Album Anniversaries: 50 Years of Pink Floyd’s ‘Atom Heart Mother’

Today not only marks the 1970 release of Pink Floyd's fifth studio album, Atom Heart Mother, but also an end to the band’s era of bizarre improvisations, as they moved toward a mature and deliberate sound.

In Album Anniversaries, writers honor their favorite aging albums and their subsequent legacies, revealing which projects have stood the test of time.

Written by Dhiren Wijesinghe

When Atom Heart Mother landed on the desk of LG Wood, the director of EMI’s record division, the only thing he could bring himself to say about the untitled, band-less album cover filled with black and white cows was, “Ah, friesians.” The album reached No.1 on the UK’s charts three weeks later — the first time ever for a Pink Floyd album.

Written before any of Pink Floyd’s biggest albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and The Wall (1982), Atom Heart Mother was the start to the end of the band’s heavily improvised string of compositions — a remnant from the departure of founding member, Syd Barrett, due to his struggles with drug abuse. With Barrett out of the picture, the remaining members of Pink Floyd were left to carve their own musical styles into the band.

The composition of the album signifies the progression of the old Pink Floyd to the new. Starting with the first song and title track, “Atom Heart Mother” was a joint effort with writing credits from all band members. The next three songs on the record were respectively written by Roger Waters, Richard Wright, and David Gilmour, while the fifth and final song on the album, “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast,” was also written by all of Pink Floyd’s members.

The men of Pink Floyd began recording side one of Atom Heart Mother — which consisted of the lone, 23-minute long, multi-part title track, “Atom Heart Mother” — at Abbey Road Studios in March 1970. Inspired by outtakes left over from their gig recording the soundtrack for the film “Zabriskie Point,” the members of Pink Floyd referred to “Atom Heart Mother” as “the theme for an imaginary western.” Its country-like riff, played on the guitar and horns, appears frequently throughout the piece.

But upon their arrival at Abbey Road, the members of Pink Floyd soon realized that their lengthy song was missing one dramatic element: a full orchestra and choir. Because none of the band members could read or write music, Pink Floyd brought composer Ron Geesin on to score the six-part suite, “Atom Heart Mother.” Together, Geesin and the band laid the foundation for what Pink Floyd was to become in the next 20 years. The opera-like rollercoaster of emotions in “Atom Heart Mother” reflected the band’s involvement in a number of film soundtracks.

Section One of “Atom Heart Mother,” entitled “Father’s Shout,” builds from a brooding synth, as horns battle back and forth. The slow build-up from the nothingness that kicks the section off foreshadows what Pink Floyd would later do on the intro to The Dark Side of the Moon, “Speak to Me.”

Next is “Breast Milky,” the second movement and attempt at holding true to the cow theme. A soothing organ, a cello solo, and David Gilmour’s slide guitar style creates a sense of clarity after the chaos of the previous section. “Breast Milky” sounds similar to what the iconic “Us and Them” would become three years later in 1973.

Movements Three and Four, named “Mother Fore” and “Funky Dung,” are quieter parts to “Atom Heart Mother.” The Abbey Road choir chants over both sections, offering contrast to the band’s bluesy chords and solos. The use of choirs in their albums would become a staple of Pink Floyd after the recording of Atom Heart Mother.

The final two sections, “Mind Your Throats Please” and “Remergence,” are noisy improvisations reminiscent of the bizarre, psychedelic, Syd Barret era of Pink Floyd. “Remergence” is also a reprise the initial “western” theme from the first section of the track.

When Pink Floyd and Geesin finally finished recording “Atom Heart Mother,” the longest song Pink Floyd would ever make, the group initially named the suite “The Amazing Pudding.” Only when a BBC producer asked the band what the album’s title was did Roger Waters come up with the seminal title, having flipp through a newspaper and landed on an article about a woman who received a plutonium powered pacemaker. Feeling inspired, Waters made the strange and unrelated title, Atom Heart Mother, the name of the record and title track. The rest of the band unanimously agreed with Waters.

By June 1970, the band had completed the first side of the album and began to write the second half of Atom Heart Mother. Roger Waters, who was just beginning his transition to Pink Floyd’s voice and frontman following Barrett’s withdrawal, wrote the second song on the album, “If.” His introspective lyrics were new for the band at the time, but would become a trademark of Pink Floyd as its members moved into writing more cohesive albums in their later years.

Written and sung by keyboardist Richard Wright, “Summer ‘68” is about Wright’s encounter with a groupie.The song is by far the easiest song to listen to on the album, with its catchy piano riff and happy tune standing in stark contrast to the dramatic movements of the title track.

The fourth track, entitled “Fat Old Sun,” features a mix of acoustic and electric slide guitars that make the song sound like an old English hymn. Written and sung by guitarist David Gilmour, the track is similar to older pieces from the Pink Floyd discography with its nonsensical lyrics.

“Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast,” the final song on the album, circles back to the peculiar antics of the multilayered title track, “Atom Heart Mother.” Inspired by their beloved roadie, the song is a three-part, 12-minute instrumental based around clips of roadie Alan Styles cooking breakfast. The three parts — “Rise and Shine,” “Sunny Side Up,” and “Morning Glory” — each signify the morning routine of Alan as he wakes up, fries his eggs, and walks out the door to start the day.

Bizarre as “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” is, Pink Floyd continued to use recorded clips of their roadies throughout their albums. One of the band’s greatest hits, “Us and Them,” from The Dark Side of the Moon, includes a dialogue from roadie Roger Manifold.

Pink Floyd released Atom Heart Mother on October 2, 1970, but the album’s initial reception was mixed. Alec Dubro of Rolling Stone gave the album a poor review, claiming it was a “dissipation of their collective talents.” Meanwhile, Sputnikmusic gave the album a 3/5. Even harsher on the album was the band itself. Waters and Gilmour have repeatedly made comments about how awful the album is, and that it has no direction. Waters even claimed in a 1984 BBC Radio 1 interview that if he were paid to write Atom Heart Mother again, he would reply, “You must be f-cking joking.” Reactions from the British and American public were not as bad, however, with Atom Heart Mother charting in both countries.

Nonetheless, Atom Heart Mother is forever part of Pink Floyd history. Beyond its nonsensical lyrics and unorthodox song structures, Atom Heart Mother was the precursor for what Pink Floyd had yet to become with its intimations of orchestral collaborations and introspective lyrics.

The commercial success of the album was the momentum Pink Floyd needed to keep pushing forward in its journey as a band. With confidence from the positive reception of Atom Heart Mother by the UK, Pink Floyd would begin work on their first fully cohesive album, Meddle. Atom Heart Mother was the end of the young, whimsical Pink Floyd, before it became the mature, society-critiquing band that we all know today.

ANALYSISAfterglow ATXOctober 2, 2020dhiren wijesinghe