Atom Heart Mother - Definition and Overview

Atom Heart Mother
LP by Pink Floyd
Released	October 5 1970
Recorded	Abbey Road Studios 1970
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	52 min 44 s
Record label	Harvest Records (UK) Capitol Records (US)
Producers	Pink Floyd, Norman Smith
Professional reviews
Q	4/5	December 2000 (http://www.q4music.com/nav?page=q4music.review.redirect&fixture_review=117290&resource=117290&fixture_artist=144956)
AMG	3/5	link (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=A6aq67ui0h0jj)
RollingStone	Unfavourable	link (http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=48276)
Pink Floyd Chronology
Ummagumma (1969)	Atom Heart Mother (1970)	Relics (1971)

Atom Heart Mother is a 1970s progressive rock album by British band Pink Floyd. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, England. The album reached number 1 in the UK and number 55 in the US charts and went Gold in the US in March of 1994. A re-mastered CD was released in 1994 in the UK and 1995 in the US.

The original album cover shows a very ordinary cow standing in a very ordinary pasture, with no text nor any other clue as to what might be on the record.

The longest two tracks are a progression from Pink Floyd's earlier instrumental pieces such as A Saucerful of Secrets; the first is split into six parts and features a full orchestra and the second is an instrumental in three parts with sound effects and speech between each part.

Track listing

1. "Atom Heart Mother Suite" - 23:39
   • "Father's Shout"
   • "Breast Milky"
   • "Mother Fore"
   • "Funky Dung"
   • "Mind Your Throats Please"
   • "Remergence"
2. "If" - 4:30
3. "Summer '68" - 5:28
4. "Fat Old Sun" - 5:23
5. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" - 13:00
   • "Rise and Shine"
   • "Sunny Side Up"
   • "Morning Glory"

Personnel

• David Gilmour - vocals and guitar
• Roger Waters - vocals and bass
• Richard Wright - vocals and keyboards
• Nick Mason - drums
• John Aldiss Choir - vocals

also:

• Alan Parsons - engineer
• Peter Bown - engineer
• Ron Geesin - orchestration and co-composition on title track.

Quotes

"Atom Heart Mother is a good case, I think, for being thrown into the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again! [...] It was pretty kind of pompous, it wasn't really about anything."

- Roger Waters - Rock Over London Radio Station - March 15, 1985, for broadcast April 7/April 14, 1985.

External link

• Lyrics and trivia (http://www.pinkfloyd-co.com/disco/ahm/ahm_album.html)