Atom Heart Mother

THIS is a masterpiece. Whatever other people say, I love it. I only met a few my whole life who could say with their hand on the heart that they like the song. And that is a pity. I remember I was listening to the song many many years ago, and after that it was like I forgot about the song. Until a few years later. I had put the song (or actually the whole album) on my ipod after buying the cd, and before I went to bed, I decided to give the song a go. I had forgot how the song was, so I didn't know what to expect. To be honest, I was frighten!! It was dark outside and the rain was pouring down. And there were so many weird sounds, and suddenly there was this harmonical choir singing and beautiful violin playing. There is this big aspect of feelings that I felt hit me at once. And when the song is getting close to the end (after about 18 minutes: the song last for 23:44 minutes!!) it's a bit 'scary' with lots of sounds of trains driving by and than some biiping. There are so many sounds, and while listening to it alone, I got scared. And very emotional. When the song was over, I was in love with the song!! There has never been any other song that have made me feel so much while listening to it 'the first time'.

The cover. The picture is of a cow called Lulubelle III 

Well, let's get over to some facts of the song. It's composed by Pink Floyd of course (Roger, David, Nick and Rick) and the genious man Ron Geesin. The song is to be found on the album with the same name; "Atom heart mother" from 1970. The song is, as I said, 23:44 minutes long, and is the longest Pink Floyd song, exept "Echoes" which is 23:31 minutes on the "Meddle" album, but only 16:30 minutes on the "Echoes" album and the other song that's longer is "Shine on you crazy diamond" which is 26:05 minutes long, but since the song is split in two parts on the album "Wish you were here", I don't consider it to be the longest song.! "Atom heart mother" have 6 sections. And these sections is so different from each other, and that's one of the reasons why I'm so emotional whilst listening to it.

The six different sections is
1: Father's shout
2: Breast milky
3: Mother fore
4: Funky dung
5: Mind your throats, please
6: Remergence

 

Ron Geesin; orchestration and co-composition.

I once read that the title of "Atom heart mother" was a last-minute affair. Under pressure to come up with a name, the band scanned the evening paper for an idea, and saw an article about a woman who had given birth  after being fitted with a pacemaker. The headline provided the title. The cow cover was an inspired piece of work, which the band linked to the album by giving the individual section of the Atom heart mother" track names like 'funky dung' and 'breasty milk'. Storm Thorgerson rememberes that when he showed the cover to EMI, one of the executives screamed at him 'are you mad?? Do you want to destroy the company?!'..

Tommy Vance said this:

Whatever the band may now think, this piece is definatly worth revisiting. Based around a theme which was designed to evok the atmosphere of a western movie, the piece move effortlessly through a range of contrasting mood and style. The playing is superb and the music is by turns both melodic and atonal.

 

I am a fan of Stanley Kubrick's "A clockwork orange". There is something facinating and scary about this movie. Many years ago, I was cruising through films on youtube, and I found the intro to the movie with "Atom heart mother" as an intro song!! I thought that was amazing, and it fitted perfect. Everytime since that, I never liked the original intro. Too boring compared to "Atom heart mother"!! Anyway, mr.Kubrick wanted to use Pink Floyd's song in the intro, but the band said no, so of course he could not use it. It might seem like Kubrick is a fan of that album, since you can see the album "Atom heart mother" on a shelf in one of the scenes in the movie. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojOBgoSjBoU 

Here's the clip of the intro of the movie! Give it a try. Wasn't able to upload the movie here, but I truly recomand to check it out! It is freaking mindblowing!

Here is the full song. Listen to it. Enjoy. Feel. 

Good night all floyd's out there! Shine on