The Pink Floyd album David Gilmour wants to delete from history: “It was dreadful”
Pink Floyd were functionally dysfunctional. If most bands were forced to work in an environment similar to theirs, they’d crumble into a million pieces. Yet, somehow, Pink Floyd usually found a way to make their challenging surroundings work to their advantage.
Once Pink Floyd had reached the top of the musical mountain following the success of The Dark Side of the Moon, they struggled to cope with the immense pressure on their shoulders. However, while it was a grind to deal with this stress, they rose to the occasion in style on the faultless follow-up Wish You Were Here.
The album took eight months of hardship before reaching its conclusion, setting an unwanted precedent that Pink Floyd would follow for the rest of their tenure. Ultimately, they were prepared to pour blood, sweat, and tears into the craft for the sake of the final product, but it didn’t always lead to spectacular results.
David Gilmour has always been his own harshest critic, and if he could go back, he would make several changes to his career, particularly with Pink Floyd’s fifth studio album, Atom Heart Mother. This record, the last to be produced by Norman Smith, marked the end of an era for the band. Smith had been instrumental in shaping Pink Floyd’s early sound, with only the 1969 album More being an exception among their first five. However, their dissatisfaction with the final product of Atom Heart Mother led to a parting of ways with Smith, prompting the band to seek a fresh direction.
Atom Heart Mother arrived at an awkward stage in Pink Floyd’s career. They were still coming to terms with Syd Barrett’s exit, finding their feet in their new era, and yet to become the global juggernaut that would dominate the 1970s. Understandably, Pink Floyd felt as though they were treading water. Despite having bright ideas, the band didn’t have the skills to execute these grandiose plans. While many fans revered the album, Pink Floyd were collectively furious with the final product, which Gilmour would later deride as “dreadful”.
For the album, Ron Geesin, who had previously worked with Roger Waters, was brought into the Pink Floyd camp to assist the group. He contributed to the title track and received a songwriting credit on the record, which was unusual in 1970. Geesin was thrown into a nightmare scenario and later reflected on the terrible ordeal: “When we did Atom Heart Mother, they were at their lowest point of creativity.”
The musician attributed their lack of creativity to fatigue, adding: “They were pretty exhausted, and they didn’t really know where to go. It just happened that I was on the spot around that time.”
Bringing a new person into any tight-knit environment like a band can often end in disaster. Not only do they need to buy into the group’s vision, but they also need to be on a similar wavelength. However, Geesin wasn’t even a fan of Pink Floyd. “I wasn’t interested much in their music,” he once explained. I’m still not. It doesn’t do anything for me.”
In 2001, Gilmour looked back upon the album solemnly and admitted to Mojo: “Atom Heart Mother was a good idea, but it was dreadful. I listened to that album recently: God, it’s shit, possibly our lowest point artistically. It sounds like we didn’t have any idea between us, but we became much more prolific after it.”
Not only was he disappointed with the final result of the album, but the creative process was also an arduous time for all involved. In an interview with BBC Radio in 1984, Waters revealed there was no money in the world that would make him want to re-live the process, stating, “You must be fucking joking.”
By no stretch of the imagination is Atom Heart Mother “dreadful”, but it’s also far from Pink Floyd’s pièce de résistance. After this album, they collectively found another gear and proved themselves as true innovators on the pioneering Meddle. In the long run, experiences such as Atom Heart Mother likely helped Pink Floyd greatly and equipped them with the skills to not repeat their previous errors.
