It may have all started with Syd Barrett, but the persistence and creativity of Roger Waters, Rick Wright, Nick Mason and David Gilmour meant that Pink Floyd went from one of England’s top underground psychedelic bands to one of the biggest rock bands on the planet — all thanks to an album wondering if there really was a dark side of the moon. Pink Floyd in the 1970s: Decades focuses on the band throughout the 1970s — undoubtedly the peak of their success — from the weird brilliance of Atom Heart Mother to the epic, autobiographical storytelling of The Wall. In between, the band achieved tremendous success with Meddle and Dark Side of the Moon, yet struggled to come to terms with their place in the pantheon of rock music on Wish You Were Here and Animals. The decade of Pink Floyd’s greatest successes was dominated by shifting musical trends and a balance in power in the band changing from democratic equality to Waters calling most of the shots. These factors, and the looming spectre of Barrett, their erstwhile founder, inspired some of the greatest albums of all time. The book explores the music, the defining moments and the personality clashes that very nearly destroyed the band. The author: Georg Purvis is the author of Queen: The Complete Works, currently in its third edition. While Queen was his gateway band, he has come to appreciate all kinds of music over the years and considers himself lucky that his first-ever concert, at the age of 10, was on Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell tour at Veteran’s Stadium on June 2, 1994. He has since turned his love of writing about music into a hobby, with several unfinished manuscripts collecting dust on an external hard drive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Meredith, and their two cats, Spencer and William.

Fun Facts & Trivia Questions! - Special Launch Price Pink Floyd's music has resonated with listeners of all ages on a deep personal level for more than half a century. They were one of the most prominent British rock bands to achieve worldwide fame after the initial "British Invasion" led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the early 1960s. Founded in 1965, the band reached the height of its popularity and influence in the 1970s and early '80s. Pink Floyd is one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, with an estimated 250 million albums sold, and the band remains highly influential among fellow musicians. To help you connect, or perhaps reconnect, with the lives, music, and legacy of this fascinating band, interesting facts and historical moments are highlighted in this book, Pink Floyd Trivia Book. We will cover the history of Pink Floyd, beginning with the origins of the band, through changes in personnel and musical philosophy, up to their influence and reputation today. A series of multiple choice and true/false questions opens each chapter, with the corresponding answers on the following page. The "Did You Know?" section consists of interesting facts and stories, which close each chapter so that you can develop a stronger understanding of the life and music of Pink Floyd. Use this book to test your knowledge with a round of trivia questions and perhaps review or gain information along the way. Whether you consider yourself a die-hard fan or are only faintly familiar with Pink Floyd, this book offers the opportunity to reinforce your knowledge of one of the most innovative and influential bands in the history of popular music. Let's see how much you know about Pink Floyd! Get yours today.

This collection of essays provides indispensable studies of the monumental 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon, from a variety of musical, cultural, literary and social perspectives. The development and change of the songs is considered closely, from the earliest recordings through to the live, filmed performance at London's Earls Court in 1994. The album is placed within the context of developments in late 1960s/early 1970s popular music, with particular focus on the use of a variety of segues between tracks which give the album a multidimensional unity.

It may have all started with Syd Barrett, but the persistence and creativity of Roger Waters, Rick Wright, Nick Mason, and David Gilmour meant that Pink Floyd went from one of England's top underground psychedelic bands to one of the biggest rock bands on the planet - all thanks to an album wondering if there really was a dark side of the moon. Pink Floyd in the 1970s: Decades focuses on the band throughout the 1970s - undoubtedly the peak of their success - from the weird brilliance of Atom Heart Mother to the epic, autobiographical storytelling of The Wall. In between, the band achieved tremendous success with Meddle and Dark Side of the Moon, yet struggled to come to terms with their place in the pantheon of rock music on Wish You Were Here and Animals. The decade of Pink Floyd's greatest successes was mired in shifting musical trends, a balance in power from a democratic equality to one man calling most of the shots, and the large, looming spectre of their erstwhile founder guiding some of the greatest songs and albums of all time. The book explores the music, the defining moments, and the personality clashes that very nearly destroyed the band.

In celebration of the 45th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, Bill Kopp explores the ingenuity with which Pink Floyd rebranded itself following the 1968 departure of Syd Barrett. Not only did the band survive Barrett’s departure, but it went on to release landmark albums that continue to influence generations of musicians and fans. Reinventing Pink Floyd follows the path taken by the remaining band members to establish a musical identity, develop a songwriting style, and create a new template for the manner in which albums are made and even enjoyed by listeners. As veteran music journalist Bill Kopp illustrates, that path was filled with failed experiments, creative blind alleys, one-off musical excursions, abortive collaborations, general restlessness, and—most importantly—a dedicated search for a distinctive musical personality. This exciting guide to the works of 1968 through 1973 highlights key innovations and musical breakthroughs of lasting influence. Kopp places Pink Floyd in its historical, cultural, and musical contexts while celebrating the test of fire that took the band from the brink of demise to enduring superstardom.

To some, he is the face behind classic Pink Floyd. To others, he is the temperament behind some of the greatest albums of the rock era. And to others still, he is one of the most original songwriters of a generation that overflows with notable talent. To all, he is an enigma: a rock star who not only eschewed stardom but also spent much of his career railing against it. But to call Roger Waters a mass of contradictions is simply taking the easy way out. He is so much more than that. Roger Waters: The Man Behind the Wall is the first full biography of the author of The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and, of course, The Wall. It traces his life from war-torn suburbia to the multitude of wars he has fought since then – with his bandmates, with his audience, and most of all with himself. Packed with insight and exclusive interviews with friends and associates, Roger Waters: The Man Behind the Wall dismantles the wall brick by brick, revealing the man who built it in all his glory.

With their early experiments in psychedelic rock music in the 1960s, and their epic recordings of the 1970s and '80s, Pink Floyd became one of the most influential and recognizable rock bands in history. As "The Pink Floyd Sound," the band created sound and light shows that defined psychedelia in England and inspired similar movements in the Jefferson Airplane's San Francisco and Andy Warhol's New York City. The band's subsequent recordings forged rock music's connections to orchestral music, literature, and philosophy. "Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall" ignored pop music's ordinary topics to focus on themes such as madness, existential despair, brutality, alienation, and socially induced psychosis. They also became some of the best-selling recordings of all time. In this collection of essays, sixteen scholars expert in various branches of philosophy set the controls for the heart of the sun to critically examine the themes, concepts, and problems—usually encountered in the pages of Heidegger, Foucault, Sartre, or Orwell—that animate and inspire Pink Floyd's music. These include the meaning of existence, the individual's place in society, the interactions of knowledge and power in education, the contradictions of art and commerce, and the blurry line—the tragic line, in the case of Floyd early member Syd Barrett (died in 2006)—between genius and madness. Having dominated pop music for nearly four decades, Pink Floyd's dynamic and controversial history additionally opens the way for these authors to explore controversies about intellectual property, the nature of authorship, and whether wholes—especially in the case of rock bands—are more than the sums of their parts.