[7] When Roger Waters heard David Gilmour playing the guitar parts for this track, he said that he thought it sounded like the theme song from the western film The Magnificent Seven.
[15] According to Mason, the band arrived at one gig in Aachen, Germany, only to discover they had left the sheet music behind, forcing tour manager Tony Howard to go back to London and get it.
[16] A later arrangement without brass or choir, and pared down from 25 minutes to fifteen by omitting the "collage" sections and closing reprise of the main theme, remained in their live repertoire into 1972.
The first live performance of the Dark Side of the Moon suite in Brighton was abandoned partway through; after a break, the band played Atom Heart Mother instead.
[18] The number was performed live on 14 and 15 June 2008 by The Canticum Choir,[19] conducted by Mark Forkgen, with the Royal College of Music on brass, Caroline Dale on cello, Ron Geesin on piano, Andrea Beghi on drums, Nadir Morelli on bass, Federico Maremmi on guitar and Emanuele Borgi on the Hammond organ.
David Gilmour joined the ensemble on the second night at Cadogan Hall playing his black Stratocaster for most of the track and lap steel guitar for the slide parts.
Breast Milky (2:50–5:23) (Wright, Gilmour, Geesin, Mason) A cello solo begins, accompanied by bass guitar and organ, with drums joining later.
Mother Fore (5:23–10:13) (Gilmour, Wright, Geesin) Picking up directly after the last note of the guitar solo, the organ (with quiet bass and drums) takes over for a five-minute ostinato sequence, playing chords based on E-minor, gradually joined by soprano voices and then a choir.
It is the only section on this album to feature the Mellotron; Wright uses the "3 Violins", "Brass" and "Flute" registration in order to create the dissonant chord clusters throughout this sound collage.
Remergence (17:58–23:44) (Gilmour, Geesin, Wright) The last part begin various instruments fading in and out, many of which are recognizable from earlier in the suite, and also features a Leslie speaker used on a piano, an effect that is used again in "Echoes".
The same brass part that opens the song is heard over this section, culminating with Nick Mason's distorted voice shouting, "Silence in the studio!".
[30] Paul Stump, in his book The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock, described the orchestration as "serviceable if not exemplary" and commended Pink Floyd's willingness to present key themes through solo orchestral instruments, but criticized elements such as Wright's reliance on repeated triplets for the chordal accompaniment and found the song as a whole showed a calculated and conventional approach to music which contrasted with the "haphazard innovation of new forms and voices" which Pink Floyd exhibited in their Syd Barrett-led era.
[32] with: The album The Dark Side of the Moog III (1995) by Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook is subtitled "Phantom Heart Brother".