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List Price: $10.00 | | Publisher: Delta
Salesrank: 31849
Released: June 1, 1992 |
| Our Price: $9.99 |
| Used Price: $1.23 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
Saucerful of Secrets is the first in-depth biography of this very private group. At the heart of the saga is Syd Barrett, the group's brilliant founder, whose public decline into shattered incoherence--attributable in part to his marathon use of LSD--is one of the tragedies of rock history. The making of Dark Side of the Moon and Floyd's other great albums is recounted in detail, as are the mounting of "The Wall"  and the creation of the flying pigs, crashing  planes, "Mr. Screen" and the other elements of their spectacular stage shows. The book also explores the many battles between bass player/song writer Roger Waters and the rest of the group, leading up to Water's acrimonious departure for a solo  career in 1984 and his unsuccessful attempt to disolve the group he had left behind.
Saucerful of Secrets is an electrifying account of this ground-breaking, mind-bending group, covering every period of their career from  earliest days to latest recordings. It is full of  revealing information that will be treasured by all who love Pink Floyd's music.
Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey Reviews:
Best overall Floyd biography out there 
2008-10-07 - The recent demise of Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright was my impetus for reading this well-researched biography of the rock group. I'm a fan of the Waters/Gilmour Floyd (as opposed to the Syd Barrett Floyd or the Waters-less Floyd), and Schaffner does a great job of distinguishing these different periods of the band, putting a nice perspective on the way the transitions occurred given the personalities involved. It's interesting to note that Floyd was unlike many other rock groups at the time, having grown up middle-class (or, in the case of Wright, upper-class), which partly explains their sound, which relied less on the three-chord blues imported from American (with which groups such as the Who and the Rolling Stones modified in their own ways to make popular both in Britain and back in the States) and more on experimentation, especially with sound effects. In fact, I hadn't realized just how important sound effects were to the Floyd sound until having this pointed out to me by Schaffner.
I probably found the discussion regarding Syd Barrett the least interesting thing here, but that's due to my personal distaste of the psychedlic-style that was his hallmark. Others who like Barrett's music will likely find much to discover herein about Barrett, how both fame and constant LSD use took its toll on him, and how he was eventually ousted from the group that he ostensibly was the leader of. Of the other major change--the revival of the Floyd name sans Roger Waters--I was much more intrigued and found that Schaffner had done a good job in helping me see both sides of the issue. Personally, I think that Roger Waters and David Gilmour are like John Lennon/Paul McCartney: while both are good songwriters solo, they were great songwriters when they wrote together. Waters tends to be much, much too wordy in his solo material, neglecting the music and sometimes even the sound of the words, while Gilmour's lyrics are painfully juvenile at times (I never thought I would here "glove" rhymed with "love" in a Pink Floyd song).
For the true fan, this material may be old hat, but for the casual fan, this was an excellent overview of the Floyd career from the beginning to the classic rock concert circuit.
great book!!! 
2007-09-14 - As a true Pink Floyd fan I can sincerely say that the author of the book does a great job in telling the story of this great band.
Saucerful of Secrets 
2007-02-10 - Buy Nick Mason's "Inside Out" biographical book instead. Much better - great photos & the real story. This one's a snoozer.
What do I have to say to make you buy this book??
2007-01-05 - Its incredible, best book about Pink Floyd you will ever read.
If you're a fan, whether it is an avid fan or a casual fan, you will enjoy this book. It features wonderful details about the especially elusive Syd years, and it starts well before Pink Floyd was still The Pink Floyd Sound. It tells the entire story of how the band was formed, their live band stage, their success with dark side, all the way until the end of their career.
Highly Recommended
Lukewarm 
2006-09-25 - (I meant to give this two stars, whoops...)
I'm surprised at the the general acceptence that this is a great bio, and that the negative reviews don't seem to really express very developed thoughts. I had a negative reaction to the book for a few reasons.
As one reviewer put it, the book is generally anti-Waters, and very much pro-Syd and the rest. Have whatever opionion you wish, but there was an apparent bias in the text which should be left out.
One thing that very much annoyed me was that the author uses song and album titles as modifying phrases as much as possible, and it comes off as horribly cliche and tacky. For instance in reference to Syd and Dave's time spent in France, the author concludes with "They were certaintly learning the 'Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking'." Not a huge deal, but I'd expect that from a B grade high school essay.
This is not the first book I've read on the Floyd, the third or fourth, of which this is the most dated. So for the most part there was very little information I didn't already know. The exception being a few pieces of information on the days with Syd and some detail on how Syd spent his time after Floyd. Also there were tid-bits about the post Water's Floyd that I wasn't aware of. So while this is not entierly the author's fault, what surprised me was the incredible lack of information on the band from about 1969-1980, which is probably the period most readers are interested in. This period is almost exlusively dedicated to explaining their albums. Basically by giving a bit of information on some of the major songs and a description on the albums impact. I have recently read Bob Spitz's wonderful biography on the Beatles, and I was just simply amazed at the level of detail the author goes into. You get and very firm impression of what it was like to be a Beatle and you see them on many dimensions. So I was very underwhelmed by the lack of content in Saucerful of Secrets. You get one-dimension, and its the albums. I am very aware that Pink Floyd was a private band, but alot of talk about this book lead me to believe I would be getting much more than what I actually found.
If this were the first book I choose to read on the Floyd I'd probably have been satisfied, but if you are already a big fan I doubt you'll find much new here (also there were a few things that are just incorrect), though you'll probably read it anyway. Just don't expect too much or that you'll find it a particularly exciting read.
p.s. The author deems "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" a good album, had I known that before honestly I might not have read it.
