David Gilmour has always been one of the most realistic men in rock. From discussing the highs and lows of Pink Floyd to the parameters of those he calls heroes, fans can always count on the Cambridge native to provide fascinating accounts imbued with the insider knowledge only true greats possess.
Displaying the realism with which Gilmour greets his work is his reading of 1970’s Atom Heart Mother. Whilst the guitarist has always been somewhat reluctant to praise the Ummagumma follow-up, when speaking to Mojo in 2001, he went for the jugular. Not only did he call it the quartet’s “lowest” artistic juncture, but he also dismissed it as nothing more than “shit”.
“Atom Heart Mother was a good idea but it was dreadful,” Gilmour told the publication. “I listened to that album recently: God, it’s shit, possibly our lowest point artistically. It sounds like we didn’t have any idea between us, but we became much more prolific after it.”
Being a realist doesn’t just mean that Gilmour is brutally honest about his work’s pitfalls. Just like the rest of his bandmates from the classic lineup, he knows when the group created something brilliant, as more often than not, that is what they did. However, what is interesting about a selection of Gilmour’s readings is that he lauds some tracks that fans and critics might otherwise overlook.
One track Gilmour is particularly proud of is ‘One of These Days’ from 1971’s Meddle. A notable moment, the material is largely instrumental, except for the spoken line from drummer Nick Mason, “One of these days, I’m going to cut you into little pieces”. The song also features double-tracked basslines played by Gilmour and Roger Waters.
When speaking to Guitar World in 1993, Gilmour called the song “seminal” after naming ‘Echoes’ as the “masterwork” of the album. His comments came about by the interviewer asking him if Pink Floyd sensed they were onto something with the former, as it started to crystallise what would become their distinctive formula.
Gilmour said: “Well, I think ‘Echoes’ is the masterwork of the album – the one where we were all discovering what Pink Floyd is about. ‘One of These Days’ is a little subsidiary piece that came out of the work on ‘Echoes’. I always loved it. It’s seminal, I suppose, yeah. A lot shorter, in any case – better for radio play. Meddle is really the album where all four of us were finding our feet – the way we wanted Pink Floyd to be. Much more than on Ummagumma or Atom Heart Mother.”
Listen to ‘One of These Days’ below.
