Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey

Two interesting trivia bits about Pink Floyd:

The band went through many names in the early years, starting as Sigma 6. Then, in succession, they became T-Set, Megadeaths (almost sounds familiar, eh?), Architectural Abdabs, Screaming Abdabs, Abdabs, and then the slightly more familiar The Pink Floyd Sound. Of course this was shortened to The Pink Floyd. And finally, they dropped the definite article and were simply Pink Floyd.

During the post-Waters Pink Floyd era -- the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour if memory serves -- Roger Waters claimed David Gilmour and Nick Mason violated his copyright by using "the Pig" (a giant floating pig featured at many Floyd shows since the Animals tour) for their Pink Floyd shows. Piggy was Roger's creation, after all, so why shouldn't he claim infringement? Makes sense. However, how did Gilmour and Mason circumvent copyright violation? They added a huge pair of balls to the pig. Take that, Roger!

These, and many more more profound, Pink Floyd tales and legends are recounted in Nicholas Schaffner's excellent book Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey. (Pictured first above.) Saucerful remains my personal favorite Floyd-related book, and, I would argue, the most thoroughly and objectively researched work about the band. It spans the band's career from 1965 through 1991. If you're a Floyd fan, and have not read it, I would strongly encourage you to do so. It's truly an amazing piece of musical history. If you can find the original hardcover all the better (1991, hardcover, 348 pages, by Harmony Books, ISBN 0-517-57608-2). (Pictured second above.)

Edit: Linkage to rare early Pink Floyd stuff:

*Early Floyd demo Lucy Leave written by Syd Barrett, circa 1965. Check out all the old photos while the song plays (you even see Bob Close in some of them!)
*Candy and a Current Bun, a Syd Barrett B-side gem. Recorded January 1967. Originally titled "Let's Roll Another One" -- BBC radio wasn't happy, hence the name change.
*Vegetable Man. You can really hear how Syd had pretty well lost it by this point in late '67 or early '68 (don't remember exactly when this was recorded). His ouster from the band was imminent.
*The Floyd perform Corporal Clegg on Belgian TV, 1968. David Glimour had just recently joined the band.

And who can forget this episode of WKRP in Cincinnati? Enjoy! :-)