40 Years of Atom Heart Mother
40 years ago my favourite album of all time was released ‘Atom Heart Mother’ by Pink Floyd.
It was the bands first UK No 1 lp and it took the band to a much higher lever than before. Its beautifully produced and has some terrific elements to it, yet the band and the fans don’t really like it.
The main port of the album is the title track, now Pink Floyd really worked at their material, so many bands no simple go from writing to recording then release it and tour it. Pink Floyd up to the animals album always played new material before they recorded it, Atom heart mother was first played live a good 9 months before the album was released. It was even shown on TV and played live on the Radio before it was released. The title track is a long instrumental in 6 parts, with Choir , Brass and of cores the band. The avant-garde composer Ron Geesen crafted the original piece (Known as The Amazing Pudding). It’s a stunning journey starting with a Brass drone (that sounds amazing on the quad mix), into a simple tune that is the theme for the whole piece, it goes through structures of ballad, blues, psychedelic oddness and back again, such a milestone of composition in 1970. Side 2 has IF, one of Roger waters best ever tunes, David Gilmour’s Fat old Sun another killer track, as is Rocks Summer 68, Both Roger and David have played their tracks on there solo tours, The ending is like a mini AHM called Alans Psychedelic Breakfast, sound effects link 3 different instrumental tracks, all very atmospheric. Add to that the cover, a great photo of a Cow and there you have it, to me the greatest album of all time. I was so very privileged to see it performed live, well side 1 of it a couple of years ago with Geesen and Gilmour.
Its well worth a listen if you like the idea of orchestrated rock music.
It was the bands first UK No 1 lp and it took the band to a much higher lever than before. Its beautifully produced and has some terrific elements to it, yet the band and the fans don’t really like it.
The main port of the album is the title track, now Pink Floyd really worked at their material, so many bands no simple go from writing to recording then release it and tour it. Pink Floyd up to the animals album always played new material before they recorded it, Atom heart mother was first played live a good 9 months before the album was released. It was even shown on TV and played live on the Radio before it was released. The title track is a long instrumental in 6 parts, with Choir , Brass and of cores the band. The avant-garde composer Ron Geesen crafted the original piece (Known as The Amazing Pudding). It’s a stunning journey starting with a Brass drone (that sounds amazing on the quad mix), into a simple tune that is the theme for the whole piece, it goes through structures of ballad, blues, psychedelic oddness and back again, such a milestone of composition in 1970. Side 2 has IF, one of Roger waters best ever tunes, David Gilmour’s Fat old Sun another killer track, as is Rocks Summer 68, Both Roger and David have played their tracks on there solo tours, The ending is like a mini AHM called Alans Psychedelic Breakfast, sound effects link 3 different instrumental tracks, all very atmospheric. Add to that the cover, a great photo of a Cow and there you have it, to me the greatest album of all time. I was so very privileged to see it performed live, well side 1 of it a couple of years ago with Geesen and Gilmour.
Its well worth a listen if you like the idea of orchestrated rock music.
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