The title could be misleading because it takes us to a place where any conceptual consideration is useless: why "the endless river"?
Fifty years of career is a lot, agreed, but certainly not endless.
So let's forget the title and start reading this beautiful tome, of 336 pages, dense with information and with quite a few images placed at the end of the book, an original feature but one that reduces the immediacy of reading to such an extent that I only noticed the images at the end of reading the book...
Let's focus on the content, really a lot.
It starts from the very beginning (as it should), namely from 1965, analyzing note by note, word by word, all the compositions of the Band, up to 2014, the year the big book was released, and also coinciding with the release year of the last Pink album.
At times, the reading is engaging. Tasty episodes of group life are recounted which, until the early '70s, resembled a "commune" rather than a band.
But, there's always a but... There is also a lot of information (for example, initial titles - later changed - of some tracks, studios where the album takes were recorded, along with the number of tracks used on the recorders...) that are not exactly the most interesting.
Instead, I found very entertaining and engaging the notes from the musicians describing how they came to compose some truly historic tracks, how they managed to recreate, until the early '70s, very particular effects and sounds with "physical" and not electronic instruments, which were not available at the time. Curious and original, for that era, were some "on-air" recordings of noises that, when properly effected, entered our imagination (for example, "On the Run" from "The Dark Side of the Moon" or the legendary "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast"), or the reverse recordings of singing and instruments.
Or again, how the title of one of their most fundamental albums, Atom Heart Mother, was born. We also find interesting details in the in-depth description of tracks that have never been included in official albums, but perhaps have recently appeared in collections, box sets, and various bonuses.
In short... in my opinion, it's worth the expense, even though at times the reading gets a bit bogged down in somewhat overly pedantic details.
Indeed, the hefty volume can be considered a fundamental work on Pink Floyd. Consider that, by the authors' choice, every single album has been thoroughly analyzed, even if it didn't belong to their most successful works.
This is to bring out ideas and feelings from the lesser-known and less acclaimed albums also.
The mass of information the book offers is truly enormous, the analytical effort is intense and overall, it's an interesting read because it's not a spot promoting Pink Floyd nor a mega-review with ratings and advice on how and where to buy the albums. It's a book that carries out an impartial analysis, almost like a "music historian".
For enthusiasts.
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