Recognition a Long Time Coming
Ron Geesin would later judge “Atom Heart Mother” to have been perhaps not perfect, but reasonably successful all the same. He maintains that it could not have been any better than it was, given that it was realized using limited resources and with a lot of pressure during the development phase. Nick Mason’s verdict, however, would be “Good idea, could try harder.”5
In spite of the differing opinions and the lack of recognition of Ron Geesin’s input from the group and its fans, there were numerous public performances of the work, complete with choir and brass, notably on June 27 at the Bath Festival of Blues & Progressive Music ’70 in the United Kingdom, where it was introduced as “The Amazing Pudding.” Over the course of the years, the piece would attract increasing levels of interest from all over the world, and the Scottish composer-arranger would receive regular requests for the score. Finally, in 2012, Ron Geesin would receive official recognition when “Atom Heart Mother” was included in the music syllabus of the 2012–2013 French baccalauréat.
The Six Movements of “Atom Heart Mother”
“Father’s Shout” (Geesin’s sections A, B, C, and D)
The intro is mainly Geesin’s work. The piece opens with an organ drone on E with a gong becoming audible in the background. Trombones then surge forward and are immediately joined by trumpets playing open fifths.
This intro is followed by the exposition of the main theme on the three horns (an instrument used by composers of music for westerns!) and the four members of Pink Floyd. Waters is most probably playing his Rickenbacker (because this was recorded before the New Orleans equipment theft), Mason his Premier drum kit, Wright his Farfisa and Hammond organs, and Gilmour presumably his white Stratocaster, delivering a clear-toned (like Waters’s bass) rhythm part.
The next section is a development of the intro that assumes epic proportions when played on the trumpets and horns. All of a sudden, various sound effects burst onto the scene: whinnying and galloping horses, gunfire, whistling and exploding shells, and a motorbike starting up, transporting the listeners to a 1914 battlefield. Finally there is a return to the main theme.
“Breast Milky” (Geesin’s sections E, F, G, and H)
This second movement is somewhat romantic in mood, hence the addition of Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s cello, accompanied by Waters’s bass and Rick Wright’s organ. This inevitably brings Saint-Saëns’s “The Swan” to mind.
Mason gradually insinuates himself into this atmosphere with tom breaks, before leaving the field to David Gilmour, who plays a slide solo that is probably doubled. Gilmour’s playing possesses a soft-edged, airy quality that reveals him by this point to have completely mastered his style and technique and acquired his uniquely subtle touch. Various studio photos indicate that he may be playing his 1959 Stratocaster Sunburst. This floating mood gives way to more of a rock feel with the use of Fuzz Face on the guitar, the addition of piano, and the return of the brass.
“Mother Fore” (Geesin’s section I)
Another floating mood. Enter a female singer whose ethereal voice is enveloped in reverb. She is accompanied by Hammond M-102, bass, and hi-hat. The various levels of the John Alldis Choir then come in progressively over Wright’s organ pads, creating a Carl Orff–like atmosphere. The intensity and complexity increase, and the tension mounts to the point where Mason’s contribution expands into a full-blown accompaniment on the drums.
“Funky Dung” (Geesin’s section J)
The fourth movement opens with Roger Waters’s heavy, funky bass. He is actually recycling the riff he had previously recorded for “Unknown Song,” a title the group had laid down for the soundtrack of Antonioni’s movie Zabriskie Point, but that was not in the end used. He is accompanied by Rick Wright on Hammond organ and Mason on drums. Enter Gilmour and his Stratocaster (the “Black Strat”?) with a very bluesy, slightly distorted solo with ample reverb. His style, which would develop into one of Pink Floyd’s trademarks (reaching its zenith over the group’s next four or five albums), is immediately recognizable. This solo gradually gives way to a return by the choir, which expresses itself through onomatopoeia and is supported by the brass, a piano, and the rhythm section of Waters, Mason, and Gilmour (the latter playing clear-toned rhythm guitar).
“Mind Your Throats Please” (Geesin’s sections K and L)
In this section we return to the main theme, which then develops into an experimental sequence that did not form part of the first version given to Geesin in March. It consists of various distorted sounds, mainly keyboards (organ, Mellotron, piano), brass, voices, and choir, played backward and transformed by various electronic effects: reverb, Binson Echorec, Leslie speaker, harmonizer, and so on. We hear the sound of a train before the brass returns and combines with various fragments of the intro and the main theme in a cacophony worthy of Stockhausen. A voice can be heard uttering the words “silence in the studio.” It is interesting to note that this section, which had originally been named “Experimental percussion section with train sounds,” does not actually include any percussion, at least until the appearance of the train.
“Remergence” (Geesin’s sections M, N, P, and Q)
The main theme is restated once more, followed by a recapitulation of the second movement, “Breast Milky,” with discreet support from the brass in the cello section and a solo from David Gilmour (with Echorec II and strong panoramic effects) in the rock section. The piece then concludes with a grandiose and heroic finale involving all the musicians and ending on a chord of E major, whereas the main key of the piece had been E minor. Immediately prior to this, at 23:07 precisely, Nick Mason launches into a long snare drumroll!
For Pink Floyd Addicts
On the back of “Atom Heart Mother,” Pink Floyd became the first rock group to take part in the Montreux classical music festival (September 1971).
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Ron Geesin would later reveal that while the choir was being recorded, Syd Barrett turned up at the studio to visit his friends but disappeared into thin air, as if by magic, shortly after.
In 1971, David Gilmour would report that the famous conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, who had attended one of the concerts on the group’s North American tour, had been bored stiff by “Atom Heart Mother” but had enjoyed the other numbers the group played…
IN YOUR HEADPHONES
At exactly 10:46, a brief grunt can be heard just before David Gilmour’s solo. Is this a cue for the guitarist, a cathartic exclamation before he attacks his Stratocaster, or a badly erased track?
Ron Geesin, a Temporary Floyd
Ever since 1967, Ron Geesin and Pink Floyd had shared the billing for various musical events, such as the famous “14 Hour Technicolor Dream” at Alexandra Palace on April 29 of that year, and a number of gigs at Middle Earth in Covent Garden. But it was not until a few years later that they would embark upon an artistic collaboration.
The Banjo and Surrealism
Ronald Frederick Geesin was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on December 17, 1943. He spent his childhood in the county of Lanarkshire, where his father built the family home with his own hands. As a teenager, Geesin showed little interest in music, unlike his two young sisters, who were learning the piano. Instead he preferred to go on long bicycle rides along the winding roads of the Clyde Valley. Everything changed when his parents gave him a banjo for his sixteenth birthday. His enthusiasm for the instrument was boosted by the fashion for traditional jazz in the United Kingdom at this time. Around this same period he also discovered the music of George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue), the early masters of classic jazz, in particular the piano virtuoso Fats Waller, and the world of Surrealism.
A Manipulator of Sound
Having eventually become a pianist and joined a jazz band known as the Original Downtown Syncopators, Ron Geesin embarked on a series of contracts with clubs. In 1967 he decided to pursue a solo career and recorded his debut album, A Raise of Eyebrows—the f
irst stereo record to be issued by Transatlantic Records—before founding his own label Headscope and setting up a home studio in the basement of a house at 34 Elgin Crescent (just around the corner from Portobello Road) in London. He developed a real passion for electronics, sound effects, and acoustic manipulation of every kind, which he would achieve with multiple tape recorders that he did not always use in the prescribed way!
Through writing the music for a number of television ads and short movies, Ron Geesin started to become known and appreciated within the music world, in particular by the highly influential BBC presenter John Peel; by Steve O’Rourke, then manager of Pink Floyd (whom he had known, in fact, since the days of the Original Downtown Syncopators); and by the tour manager Sam Cutler, who introduced him to Nick Mason and his wife Lindy. Geesin taught the Floyd drummer the rudiments of making perfect tape joins and collages, and he gained entry into Mason’s world: “One pleasant spin-off of this relationship was that Ron wrote the music for the soundtrack of one of my father’s documentaries—The History Of Motoring—and I like to think they both enjoyed the experience.”5 In 1969, Nick and Lindy introduced Ron Geesin to Roger and Judy Waters. He then, inevitably, met Rick Wright, with whom he shared an interest in American jazz.
The Floyd’s Right-Hand Man
Ron Geesin was an influence on Roger Waters’s experimental track “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict” on Ummagumma. They then worked together on the music for the documentary The Body, which was released in the form of an album entitled Music from the Body. Later in 1970, Geesin was chosen to help the group record the suite “Atom Heart Mother,” probably, he believes, for the following reasons: “I was well known and trusted by at least three of Pink Floyd; I had produced (composed and made) original work which surprised, amused and teased those three; and a fair proportion of that work was for radio, films and TV where I had to fit in to an existing structure […].”60 But these were not the only reasons why the group chose him: at the beginning of 1970, the Floyd found themselves in a creative impasse and were beginning to run out of new ideas. Under pressure from O’Rourke and EMI to release a new album, they needed an external stimulus to help them to rediscover their momentum and move forward. And it was Ron Geesin who was to provide this stimulus.
Post–Pink Floyd
The recording of “Atom Heart Mother” and the commercial success of the album opened up new opportunities for Ron Geesin. After producing the album Songs for the Gentle Man (1971) for the folk-rock singer Bridget St. John, he composed the music for a number of movies, notably John Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Stephen Weeks’s Ghost Story (1974) and Sword of the Valiant (1984), and Cary Parker’s The Girl in the Picture (1985). His later albums, meanwhile, combine acoustic and electronic instruments, and avant-garde music and ambient sounds, as in As He Stands (1973), Right Through (1977), Magnificent Machines (1988), and The Journey of a Melody (2011). Ron Geesin revealed in an interview in the nineties61 that by this time he had lost contact with all of Pink Floyd except Nick Mason.
If
Roger Waters / 4:30
Musicians
Roger Waters: vocals, bass, acoustic guitar
David Gilmour: electric guitar
Rick Wright: Moog, organ, piano
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: June 12, 25, July 4, 5, 8, 13, and 21, 1970 (Studio Two and Room Four)
Island Studios, London: dates not known
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Executive Producer: Norman Smith
Sound Engineer (not known for Island): Peter Bown
Assistant Sound Engineers (not known for Island): Alan Parsons, Nick Webb
Genesis
Musically, the exquisitely romantic “If” follows on in a direct line from Roger Waters songs such as those he composed for the More soundtrack and the very peaceful and pastoral “Grantchester Meadows” on Ummagumma. In terms of its lyrics, however, the nostalgia that dominated “Grantchester Meadows” has given way to a deep despair and boundless regrets that seem to gnaw at the songwriter.
There are indeed regrets: If I were a swan, I’d be gone, If I were a good man, I’d talk to you more often than I do. In the second verse, however, the mystery starts to unravel a little. If I were asleep, I could dream, If I were afraid, I could hide, If I go insane, please don’t put your wires in my brain: all the indications are that the narrator now finds himself in a psychiatric asylum. “If” tackles a theme that had haunted Roger Waters at least since Syd Barrett’s forced departure from the band, and one that runs through several of his other major compositions, such as “Brain Damage” on The Dark Side of the Moon, “Wish You Were Here” on the album of the same name, and “Pigs on the Wing” on Animals. After leaving Pink Floyd himself years later, Waters would include this song in the set list of his two major tours, “The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking” in 1984–85 and “Radio K.A.O.S.” two years later.
Production
It is no easy task to trace back the making of “If.” Roger Waters started to record the song at Island Studios in London between January and March 1970, while working on the soundtrack of the documentary The Body with Ron Geesin. It was then rerecorded at Abbey Road in June, this time with the group. The final version is thought to result from a splicing together of sections from both recordings without it being possible to determine which section originated in which studio or, indeed, where the different parts have been joined.
The first session at EMI is known to have been held on June 12, soon after the Floyd’s return from the United States. At this stage the song was entitled “Roger’s Song.” It was rerecorded on June 25 and again on July 4, and it was the sixth take that was used as the basis for future overdubs. Roger Waters accompanies himself with arpeggios on a classical guitar (Levin Classic 3?). He sings lead vocal and his voice is soft, fragile, and full of feeling. Often eclipsed by the voices of Rick Wright and more especially David Gilmour, Waters is nevertheless a superb singer, not least because he has a talent for conveying his emotions. He is also clearly accompanying himself on the bass, presumably his Fender Precision. At 1:12 a new instrument, recorded on July 5, makes a brief appearance. This is a Moog synthesizer, almost certainly a Moog IIIP, the one used by the Beatles on their album Abbey Road. The sound is discreet, but it serves to add an avant-garde touch to the folky feel at the beginning of the song. Then comes an instrumental section with sustained Hammond organ played by Rick Wright, over which Gilmour takes a guitar solo, probably on his newly acquired “Black Strat.” He makes abundant use of bending, in other words pulling on the strings with the fingers of the left hand in order to create a slide effect. His guitar sound is distorted courtesy of the Fuzz Face and drenched in stereo reverb. Furthermore he doubles himself and harmonizes with his other guitar track toward the end of the solo. After the vocal line resumes, Rick Wright adds acoustic piano, and Nick Mason contributes a restrained accompaniment on his hi-hat before adding drums for the second instrumental section (at 3:16). Here, Wright starts to improvise on the piano and Gilmour delivers a second solo, which he harmonizes with two distinct guitar parts. It is interesting to note that at 3:50 his solo shifts from stereo to mono without any reverb. Is this the point where the Island Studios and Abbey Road Studios recordings are spliced together? Finally, Waters himself provides the vocal harmonies in the last verse of the song. The final mixing was completed on July 21, during the last session on the album, and this is also the day the two recordings were edited together.
The opening song on side two of the vinyl incarnation of Atom Heart Mother, “If,” is without doubt one of the triumphs of the album, a perfect vehicle for denouncing the phenomenon of alienation from the world, a theme to which he would repeatedly return throughout his career.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Roger Waters had already written one song about his relationship with Syd Barrett. This was “
Incarceration of a Flower Child,” from 1968. Although never recorded by Pink Floyd, Marianne Faithfull included a version of it on her album Vagabond Ways (1999).
Summer ’68
Rick Wright / 5:29
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals (?) backing vocals, acoustic guitar, electric rhythm and lead guitar
Rick Wright: vocals, backing vocals, piano, organ, Mellotron, harmonium (?)
Roger Waters: bass, backing vocals (?)
Nick Mason: drums, maracas, bongos (?)
Unidentified musicians: trumpets
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: December 4, 9, 10, 16, 1968; January 16, 1969; July 5, 13, 14, 19, 20 1970 (Studio Two and Room Four)
Technical Team
Producer: Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd All the Songs Page 27
