Instead, Pink Floyd entered EMI’s Abbey Road studios in early March to begin recording their new work. “It’s rather Yellow Submarine-ish, about a little boy in space.”īut Waters never mentioned Rollo again. “We’re going to do the music for an Alan Aldridge TV cartoon series called Rollo,” Waters announced in Melody Maker. But they were still undecided on their next recording project. It’s believed Pink Floyd performed the first version of their new instrumental on Januat the Lawns Centre in Hull. The piece was fashioned out of found sounds, with its composer ranting in a Scottish accent. They’d stopped releasing singles after December 1968 and had followed their second album, that year’s A Saucerful Of Secrets, with a soundtrack for the art house movie More.įloyd’s next release, 1969’s half-studio/halflive double album Ummagumma, included Roger Waters’ musique concrète experiment, Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict. The early Pink Floyd embraced the unexpected and the concept of being, as drummer Nick Mason put it, “more than just a pop group”. They arrived in Rome to start recording in November ’69.Īntonioni’s 1966 movie Blow-Up had been a clumsy portrayal of Swinging London, and Zabriskie Point was a drama about US student radicals fighting ‘the man’, blowing stuff up and having lots of sex. Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni had commissioned Pink Floyd to score his next film, Zabriskie Point.

To me not just sideways, but a bit backwards.An album that ended with a cow in a field in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire began more than a year before in Rome. Their approach and sound drastically changed. I find DSOTM the turning point, where they went from a cohesive band that could literally make ANY song, to a group that realized they could make money. Yes the 4 big commercial ablums have been played to death, and that is a big part of it, but also many simply did not realize the earlier stuff was good, due to many reviewers citing DSOTM and forwards as being the big selling commercial time, and not giving the older stuff a chance. Most very casual floyd fans, only like DSOTM, Wish, Animals, Wall, but the real creative period with very inspired music, that has real emotion and heart, and are 4 guys really just having fun, doing what they want, is all BEFORE DSOTM. 30 years ago, I would have totally agreed with you.īut looking back over many years hindsight, the 4 big commercial albums are still good musically, but the importance of the pre-DSOTM stuff, has finally come to the forefront.

Atom heart mother (full album)