Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd

What a fantastic Pink Floyd book! A great addition to any Pink Floyd book collection. A+++

Pink Floyd had always been elusive to the rest of the world, namely music critics and the fans who gobbled up their albums with no real knowledge of who they were. Syd Barrett played a significant role first as song writer and lead guitarist, then acid casualty who was dismissed from the band after their first album. This exhaustive book revisits those people and places that made Pink Floyd a household name in rock music. I was impressed at the sheer volume of research concerning Syd Barrett and his downfall from the world of pop music. Equally impressive was the inclusion of Dave Gilmour, who taught Syd how to play guitar when they were just teenagers in late 1950's Britain. The stroke of genius was Dave Gilmour joining the band in 1968, saving the Floyd from being a footnote to the psychedelic music craze that briefly saw "Swinging London" rave ups, and hemp smoke filled dance halls. Pink Floyd would create a new direction with Gilmour, and albums such as Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, and the universally accepted Dark Side of the Moon forever brought them fame and fortune, all the while Syd's specter loomed in the background, as lyricist Roger Waters would build a career on isolation and madness from his departed friend. This fine book covers all the history of Pink Floyd from the early jams in 1964 right up to 2007. No stone is left unturned in this literary history of one of the greatest rock bands of all time. A must read for any hard core or casual Floyd fan. All of your questions will be answered.

Great read for Pink Floyd fans. Candid. In depth, insightful and highly entertaining.

It's not just a great narrative of the 5 characters that made up the band, their views of the band and the roles they played. Just as interesting is how the music came about, where the inspiration came from, and which of the members played and voted on the songs to include. It was fascinating to read that the band took a vote between doing The Wall or The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, which Roger Waters would go on to do as a solo. The book does a superb job of upending many of the notions that are out there (e.g. Waters, after spurning the band, was desperate to reunite but it was David Gilmour who demurred; Syd Barrett's contributions were limited to a single record, more limited than I thought; the 1980s Floyd was not about raking money but about proving Waters wrong). The book is strongest after Gilmour enters the picture, and Blake gets to concentrate on the band and its music, rather than the circles around them. The personalities are truly interesting, the talented but lazy Rick Wright, the happy go lucky Nick Mason, who becomes alienated from best pal Waters, the stoic Gilmour, who soldiers on as best as he can, and Waters, who comes out awfully from this history. From the early Barrett years, Waters was already being difficulty and a bully, and his narcissism and ego ends up blowing up group dynamics. Superb read, couldn't recommend it any more.

I learned many new things about Pink Floyd, but I found the storytelling to be a bit on the boring side. My appreciation for David Gilmour increased quite a bit from reading this book. I always knew Waters was the “ideas” person and main lyricist, but always thought Gilmour was the key person for the band musically. As I read this book, I kept wondering what might have been if Waters was able to appreciate Gilmour more.

This book is extremely well written and researched. The quality of writing is impeccable. Covering the history of Pink Floyd until the present, it is full of fascinating material and clarifies or fills in stories about the band which have circulated throughout the years. Any PF fan who enjoys learning all about the crafting of the music, the individual personalities and points of view, and how the miracle of Pink Floyd came about will surely be delighted. I agree with everything that the previous reviewer had to say except for the comment about the Nick Mason book. I am not convinced that Nick's original intent was to go into depth about the band's various personality conflicts over the years. His book with its extensive collection of photographs was written from a loving perspective and with great humor. I value that book very much just as it is. It is a beautiful book with stunning artwork worthy of a true Pink Floyd product. I highly recommend both these wonderful books which compliment each other very nicely.

Getting the inside story on any person or group is always an eye opener. Pink Floyd are my all time favourite band. Now, entering my sixties, I have taken the time to delve into why and how the music that bought me such pleasure over many years, has had a complicated and devisive background, from the tragic demise of Syd Barrett, to the ideological differences that tore the band apart in the late 70'/80's, to the recent events where the members have had a gentle but distant reconciliation. The band members had very distinct and diverse reasons for making music and followed their own paths. It is a well researched and written book, giving indepth insights into the fantastic, troubled, creative spirits which produced some of the best music, in my opinion, of the rock era. Unfortunately like a lot of bands from this era we will never see them play as the band they once were, so this book gives you a fascinating insight into why this happened and won't occur. It makes listening to the music more interesting as you can relate the different time periods to the albums and the story of what was occurring in the band's personal and group lives. A must for all PF fans!

Nice reading.

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

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.)