“Blundering about”: David Gilmour on the Pink Floyd album that made no sense
Most bands experience misfires. Arctic Monkeys might be one of the only world-famous groups who have not released an unmitigated artistic and commercial disaster, despite the common misgivings about The Car. At least one dud exists in the story of nearly every band. Even The Beatles experienced it with Beatles for Sale. Another group that is no stranger to this is Pink Floyd.
You can caveat this point by stating that Pink Floyd emerged in a time when musical history, conventions, and contexts were still being written, so it was only natural that misfires would occur, as well as the fact that they had a much longer career than almost all of their most esteemed peers, leaving more chance for it, before all else, it was the nature of their arc that produced these.
In 1968, the band’s leader, frontman and psychedelic sonic astronaut, Syd Barrett, left the band after his mental health issues took a severe and bleak turn. He was no longer the brilliant genius that had led the band to searing heights and clasped their out-there psychedelic sound on his spacey take on Bo Diddley’s famous sputtering rhythms. Due to this, despite the brilliance of their 1967 debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, making the follow-up, A Saucerful of Secrets, was a Herculean task.
Barrett’s condition deteriorated so intensely during the production of the second effort that they drafted in their friend, guitarist David Gilmour, to help solve the issues caused by his inability to play anymore. At this point, the writing was on the wall, and Barrett left Pink Floyd before the album was completed. This ad-hoc version of the group was left to finish the record, with bassist Roger Waters stepping up to become their leader.
Naturally, given that the band had a new dynamic following the departure of Barrett, their sonic character started to evolve, with Waters as their creative director and Gilmour rising as his creative partner. Furthermore, the band were still so raw at this point that they later admitted that when recording their debut at Abbey Road the year prior, The Beatles, who were laying down Sgt Pepper, taught them several pretty obvious, but key lessons in professionalism. Clearly, they still had a long way to go, with Barrett or not.
Naturally, the following few years were a period of metamorphosis for Pink Floyd. In 1969, they produced the soundtrack album More, as well as Ummagumma, the latter of which has long since been deemed one of their worst efforts by the members, with it representing the group’s getting truly out-there and experimental as they sought to discover what worked for them and what didn’t. However, despite their personal differences, all of the members agree that its follow-up, Atom Heart Mother, takes the crown as the nadir of their career.
Although it actually took them one step further to the glory of Meddle and The Dark Side of the Moon, as it was so embarrassing, they knew exactly how not to approach their music afterwards and focus. Gilmour thinks it’s “shit” and the band’s “lowest moment artistically”.
Gilmour, an artist famed for priding himself on cerebral compositional refinement, has been the fiercest critic of Atom Heart Mother over the years. In an interview with Robert Sandall, he conjoined it with Ummagumma, as two “blundering” records. He said: “At the time we felt Atom Heart Mother, like Ummagumma, was step towards something or other. Now I think they were both just a blundering about in the dark.”
The band have put several reasons forward as to why Atom Heart Mother is a particularly uncomfortable moment for them. While Ummagumma is deemed a transitional album, and they can forgive themselves for it to an extent, when it comes to its successor, it’s a case of bright ideas that were executed terribly. It smacks of youthful arrogance.
They might have enlisted composer Ron Geesin, the EMI Pops Orchestra, and the Roger Aldiss choir to bring it to life, which was stimulating for their young minds. Elsewhere, Geesin taught them a lot about recording, which would be pivotal in the future, such as how to use two tape recorders to create a swell of echo and editing tricks.
However, aside from these frills and a modicum of positives, there’s a lot of embarrassment within its duration. One that has caused a lot of dismay is the fact that Waters and drummer Nick Mason recorded the backing track in one take, meaning it is very raw, and the tempo goes up and down, a highly unprofessional aspect. Elsewhere, they feel that complex ideas such as ‘Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast’, with all its kitchen sounds, just didn’t work.
