Pink Floyd:
One of the best albums ever made.
"...criminally underrated - the long title suite,
benefitting from Ron Geesin's crazed but accomplished musical wit, is among their best
work..."
(Q Magazine 1/95)
No, kids, the Floyd boys were not druggies, though I doubt they were squeaky clean either. And if you think it takes chemicals to create weird music, try listening to Zappa's 60's albums. Not only is Zappa clean, he's actually a teetotaller, believe it or not...
When rock operas by the Kinks and the Who were relatively new and Deep Purple was working with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Pink Floyd entered the 70's with ATOM HEART MOTHER, a unique, magical, catching symphonic endeavor. Starting out as a chord sequence written by David Gilmour, the title track became a sprawling masterpiece co-written and arranged by Scottish composer Ron Geesin. Atom Heart Mother was a spotlight ahead for Pink Floyd, showing the extensions of form the band would engage in so successfully on Dark Side of the Moon just a few short years later.
Atom Heart Mother is in the grand, color-bending tradition of psychedelic experimentalism. The title suite features French-horn-led brass melodies riffed on by David Gilmour's guitar and the rhythm section, all of which veers into choral passages that recall György Ligeti's vocal works and then almost atonal pulses of keyboards that mask reams of audio snippets swirling underneath. Throughout twenty minutes of movements titled "Breast Milky," "Funky Dung" and "Mind Your Throat Please," grandiose brass sections bubble over, otherworldly choruses strike a chord of impending doom and individual Floyd contributions pop up amid all the orchestration.
The other sprawling piece, "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast," starts out with the sounds of someone puttering about in his home and occasionally muttering to himself, broken up by either the swirling keyboards of Richard Wright or the dulcet tones of David Gilmour's acoustic guitar. There's a range of emotion here, from doleful to crazed to humorous (especially the dramatized comments on macrobiotics in the closer).
The remaining three tracks are Roger Waters' ballad "If" (one of his best ballads, which shows him summarizing the message of The Wall nearly ten years early - listen to the song "Goodbye Cruel World" from that album), the baroque psychedelic pop of Wright's "Summer '68" and Gilmour's "Fat Old Sun," where the guitarist's singing sounds uncannily like Ray Davies. "Fat Old Sun" follows the same formula as "Comfortably Numb": a nice chord sequence, a refrain which is longer than the verse, and a powerful guitar solo at the end.
Atom Heart
Mother at Amazon.com
Atom Heart Mother
Atom Heart Mother Suite (Mason, Gilmour,
Waters, Wright, Gessin)
a. Father's Shout
b. Breast Milky
c. Mother Fore
d. Funky Dung
e. Mind Your Throats, Please
f. Remergence
(Instrumental)
If (Waters)
If I were a swan, I'd be gone.
If I were a train, I'd be late.
And if I were a good man,
I'd talk with you
More often than I do.
If I were to sleep, I could dream.
If I were afraid, I could hide.
If I go insane, please don't put
Your wires in my brain.
If I were the moon, I'd be cool.
If I were a book, I would bend for you.
If I were a good man, I'd understand
The spaces between friends.
If I were alone, I would cry.
And if I were with you, I'd be home and dry.
And if I go insane,
And they lock me away,
Will you still let me join in the game?
If I were a swan, I'd be gone.
If I were a train, I'd be late again.
If I were a good man,
I'd talk with you
More often than I do.
Summer '68 (Wright)
Would you like to say something before you leave
Perhaps you'd care to state exactly how you feel
We said good-bye before we said hello
I hardly even like you, I shouldn't care at all
We met just six hours ago, the music was too loud
From your bed I gained a day and lost a bloody year
And I would like to know
How do you feel, how do you feel, how do you feel?
Not a single word was said, delights still without fears
Occasionally you showed a smile but what was the need
I felt the cold far too soon - the wind of '95
My friends are lying in the sun, I wish that I was there
Tomorrow brings another town and another girl like you
Have you time before you leave to greet another man
Just you let me know
How do you feel, how do you feel, how do you feel?
Good-bye to you
Charlotte Kringles too
I've had enough for one day
Fat Old Sun (Gilmour)
When the fat old sun in the sky is falling
Summer evenin' birds are calling
Summer's thunder time of year
The sound of music in my ears
Distant bells, new mown grass
Smells so sweet
By the river holding hands
Roll me up and lay me down
And if you sit don't make a sound
Pick your feet up off the ground
And if you hear as the warm night falls
The silver sound from a time so strange
Sing to me, sing to me
When that fat old sun in the sky is falling
Summer evenin' birds are calling
Children's laughter in my ears
The last sunlight disappears
And if you sit don't make a sound
Pick your feet up off the ground
And if you hear as the warm night falls
The silver sound from a time so strange
Sing to me, sing to me
When that fat old sun in the sky is falling
Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast (Waters, Mason,
Gilmour, Wright)
(Instrumental)
