Pink Floyd in the 1970s

Book excerpt: 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.