PINK FLOYD Vinyl LP ATOM HEART MOTHER 1970 Harvest Records SKAO-382 GATEFOLD
$
35
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Description
Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released by Harvest and EMI Records 2 October 1970 in the UK, and by Harvest and Capitol on 10 October 1970 in the US.[1] It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, England, and was the band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK,[2] while it reached number 55 in the US chart,[3] eventually going gold there.[4] 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, made a notable contribution to the album and received a then-rare outside songwriting credit.
This was the first Pink Floyd album to be specially mixed for four-channel quadraphonic sound as well as conventional two-channel stereo. The SQ quadraphonic mix was released on LP in a matrix format compatible with standard stereo record players. There was also a release of the quadraphonic version in the UK in fully discrete four-channel form on the "Quad-8" format, a four-channel variant of the stereo 8-track tape cartridge.
The cover was designed by Hipgnosis, and was significant in that it 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.
The album came about after Pink Floyd had completed work on the soundtrack to the film Zabriskie Point in Rome, which had ended somewhat acrimoniously, and 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.[7]
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", and the earliest documented live performance was on 17 January 1970 at Hull University. The band felt that the live performances developed the piece into a manageable shape. 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, EMI insisted 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.
By March, they had finished recording the track, 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. 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. Geesin described the composing and arranging as "a hell of a lot of work. Nobody knew what was wanted, they couldn't read music …" 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. When it came to recording his work in June with the EMI Pops Orchestra, 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.
Side one No. Title Writer(s) Lead vocals Length 1. "Atom Heart Mother"- I. "Father's Shout" (00:00)
- II. "Breast Milky" (02:50)
- III. "Mother Fore" (05:23)
- IV. "Funky Dung" (10:13)
- V. "Mind Your Throats Please" (15:28)
- VI. "Remergence" (17:56)"
- I. "Rise and Shine"
- II. "Sunny Side Up"
- III. "Morning Glory"
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