This Week's Music
Almost 50 years on, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason rescued Pink Floyd's instrumental "Atom Heart Mother" from the overproduced mess it was on the 1971 Pink Floyd album of the same name.
The original was a 23-minute six-part "suite" with a chorus, a brass section and rando bits of musique concrete. Group guitarist David Gilmour later called the piece "rubbish."
The piece proved instrumental in getting the band to think about longer, thematic compositions, which would lead to the success of "Dark Side of the Moon." On its own, it's pretty routine for the day, about on par with proggy peers Caravan but way behind what, say, Yes was doing at the time.
In 2018, Mason started touring with a band that played just Pink Floyd's earlier material, up to but not including DSOTM, which is when they truly became superstars. Mason was onto something: It was a fun period show. It was if Pink Floyd were just another-mostly forgotten prog rock/psychedelic rock back from the day. Greater fame may have come later, but this was the most artistically inspired (if uneven) time for the band, judging from the group's biography.
In the 2020 live album that documented this show, "Live at the Roundhouse" Mason offers a pared-down seven-minute version that pumps up the bass and rocks out Gilmour's Western movie-like central theme. Gotta love drummers for keeping things real.
In fact, the reworking suggests that the entire "Atom Heart Mother" album could have been a lot stronger, with a few choice substitutes.
Slot in Nick's more economical edit of the title track and use that extra space instead for the truly epic 15 minute version of "Fat Old Sun" that the band played on the John Peel's BBC show that year, replacing the the muted studio version of that song on the album. Gilmour's extended guitar solo is just brutal here (Those British bands truly brought their a-games to Peelie back in the day).
Maybe squeeze "Embryo" (a Roger Waters solo outing that was co-opted by the band to play live anyway) in there somewhere and you'd truly have an album to savor.
Other Music I Listened to This Week
| # | Artist | Tracks Played |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Imogen Heap |
44 |
| #2 | Andy Partridge |
19 |
| #3 | The Alan Parsons Project |
14 |
| #4 | Radiohead |
13 |
| #5 | Pink Floyd |
12 |
| #6 | Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets |
9 |
| #7 | Billie Eilish |
8 |
| #8 | Lana Del Rey |
8 |
| #09 | George Winston |
7 |
Top Albums
| # | Name | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | The Music of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - In Four Contemporary Suites |
Imogen Heap |
| #2 | Through the Hill |
Andy Partridge |
| #3 | Psychedelic '60s - London Underground |
Various Artists |
| #4 | Live at the Roundhouse |
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets |
| #5 | Opus |
Ryuichi Sakamoto |
| #6 | The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess [Explicit] |
Chappell Roan |
| #7 | Blue Banisters [Explicit] |
Lana Del Rey |
| #8 | Imaginal Disk |
Magdalena Bay |
| #9 | Sky 2 |
Sky |
| #10 | THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT [Explicit] |
Taylor Swift |
Top Tracks
| # | Song | Artist | Times Played |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Atom Heart Mother (Live at The Roundhouse) |
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets |
5 |
| #2 | Great Valley of Gongs |
Andy Partridge |
3 |
| #3 | Missing Pieces to the Game of Salt and Onyx |
Andy Partridge |
3 |
| #4 | Tenochtitlan's Numberless Bridges |
Andy Partridge |
3 |
| #5 | Peace And Love |
Fountains of Wayne |
3 |
Previous Weeks
