so much by Syd's departure as side two of Meddle. For me they began with Echoes, psychedelic ramblings and nursery rhymes are curiosities from another era. I was disappointed then, that this track gets a fairly cursory glance as the book girds up its loins and gathers pace with the imminent approach of Dark Side. On that point, it's a fans book, we're expected to know the magnitude of Dark Side's success - it's never delineated specifically for the less initiated. What it does manage is to disentangle the spiders web of relationships between members, management, friends, family, roadies and schoolmates pretty effectively. The legal wranglings over the Pink Floyd name are spelled out well, and it charts a more complete History of Syd than I ever knew, however bleak that history was to become. So yes, it's a more than worthwhile read. It still leaves a question in my mind though. What WAS it with Clare Torry? ps. I was moved after reading the book to rehabilitate Obscured by Clouds . A vacuous, insignificant piece of dross, you wonder how they'd reached the status they had by then. Next up on my MP3 was Evanescences Fallen . Now THAT's contrast.

This was an ideal read for me having lived in Cambridge in the mid-60s to late 70s. I was totally unaware of what was going on in the music scene in Cambridge at the time but can place where the original members developed. The rise and changes in the band, described as a result of interviews carried our personally by the author, show how difficult it is to maintain long-lasting contentment in groups of creative individuals who wish to maintain and develop, for a long periods, their observed identity. It is difficult to put the book down until the end is reached.

A very good book about the history of the UK rock legends PINK FLOYD. It charts the story of the band from their days in Cambridge right up until the band called it a day in the 1990s, it includes the ups and downs within the band, Syd walking out and Roger deciding to go his own way on a solo career, David's solo career, and the sad passing of both Rick and Syd in the early 2000s. They made some the most iconic albums in rock history, and put on fantastic shows too! Recommended reading for fans of the band and rock music in general.

Nice reading.

El libro fundamental para entender la relación entre los integrantes de Pink Floyd, muy interesante y entretenido. Lo disfruté bastante y aclaró mucho sobre el trabajo del grupo, revalorando sus discos.

O autor Mark Blake nos oferece uma atualização sobre a publicação original. Eu tinha já a primeira edição traduzida para o português, mas assim mesmo decidi adquirir esta segunda edição, agora atualizada e original. Redundante? Talvez, e não critico quem assim julgar. Mas, para quem se considera realmente um aficcionado do Pink Floyd, esta obra atualizada é imprescindível. Bem escrito, extremamente detalhado e nem por isso monótono ou enfadonho, o livro nos leva a entender a inspiração por trás de cada música, a saída de Barrett, a catarse de Waters da sua neurose pela perda do pai na segunda guerra mundial, bem como a sua separação de Wright, e depois de Mason e Gilmour, estes mantendo então a banda até seus últimos shows (pelo menos até agora). Se houver mais algum, seguramente teremos que aguardar a terceira edição. Recomendo!.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, this is the first book about Pink Floyd I've read, and chose it based on a lot of the other reviewers saying that it was the best book about Pink Floyd there is. Now that I've finished it, without reading any of the others, I would tend to agree with previous assessments. It is a VERY thorough and well-researched book. To be perfectly honest, I almost found the beginning couple of chapters almost TOO well researched at times. If I have a complaint, it's in those early chapters delving into some figures or details about the main five that I just didn't find overly interesting, hoping to start getting into the "meat" of the book. As much as I like Pink Floyd, I was never a super ardent fan, so most of the behind the scene details were almost entirely new to me. I mean, I know Roger Waters left the band, but never really knew why or the degree of animosity there was. Roger Waters definitely does not come off looking very good in the book. To me it seemed that all the difficulties that he experienced in his early years that affected him so deeply, he decided to inflict those same difficulties on pretty much everyone surrounding him. Despite everything that was going on, they still managed to create (in my opinion) five of the best albums of all time (everything between Dark Side of the Moon and The Final Cut). If you're looking for the definitive (if not "official") biography of Pink Floyd, I would definitely recommend this at your starting point. (And music-wise, Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here as your starting point.) (Side note, the book is 418 pages, not 448.)

Mich interessierte die Geschichte der Band sehr und ich habe wundervolle Erkenntnisse aus dem Buch gezogen. Gut recherchiert und aufgebaut. Der Autor hat offensichtlich viele Interviews geführt. Viele interessante Stories und viele Verknüpfungen zum parallelen Musikgeschehen. Der Konflikt Roger Waters mit dem Rest der Band sehr neutral geschildert. Vokabular sehr gewählt zum Teil. Bin sehr geübt in der Englischen Sprache, musste aber doch immer wieder zum Wörterbuch greifen. Vorher lesen: Joe Boyd "White Bicycles".