Released on the Atom Heart Mother album in 1970. David Gilmour wrote this and sang lead. Gilmour played every instrument on the track with the exception of keyboards, which were played by Richard Wright. David Gilmour: "I've always liked the song, one of the first I ever wrote. I tried to persuade the rest of the Pink Floyd guys that it should go on Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd but they weren't having it. I played the drums on the original recording but the drums are so bad." "It covers themes that were as dear to the guitarist as they were to the group as a whole. Distant bells, newmown grass smells so sweet/By the river holding hands, roll me up and lay me down: these lines take us back to Grantchester Meadows, the guitarist’s birthplace and the onetime playground of Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. What’s more, Gilmour seems to have written it at the same time that Waters wrote “Grantchester Meadows” on Ummagumma. Gilmour is therefore returning here to his teenage years: the scene is set at dusk on a summer’s evening, when the last rays of sunshine are glinting on the River Cam and the evening birds are calling. The narrator shares this special atmosphere with his companion… A second hypothesis is that the fat old sun that is setting could also be an evocation of youth and a carefree existence, both of which have now gone forever—in short, the end of an era. Hence the bells that can be heard in the distance, symbolizing the inexorable passage of time…" _{Pink Floyd All The Songs - Jean-Michel Guesdon} [Royal Albert Hall Performance 2006](https://hooktube.com/watch?v=DUQjBxGgWx0).