The Pied Cow at The Gates of Dawn

Three metamorphoses of the spirit have I designated to you: how the spirit became a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child.—Thus spake Zarathustra. 

And at that time he abode in the town which is called The Pied Cow.

pied (adj.)

late 14c., as if it were the past participle of a verb form of Middle English noun pie"magpie" (see pie (n.2)), in reference to the bird's black and white plumage. 

Earliest use is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white. Also in pied piper (1845, in Browning's poem based on the German legend; used allusively by 1939).

The original album cover, designed by art collective Hipgnosis, shows a Holstein-Friesian cow standing in a pasturewith no text nor any other clue as to what might be on the record.3033Some later editions have the title and artist name added to the cover. This concept was the group’s reaction to the psychedelic space rock imagery associated with Pink Floyd at the time of the album’s release; the band wanted to explore all sorts of music without being limited to a particular image or style of performance. They thus requested that their new album had “something plain” on the cover, which ended up being the image of a cow.3033 Storm Thorgerson, inspired by Andy Warhol’s famous “cow wallpaper”, has said that he simply drove out into a rural area near Potters Bar and photographed the first cow he saw.3033 The cow’s owner identified her name as “Lulubelle III”.303334 More cows appear on the back cover, again with no text or titles, and on the inside gatefold. Also, a pink balloon shaped like a cow udder accompanied the album as part of Capitol’s marketing strategy campaign to “break” the band in the US.303335 The liner notes in later CD editions give a recipe for Traditional Bedouin Wedding Feaston a card labelled “Breakfast Tips”.36Looking back on the artwork, Thorgerson remembered: “I think the cow represents, in terms of the Pink Floyd, part of their humour, which I think is often underestimated or just unwritten about.”37

In the mid-1970s, a bootleg containing rare singles and B-sides entitled The Dark Side of the Moo appeared, with a similar cover. Like Atom Heart Mother, the cover had no writing on it, although in this case it was to protect the bootlegger’s anonymity rather than any artistic statement.38 The album cover to The KLF’s concept album Chill Out was also inspired by Atom Heart Mother.39