Pink Floyd


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Genre: psych

Rating: **** (4 stars)

Title:  The Pipers At the Gates of Dawn

Company: EMI / Fame

Catalog: FA 3065

Year: 1967

Country/State: UK

Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+

Comments: mid-1980s reissue

Available: 1

Catalog ID: 5266

Price: $20.00

 

There are literally miles of printed and online material covering the ‘birth’ of Pink Floyd.  In the interests of time, the executive summary goes something like this.  Singer/guitarist Syd Barrett, guitarist/bassist Roger Waters, and keyboardist Rick Wright met when in the early 1960s when they were attending high school in Cambridge England.  Graduating, Wright went to London’s Regent Street Polytech to study architecture where he hooked up with classmates Nick Mason (drums) and Rick Wright (keyboards), bassist Clive Metcalf and singers Juliette Gale and Keith Nobel to form the R&B cover band Sigma 6.  With lead guitarist Bob Close replacing Metcalf, Rogers switched over to bass and Sigma 6 morphed in The T-Set, the The Architectural Abdabs, and The (Screaming) Abdabs.  Barrett was attending London’s Camberwell School of the Arts and in 1965 Rogers asked him to join the band.  Unfortunately, artistic and personality clashes saw band collapse.  Barrett, Mason, Rogers and Wright quickly regrouped as The Pink Floyd Sound (Barrett’s inspiration for the name reportedly coming from a pair of favorite LPs by Georgia blues artists Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.  With Barrett serving as frontman and backed by one of rock’s earliest light shows, the band made their 1966 debut at London’s The Countdown Club.  By the end of the year they were regulars on the city’s club circuit with regular performances at The Marquee Club, The Roundhouse, The UFO Club, etc. They’d also become poster children for the UK’s summer of love psychedelic movement. 

 

Finding a sponsor in the form of managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, they began recording demos with producer Joe Boyd (co-owner of The UFO Club).

 

Signed by Columbia/EMI, the band debuted with the single ‘Arnold Layne’ b/w ‘Candy and a Currant Bun’ (Columbia/EMI catalog number DB 8156).  A weird mix of English folk an psych, Barrett’s lyric about a transvestite with a fetish for stealing women’s underwear from washing lines somehow escaped a BBC airplay ban and managed to go top-20.

 

Originally entitled ‘Games for May’ (inspired by a show they’d played at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall), their follow-up ‘See Emily Play’ b/w ‘Scarecrow’ (Columbia/EMI catalog number DB 8214) did even better, going top-10 in the UK. 

 

As was standard marketing, EMI rushed the band into the studio to record and LP.  Produced by Norman ‘Hurricane’ Smith (the album was recorded at Abbey Roads Studios at the same time The Beatles were working on Sgt. Pepper), musically the set offered up something that was radically different than anything on the market.  Largely penned by Barrett, tracks like the wildly experimental opener ‘Astronomy Domine’, the rocking ‘Lucifer Sam’ and the folk-ish ‘Flaming’ (one of the few tracks that is aptly described as folk-psych), served to showcase his substantial musical gifts, but increasingly troubled sense of realty.  A uniquely weird mix of English folk, rock, child like simplicity and lysergenic meltdown, it was simply hard to compare Barrett’s material to anything else on the market. At the other end of the musical spectrum the two group-penned songs showcased longer, far more experimental efforts that served to foreshadow their post-Barrett catalog. Ironically the album was so different that it was commercial.  Even the two group penned numbers; the spacey ‘Po R. Toc H’ and the classic meltdown instrumental ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ were captivating and remain a blast to hear with good headphones.  Hard to imagine what these two freakouts must have sounded like to folks accustomed to Merseybeat and top-40 radio.  The only album to truly showcase Barrett who would find himself in forced ‘retirement’ within a year, it’s also one of the band’s creative zeniths.   Note that the original American release (Tower catalog number ST-5093) featured an abbreviated track line up.

 

(side 1)

1.) Astronomy Domine   (Syd Barrett) –

2.) Lucifer Sam   (Syd Barrett) –

3.) Matilda Mother   (Syd Barrett) –

4.) Flaming    (Syd Barrett) –

5.) Po R. Toc H. (instrumental)  (Syd Barrett – Roger Waters – Rick Wright – Nick Mason) –

6.) Take Up Thy Stetohscope and Walk   (Roger Waters)

 

(side 2)

1.) Interstellar Overdrive (instrumental)   (Syd Barrett – Roger Waters – Rick Wright – Nick Mason) –

2.) The Gnome   (Syd Barrett) –

3.) Chapter 24   (Syd Barrett) –

4.) The Scarecrow (Syd Barrett) –

5.) Bike    (Syd Barrett) -

 

Like any good band, in support of the album The Floyd hit the road.  A short Irish tour went off without issues, but when the band hit the States the wheels started to come off their train.  An appearance on American Bandstand proved disasterous when Barrett refused to lip synch ‘Arnold Lane’ (technically he did lip synch, but refused to move his lips in time with the vocal track).  Other promotional efforts including an appearance on the Pat Boone show proved equally dismal with Barrett acting totally stoned.  Perhaps not a big surprise, their US tour was abruptly cancelled before it even started. 

 

Back in the UK, November 1967 saw the release if a third non-LP 45 ‘Apples and Oranges’ b/w ‘Paint Box’ (Columbia/EMI catalog number DB 8310).  Far more experimental that the first two singles, the 45 didn’t chart, though that didn’t stop EMI from sending them back out on the road as part of a package tour.  Unfortunately the wear and tear of touring didn’t exactly help Barrett whose continuing use of LSD made him increasingly unstable and unreliable.  Increasingly unable to function on tour, by early 1968 ex-The Ramblers/Jokers Wild guitarist David Gilmour was brought in as a touring replacement.  In April 1968 Barrett was formally asked to leave the band.

 

 


 


Genre: psych

Rating: **** (4 stars)

Title:  Atom Heart Mother

Company: Harvest

Catalog: SKAO 382

Year: 1970

Country/State: UK

Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+

Comments: gatefold sleeve

Catalog ID: 3179

Price: $30.00

 

s.   

"Atom Heart Mother" track listing:
(side 1)

1.) 

 

(side 2)
1.)

 

 

Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released by Harvest on 2 October 1970 in the UK, and by Capitol on 10 October 1970 in the US.[2] It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, England, and was the band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK, while it reached number 55 in the US, eventually going gold there.[3] A remastered CD was released in 1994 in the UK and the United States, and again in 2011. Ron Geesin, who had already influenced and collaborated with Roger Waters, contributed to the title track and received a then-rare outside songwriting credit.

The cover was designed by Hipgnosis, and was the first one to not feature the band's name on the cover, or contain any photographs of the band anywhere. This was a trend that would continue on subsequent covers throughout the 1970s and beyond.

Although it was commercially successful on release, the band, particularly Waters and David Gilmour, have expressed several negative opinions of the album in more recent years.[4][5] Nevertheless, it remained popular enough for Gilmour to perform the title track with Geesin in 2008.

 

 

Recording[edit]

Roger Waters onstage at Leeds University, 28 February 1970. One of the earliest live performances of the album's title track was at this show.

Pink Floyd started work on the album after completing their contributions to the soundtrack for the film Zabriskie Point in Rome, which had ended somewhat acrimoniously. They headed back to London in early 1970 for rehearsals. A number of out-takes from the Rome sessions were used to assemble new material during these rehearsals, though some of it, such as "The Violent Sequence", later to become "Us and Them", would not be used for some time.[6]

Side one[edit]

The title track to Atom Heart Mother resulted from a number of instrumental figures the band had composed during these rehearsals, including the chord progression of the main theme, which guitarist David Gilmour had called "Theme from an Imaginary Western",[7][8] and the earliest documented live performance was on 17 January 1970[8] at Hull University.[9] The band felt that the live performances developed the piece into a manageable shape.[6] Recording of the track commenced at Abbey Road Studios in London, and was somewhat cumbersome, as it was the first recording to use a new eight-track one-inch tape and EMI TG12345 transistorised mixing console (8 track 20 microphone inputs) in the studio, and, as a result, EMIinsisted the band were not allowed to do any splicing of the tape to edit pieces together. Consequently, band members Roger Waters and Nick Mason had little choice but to play the bass and drums, respectively, for the entire 23 minute piece in one sitting. The other instruments the band played were overdubbed later. Mason recalled the final backing track's lack of precise timekeeping would cause problems later on.[6]

By March, they had finished recording the track,[10] but felt that it was rather unfocused and needed something else. The band had been introduced to Ron Geesin via the Rolling Stones tour manager, Sam Cutler, and were impressed with his composition and tape editing capabilities, particularly Waters and Mason.[11] Geesin was handed the completed backing tracks the band had recorded, and asked to compose an orchestral arrangement over the top of it while the band went on tour to the US.[11] Geesin described the composing and arranging as "a hell of a lot of work. Nobody knew what was wanted, they couldn't read music …"[10] According to him, Gilmour came up with some of the melodic lines, while the pair of them along with keyboardist Richard Wright worked on the middle section with the choir.[8][12] When it came to recording his work in June with the EMI Pops Orchestra,[5] the session musicians present were unimpressed with his tendency to favour avant garde music over established classical works, and, combined with the relative difficulty of some of the parts, harassed him during recording. John Alldis, whose choir were also to perform on the track, had experience in dealing with orchestral musicians, and managed to conduct the recorded performance in place of Geesin.[6][13]

The track was originally called "The Amazing Pudding", though Geesin's original score referred to it as "Untitled Epic".[8][14] A refined and improved version (with Geesin's written parts) was played at Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music on 27 June.[13][15] Its name was changed after the band were due to play an "in concert" broadcast for BBC Radio 1 on 16 July 1970, and had needed a title for John Peel to announce it.[a][13][16] Geesin pointed to a copy of the Evening Standard, and suggested to Waters that he would find a title in there. The headline was: "ATOM HEART MOTHER NAMED", a story about a woman being fitted with a nuclear-powered pacemaker.[17][18]

The piece as presented on the completed album is a progression from Pink Floyd's earlier instrumental pieces such as "A Saucerful of Secrets" and even earlier, "Interstellar Overdrive". The "Atom Heart Mother" suite takes up all of side one, and is split into six parts, individually named. Geesin chose the opening section name, "Father's Shout" after Earl "Fatha" Hines, while other names such as "Breast Milky" and "Funky Dung" were inspired by the album cover artwork.[5] The orchestral arrangements feature a full brass section,[12] a cello[19] and the 16-piece John Alldis choir,[20][21] which take most of the lead melody lines, while Pink Floyd mainly provide the backing tracks;[12] a reverse of the 1960s pop music practice of using orchestration as the background, and putting the rock band in front.[22]

Side two[edit]

By 1970, Rick Wright had started using a Hammond M102 organ on stage regularly, and it makes a prominent appearance on the album.[23]

The album's concept is similar to their previous Ummagumma album, in that it features the full band in the first half, and focuses on individual members in the second half.[22][24] Side two opens with three five-minute songs: one by each of the band's three resident songwriters, and closes with a suite with sound effects primarily conceived by Mason,[25] but credited to the whole group.[22] Waters contributes a folk ballad called "If", playing acoustic guitar.[22][26] Pink Floyd rarely played the song live, but Waters often performed it at solo shows[26] in support of his Radio K.A.O.S. album, more than a decade later. This is followed by Wright's "Summer '68", which also features prominent use of brass in places. It was issued as a Japanese single in 1971,[27] and was the only track on the album never to be played live in concert. The song was reportedly about Wright and a groupie on tour, and had the working title of "One Night Stand".[28]

According to Mason, Gilmour, having had little songwriting experience at that point, was ordered to remain in Abbey Road until he had composed a song suitable for inclusion on the album. He came up with a folk-influenced tune, "Fat Old Sun",[22] which he still cites as a personal favourite.[6] The song was a regular part of the band's live repertoire in 1970–71, and became a staple of Gilmour's solo set in 2006.[29]

The final track, "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast", is divided into three segments, each with its own descriptive title, joined by dialogue and sound effects of then-roadie Alan Styles preparing, discussing, and eating breakfast.[30] The idea for the piece came about by Waters experimenting with the rhythm of a dripping tap,[31] which combined sound effects and dialogue recorded by Mason in his kitchen[31] with musical pieces recorded at Abbey Road.[32] A slightly re-worked version was performed on stage on 22 December 1970 at Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield, England with the band members pausing between pieces to eat and drink their breakfast. The original LP ends with the sound of the tap which continues into the inner groove, and thus plays on indefinitely.[15][33]

Original Floyd frontman Syd Barrett recorded his album Barrett around the same time as Atom Heart Mother, with assistance from Gilmour and Wright. He occasionally visited his old band's sessions to see what they were doing.[19]

Artwork[edit]

The bootleg The Dark Side of the Moo featured a fan's attempt at copying the cover.

The original album cover, designed by art collective Hipgnosis, shows a cow standing in a pasture with no text nor any other clue as to what might be on the record.[31][34] Some later editions have the title and artist name added to the cover. This concept was the group's reaction to the psychedelic space rock imagery associated with Pink Floyd at the time of the album's release; the band wanted to explore all sorts of music without being limited to a particular image or style of performance. They thus requested that their new album had "something plain" on the cover, which ended up being the image of a cow.[31][34] Storm Thorgerson, inspired by Andy Warhol's famous "cow wallpaper", has said that he simply drove out into a rural area near Potters Bar and photographed the first cow he saw.[31][34] The cow's owner identified her name as "Lulubelle III".[31][34][35] More cows appear on the back cover, again with no text or titles, and on the inside gatefold. Also, a pink balloon shaped like a cow udder accompanied the album as part of Capitol's marketing strategy campaign to "break" the band in the US.[31][34][36] The liner notes in later CD editions give a recipe for Traditional Bedouin Wedding Feast on a card labelled "Breakfast Tips".[37] Looking back on the artwork, Thorgerson remembered: "I think the cow represents, in terms of the Pink Floyd, part of their humour, which I think is often underestimated or just unwritten about."[38]

In the mid-1970s, a bootleg containing rare singles and B-sides entitled The Dark Side of the Moo appeared, with a similar cover. Like Atom Heart Mother, the cover had no writing on it, although in this case it was to protect the bootlegger's anonymity rather than any artistic statement.[39] The album cover to The KLF's concept album Chill Out was also inspired by Atom Heart Mother.[40]

Release and reception[edit]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 3/5 stars[41]
Robert Christgau D+[42]
The Daily Telegraph 2/5 stars[43]
The Great Rock Discography 7/10[44]
MusicHound 2/5[45]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 1/5 stars[46]
Sputnikmusic 3/5[47]
Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music 3/5 stars[44]

Atom Heart Mother was released on 2 October 1970 in the UK and 10 October in the US.[48] It reached number 1[49]and number 55,[50] respectively in those countries' charts. It was released in the quadraphonic format in the UK,[31]Germany[b] and Australia.[c] A remastered CD was released in 1994 in the UK[d] and the US.[e] Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released a 24KT gold CD in the US in 1994,[f] while a LP version was released in the US in the same year.[g] As part of the Why Pink Floyd...? campaign, a remaster was released in 2011.[h][i] Then the album was re-issued again in 2016 on the band's own Pink Floyd Records label.[58]

Critical reaction to the suite has always been mixed, and all band members have expressed negativity toward it in recent times.[18] Gilmour has said the album was "a load of rubbish. We were at a real down point ... I think we were scraping the barrel a bit at that period"[4] and "a good idea but it was dreadful... Atom Heart Mother sounds like we didn't have any idea between us, but we became much more prolific after it."[59] Similarly, in a 1984 interview on BBC Radio 1, Waters said "If somebody said to me now – right – here's a million pounds, go out and play Atom Heart Mother, I'd say you must be fucking joking."[5] Alec Dubro of Rolling Stone gave Atom Heart Mother a negative review, ultimately stating "if Pink Floyd is looking for some new dimensions, they haven't found them here."[60]

Live performances[edit]

The band were initially enthusiastic about performing the suite. An early performance was taped for the San Francisco based television station KQED, featuring just the band, on 28 April 1970.[61] Two major performances were at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music on 27 June and the "Blackhills Garden Party" in Hyde Park, London on 18 July. On both occasions the band were accompanied by the John Alldis Choir and the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble.[62] Later, the band took a full brass section and choir on tour just for the purpose of performing this piece.[15] However, this caused the tour to lose money, and the band found problems with the hired musicians, which changed from gig to gig as they simply took who was available, which, combined with lack of rehearsal and problems miking up the whole ensemble, made a full live performance more problematic. Reflecting on this, Gilmour said "some of the brass players have been really hopeless".[32] According to Mason, the band arrived at one gig in Aachen, Germany, only to discover they had left the sheet music behind, forcing tour manager Tony Howard to go back to London and get it.[6]

A later arrangement without brass or choir, and pared down from 25 minutes to fifteen by omitting the "collage" sections and closing reprise of the main theme, remained in their live repertoire into 1972. The first live performance of The Dark Side of the Moon suite in Brighton was abandoned partway through; after a break, the band played Atom Heart Mother instead.[63] Pink Floyd's last live performance of the suite took place on 22 May 1972 at the Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam, Netherlands.[64]

Legacy[edit]

Stanley Kubrick wanted to use the album's title track in A Clockwork Orange.[31] The group refused permission, primarily because Kubrick was unsure of exactly which pieces of music he wanted and what he wished to do with them. In retrospect, Waters said "maybe it's just as well it wasn't used after all".[32] Nevertheless, the album is visible behind the counter in the record store scene of the film.[65]

On 14 and 15 June 2008, Geesin performed "Atom Heart Mother" with Italian tribute band Mun Floyd over two nights as part of the Chelsea Festival.[66] Geesin introduced it with a history and slide show. The performances featured the chamber choir Canticum,[67] brass and cellist Caroline Dale, who has worked with Gilmour. The second night saw Gilmour join Geesin on stage for the performance, which was extended to 30 minutes.[68]

In 2013, Geesin produced a book, The Flaming Cow, which documented his experience with working with Pink Floyd, including the making of this album from his point of view.[69]

Track listing[edit]

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Lead vocals Length
1. "Atom Heart Mother"
  • I. "Father's Shout"
  • II. "Breast Milky"
  • III. "Mother Fore"
  • IV. "Funky Dung"
  • V. "Mind Your Throats Please"
  • VI. "Remergence"
Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, Ron Geesin Instrumental, wordless vocals by the John Alldis Choir 23:44
  • 2:50
  • 2:33
  • 4:50
  • 5:15
  • 2:28
  • 5:48
Total length: 23:44
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Lead vocals Length
2. "If" Waters Waters 4:31
3. "Summer '68" Wright Wright 5:29
4. "Fat Old Sun" Gilmour Gilmour 5:22
5. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast"
  • I. "Rise and Shine"
  • II. "Sunny Side Up"
  • III. "Morning Glory"
Waters, Mason, Gilmour, Wright Instrumental, speech by Alan Styles 13:00
Total length: 28:22

Personnel[edit]

Taken from sleeve notes[70]

Pink Floyd (all instrumentation uncredited)

Additional musicians

Production

Chart positions[edit]

Chart (1970) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[74] 30
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[75] 39
Danish Albums (Tracklisten)[76] 8
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[77] 5
French Albums (SNEP)[78] 4
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[79] 8
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[80] 13
UK Albums (OCC)[81] 1
US Billboard 200[82] 55
Chart (2011–12) Peak
position
French Albums (SNEP)[83] 66
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[84] 79
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[85] 81

 


Genre: progressive

Rating: *** (3 stars)

Title:  A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Company: Columbia

Catalog: S

Year: 19

Country/State: UK

Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+

Comments: i

Available: 1

Catalog ID: 4

Price: $

Cost: $66.00

 

Billed as the first official Pink Floyd effort following Roger Waters' 1984 departure, for all intents and purposes, 1987's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" was a David Gilmour solo effort.  Large slammed by the critics when released and still view with varying degrees of scorn by Floyd fans, to my ears the set isn't that bad.  Waters' acidic contributions are clearly missed, but on tracks such as '', '' and '' Gilmour's spidery guitar and atmospheric compositions ensured that that band's instantly recognizable sound remained largely intact.  There's also debate on the set's supposed commercial orientation.  Lots of fans weren't too thrilled to see radio embrace tracks such as 'Learning To Fly' and 'On the Turning Away.'  I'd argue that Gilmour's always had an ear for the commercial, so nobody should have been surprised or upset by the LP's massive success.   

"A Momentary Lapse of Reason" track listing:
(side 1)

1.) Signs of Life (instrumental)   (Bob Erzin - David Gilmour) - 4:25

2.) Learning To Fly   (Carin - Bob Erzin - David Gilmour - Moore) - 4:53

3.) The Dogs of War   (David Gilmour - Moore) - 6:08

4.) One Slip   (David Gilmour - Phil Manzanera) - 5:07

 

(side 2)
1.) On the Turnign Away   (David Gilmour - Moore) - 5:39

2.) Yet Another Movie/Round and Around   (David Gilmour - Leonard) - 7:27

3.) New Machine (Part 1)   (David Gilmour) - 1:46

4.) Terminal Frost   (David Gilmour) - 6:17

5.) New Machine (Part 2)   (David Gilmour) - 0:38

6.) Sorrow   (David Gilmour) - 8:48 

 

 

 

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