Maps of Music

Atom Heart Mother (1970)

Where the lyrics of Atom Heart Mother take you, and where it was really made.

The band's own members later called this album a load of rubbish, yet it was the first Pink Floyd album to reach number 1 in the UK.

Key places

Where the title track was recorded (1970)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — The title track was recorded at EMI Studios, now Abbey Road Studios, in London. The band used a new eight-track tape machine there. EMI insisted there be no splicing of the tape. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• Atom Heart Mother: fifth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd
• Released by Harvest on 2 October 1970 in the UK, and 10 October 1970 in the US
• Recorded at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London
• The band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK
• Cover designed by Hipgnosis; the band's first cover without their name or photographs of them
• Title track co-composed with Ron Geesin

Background

• Work began after finishing soundtrack contributions for the film Zabriskie Point in Rome, which ended somewhat acrimoniously
• The band returned to London in early 1970 for rehearsals
• Out-takes from the Rome sessions were reused to assemble new material
• The title track grew from instrumental figures composed during rehearsals
• Earliest documented live performance of the title track: 17 January 1970 at Hull University

Recording

• Title track recording at EMI Studios used a new eight-track one-inch tape machine
• EMI insisted there be no splicing of the tape
• Roger Waters and Nick Mason played bass and drums for the entire 23-minute piece in one sitting
• The band finished the backing track by March but felt it lacked focus
• Ron Geesin was asked to write an orchestral arrangement while the band toured the US
• Geesin's orchestral recording in June used the EMI Pops Orchestra; John Alldis conducted in his place
• Side two holds one song by each of the three main songwriters, then a suite primarily conceived by Mason

Cover

• A Holstein cow standing in a pasture, with no text
• Storm Thorgerson photographed the first cow he saw in a rural area near Potters Bar

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright; David Gilmour joined in 1967.
• Among the first British psychedelic groups, gaining an early underground following at the UFO Club.
• Known for extended compositions, sonic experiments, philosophical lyrics and elaborate live shows.

Members

• Nick Mason on drums (1965–present).
• Roger Waters on bass and vocals (1965–1985), becoming the primary lyricist after Barrett's departure in 1968.
• Richard Wright on keyboards (1965–1981, 1987–2008), who died in 2008.
• Syd Barrett on vocals and guitar (1965–1968), who died in 2006.
• David Gilmour on guitar and vocals (1967–present).

Career

• Concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979) made them one of the best-selling acts of all time.
• Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982) won two BAFTAs.
• Reunited with Waters for Live 8 in 2005; the last studio album The Endless River came out in 2014.
• Released 'Hey, Hey, Rise Up!' in 2022 in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Sold over 250 million records; inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2008.

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone's Alec Dubro rated the album negatively in a 1970 review
• Dubro wrote that if Pink Floyd was seeking new dimensions, the band had not found them on this record
• Robert Christgau, in Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), found the suite easier to digest than the songs on side two
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it the most impenetrable album Pink Floyd released on Harvest
• Erlewine said it was often intriguing, more in what it suggests than what it achieves

Reappraisal

• Critical reaction to the suite has always been mixed, and all band members have expressed negativity toward it
• Gilmour called the album a load of rubbish and said the band was scraping the barrel at that time
• Waters said in a 1984 BBC Radio 1 interview that he would refuse a million pounds to play it
• Music critic Jim DeRogatis called it the strongest offering from the mid-period Floyd

Records

• Reached number 1 in the UK and number 55 in the US, where it eventually went gold
• Released in quadraphonic format in the UK, Germany and Australia
• Remastered CD released in 1994 in the UK and the US, again in 2011, and reissued in 2016 on the band's Pink Floyd Records label
• Ranked number 990 in All-Time Top 1000 Albums

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Stanley Kubrick wanted to use the title track in A Clockwork Orange, but the group refused permission, mainly because Kubrick was unsure which pieces he wanted
• The album can be seen behind the counter in the record store scene of that film
• Geesin pointed to a copy of the Evening Standard and suggested Waters find a title there; the name came from a headline about a pacemaker story
• Gilmour, having little songwriting experience at the time, was ordered to stay at EMI until he had composed a song for the album; the result was Fat Old Sun
• The original LP ends with the sound of a dripping tap that continues into the inner groove
• Syd Barrett recorded his album Barrett around the same time, with help from Gilmour and Wright

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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