Day 21 – Back to Back Floyd
Back to Back Floyd
The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.
“You like the Wall, well, Atom Heart Mother is the album that you want to listen to that I think you will like” … said no one.
Sometimes there are albums that lack any type of critical acclaim that I think deserve the “Desert Island Dumpster Diving” award. This album would definitely fit into that category considering that I had rated it at #14 of my all time favorite albums way back in 2013. Arriving at your 10 favorite albums is difficult but to come up with a list of albums whose critical success was mixed or worse would be a challenge.
Following Syd Barrett’s disassociation with Pink Floyd, the band spends several years trying to find themselves. Who is to assume control of the band? Who is the main songwriter of the band?
They begin writing some fairly obscure material. Their albums could feel, at times, disjointed, as each member was left up to his devices to write a song that would appear on the album.
For the album, ‘Atom Heart Mother’, the title track was 23 minutes long and consists of 6 different parts to the song.
Atom Heart Mother
Father’s Shout
Breast Milky
Mother Fore
Funky Dung
Mind Your Throats Please
Reemergence
I am upset with myself that I had not thought of ‘Breast Milky’ for a possible name for my wife’s lactation consultation business that I had not suggested Breast Milky as an option. Of course her business is slightly more than that more than that; she is also a postpartum doula. But the name ‘Atom Heart Mother’ came from a newspaper title from the Evening Standard which stated that he found a story about a pregnant mother who had received an experimental pacemaker. The headline was
“Atom Heart Mother Named“.
It’s combination of the band with avant garde orchestral parts sounds like it should belong more thematically with a serious version of Monty Python’s ‘The Holy Grail’ or Game of Thrones.
Emotionally, I always found the song as part of a Fall Weather attire; the blustery wind off the lake hitting my face as I struggled to stay warm while the first side to Atom Heart Mother played in my earphones. Winter is coming.
I remember around the same time that I purchased this album, I just picked up a copy of ‘Saucerful of Secrets’ the Pink Floyd Odyssey from the DePaul Library. Before the internets, the ability to access information on bands would often be limited to Rolling Stone, MTV, fanzines and rumors. Finding a full-fledged bio on a band that I appreciated was a treat.
At first listen, I was not sure whether my purchase from Tower Records was a wise one. Having gone on a bit of a Pink Floyd shopping spree at the time, ‘Meddle’ had been the album that had caught my imagination with it’s own 23 minute epic in ‘Echoes’. Where I saw that album and the band progressing towards something spectacular.
But Atom Heart Mother did not resonate with me right away. I kept on staring at that Cows ass on the cover like the album was a joke. The cow, of course, was looking back at me like I should be minding my own business.
Maybe it was the time and place. Being a freshman in college, quite possibly a little lost and on my own, you begin to find solace in the small things. This album and the song have been embraced by yours truly as one of it’s best, critics be damned!
• Massive Attack – Atlas Air
• Guided by Voices – Atom Eyes
• Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother
• Joy Division – Atrocity Exhibition