![]() This is important because the insanity theme would completely dominate Pink Floyd’s later lyrical content. Waters’ contribution is “If,” and although it is pleasant, it is not quite as good as some of his other early ballads like “Grantchester Meadows.” I will mention one lyrical section of the song that stands out: “If I go insane, please don’t put/ Your wires in my brain.” These lyrics are significant because they’re the first Pink Floyd lyrics that make a clear reference to insanity. The other two don’t reach the level of greatness of “Summer ‘68,” but they’re both good tracks as well. “Summer ‘68” is just one of three ballads on the album. All in all, it is an absolutely phenomenal song, and it is one of my personal favorite Pink Floyd tracks ("Summer '68 YouTube clip below). So in summary, you have moving lyrics sung as a beautiful ballad, heavy psychedelics, Beach Boy’s style pop, orchestral horns, and classical piano all packed into one short song that is completely overlooked by most Pink Floyd Fans. After two verses of this structure, the song closes with a long classical piano outro, which is layered under more brass horns. The third layer is a Beach Boy’s style simple pop chorus of repeating “ba ba-ba ba,” and then the forth layer is an orchestral section of brass horns. Then, the second layer is added, which is an extremely heavy psychedelic section, and because it is layered on top of such a soft ballad, the contrast of the two sections makes each one extremely powerful. The start of the song (and the first layer) is a beautiful ballad section sung by Wright. Lyrically, the song focuses on the rock and roll life style that Pink Floyd had adopted, but Wright sings of this with a tone of boredom and indifference, as if he has become numb to it, and it is clear that he misses his old lifestyle with his friends at home, as he sings that his “friends are lying in the sun, I wish that I was there/ Tomorrow brings another town, another girl like you.” The lyrics are great, but the musical structure of the song is where it really shines. The song starts out as a simple ballad, but it is actually quite complex and layered, and it is amazing that Wright is able to pack so much content and texture in a song that clocks in under 6-minutes. Atom Heart Mother sounds like we didn’t have any idea between us, but we became much more prolific after it” (David Gilmour ’01).However, with all that being said and with all the hype centered around the “Atom Heart Mother” suite, I think almost everyone has missed out on the real centerpiece of the album, which is not the title track it is a completely underrated masterpiece written by Rick Wright called “Summer ’68.” This song is a completely hidden gem in the Floyd catalog, and it is certainly the best song on “Atom Heart Mother,” so let’s start there, and then I’ll return to the Title track. I listened to that album recently: God, it’s ****, possibly our lowest point artistically. “Atom Heart Mother was a good idea but it was dreadful. 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 ****ing joking… I’m not playing that rubbish! Cause then I really would be embarrassed” (Roger Waters ’84). “I wouldn’t dream of performing anything that embarrassed me. Pink Floyd was clearly proud of the suite when it came out because they toured with an orchestra and choir, and they played the song in its entirety upon the release of the album, and they even kept a shorter version in their live set through the “Dark Side of the Moon” tour, but in later years, the band completely dismissed the song, with comments like these: The side-long title track on Pink Floyd’s 1970 release “Atom Heart Mother” has been called both a masterpiece and a complete failure by fans, critics, and Pink Floyd themselves. ![]()
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