The “dreadful” song that revolutionised Pink Floyd, according to David Gilmour
‘Revolutionary’ is a word that can be employed in abundance when discussing the life and times of Pink Floyd.
After all, not only did the famously tumultuous outfit strike upon some of the most iconic and profoundly inventive albums of all time, but they almost single-handedly introduced the airwaves of the United Kingdom to the mind-bending sounds of psychedelia back in the 1960s.
When Floyd first emerged from that acid-fueled haze in 1964, it was the visionary mind of songwriter Syd Barrett driving them forwards. Under his leadership, the group firmly established themselves as a bold new voice for musical expression, during a period in which the British rock scene was largely dominated by short, sharp sounds of groups like The Kinks, and even The Beatles hadn’t arrived at their spiritual awakening just yet. Inevitably, though, that pioneering period of psychedelic innovation wasn’t going to last forever.
Although it tends to divide opinion among various sects of Pink Floyd fans, The Piper At The Gates of Dawn is one of the greatest debut albums of all time, perfectly encapsulating the revolutionary nature of Barrett’s songwriting, as well as the sheer musical power of the surrounding band. However, that debut also marked the beginning of the end for the songwriter, and before 1967 was up, he was already being pushed out of the group by one David Gilmour.
Initially, Gilmour was brought onboard to alleviate some of the strain on Barrett, whose mental health was rapidly declining amid an ever-worsening dependency on psychedelic substances. However, by the time that the Spring of 1968 rolled around, the guitarist had replaced Barrett entirely, with Roger Waters taking over the leadership of the group.
Without the rudder of their predominant songwriter, though, it took this new incarnation of Pink Floyd some time to really find their feet as a band. “We didn’t know where we were going in terms of recording, but we were pretty good live,” as Gilmour put it during a 2001 chat with Mojo. “We were very good at jamming, but we couldn’t translate that onto record.”
Eventually, though, Floyd found their way, after a few failed attempts. “Gradually, a direction revealed itself to us, a line that began with the Saucerful of Secrets track all the way to ‘Echoes’, via the long piece Atom Heart Mother,” the guitarist explained. “That was a good idea but it was dreadful.”
Despite Atom Heart Mother being a very strong album, which also topped the album charts in the UK upon its release, Gilmour has always felt particularly harshly about the record in retrospect. “I listened to that album recently: God, it’s shit, possibly our lowest point artistically,” he declared, much to the chagrin of its many devotees. “Atom Heart Mother sounds like we didn’t have any idea between us, but we became much more prolific after it”
Regardless of Gilmour’s detest of that bovine album, it did at least mark the beginning of some stability for the post-Barrett era of Pink Floyd and, as the guitarist affirmed, their follow-up records saw them develop at a rapid rate. Only three years after the release of Atom Heart Mother, the group struck upon The Dark Side of The Moon and the rest, as they say, is history.
