Pink Floyd: Behind the Music is as visually oriented as Bowie Treasures or The Who: Much Too Much, but since the subject is a quartet of nondescript guys in t-shirts and jeans who tended to hunch motionlessly over their instruments, Evans has to haul more weight.
Instead of falling in line with the tabloidy nature of the old VH-1 series that shares a title with his book, Evans opts to mostly stick to the music, covering Floyd's albums and significant live appearances with a bit of background information, a bit of commentary on the music, and some critical assessment. Those critiques come solely by way of period reviews by other writers, although the particular quotes he chooses to include sometimes reveals Evans's personal pov. The author underscores his apparent ambivalence toward Syd Barrett's contribution to the band when he uses a highly dismissive comment from artist Storm Thorgerson to sum up Barrett's departure from the band. Otherwise, Evans mostly portrays the most mythic Floydian as a guy who wrote some whimsical songs, acted weird, and made a couple of flop albums. We don't learn too much more about him, nor the other guys for that matter, even though major incidents, such as the clashes between Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour, are guaranteed some ink.
But, as I've already suggested, Evans didn't really intend Behind the Music to be a band bio. As a summary of the Pink Floyd's musical achievements, it gets the job done well enough, and there are enough photos of the band's outlandish stage props, colorful poster art, and arresting album covers to make it pretty enjoyable to peruse despite how uncomfortable the band always looks on camera.
