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Comfortably Numb
The Inside Story of Pink Floyd
Description
The acclaimed, definitive biography of Pink Floyd, from their iconic beginnings in psychedelic, Swinging London to their historic reunion at the Live8 concert (“The most complete, insightful, and current account of Pink Floyd…nearly as essential as the music itself.”—Austin Chronicle)
Mark Blake draws on his own interviews with band members as well as the group’s friends, road crew, musical contemporaries, former housemates, and university colleagues to produce a riveting history of one of the biggest rock bands of all time. We follow Pink Floyd from the early psychedelic nights at UFO, to the stadium-rock and concept-album zenith of the seventies, to the acrimonious schisms of the late ’80s and ’90s. Along the way there are fascinating new revelations about Syd Barrett’s chaotic life at the time of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the band’s painstaking and Byzantine recording sessions at Abbey Road, and the fractious negotiations to bring about their fragile, tantalizing reunion in Hyde Park. Meticulous, exacting, and ambitious as any Pink Floyd album, Comfortably Numb is the definitive account of this most adventurous–and most English–rock band.
Praise
New York Press, 1/20/09
“You really do feel as if you’re being sucked into the drama. That’s a testament to Blake doing his job…It’s a journalistic take on the band, and its reads like a history book. It’s respectful and revealing, but not in a scandalous way.”
Blurt Magazine, 2/09
“Mark Blake has clearly done his share of research…Blake is at his best [when] providing those details that leap off the page while placing Pink Floyd squarely in the context of the times.”
“You really do feel as if you’re being sucked into the drama. That’s a testament to Blake doing his job…It’s a journalistic take on the band, and its reads like a history book. It’s respectful and revealing, but not in a scandalous way.”
Blurt Magazine, 2/09
“Mark Blake has clearly done his share of research…Blake is at his best [when] providing those details that leap off the page while placing Pink Floyd squarely in the context of the times.”
"Comfortably Numb is a hell of a read."
—Skyscraper Magazine
"Arguably the best book that has ever been written about 'the Floyd.'"
—Oak Park Press
—Oak Park Press
"Comfortably Numb is both an enjoyable read for rock historians and a Pink Floyd trivia geek."
—Aquarian Weekly
—Aquarian Weekly
"Chances are you probably won't see another Pink Floyd book on the shelves anytime soon because this one gets it right."
—Kirkus
"Mark Blake peels back the layers of mystery around the band's history with a supple, readable biography, replacing much hearsay and apocrypha with details and facts conveyed with the skepticism of a journalist and the passion of a fan...the definitive read on Pink Floyd."
—PopMatters
"Impeccable...The most complete, insightful, and current account of Pink Floyd to date, Comfortably Numb is nearly as essential as the music itself."
—Austin Chronicle
