“Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” by Pink Floyd

There have been some pretty far out explanations offered as to the meaning of Pink Floyd’s “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast”. But lyrically and speaking at least on the surface level, it is one that Pink Floyd apparently made just for kicks.

The primary vocalist is one Alan Styles, who was not an actual member of the band but rather one of the group’s roadies. And by the looks of things one of his specialties was something like preparing breakfast for the crew, as at the heart of the song vocally is him elaborating on preparing such a meal. But in any event in the first verse, if you want to call it that, we are met with what he likes to take in the morning time, which is “scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, toast, coffee, marmalade… porridge [and] cereal”. And the track is also complete with audio samples of him bustin’ it all down.

But “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” is for the most part an instrumental, though split into three distinct sections. And they are titled, successively, “Rise and Shine”, “Sunny Side Up” (as performed by David Gilmour) and “Morning Glory”.

In between the second and third of those, Alan goes about noting that due to having “a terrible back”, being engaged in strenuous work, such as “barrowing”, “hurts” his body. And seemingly relatedly, he also goes about commenting on one of colleagues who handles “all the electrical stuff” for the crew. So evidently, the psychedelic aspect of his piece is meant to be found in the instrumental(s) as opposed to what Styles is saying, which overall can be deemed pretty plain.

Quick Facts about “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast”

This track was released on 2 October 1970 as part of “Atom Heart Mother”, Pink Floyd’s first LP to top the band’s native UK Albums Chart. The entire project, including “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” was put out via Harvest Records.

Nick Mason, Pink Floyd’s drummer, served as the primary writer of his piece. But his bandmates David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Richard Wright (1943-2008) are likewise credited with authoring the song. And they also produced it, as a unit, with Norman Smith (1923-2008).

This track is 13 minutes long and the lengthiest to be found on “Atom Mother Heart”.

Alan Styles is in fact late, having passed away somewhere in 2011.