The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (Rough Guide Music Guides) by Toby Manning (31-Aug-2006) Paperback

by Toby Manning

The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd is the ultimate companion to the band that changed the sound and scale of pop music forever. Features The from the Syd Barrett era, the Dark Side Of The Moon phenomenon to their transformation into one of the world’s biggest bands, The 50 essential Floyd songs and the stories behind them, plus all the albums and recording sessions, side-projects and solo careers, Floyd On the movies and film soundtracks fromThe Wall and More to Zabriskie Point and Pink Floyd at Pompeii, Floydology 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.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published October 2, 2006

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read 109 pages and spent the whole time absolutely infuriated with the author. I couldn't reach the end without ripping out my hair.
First of all, Manning was clearly biased towards Roger Waters. I swear, if they didn't have pictures of Gilmour, Mason, and Wright playing their instruments, Manning would have given Waters the credit for that too. Everything apparently was Waters idea. Then everything Waters did was on better grounds than the rest of the band members. Yes, he admitted Gilmour, Wright, and Mason were charitable and they were extremely kind and generous to Syd Barrett long after their split from him... but Manning justified the charity as nothing too big and their affiliations with Barrett has "Probably out of guilt." If the members all agreed Gilmour did a great job on the guitar, Manning would follow up by posting a few biting reviews by such reliable sources as Playboy. However, when it came to Waters, his opinions were correct and honest. He was in distancing himself from the group-- for taking credit for all the albums-- for taking the lead in the band.
It was complete and utter bull-crap.
Don't read it if you don't already know a good deal about the basic history of the band or the albums and some of the mutterings about each album. He talks as if we should ALL know what was said in the day and nowadays about each album and doesn't stop to explain it. I would recommend this to Roger Waters fans and Roger Waters fans only if they want to read a puff piece on him. I would recommend Nick Mason's book for those who really want to know what the history of Pink Floyd.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author of this book gives an agonizingly dull look at the story of Pink Floyd. His writing style is simply based on facts, with little incite, and is fairly poor. Interesting only for those who want to know very uninteresting things about a band that is anything but uninteresting. Oh, and to the author; I get the fact that this is a book about Pink Floyd, so writting "Wish you were here" on nearly every other page isn't as clever as it is annoying.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of the members / music / make-up of a musical group is given in this book.

I discovered a lot of factual things about the group, but I didn't really feel that I gained any understanding of the individuals involved or their creative process. In the copy of the book I read 3 pages were illegible due to a printing area.

My overall rating is 2.5 but expect dedicated fans may enjoy it much more.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a Floyd fan for decades now and heard many rumours of different things so it was good to get it all set straight in this book. The shocking things to me were; Roger's a really petty bully, and the other three did very little in the band until the '87 incarnation of the band, and weren't even considered competent musicians!

So, yes there's some interesting stories in here, but of the 300-odd pages in this book, only half of them are really worth reading - that's when the story of the band ends. The second half of the book is made up of album reviews, film reviews, book reviews, solo album reviews; a complete Floyd-ography in other words, which may be a useful resource somewhere down the road, but it makes for poor reading so I skimmed through it very quickly.

It's quite obvious this book has been updated at least once over the years. The most glaring evidence of this is missing names in one section. LOL There are two commas where a name should've gone in the middle a couple of times. The author must've needed to look up a name and then forgot about it completely. :-)

[Ryan Splenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice overview of Pink Floyd. It gives a lot of inside information to the rise and fall of the mysterious band. It also provides a lot of additional places to find out more information about them. Therefore, it serves as a great start-up to any Floyd fan, or in my case, fanatic.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What high brow literature are you currently attacking?" - said my wife. Yeah, yeah, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. A good version of the story - so much interesting music in and around the bombast.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enigma is the essence of Pink Floyd's appeal. In this well structured book the author shines a light on the band from the early years up to Live 8. All albums are discussed, their finest 50 tracks presented, the solo projects are mentioned as well as all the compilations and box sets. The book was published in 2006 and later on The Endless River as final work was released in 2014. Absolutely essential book on one of the most interesting bands ever. Highly recommended!

[Simon Pitfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the most engaging of accounts of the band's story, exacerbated by the fact that the author seems to loathe well over fifty percent of their output, and basically doesn't want to forgive them for getting rid of Syd Barrett.

[Carlos Andrés Moncayo Zenck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book on the wall. Always interesting to delve into the Floyd myth.

[David Lai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty comprehensive book of Floydology, and refreshingly critical.