Soundtrack from the Film More is the first full-length soundtrack album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 27 July 1969. The film More was directed by Barbet Schroeder. In it, two songs can be heard that were not included on the album: "Seabirds", and "Hollywood". The album actually comprises the other music used in the film, sometimes in a completely different form.[citation needed]

The original American edition shortened the title to just More. This was the last of three Pink Floyd albums to be released in the United States by the Tower Records division of Capitol Records. The 1973 US re-issue was released on Harvest Records. Although the CD edition restores the original United Kingdom title in all countries, it is represented differently on the spine (Music from the Film More) and label (Soundtrack to the Film More).

More contains some acoustic folk ballads, a genre that appeared sparsely on later works. It also contains a couple of hard rock songs ("The Nile Song", "Ibiza Bar"), as well as several instrumental tracks, featuring their experimental (or avant-garde) approach.

This is Pink Floyd's first full album without founding member Syd Barrett, who was ousted from the group in early 1968 during the recording of their previous album, A Saucerful of Secrets. It is also the first album to be produced by Pink Floyd without assistance from Norman Smith and was recorded at Pye Studios, Marble Arch, London and engineered by Brian Humphries[1]

Soundtrack from the Film More reached #9 in the UK and—upon re-release in 1973—#153 in the US. In 1987, the album was re-released on CD. A digitally remastered CD was released in 1995 in the UK and in the US

Title

The album's title supposedly comes from a Cambridge slang word for sex, commonly used by one of Pink Floyd's friends and occasional roadie, Ian "Emo" Moore, who would say 'I'm going back to the house for some Ummagumma'.[1] However, some band members have since stated that the word was "totally made up and means nothing at all".[2] In footage of the band rehearsing for a Royal Albert Hall appearance in 1969, one of the band members can be heard, off camera, quietly chanting the word "ummagumma".
[edit] Background

Although the sleeve notes say that the live material was recorded in June 1969, the first disc of Ummagumma was recorded live at Mothers Club, Birmingham on 27 April 1969 and the following week at Manchester College of Commerce on 2 May 1969; the second disc included four solo segments, one half-side of vinyl each by, in order: Richard Wright, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason.

The band had also recorded a live version of "Interstellar Overdrive" (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) intended for placement on side one of the live album, and "The Embryo", which was recorded in the studio before it was decided that the band members each come up with their own material. The tracks were dropped at the last minute, probably to maintain the sound fidelity of the record, but numerous test pressings with the original track list were given to friends of the band, including John Peel. The reason for the cut of "Interstellar Overdrive" was most likely due to time constraints, as it was over 13 minutes long.
[edit] Cover art

The cover shows the members of the band, with a picture hanging on the wall showing the same scene, except the band members have switched positions. The picture on the wall also includes the picture on the wall, creating a recursion effect (i.e. the Droste effect), with each recursion showing band members exchanging positions. After 4 variations of the scene, the final picture within picture is the cover of the previous Pink Floyd album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The latter, however, is absent from the CD release; instead, the recursion effect is seemingly ad infinitum.

The cover of the original LP varies between the British, American/Canadian, and Australian releases. The British version has the album Gigi leaning against the wall immediately above the "Pink Floyd" letters. At a talk given at Borders bookstore in Cambridge on 1 November 2008, as part of the "City Wakes" project , Storm Thorgerson explained that the album was introduced as a red herring to provoke debate, and that it has no intended meaning. On most copies of American and Canadian editions, the Gigi cover is airbrushed to a plain white sleeve, apparently because of copyright concerns; however the earliest American copies do show the Gigi cover,[3] and it was restored for the American CD edition. On the Australian edition, the Gigi cover is completely airbrushed, not even leaving a white square behind. The house used as the location for the front cover of the album is located in Great Shelford, near Cambridge.[4]

On the rear cover, roadies Alan Stiles (who also appears in Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast) and Peter Watts are shown with the band's equipment laid out on a runway at Biggin Hill Airport; a concept proposed by Nick Mason, with the intention of replicating the "exploded" drawings of military aircraft and their payloads, which were popular at the time.

Song titles on the back are laid out slightly differently in British vs. North American editions; the most important difference being the inclusion of sub-titles for the four sections of "A Saucerful of Secrets". These subtitles only appeared on American and Canadian editions of this album, but not on the British edition; nor did they appear on original pressings of A Saucerful of Secrets.[citation needed]

The inner gatefold art shows separate black and white photos of the band members. David Gilmour is seen standing in front of the Elfin Oak. Original vinyl editions showed Waters with his first wife, Judy Trim, but she has been cropped out of the picture on most CD editions (with the original photo's caption 'Roger Waters (and Jude)' accordingly changed to just 'Roger Waters'). The uncropped picture was restored for the album's inclusion in the box set, Oh, by the Way.
[edit] Release history

The album was released in the United Kingdom on 25 October 1969 and then in the US on 10 November 1969. The album reached number five on the UK album charts and number 74 on the US album charts, marking the first time the band reached the top 100 in the US. The album was certified Gold in the US in February 1974 and Platinum in March 1994. In 1987, the album was re-released on a two CD set. A digitally re-mastered version was released in 1994 in the UK and 1995 in the US.

The CD edition includes a longer version of "Sysyphus"—extended to 13:26, with the movements lasting 1:08, 3:30, 1:49, and 6:59. The original "Part 1" of "Sysyphus" was split into two tracks and called "Part 1" and "Part 2". "Part 2" on vinyl became "Part 3" on CD, and "Part 3" and "Part 4" were combined into the CD's "Part 4" (the original "Part 4" begins with the lengthy orchestral thud.) "The Narrow Way" and "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" were also split into their three parts for easier navigation.

Quotes

"What was your inspiration for The Narrow Way (on Ummagumma) your first major Floyd composition?"

"Well, we'd decided to make the damn album, and each of us to do a piece of music on our own... it was just desperation really, trying to think of something to do, to write by myself. I'd never written anything before, I just went into a studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together. I haven't heard it in years. I've no idea what it's like." - David Gilmour - Sounds "Guitar Heroes" Magazine, May 1983

"What do you think of your early records like Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma today?"

"I think both are pretty horrible. Well, the live disc of Ummagumma might be all right, but even that isn't recorded well." - David Gilmour — Der Spiegel No. 23 - 5 June 1995

"When you listen to Ummagumma, you get the feeling that each one of you is doing his own music, not caring much about the others."

"That's right. I can't be precise, but we were very individualistic at the time." - Nick Mason — March 1973[citation needed]

"The back of Ummagumma comes from something Nick Mason did". - Storm Thorgerson - Guitar World - February 1998

Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd, released in 1970 by Harvest and EMI Records in the United Kingdom and Harvest and Capitol in the United States. It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, England, and reached number one[1] in the United Kingdom, and number 55[2] in the United States charts, and went gold in the U.S. in March 1994. A re-mastered CD was released in 1994 in the UK, and in 1995 in the US.

This was the first Pink Floyd album to be specially mixed for 4-channel quadraphonic sound as well as conventional 2-channel stereo. The quadraphonic mix was released on LP in a matrix format compatible with standard stereo record players. There was also a release of the quadraphonic version in the UK in fully discrete 4-channel form on the "Quad-8" format, a 4-channel variant of the stereo 8-track tape cartridge.
Cover art

The original album cover shows a cow standing in a pasture with no text nor any other clue as to what might be on the record. Some later editions have the title and artist name added to the cover. This concept was the group's reaction to the psychedelic space rock imagery associated with Pink Floyd at the time of the album's release; the band wanted to explore all sorts of music without being limited to a particular image or style of performance. They thus requested that their new album had "something plain" on the cover, which ended up being the image of the cow. Storm Thorgerson, inspired by Andy Warhol's famous "cow-wallpaper," has said that he simply drove out into a rural area near Potters Bar and photographed the first cow he saw.[3] The cow's owner identified her name as "Lulubelle III".[4] More cows appear on the back cover, again with no text or titles, and on the inside gatefold. Also, a pink balloon shaped like a cow udder accompanied the album as part of Capitol's marketing strategy campaign.[5]

The album cover appears in Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange. It is viewable on a shelf in the music shop scene.
[edit] Song summaries

The title track was to have been called "The Amazing Pudding", though Ron Geesin's original score referred to it as "Epic". Its name was changed after Geesin—who co-wrote the piece and arranged the orchestration on the recording—pointed to a copy of The Evening Standard (dated Thursday 16 July 1970), and suggested to Roger Waters that he would find a title in there. The headline was: "ATOM HEART MOTHER NAMED", a story about a woman being fitted with a nuclear powered pacemaker.[6]

The piece is a progression from Pink Floyd's earlier instrumental pieces such as "A Saucerful of Secrets". The "Atom Heart Mother" suite takes up all of side one, and is split into six parts, featuring a full brass section and choir which take most of the lead melody lines, while Pink Floyd mainly provide the backing tracks; a reverse of the 1960s pop music practice of using orchestration as the background, and putting the rock band in front. However, there is one section where a bluesy electric guitar solo by David Gilmour takes the lead.

Critical reaction to the suite has always been mixed, and all band members have expressed negativity toward it in recent times. But they appear to have been enthusiastic about the suite in the early 1970s, taking a full brass section and choir on tour just for the purpose of performing this piece; a move which caused the tour to lose money. A later arrangement without brass or choir, and pared down from 25 minutes to 15 by omitting the "collage" sections and closing reprise of the main theme, remained in their live repertoire into 1972, performed in concerts that also previewed The Dark Side of the Moon.

June 2008 saw Ron Geesin perform "Atom Heart Mother" with Italian tribute band Mun Floyd over two nights as part of the Chelsea Festival. Geesin introduced it with a history and slide show. The performances featured full choir, brass and noted cellist Caroline Dale, who has worked with David Gilmour. The second night saw Gilmour join Geesin on stage for the performance. The song was extended to over 35 minutes and received many excellent reviews.[citation needed]

Side two opens with three five-minute songs: one by each of the band's three resident songwriters, and closes with a suite with sound effects primarily conceived by Nick Mason, but credited to the whole group (and based mostly on musical ideas by Gilmour). Therefore, this album's concept is similar to their previous Ummagumma album, in that it features the full band in the first half, and focuses on individual members in the second half. Roger Waters contributes a folk ballad called "If" which he would play frequently at live shows in support of his Radio KAOS album, more than a decade later. This is followed by Rick Wright's brass-heavy "Summer '68", a critique of the "rock 'n' roll" lifestyle that would soon become characteristic of Pink Floyd. Next is David Gilmour's "Fat Old Sun", for which a 15 minute extended arrangement spent two years as a key part of the band's live set, and is a staple of Gilmour's various solo tours.

The final track, "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast", is divided into three segments, each with its own descriptive title, joined by dialogue and sound effects of then-roadie Alan Stiles preparing, discussing, and eating breakfast. A slightly re-worked version was performed onstage only once on 22 December 1970 at Sheffield City Hall, Sheffield, England with the band members pausing between pieces to eat and drink their breakfast.

The original LP ends with the sound of a dripping tap which continues into the inner groove, and thus plays on indefinitely.

Quotes

Atom Heart Mother is a good case, I think, for being thrown into the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again!... It was pretty kind of pompous, it wasn't really about anything.

- Roger Waters — Rock Over London Radio Station - 15 March 1985, for broadcast 7 April/14 April 1985.

What do you think of your early records like Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma today?
I think both are pretty horrible. Well, the live disc of Ummagumma might be all right, but even that isn't recorded well.

- David Gilmour - Der Spiegel No. 23 - 5 June 1995

I didn't have anything, really, to do with the start of Atom Heart Mother, and when I asked them what it was about, they said they didn't know themselves. It's a conglomeration of pieces that weren't related, or didn't seem to be at the time. The picture isn't related either; in fact, it was an attempt to do a picture that was unrelated, consciously unrelated.

- Storm Thorgerson - Guitar World - February 1998

"[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. Atom Heart Mother sounds like we didn’t have any idea between us, but we became much more prolific after it.”

- David Gilmour - Mojo Magazine - October 2001[7]

"I think Atom Heart Mother was a good thing to have attempted, but I don't really think the attempt comes off that well,"

- David Gilmour - Rolling Stone - November 2001

'I wouldn't dream of performing anything that embarrassed me. If somebody said to me now: "Right...here's a million pounds, go out and play 'Atom Heart Mother'", I'd say: "You must be fucking joking...I'm not playing that rubbish!". 'Cos then I really would be embarrassed.'

- Roger Waters — interviewed by Richard Skinner - BBC Radio One - originally broadcast: Saturday 9 June 1984