Pink Floyd - Animals

 

"Animals" was the first Pink Floyd album to be released after I had started following them. In the build up to its release, Nicky Horne on Capital Radio played a six-part The Pink Floyd Story, with the final episode broadcast a couple of nights before the album went on sale, and included the with the whole album being played. I bought "Animals" within a week.

"Animals" had already hit the national headlines in the weeks before it was released, as the giant inflatable pig that was being used to take photos at the Battersea Power Station broke loose of its moorings, causing disruptions to aircraft on arrivals at London Heathrow Airport !

I also bought a book with all the sheet music for the album, and was actually able to play "Pigs On The Wing" on an acoustic guitar, but I wouldn't be able to do that now ! 

My father was working in Berlin at the time, and managed to get a ticket for me for the tour date in Berlin in the Deutschlandhalle, and the internet shows the date was Saturday January 29th, 1977. My seat was in the upper balcony but had a restricted view, so I didn't see much of David Gilmour. "Animals" was the first half of the concert, followed by "Wish You Were Here", with "Money" being the encore. Both albums were played in their entirety. 

"Animals" contained three songs over 10 minutes long, sandwiched between two short versions of "Pigs On The Wing". At the time I thought it was the best Floyd album to-date, especially the outstanding guitar playing throughout. The album is loosely based on George Orwell's Animal Farm but instead of being a criticism of Soviet Communism, its anger was at capitalism and the state of British society in the mid 1970s.

"Pigs On The Wing ( Part One )" opens the album, a short tender acoustic song at just one minute 24 seconds long. It sounds a little old fashioned, with just acoustic guitar and vocals.

The 17 minutes long "Dogs" takes up the rest of side one. It begins with an urgent acoustic guitar intro before Gilmour's vocal come in. The bass, drums and organ come in for second verse followed by a trademark guitar solo. The mid-section has a slower pace, with the guitar motif leading into slow acoustic guitar and the sound of dogs barking. A burst of drums leads into another guitar solo and electric piano, then the vocals return, but with a different melody, and the final "dragged down by the stone" line is repeated through a vocoder over just organ and more dog barking. The final section has dog whistles over a synthesizer, and gradually the opening acoustic guitar riff returns and Waters sings before a reprise of first guitar solo leading into second guitar solo. Waters also sings the lengthy coda.

Some pig grunts start the 11 minute long mid-tempo rock song "Pigs ( Three Different Ones )" which opens side two with the intro being a repeated electric keyboard motif, during which the bass, then then the electric guitar join. Waters sings the verse but the chorus is vocal through a vocoder. There is a lengthy slow break between the second and third verses. Eventually the electric keyboard motif returns before the third verse, and th outro is a blistering guitar solo. The three pigs are businessman in general, Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher and morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse, who attracts the use of the f-word. 

"Sheep" has bleating sheep sounds over a slow jazzy electric piano intro before becoming an up tempo driving rock number with Waters on vocals. The mid-section break has the repeated vocoder "stones" from "Dogs" before a slow rising guitar solo then the fast pace briefly returns but then suddenly stops to leave just the bass and some keyboards and a parody of psalm 23 through a vocoder. The song then returns for another verse with and a great guitar piece for the outro and more bleating sheep to finish.

The album closes "Pigs On The Wing ( Part Two )" similar is similar to to part one, and the same length but has different lyrics. 

Listening again to "Animals" it remains a fantastic album. 

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Pigs On The Wing ( Part One )
2. Dogs

Side Two :

1. Pigs ( Three Different Ones )
2. Sheep
3. Pigs On The Wing ( Part Two )

Released 1977
UK Chart Position : 2

 

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

 

"Wish You Were Here" was the long awaited follow-up to "Dark Side Of The Moon", released in September 1975. Being late to jump on the Floyd bandwagon I purchased my copy sometime in the summer of 1976, and thought the album was at least on a par with Dark Side, if not better.

I really liked David Gilmour's guitar playing on the album, ranging from the tremendous different blues flavoured licks on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", to the rock hero playing on "Have A Cigar" and the crisp acoustic guitar sounds on "Welcome To The Machine" and "Wish You Were Here". Richard Wright's keyboard playing throughout the album was also fantastic, as were the lyrics, some of the best written by Roger Waters.

It is often reported that the central theme of this album is one of absence, most notably that of former band member Syd Barrett, who left the band after suffering mental health issues after the release of Floyd's debut album, and the 26 minutes mostly instrumental nine part opus "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is a homage. "Shine On" is the main substance of the album, which sandwiches the three other songs on the LP. 

The album came inside a black plastic wrapper, of which mine was discarded after a couple of years.

I was fortunate enough to see Pink Floyd play the entire album in Berlin in January 1977 as part of the "Animals" tour, "Wish You Were Here" comprised the second half of the show.  

Part 1 of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is perhaps an appropriate beginning with a slow mournful synthesizer before the guitar plays the individual notes of the motif. Part 2 introduces a new motif guitar then the drums, bass and organ come in. Part 3 consists of a slow mini moog followed by a guitar solo accompanied with an organ.

The vocals arrive in Part 4, which has accompanying female backing vocals, but it's Dave Gilmour's guitar playing the melody that is the highlight. "Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun, shine on you crazy diamond. Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky"

Part 5 features Dick Parry on saxophone and the time signature changes as the pace increases mid-way through. The sax fades out and segues into "Welcome To The Machine" and the throbbing sound of a machine. A single strum of an acoustic guitar is eventually played after which Gilmour's vocal enters. The song has an acoustic guitar break then synthesizer and strings before the second verse and more synths to finish. I don't think there is any drumming on this track. "What did you dream ? It's OK were told you what to dream".

Side two opens with "Have A Cigar", which has a guest vocal by Roy Harper, who I had previously known for being an English folk singer. Its a mid tempo rock song, written by Roger Walters about the greed and cynicism of the music industry and the allegedly true story of an record label executive asking "By the way, which one's Pink ?" There is a guitar and organ intro before Harper starts singing "Come in here dear boy, have a cigar". There is a trademark Gilmour guitar solo, and the track concludes with a guitar solo  which is abruptly interrupted as the music reduces in volume to a tinny, radio-like sound then the sounds of someone moving between stations on a radio. This effect is used as a transition to the title track, with initially the same treatment for the intro acoustic guitar.

"Wish You Were Here" is acoustic ballad and is considered by many to be one of Floyd's most popular songs. It was famously covered by Ed Sheeran, with Nick Mason on drums, during the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. The outro of the song is the acoustic guitar lines, piano, and winds for a fade out leading in to the next parts of "Shine On". "We're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year"

Part 6 of "Shine On" features more moog over a throbbing bass line, before the guitar and drums eventually take over. Part 7 is a reprise of the the vocals whilst part 8 has a plucked electric guitar intro before electric organ, piano and bass join with a Jazz like feel. Electric guitar and synthesizer then take over.

"Shine On" closed with a funeral like synth over piano for Part 9, and finishes with a short, slow excerpt from "See Emily Play" as a final nod to Syd Barrett.

Listening to "Wish You Were Here" again, I now think it is a much better album than "Dark Side Of The Moon", with every second of music being brilliant, whereas there are some duff moments on "Dark Side". It is now my favourite Pink Floyd album. 

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond ( Parts 1 to 5 )
2. Welcome To The Machine

Side Two :

1. Have A Cigar
2. Wish You Were Here
3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond ( Parts 6 to 9 )

Released 1975
UK Chart Position : 1

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon

I was late jumping onto the bandwagon as I only purchased Dark Side Of The Moon in 1976, around three years after its release. It was my second Pink Floyd album, after the Relics compilation that my brother had left in the house after he moved out.  

There can't be many people over a certain age who hasn't owned a copy of The Dark Side Of The Moon at some point, or at least heard the whole album. At one time it was the best selling album in the world of all time, but is now down to fourth, having been overtaken by Michael Jackson's "Thriller", AC/DC's "Back In Back", and a perhaps surprisingly, the Soundtrack to the film "Bodyguard". Global sales of Dark Side are estimated at over 45 million, and it moved Pink Floyd firmly into the megastars category.

Dark Side set all sorts of records for the number of weeks in the charts. Although it spent only one week at number one in the USA, it was in the Billboard 200 chart for 15 years, and kept making sporadic appearances thereafter. In the UK it is the best selling album never to reach number one, and had a similar longevity in the album charts.

No singles from the album were released in the UK, although an edited version of "Money" was released in the US and reached number 13 in the Billboard singles chart.  

One innovative feature of the album was the inclusion of a number of spoken voices during several tracks. These were taken from interviews with roadies and other people in the recording studios at the time, and some of the best are repeated below in the description of the tracks. It was also the first Floyd album to have the lyrics printed on the album cover, as well as having female backing vocalists and a saxophone player.

The album showcased the band's increased maturity as writers and performers, and it contains two beautiful pieces of music contributed by Richard Wright, in "Us And Them" and "Great Gig In The Sky",  as well as some tremendous rock songs in "Money", "Time" and "Breathe". Clare Torry was belatedly given a songwriting credit for "Great Gig In The Sky" in recognition of her wordless vocals being a significant component of the track. 

Side One begins with "Speak To Me" which is just over one minute long. It starts with the sounds of cash registers, then voices, a screaming female before the tranquil opening of "Breathe ( In The Air )" comes in with a gentle guitar, dreamy synthesizer and slow drums.

"On The Run" is a synthesized beat and drumming, with hurried footsteps, what sounds to be airport tannoy announcements, and ends with an aircraft crashing.

"Time" opens with the sounds of clocks and alarms going off. It has a long intro, with mesmerisng keyboards, dramatic electric guitar and drums, before David Gilmour's vocals. Unusually for Floyd there are female backing vocals for the chorus and the song has a searing guitar solo. The track seques nicely into "Breathe ( Reprise )", which is short and played with the same instrumentation as "Time".

The side closes with "Great Gig In The Sky", commencing with a slow piano and smoothing slide guitar after which the the improvised wordless vocals of Clare Torry enter, building to a crescendo before an emotional slow finish. "I am not afraid of dying, anytime will do".

"Money" starts with more ker-ching of cash registers and jangling coins and then an unusual 7/4 time signature bluesy bass riff, then keyboards, drums and guitar before Gilmour's great vocal. Another Floyd first comes with Dick Parry's saxophone solo, after which the time signature reverts to something more standard with another outstanding guitar solo as Floyd show how they can rock. The song finally catches its breath with the final verse, and the fade out voices include the comments "I certainly wasn't irate", "He was cruising for a bruising" and "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time"

"Us And Them" is a sensitive piano and organ piec with  more sax, though this time very sensual. There is another big chorus with female backing vocals. "if you give them a short sharp shock, they don't do it again"

"Any Colour You Like" is a psychedelic instrumental which leads nicely into "Brain Damage", a song about madness. It has the first vocal from Roger Waters on the album, over a slow strummed electric guitar for the verse, and a rising chorus with more female backing vocals . The lyrics "and if the band you are in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon" is an obvious reference to Syd Barrett. It leads into "Eclipse" for a short coda to finish the album, which closes with the words  "There is no dark side of the moon, in a matter of fact, it's all dark".

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Speak To Me
2. Breathe ( In The Air )
3. On The Run
4. Time
5. Breathe ( Reprise )
6. The Great Gig In The Sky

Side Two :

1. Money
2. Us And Them
3. Any Colour You Like
4. Brain Damage
5. Eclipse

Released : 1973
UK Chart Position : 2

 

Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds

 

"Obscured By Clouds" was the second soundtrack produced by Pink Floyd for a Barbet Schroeder, this time the film "La Vallee". Like "More" I haven't seen "LA Vallee" either !

I thought this was one of Floyd's better albums, with the tracks generally being short, and there was nothing more than 6 minutes, so none of the lengthy self-indulgent pieces ! I liked nearly all of the songs, but thought the four instruments were fairly average. The album didn't receive the acclaim it deserved, partly because "Dark Side Of The Moon" followed shortly after, and took Pink Floyd to a whole new level.

"Obscured By Clouds" is a three minute long instrumental, with electric guitar lines over futuristic synths and heavy drums

"When You're In" has the same tune as "Obscured By Clouds" but is faster and with organ rather than the electric guitar, and even heavier drumming. It's also half a minute shorter.

"Burning Bridges" features a gentle dreamlike organ, with shared vocals between David Gilmour and Rick Wright. There is a tender guitar solo leading into slide guitar break.

"The Gold It's In The...." is heavy rock and has a great guitar solo. Making film soundtracks seemed to give Floyd the freedom to write rock songs, as there are two heavy tracks on "More". "Well, you go your way, I'll go mine. I don't care if we get there on time. Everybody's searching for something, they say, I'll get my kicks on the way"

"Wot's....Uh The Deal" is a change of pace with acoustic guitar, floating organ and a gorgeous tune. The song has a lengthy piano break and steel guitar before the final verse. "Someone sent the promised land and I grabbed it with both hands. Now I'm the man on the inside looking out.Hear me shout "Come on in, what's the news and where you been?"'Cause there's no wind left in my soul and I've grown old".

"Mudmen" is another instrumental, with slow piano and organ to begin with, before the guitar solo.

Side two opens with David Gilmour's "Childhood's End" which is a mid paced rocker with a standard guitar solo. It's most notable for the sharp organ motif.

As the title suggests, "Free Four" has a shouted intro of "one, two, three, four !" and is the only Roger Waters vocal on the album. The song has upbeat acoustic guitar and handclap but despite the jolly nature of the music, it is a song about death. "The memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime. You shuffle in gloom of the sickroom and talk to yourself as you die".

"Stay" is piano dominated and has vocal from Rick Wright but its fairly dull and inconsequential, and reminded me a little of the sort of number Steely Dan might churn out.. Like Wright's "Summer of '68" on "Atom Heart Mother", its a song about a one-night stand "I rise, looking through my morning eyes, surprised to find you by my side. Rack my brain and try to remember your name to find the words to tell you good-bye"

The album closes with "Absolutely Curtains" which is a slow organ instrumental reminiscent of "Main Theme" on "More", before ending with the chants of the Mapuga Tribe taken from the film.

Listening to "Obscured By Clouds" now, my opinion of it being a good album remains unchanged.

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Obscured By Clouds
2. When You're In
3. Burning Bridges
4. The Gold It's In The....
5. Wot's....Uh The Deal
6. Mudmen

Side Two :

1. Childhood's End
2. Free Four
3. Stay
4. Absolutely Curtains

Released 1972
UK Chart Position : 6

 

Pink Floyd - Meddle

 

"Meddle" was the second to last Pink Floyd album acquired as I accumulated their back catalogue in the mid-1970s. By the time I purchased the LP I had already heard "One of These Days" and the first section of "Echoes", but not all 23 minutes of it. The other four songs were new to me, and my feelings at the time were that they were OK but nothing special.

"One Of These Days" is nearly all instrumental apart from Nick Mason's spoke line "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces". Dominated by two bass guitars and the sound of wind to begin, there is a toe tapping beat, stark one note keyboards, before eventually the drums and slide guitar come in. It's heavy for Pink Floyd and not an indication of the mellow music to follow but its my favourite track on "Meddle".

I had forgotten how "A Pillow Of Winds" sounded. It 's a soft acoustic love song, with a gentle acoustic guitar, slide guitar and a tender vocal from David Gilmour. Listening to it now it came across as a little dull and I've already forgotten it again.

"Fearless" is a pretty song which has a country tinge to it but is spoiled by the coda of Liverpool fans signing "You'll Never Walk Alone". There is a beautiful slow chorus and a nice rising riff. "And I'll climb the hill in my own way, just wait awhile for the right day. And as I rise above the tree line and the clouds, I look down, hear the sound of the things you said today".

"San Topez" is a lightweight jazz style number sung by Roger Waters, most notable for a slide guitar solo and Richard Wright's extended piano playing for the outro.

"Seamus" is a blues number with a dog howling. It was amusing for the first couple of listens but becomes grating after that. The piano playing is nice but the dog gets on my nerves. Clearly a joke gone wrong !

"Echoes" takes up all of side 2 and starts with submarine sonar pings, before the keyboards and soft electric guitar a la "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" come in with the main melody. Gilmour and Wright share the vocals. After two verses there is a big guitar solo and around the 7 minute mark it becomes funky until around 11 minutes when noises from the worst parts of Ummagumma are introduced. The unbearable noise continues for 4 minutes before a celestial organ and the sonar ping returns. The piece gradually rises in urgency with the bass and drums before a majestic guitar burst leads to a third verse, after which there is a gentle guitar and keyboard outro out over the sounds of wind and the ping. 

Listening to "Echoes" now it probably should have been left as a seven minute song, and I'll be happy if I never heard the minute eight minutes again !

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. One Of These Days
2. A Pillow Of Winds
3. Fearless
4. San Tropez
5. Seamus

Side Two :

1. Echoes

Released 1971
UK Chart Position : 3

Pink Floyd - Relics

"Relics" was my introduction to Pink Floyd. My brother had the album and it was the only one he left behind when he moved out. It seemed to be an odd record for him to have in his collection, as he was into David Bowie and Roxy Music, having previously been into reggae and soul artists such as Desmond Dekker and Wilson Pickett. He may have bought it because it was a budget album, being sold at a fraction of the price of normal albums !

The only song I knew was "See Emily Play", as a cover version was on Bowie's "Pin-Ups" album, and it had been a hit single for Floyd that still sometimes got played on the radio. It was only as I made my way through the Floyd back catelogue that I learned which tracks in this compliation were singles, B-sides, album tracks or unreleased. I liked the album but it hardly prepared me for Dark Side Of The Moon !

Looking at the track listing now, the only song I couldn't remember was "Paintbox".

"Arnold Layne" was Floyd's first single. Written and sung by Syd Barrett it tells the tale of a man who had a strange hobby of collecting ladies underwear from clothes lines before getting nicked. Being a subject not usually mentioned in polite society, it was considered too extreme even for some pirate radio stations. All of which undoubtedly failed to help its sales or chart position. It was a topic revisited 12 years later by Madness with their song "In The Middle Of The Night" on their debut album

"Interstellar Overdrive"is a nine minutes long instrumental from "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" album. It has a memorable riff before meandering off into free form jamming. It has featured in a couple of episodes of "Heartbeat", usually when there is a car chase !

"See Emily Play" was the second single and is a great pop song with a psychedelic edge, whereas Bowie's version gave it a Glam-Rock treatment, with bovver-boys backing vocals similar to those on "The Bewley Boys" on "Hunky Dory". Bowie also gave the song a long instrumental outro which back in the 1970s I thought he was paying tribute to the outro in "Bike". However, listening again recently, it seemed to be instead the sort of Beatles/Orchestral strings crossover Oasis might have recorded. 

"Remember A Day" was an album track on "A Saucerful Of Secrets". Written and sung by Richard Wright, it has a dreamy feel to it. Syd Barrett contributed on slide guitar but the ivory playing dominates, although the pounding drums are significant.

"Paintbox" is another song written and sung by Richard Wright, and was the B-side to the "Apples and Oranges" single which failed to chart. It's similiar in tone to Wright's "Remember A Day" and "Summer of '68", and again Nick Mason's drumming catches the ear.

"Julia Dream" opens side two  and was the B-side to "It Would Be So Nice", another chart flop. It perhaps would have been a better choice as the single, being a beautiful, soft dream like song with a great vocal from David Gilmour and mellotron from Wright.

The studio version of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" is the B-side to the "Point Me At The Sky" single, although many critics state that the live version on "Ummagumma" is far superior. This version, whilst still nearly 6 minutes long, is 3 minutes shorter than the live version.

"Cirrus Minor" and "The Nile Song" were on "The Soundtrack From More". "Cirrus Minor" has birds tweeting for nearly a minute for the intro, before a gentle acoustic guitar and psychedelic organ come in. The slow and dreamy pastoral ballad finishes with a lengthy choral organ outro very similar to the final section of "A Saucerful Of Secrets". The track doesn't have any drumming or percussion,

"The Nile Song" comes as a bit of a shock as Floyd do their best Black Sabbath heavy metal impression, and if it had been released 20 years later it might have been called grunge ! There is an insane guitar solo and manic drumming. Gilmour’s gruff vocal is very much in contrast to some of his tender singing on other Floyd tracks. You would never guess this was Pink Floyd.

"Biding My Time" was previously unreleased. Written and sung by Roger Walters, it begins as a soft blues shuffle before moving into a Jazz break where Richard Wright plays the Trombone. The guitar solo  could come from "Dark Side" despite being recorded in 1969.

"Bike" was on "A Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" and is a whimsical song about Syd's bike, his old coat, a mouse named Gerald, gingerbread men and room of musical tunes. It finishes with about a minute and a half of weird clockwork sounds and  music box noises, before the sounds of squawking geese to finish.

In conclusion, there is some good stuff on "Relics", but it probably now only for dedicated Floyd fans. However, at the time of its release, it was the only LP to contain 6 of the songs.

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Arnold Layne
2. Interstellar Overdrive
3. See Emily Play
4. Remember A Day
5. Paint Box

Side Two :

1. Julia Dream
2. Careful With That Axe, Eugene
3. Cirrus Minor
4. The Nile Song
5. Biding My Time
6. Bike

Released 1971
UK Chart Position : 32

Singles :

Arnold Layne ( No 20 - 1967 )
See Emily Play ( No 6 - 1967 )

 

Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother

 

"Atom Heart Mother" is one of those albums that I really liked when I first heard it in the mid 1970s, but I went off it over time. It would be interesting to see how it sounded after a gap of around 45 years.........

The title apparently came from a tabloid headline reporting on a women being given a pacemaker, and the band thought it would make a good song title. The album's front cover was strikingly different from others at the time, being just a solitary cow in a field, with no mention of the band or the title. More cows graced the back cover and the inside sleeve.

There are five tracks on the album, The instrumental title track spans Side One, weighing in at nearly 24 minutes and in 6 parts. Arranged by Ron Geesin, it is dominated by strings and brass, and the John Alldis Choir. Floyd are reduced to virtually being the backing band !

Side Two has a song each from Roger Waters, Rick Wright and David Gilmour, before closing with a 13 minute three-part instrumental.

"Atom Heart Mother" starts with "Father's Shout", beginning with trumpets and trombones before the drums come in for the main theme. There are also the sounds of horses, gunfire, bombs and motorbikes.

"Breast Milky", the second part, begins with a bass line and keyboards before aching cello, then come some drums before a dreamy slide guitar line, which always reminded of me as belonging in a Western. The section ends with a rising guitar line leading to the choir joining in.

Part three, "Mother Fore", commences with slow organ accompanied by one high pitched voice. Gradually more voices join, and male voices enter before the crescendo, which includes some drumming. It is essentially a choral version of part 2.

Part 4 features some funky organ and drums then some spaced out guitar which has shades of parts of the still to come "Shine On Your Crazy Diamond". Tribal/Japanese type signing comes in towards the end, building towards a soaring finish, with the brass coming back in with the theme from Part One. This section is perhaps appropriately named "Funky Dung".

"Mind Your Throats Please" is part 5, with pulsating keyboards then what sounds almost like an underground train, then an emergency ambulance or fire engine, then the train again. It's all intended to imitate the action of swallowing.

The track closes with "Remergence", with a gentle return of part one leading into a reprise of the cello/violins melodies and guitar refrain from Part Two, before finishing with a reprise of the Part Three choir lines. The finish is a big fluorish, the type that is used in films when intrepid space explorers land on a new planet or discover a lost world.

Roger Waters' folk song "If" opens Side Two. It has a gentle classical guitar and vocal, which lyrically at times hints at what was to come with "Brain Damage on "Dark Side of The Moon" ie "If I go insane, please don't put your wires in my brain". It moves on to a  soothing guitar solo accompanied by the organ, before piano is played under the next verse. A lyrical piano break is introduced before the final verse. 

Rick Wright's "Summer Of '68" follows and is a song about a one-night stand with a groupie. It begins with some pretty piano, before an almost Beatles Sgt Pepper like chorus "How do you feel ? Ba ba ba". A trumpet solo increases the pace for the second verse, after which the full brass section join in. The pace dramatically changes with strummed guitar and then piano for the coda, before the brass return for the finale.

David Gilmour's "Fat Old Sun" is a pastoral song conjuring up a country idyll image. Starting with church bells in the distance. it has a slow, strummed acoustic guitar and vocal. Pedal steel guitars and a mandolin feature later on in the song, and there is trademark Gilmour electric guitar solo to finish "And if you see, 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".

"Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" an instrumental in three parts, with voices from roadie Alan. Part One, "Rise And Shine" sounds nothing like the song of the same name by The Cardigans, and has a dripping tap to start, a door closing, sounds of opening and closing cupboards and draws as Alan talks about breakfast items he likes, "marmalade, I like marmalade". There's sounds of trying to light a match to start cooking before we finally get some music, a jaunty piano, sympathetic guitar, and happy fairground style Hammond organ.

The voice returns at the start of the second part, "Sunny Side Up", before more kitchen sounds, putting some cereals into a bowl, then pouring milk on them. Acoustic guitar plays over the sound of the cereals being eaten and Alan almost choking on them, leading into a yearning electric guitar and organ under the acoustic guitar.

Part Three, "Morning Glory", has the sounds of a fry-up cooking and the roadie's voice again. It's mainly mid-paced piano and organ, with some drums, before the guitar comes in to bring the track to an uplifting, almost grand conclusion, with the organ creating the image of the sun coming out. The track closes with sounds of washing up before ending with the dripping tap.

Listening again to "Atom Heart Mother" I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounded now. I enjoyed all of Side Two, and most of the title track, although the "Mind Your Throats Please" section was a low point, and "Funky Dung" was fairly average, but the other parts were nice to hear again.

Track Listing :

Side One :

1. Atom Heart Mother

Side Two :

1. If
2. Summer '68
3. Fat Old Sun
4. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast

Released : 1970
UK Chart Position : 1