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Echoes: The Stories behind Every Pink Floyd Song
This work presents the stories behind the tracks on all 22 Pink Floyd albums. From their first album in 1967 "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", to their re-emergence in the 1990s with "The Division Bell" and "Pulse", this book reveals the joys and tragedies surrounding the band's success.
- GenresNonfictionMusicBiography
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 11, 2025
This book was a small revolution for me when it came out. To my awareness, there was no song-for-song runthrough of the entire Pink Floyd catalogue. It has its merits, and it has its drawbacks.
The first thing I must mention, is that my copy comes with a few paragraphs in the "Wish you were here"-section of the book, pasted over with a sticker, that replaces the original written text. Of course I skillfully removed it, and found a reference to Nick Mason's cocaine situation ca 1974. No shocker to the current Pink Floyd fan.
The big merit of this book, is that Jones (who btw was in an up-and-coming band called Gay Dad, by the time this book was released) focuses not so much on dull descriptions of the band's music, but instead makes an effort on tracing and elaborating on the various references on the titles, lyrics and songs, which is much more entertaining than forever descriptions of music that we can clearly hear ourselves.
It's a joy to read Cliff Jones' takes on the lyrics of "Let there be more light" (probably one big pile of Cambridge in-jokes), and of Syd's lyrical references. With the soundtracks, Cliff has been watching the films. With "Ummagumma" it goes a bit out of hand, and he lectures us on what a "Grand Vizier" is. I don't think Nick Mason knew, or cared.
With the later albums, it gets less interesting. "The Wall" is kind of self-explanatory to begin with, and when it comes to the 80s/90s, I realize that I don't have a lot of questions about the songs themselves. I would rather be a fly on the wall when the records were being made, and "Echoes" offers none of that.
My edition had neat pastelle colors for each chapter, with a great selection of photos.
By today's standards, it's an ok book, but then it blew me away. I have read it so many times.
The first thing I must mention, is that my copy comes with a few paragraphs in the "Wish you were here"-section of the book, pasted over with a sticker, that replaces the original written text. Of course I skillfully removed it, and found a reference to Nick Mason's cocaine situation ca 1974. No shocker to the current Pink Floyd fan.
The big merit of this book, is that Jones (who btw was in an up-and-coming band called Gay Dad, by the time this book was released) focuses not so much on dull descriptions of the band's music, but instead makes an effort on tracing and elaborating on the various references on the titles, lyrics and songs, which is much more entertaining than forever descriptions of music that we can clearly hear ourselves.
It's a joy to read Cliff Jones' takes on the lyrics of "Let there be more light" (probably one big pile of Cambridge in-jokes), and of Syd's lyrical references. With the soundtracks, Cliff has been watching the films. With "Ummagumma" it goes a bit out of hand, and he lectures us on what a "Grand Vizier" is. I don't think Nick Mason knew, or cared.
With the later albums, it gets less interesting. "The Wall" is kind of self-explanatory to begin with, and when it comes to the 80s/90s, I realize that I don't have a lot of questions about the songs themselves. I would rather be a fly on the wall when the records were being made, and "Echoes" offers none of that.
My edition had neat pastelle colors for each chapter, with a great selection of photos.
By today's standards, it's an ok book, but then it blew me away. I have read it so many times.
October 8, 2012
Kinda interesting, but I wanted more.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews