I can’t remember now if we had decided to create a longer piece or whether it just snowballed, but it was a way of operating we were starting to feel comfortable with. Once we settled on the nucleus of the piece (a theme supplied I think by David), everyone else had contributed, not only musically, but also in devising the overall dynamics. ‘Atom Heart Mother had been assembled during a number of rehearsals. Clearly the rather woolly approach to creating the music was unlikely to bear any great fruit given the confused beginnings of the work as recalled by Mason. Writing in his book Inside Out Nick Mason described the vague genesis of the piece. Atom Heart Mother was an incredibly difficult piece and the studio version that finally
It was also performed live at the Bath Festival where the surviving film footage demonstrates just how difficult it was to get the thing right. Regarding live performances, the full scale work was toured extensively in Europe and America. In it’s full scale incarnation it was transmitted live on the BBC and on the Europa satellite. The piece was performed live by the four piece band on dozens of occasions. Once The Amazing Pudding emerged from the development process it had metamorphosed into Atom Heart Mother and had gained additional instrumentation in the form of a ten piece brass section and full choir. In 1970 the band began trying out an extended piece known as The Amazing Pudding. As we have seen Careful with That Axe was one example which was originally known as Murderistic Woman. During this process familiar tracks would often be given working titles. It was in the concert hall where emerging new compositions would be tested and refined over a long series of live dates. This is particularly important when one considers how much of Pink Floyd’s output was worked out on the road.
Although Pink Floyd are today remembered for the brilliance of their work in the studio it’s important not to overlook the fact that the band was very much a working touring live unit.
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