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The reason i give it 4 stars instead of 5 is that it doesnt really tell you anything about the inspiration for any of the songs (one or two maybe) or what they are about and this is the kind of thing i love to read about. In fairness, Nick wasn't the song writer as such so maybe he isnt as aware of these bits as Roger or the other guys. Also I thought he glossed over certain albums and didnt give a huge amount of info on them. Finally, as i suspect Nick was trying to keep everybody happy he didnt really go into any great detail about the differences the band had (mainly Dave & Roger) when they were coming apart, which i think was a very difficult time for the band (from about 1978 till 1981).
All in all though its an excellent read and really gives a feel for the band, especially in the early days with Syd and the early 70's when the band developed in to the band we know today. He is quite witty and it is very well written. What we need now is a Pink Floyd anthology similar to the Beatles one where they all put their spoke in and we get the full Floyd story.
What is in the book is well-enough written, with humour and humility, but what is left out is probably much more interesting, and I am sure that a lot has been left out. My first impression of the book when I unwrapped it at Christmas was that it was huge - large pages and very thick - so must be an exhaustive and comprehensive work. However, the paper is high-quality (ie thick) and a lot of the space is given over to photographs and wide margins, so there was not as much content as it first appeared.
One thing that comes across in the book is the difficulty the members of the band have in communicating with each other, and expressing what they feel. This means that anything written about what Roger, Rick, Dave or even Syd thought about any particular event is largely guesswork - even from someone who has known them for decades. The only band member Nick Mason can really understand is himself, but I had the feeling he was trying to avoid making the book into a personal autobiography and thus held back on the material that would be 100% accurate.
In spite of all that, it is still a decent read, with some interesting anecdotes, and certainly essential for any fan of the band. Obviously the biggest disappointment was that it did not give some clue at the end about what future plans, if any, there are for the band, but that would have been asking a bit too much.
All other members of the band have read the script beforehand with Waters being "very liberal" in he's use of the green highlighter pen as was Gilmour by all means who blocked the book 10 years ago from being fully finished. That however has been a blessing as it has meant that in the time Mason and Waters have made friends again and sorted their differences, making the story less harsh on anyone as it may have been had the two not been on speaking terms.
Finally this book is a must have for fans of Pink Floyd and also general rock fans as Floyd's is one of the biggest that had been left untold by a band member. There are many pictures which makes this different from other Floyd books although does show one distressing picture of Syd in 1975 after he had put on weight and had shaved he's eyebrows. It wasn't something that I think any real fan of the man needs to see although it shows just how bad things had got for him and told more about he's situation to me then the whole book that was written on him did.
Buy this book!
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