I’ve been obsessed with Pink Floyd since I was 7 years old. I can remember listening to Dark Side of the Moon in the car on long car rides. But how much did I actually know before reading this book? I feel like nothing! This was a fantastic overview of the lore of Pink Floyd and why they’re so great. I highly recommend to any music lover!

Published on the 50th anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Lunacy delivers on its promise to place the seminal album in its proper context -- in every possible context, it turns out, from the details of how it was conceived and recorded, to its place in the band's history, and alongside every social, political, and cultural current in which the band's history took place.

If you're looking for a detailed deconstruction of every last note and sound effect on the album, that has been done elsewhere in various media, no need for music critic John Kruth to rehash it, though he does recount much of it, as he should. In fact, broad swaths of it are not even about Dark Side, perhaps as much as 50%, and a sizable chunk is not even about Pink Floyd, except for whatever loosely related tangent inspired Kruth to go off on his freely associative asides.

I guess it's a matter of degree. I was looking forward to a broad contextual analysis of Dark Side's place in music and cultural history, but I wasn't expecting this much of it. Bottom line, it depends on whether the tangents are of interest, which of course will differ depending on your own interests. Even those I was pleased to see -- the Incredible String Band, Holy Modal Rounders, Jorma and Janis's Typewriter Tapes -- what relevance do they have to Dark Side of the Moon?

I'm a fan of Gary Lucas, but really Gary, are you a good enough of a guitar player to criticize David Gilmour? Stan Schneir got it exactly right in praising his "economical" approach -- keep your shredders, no one gets more out of every note than Gilmour. And extended meditations on subjects like Dada, Edgar Varese, and Louie Louie, to name just three, were not worth more than a mention -- is it filler, name dropping and humble bragging, or all of the above?

There were also more than a few errors that made me wonder what didn't I catch, suspicious of what I didn't know. Getting the name of the Grateful Dead before they were Grateful Dead wrong (why is that even relevant?), saying a 1988 onstage incident was the inspiration for The Wall (released about a decade earlier!), and so on (I didn't take notes, but there's more).

And mischaracterization, like the aforementioned Gary Lucas critique or singling out Floyd for the 2-5 structure of Any Colour You Like as an overused Floyd trope when in fact 2-5 songs are a ubiquitous mainstay of psychedelic rock, one of the first things beginner campfire jammers go to.

But, now that I got all that out, this was still a worthwhile read. It's really just a matter of focus -- I wanted the balance to tip more heavily to Pink Floyd and Dark Side rather than Zappa (who I love but who belongs elsewhere) and other non-Floydian subjects. And to finish the book off with Johnny Rotten and his I Hate Pink Floyd T-shirt -- oh no, here I go again.

Still, I'd give this 3 1/2 stars if I could -- very good but with some flaws. I'll round it up to 4 stars out of sheer love for the subject matter and a recognition that I can be a curmudgeon.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for this too-honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up Lunacy: The Curious Phenomenon of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, 50 Years On. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised by this book, which provides a fascinating deep dive into the making of one of the most iconic albums of all time.

What I appreciated most about this book was its historical context--Kruth does an excellent job of situating Dark Side within the broader cultural and political landscape of the time, including the social and economic upheavals of the 1970s, as well as the various musical and artistic influences that shaped the album.

Kruth also provides plenty of interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes and interviews with the band members and other collaborators, which gave me a newfound appreciation for the album's technical and artistic achievements. I found myself listening to the album with fresh ears after reading this book.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

So much fun! I remember the 60's, but have forgotten so much about them over the years. This gave me a trip down memory lanr I enjoyed so much. I'm not a huge fan of Pink Floyd, but have enjoyed some of their material, And , of course, SId Barret has always been an interesting figure. His early contributions to the band were interesting to read about. The stories behind the band as it developed in 1960''s England was entertaining. I loved reading about other musicians take on the band and the venues they palyed at before , and even after, they became famous.
I think any fan of the time period, not just Pink Floyd fans, can enjoy this book. It was a informative, well written, and enterr=taining read!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Rowan & Littlefield for an advance copy of this history of both an era, an album, and the synchronicity of creativity that lead to it.

There is a time when the tides are right, the suns aligned and ready to be eclipsed by the moon, a time when technology, actions, fashion, politics, drugs and creativity all intermingle and take new forms. This intermixing of so many things creates an epoch when anything and everything can happen, and will. This was England, London especially where musicians, artists, business types, dreamers, schemers and scenesters begin to create visions and soundscapes that would change lives, and blow minds. There were many bands who played better, many bands trippier, even a few bands with more desire, but none of them combined art, skill, drive, and a love of technology, and a need for success like the band Pink Floyd. A band who could create sounds, and songs with great meaning and feeling, shred members who couldn't hack it, and would experiment with their sounds and visions in front of crowds until they had it right. John Kruth, writer, historian and performing musician has in Lunacy: The Curious Phenomenon of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, 50 Years On written about the creation of a fantastic album, one with many influences both from the band, but also from the scene they were a part of.

The book begins with an overview of the scene, a short history of England after the Second World War, austerity, life in Cambridge for the members of the band, and their growing interest in music. The various music types are looked at the Skiffle scene, the interest in jazz and the blues, in which the band took their name from. The rise of the UFO club as a meeting point for like-minded people, artists and creatives, which gave the band a chance to play, and gain a following. Drugs and its effect on the people and the music, especially it's influence on the life and legacy of Syd Barrett, and his leaving the band, by simply never getting picked up for a gig. And of course the album that made the band, made the power dynamics change in the band, and less than ten years later cause them to breakup are of course explored.

The book is a look at a time, a place and confluence of people, events and ideas that will probably never come this way ever again. This is far more than a book about an album, this is about the entire music scene, what life and music was like, and how the band influenced and was influenced by the world around them. I enjoyed the history as much as I enjoyed the information on the band. As both a writer and a performing musician Kruth has a unique few of music, both live and in the studio, and how songs are created. Regurgitating the same stories would be easy, but Kruth goes deep finding and interviewing people outside of music, or people whose stories are new to readers. Kruth has a real gift in sharing stories and insights that just seem new and different, which is rare about a band that seems so private but has so many books written about them.

Recommended for fans of the band of course, but also for people who enjoy book on music history, or for those who enjoy books on the Swinging Sixties in England. A very well written, different story about an album that really changed a lot of things.