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The Dark Side of the Moon: The Making of the Pink Floyd Masterpiece | 
 enlarge | Author: John Harris
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 463851
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 7.9 x 0.5
ISBN: 0306815001
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42166092
EAN: 9780306815003
ASIN: 0306815001
Publication Date: August 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! 2006 Paperback.
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Product Description
"Harris's book is an indispensable, exciting read for anyone who's ever wanted to fully understand this enduring, mystifying album." (American Songwriter) Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) is one of the most acclaimed albums of all time. A stunning exploration of madness, death, anxiety, and alienation, it remained on the Billboard charts for 724 weeks--the longest consecutive run for an LP ever--and has sold 30 million copies worldwide. It still sells some quarter million copies every year. Besides being perhaps rock's most fully realized and elegant concept album, The Dark Side of the Moon was among the most technically advanced records of its time, perfectly blending studio wizardry and fearless innovation. The rich story behind The Dark Side of the Moon is now skillfully illuminated by acclaimed journalist John Harris's exploration of the album's many secrets and the band's fractured history, including the mental collapse of group founder Syd Barrett. Drawing on original interviews with bassist and chief lyricist Roger Waters, guitarist Dave Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Richard Wright, and the album's supporting cast, The Dark Side of the Moon is a must-have for the millions of devoted fans looking for the definitive story of one of the most timeless, compelling, and mysterious albums ever made.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Fans of the album must have this, too! April 13, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
John Harris' THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: THE MAKING OF THE PINK FLOYD MASTERPIECE is a must for any Pink Floyd fan; even those already well aware of the power of the album. The album remained on the Billboard charts for over seven hundred weeks and has sold some thirty million copies around the world - and continues to sell thousands yearly. Here journalist John Harris reveals the album's underlying foundations, the band's stormy history, and uses original interviews with band bassist and lyricist Roger Waters, guitarist Nick Mason and more to add authoritative insights. Just as you wouldn't be without DARK SIDE OF THE MOON - you shouldn't be without this survey of the making of the masterpiece itself.
 OK for the diehard Fan, but this Band and this Complex Concept Album Deserves Better December 31, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Like most kids of the latter 1960s and early 1970s I grew up listening to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and others when I wanted to be "cool." That was more often than I like to admit now, however; and I also went to the concerts, got stoned there (if only from the second-hand smoke wafting through the halls), and tried to act like I understood what the bands were trying to communicate. On the other hand, I was never as much of a fan of these groups and their style of music as some of my friends, but I had all of their albums and listened to them regularly, including "The Dark Side of the Moon." This book tells about the making of this extraordinary album and a little about its significance since its release more than three decades ago.
Of course, the remarkable thing about "The Dark Side of the Moon" is its popularity over such a long time, since it is a complex concept album dealing with greed and insanity and very much anchored to its time and place. I haven't listened to it in years, but had to do so after reading this book. That may be the greatest compliment I can pay to this book, for John Harris's work, unfortunately, is very much once over lightly and both Pink Floyd as a band and their classic album deserve better. There are some fascinating interviews that interlace the book, a good biographical appendix of what happened to the people associated with the album, and a set of photos that are interesting, but as a whole this is a book for fans of the album. As such it is worthwhile. For those seeking a serious consideration of the place of "The Dark Side of the Moon" in American culture they will want to read "Speak To Me: The Legacy Of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon," edited by Russell Reising, released in March 2006 from Ashgate Publishing.
 Read it for yourself December 8, 2005
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
I never write reviews, but the current ones for this book as of this writing are so insulting to me that I feel compeled.
One reviewer gives one star because it relates nothing new. But, as another review stated, this book contains exlusive interviews from '03 as well as unpublished photos. In any case, if you know the story so well why are you reading a book about it?
Another review has felt it necessary to write an huge tome of words describing his feelings. Like anyone will read it after taking a glance at its towering size. Paragraphs anyone?
And then there is Mr. Carlberg. I suspect a man who reviewed the book Crimes Against Logic would have more sense (but then again he did also give The Wall a 1 star rating). He scoffes "Yeah, right" at the statement that DSoM is "one of the most beloved albums of all time," even though it spent 741 weeks on Billboard.
Carlberg seems to refute the book for the author's opinion by claiming his own is more correct. There is no doubt the difference between objective analysis and subjective personal views is a mystery to him, but when you are busy writing nearly 400 reviews who has time for that nonsense?
Less a review and more a rant, I hope this compels you read the book and make your own judgements.
Clever, Slightly Above Average, Slacker, Fluff November 2, 2005
11 out of 21 found this review helpful
This book is a rush-job, slacker book, written by a clever, sometimes funny guy with an above average I.Q., who relies on a too few sources, gives us too much of his own worthless opinions, and really didn't ask any of the right questions when he interviewed Roger Waters or David G. First of all, if you're going to write a book about the Dark Side of the Moon, he should have specifically asked Roger Waters, what inspired him to write the lyrics for each song. (Where was Roger? What was he thinking about, reading about, looking at--when the song lyrics occurred to him. What movies was he watching?) This author doesn't. He should have had a list of the songs with the lyrics in front of him, when he interviewed Roger, and made Roger talk for at least twenty minutes on the original genisis of the lyrics for each song. You get it for one sentence or two in "Echoes," where Roger Waters tells us how inspiration hit him--but the book doesn't include much info that the proper follow up questions could have provided about some of the gorgeous lyrics in the song ("Coral caves..."). In the book you get stories about how the songs themselves evolved after they were written--basically the author gives you a bunch of useless descriptive verbiage of bootleg tapes he's heard--and you get a whole bunch of useless drivel about what 60ish Roger presently thinks they mean now, but you don't get the actual genesis of the song. Let me give you an example. I know that John Lennon wrote the first line of I am the Walrus on an acid trip. The second line one week later on another acid trip. I know that he had also watched Alice in Wonderland and thought of the Walrus as this big industrialist, etc... I know Paul wrote "Here There and Everywhere" while sitting poolside, on a warm sunny day, while John was smoking one, next to him, and Paul was feeling wonderful. I have no idea where the lyrics "Home, Home again..." comes from. What did Roger Waters do that day? What was he coming home from? What had made him tired? Was there an actual favorite couch and a fire and a cozy house and a churchbell in the neighborhood? I'd love to know. I don't. In this book, which is supposed to be about the Dark Side Album, and only sort of kind of is--it's actually a biography of the Floyd, the joker who wrote it tells me all kinds of theoretical crap about the songs on the album, that involve Marxism, socialism, everything else--stuff I don't care about. (I'm grateful he tells us a little--very little--about what Waters was thinking about when he wrote Time.) I want to know about the moment lightning struck. I don't want to know about what a 60 year old Roger Waters or Dave Gilmore think about a song--whether it's held up or not, whether they like it or not. I want to know what was in their twenty something year old heads when they wrote it. Gawd there is so much crap in this book. The author puts down songs by Richard Wright, like "It would be so nice"--he likens it to a Hollies piece of fluff and dismisses it with some brief, arrogant writing. He's friggen out of his mind. "It would be so nice!" is a fantastic song. I can't think of anyone I knew in my music listening heyday (who all had tons of floyd albums) that didn't LOVE that song. It's perfect to listen to when you are having some kind of peak experience. It's magic, it's ecstasy. It'll cheer you up if you feel blah. So what if it wasn't a hit? Hemingway's books often didn't make the top ten lists, and everyone is still reading them. There are going to be nineteen year olds listening to that song in a century from now, enjoying it. The author of this silly little book also does things like dismiss "Several Species grooving on a pict" as nothing but a failed little attempt at humor by Roger. The author is out of his mind. It IS funny and more importantly it's also an interesting journey into something very primeval. Something very dark and subconscious. I'd love to hear Roger tell us about the cave. Tell us the genesis of that song. Wouldn't it be great to hear Roger tell you about the "pict." To dismiss it as casually as the author does, makes me think he's got the MTV attention span of a gnat, and the depth of Brittany Spears. There are so many fun, early songs dismissed in this book, like "Point me at the sky" that you really learn nothing about. I don't know why the author feels the need to ultimately put down such good music. I don't understand why he thinks he knows something we don't? I'm not sure why he puts such weight on his own musical opinions. Who cares what he thinks? I'd love to know where David Gilmore was and what he was thinking about when he wrote Grantchester Meadows. Was he sitting in a meadow with an acoustic guitar, when the muse came to him? The author actually wasted time in this book on verbiage by the Floyd where they express why they think the album is so successful. What a waste of time! I can come up with better explanations than they do. I'd much rather the author had asked Nick Mason where he got the inspiration for the beautiful flutes in the "Grand Viziers Garden Party"--what the story behind the song is (which the author puts down in this book). Much of this book is another retelling of the Floyd story, and as with every other book on the floyd, it is completely devoid of detail. I can't tell you how many times I've read about the fabled UFO club. But I still don't know was it in an old building, a new building, did it seat 400 people? Did 1000 dance there? Who actually came and went there. Were there gargoyles on the outside of the building. Was it a warehouse? What did the people look like who went there? I can describe the Beatles Cavern club, the smell of it, down to the last detail--I've seen architectural drawings. Lordallmighty I'm really sick of these piddly little Floyd books. (This one gives you about two sentences of Beatle Paul McCartney unespectedly coming to see the Floyd. It tells you that Paul and Roger shared a joint. OK, so was Paul a Pink Floyd fan? Did he like Syd Barrett? Did Roger defecate in his pants when Paul walked up? Did they talk about songs? Did they pick up an acoustic guitar and sing together? What the heck happened?) Pink Floyd is one of the top five selling bands of all time and all we, the fans get, are these mini-slacker books, by authors who can't write their way out of a paper bag, judge songs by how much they sold, don't have any of the musical sensibilities to write about pre-1973 art-rock or progressive rock, and couldn't write a descriptive paragraph using concrete detail if you paid them one hundred dollars a word. Elvis gets book(s) that go well over 600 dense, single-spaced pages. So do the Beatles. With the Beatles you get a veritable hundred course gourmet feast of reading materials that you can heap on your plate. We Floyd fans get these plastic containers of ramen noodles.
Best Floyd book to date November 1, 2005
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
I'm very baffled by the negative reviews below. One fellow seems irritated that Harris doesn't like certain albums as much as he does, and another mistakedly states that there's nothing new in this book, which couldn't be further from the truth. John Harris' "Dark Side.." is bursting with previously unpublished photos, and the bulk of the quotes from the band are exclusive to the book, from interviews conducted in 2003. Further, it's the most clear and succinct account of the creation of this album I've ever read, and I've read every book about Floyd. Harris places the album in context with the band's orgins expertly, and I left with an even clearer understanding of how it all fits together. Any Floydian will dig this.
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