Everything Under the Sun (book)

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Everything Under The Sun: The Complete Guide To Pink Floyd
Everything Under the Sun cover.jpg
Hardcover edition
LanguageEnglish
Publisher The History Press
Publication date
September 26, 2024
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages419
ISBN 978-1803995359

Everything Under The Sun: The Complete Guide To Pink Floyd is a book published in 2024. It was written by Mike Cormack and published by The History Press. [1]

Contents

The book is in four parts: the first part analyses all the recorded and released songs of Pink Floyd. The second is a timeline of all of Pink Floyd's concerts and release dates, matched with concurrent musical and world events. The third is a guide to the best bootleg recording available for every concert, numbering over 500 out of a possible 1200 gigs. The final section is interviews with bassist Guy Pratt, producer James Guthrie and Steve Mac, the leader of the Australian Pink Floyd Show. [2]

Reviews

Steve Mac of The Australian Pink Floyd Show said the book is "A go-to reference manual for when I want to deep dive into Pink Floyd’s music, song by song. Perfect to have to hand when listening to your Floyd collection… In my 36 years of performing Pink Floyd’s music worldwide, I have noticed an unspoken mutual understanding and connection between fans. Mike is clearly one of the many and it’s obvious from reading his book that he ‘gets it’. If you love your Floyd, Everything Under The Sun is a great addition to your collection and may enhance your listening experience and pleasure." [3]

Prog magazine said the book "seeks to be a definitive volume in the Floyd canon: a high-level analysis of the band's music and, as it says, the first serious survey of their work and achievements" and that "its ambition must be admired, and its place on that fat old shelf is assured." [4]

Classic Rock magazine said "Cormack provides a staggering amount of description and historical context behind the songs". [5] Record Collector said "as entertainingly opinionated as he is, his conclusions are always cogently argued, exhaustively annotated and often extremely insightful" and noted that the bootleg guide was "just as absorbing". [6]

A Fleeting Glimpse website (dedicated to Pink Floyd) said "there’s a phenomenal quantity of footnotes, enough to impress even the most ardent Terry Pratchett fan. The breadth and scope of these footnotes is astonishing, as they encompass a myriad of literary references, statistical information, anecdotes, pithy quotes and pub quiz style factoids" and concluded by saying, "Everything Under the Sun is a book that manages to be both fun and reverential, accessible yet meticulously researched. It’s unusually jovial for a Pink Floyd book (with the exception of Nick’s witty autobiography). Cormack not only succinctly sums up the appeal of Pink Floyd’s music, but also reminds us what made them colourful and dark, edgy and hilarious, terrible and brilliant all at once." [7]

The Prog Report website said "my measure of a good music book is one that, after reading, you hear or understand the music differently – and this is certainly the case with this one. I got so much from this book, and am still only scratching the surface... Mike Cormack must be commended for the massive amount of work that went into this reference guide style book." [8]

Author

Mike Cormack is head teacher of an international school in China. [9] He has reviewed books for outlets such as South China Morning Post , [10] The China Project, [11] The Spectator , [12] The Times Literary Supplement, [13] and Literary Review . [14] He comes from Buckie in Scotland.

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References

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