Atom Heart Mother. Well, where to start? Not one of Pink Floyd's albums that's so familiar to the average person on the street, although far more know THAT cover.
Lulubelle the Third (as legend has it as her name) became an unwitting star, when cover designer the late Storm Thorgerson and his team at Hipgnosis were tasked with the job of providing a cover image for the album. At the time, the Floyd still had a bit of a reputation as either a psychedelic, or a "space rock", band, the latter something they would tend to strenuously deny (despite songs such as Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun, Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive, and later, the album The Dark Side of the Moon). The new album included the eponymous side-long piece which initially went under the titles of Epic, Theme From an Imaginary Western, and The Amazing Pudding.
Setting out for inspiration, not far from base, the Hipgnosis team drove past a farm and saw Lulubelle gazing into space, happily chewing some grass. The rest, as they say, is history.
The band clearly liked the cover, the record company absolutely didn't - especially with the lack of band name or album title to spoil the rural idyll. And the complete lack of relevance to the subject matter. Storm told me a couple of years ago with some degree of pleasure about the perverse delight he and the band had at presenting this as the cover of their new collection.
Whilst a lesser known album in the band's back catalogue it is nonetheless one of the key parts of their development - and in particular, the title track which I'll call the AHM Suite for clarity, as even the band muddied the water in interviews, talking interchangeably about AHM the album and the track without specifying exactly which they were talking about...
The earlier days of the band saw Syd Barrett as guiding light, but with his departure in early 1968 the band needed to find their new direction and future. With Syd's improvisational influence, longer, experimental tracks replaced some of the more whimsical ditties, and the attraction of a LP-side long track clearly beckoned. Out of a few ingredients, The Amazing Pudding arrived, an early version of AHM Suite (which as noted above was also called Epic, hinting at the band's ambitions with this).
However, to change this pudding into a properly tasty dish (sorry!) they realised that they would need help. Cue Ron Geesin, a friend of the band members through various circumstances, and someone who they felt could work with them on the title track of their new album, sorting out sheet music, a choir, orchestrations and musicians.
Clearly though, the temperatures at times were running as high in the studio, as they were that blistering summer that they were working on the piece. As Ron's new book discusses, things didn't go well during the sessions, with a punch-up in Abbey Road Studio Two a very close-run thing. Musically too, there were many issues, not least with the limitations of the recording technology of the time.
Whilst the band tended to be a bit dismissive of the album after its release, the title track was a key work for them. It paved the way for other epics such as Echoes, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, and also the thematically linked albums they released in later years.
The Flaming Cow is now available as an exclusive ebook in the iBookstore which includes two videos and additional material. To find out more, visit www.itunes.com/TheFlamingCow.