Book Review: "Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd" by Nick Mason (2005)

I flipped through this rock autobiography after seeing last Saturday's amazing Roger Waters show in Toronto, and I'd place it somewhere between a couple of other books by drummers which I've read over the last year - not quite as entertaining as this, nor nearly as insufferable as this.

The first half of "Inside Out" is dominated by stories of the band's formation in England in the mid-1960s, which is a little dry but is made up for from the period of about 1970 onward, whereby founding member and clinically insane original guitarist Syd Barrett was sidelined in favour of the elegant David Gilmour. The Dark Side/Wish You Were Here years are covered in detail, as is the infamous Olympic Stadium show in 1977 on the "Animals" tour, which led to the birth of The Wall, Floyd's magnum opus. Mason comes across like detached observer here, more interested in racing cars than the trappings of fame. As for keyboardist Rick Wright decides to pretty much float along, content to let the others do the work, and Waters (as is well-documented) takes over the Floyd apparatus as Gilmour focused on his solo work. Of course, the whole Wall phenomenon, along with accompanying mini-tour and film, was the breaking point for the original lineup with the dismal epilogue "The Final Cut" putting the nail in the band's coffin, revealing Waters' complete arrogance in promoting himself as "The Creative Genius of Pink Floyd" on his latest tour as he really held the pen only on these latter two projects.

Throughout the 80s, the reunion of Mason and Gilmour as Floyd along with the accompanying "Momentary Lapse of Reason" album and tour is chronicled, situated as it was amongst a myriad of lawsuits from Waters and feeble attempts by Gilmour to co-write with the likes of Carole Pope, among others. Wright is once again brought back into the fold for the "Delicate Sound of Thunder" tour, which opened in Ottawa in 1987, with Waters' comments in the press underlining the observation that most musicians are twenty degrees to the left when it involves other people's money and twenty degrees to the right when it involves their own. The part of the book I found most fascinating was the lead-up to the massive 1994 "Division Bell" album, an album which easily places within Floyd's top five albums, and on same days, I'd even say top three.

Things conclude with the Live 8 performance of 2005, footage of which I haven't seen, but all said, this is a decent look at the history of one of rock's superstar outfits from one who had the perfect vantage point. However, it's not written for a general audience, and I'd suggest listening to a few albums before picking this one up as serious fans will enjoy it much more than casual ones.

Overall rating: 8/10