Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)The cover, including the now-famous ELP logo, was designed by H. R. Giger, whose "biomechanical" style of art is best known in his design for the creature from the "Alien" movies, often referred to simply as "the alien".
The original vinyl LP package opened in the middle, revealing a woman's face (based on Giger's wife at the time).
The back cover was just the album title, but distributors and record stores often mistook it for the front cover. Usually, the stickers with things like
Including "Still... You Turn Me On" ended up on this side. But this is definitely the back, as it has the Manticore logo at the bottom. This was the first release on ELP's Manticore label, a subsidiary of Atlantic and named after the mythological creature which ultimately defeated Tarkus.
It was easily their most elaborate album package thus far. The insert contained a six-fold sheet with Emerson, Lake, and Palmer "peeking" through the center hole of the cover device.
Unfolding it revealed full album credits and lyrics, and three 12" photos, each suitable for framing.
Jerusalem
Toccata
Still... You Turn Me On
Benny the Bouncer
Karn Evil 9
1st Impression -- Part 1
1st Impression -- Part 2
2nd Impression
3rd Impression
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70's prog was all about pushing the limits, and
Brain Salad Surgery was all about pushing prog as far as it could go. What is bigger than a side-long epic? An epic which is so long that it doesn't even fit on one side of an LP. The first eight and a half minutes of "Karn Evil 9" were on Side 1 of the album, and the rest was on Side 2. The first CD pressings had the "1st Impression" of "Karn Evil 9" split as on the LP, but later pressings have reunited the two parts.
Often regarded as ELP's pinnacle, this was the album where everything fell into place. Everything you'd come to expect from an ELP album is here and then some. For the first album on their new Manticore label, Emerson Lake & Palmer pulled out all the stops. They wanted to make a statement, a big one, and they did.
"Jerusalem" is a treatment of the veritable English National Hymn (I don't know if it's official, but it might as well be). Surprisingly simple in its arrangement and yet bombastic in its embellishments at the same time, this track was banned by the BBC for its "potential blasphemy". Just as "Lucky Man" from the debut album was the first track to feature a Moog synthesizer, "Jerusalem" was the first to feature the Moog Apollo, the first polyphonic synthesizer. The Apollo was still in its prototype stage, but who better to test it out than Keith Emerson? It must have been handy being a personal friend of Dr. Robert Moog.
"Toccata" is yet another "cover tune", although obviously that's a rather misleading way to describe an ELP instrumental, especially one of their classical adaptations. It's based on the 4th movement of Alberto Ginastera's Piano Concerto Number 1. It features more Moog work from Emerson, and the debut of Carl Palmer's percussion synthesizers. Ginastera's publishing company refused to grant permission for Emerson Lake & Palmer to adapt the piece, so Emerson flew to Geneva to speak with Ginastera himself. After some discussion, and hearing Emerson's arrangement, Ginastera contacted his publishing company and told them to grant whatever permissions were necessary for ELP to record and perform the music. (Note: I hunted down a copy of Alberto Ginastera's Piano Concerto Number 1. As outrageous as ELP's "Tocatta" is, it's amazing how faithful it is to the original piece. If you ever get a chance to hear it, do so, just to compare them.)
"Still... You Turn Me On" is a Greg Lake ballad. Lake's songs had been going through an evolution of their own, incorporating more electric guitar and keyboards, and this one is really a full band arrangement, with the synthesizers and percussion present right from the start. Greg was never (IMO) a gifted lyricist, and this is the song which contains the oft-ridiculed line "Every day a little sadder, a little madder... someone get me a ladder!" ELP, however, were never ones to shy away from the outrageous. The forthcoming tour for
Brain Salad Surgery was dubbed the "Someone Get Me a Ladder" tour.
"Benny the Bouncer" is the honky-tonk number. It tells the story of the bouncer of a seedy bar who finally meets his match. The classic tragedy, with one's hubris as his downfall. The lyrics were provided by Pete Sinfield, brought on board by Greg Lake, with whom he'd worked in King Crimson.
"Karn Evil 9", which fills out the rest of Side 1 and all of Side 2, also features lyrics by Pete Sinfield. Emerson had originally written a 20-minute instrumental called "Whip Some Skull on Yer" (British slang for fellatio, as is "Brain Salad Surgery"), but by the time Sinfield's lyrics were incorporated, the piece had grown to nearly 30 minutes and was a science fiction epic. Sinfield pointed out that musically, it sounded like a carnival, and suggested the title "Karn Evil 9". The "9" was just a number added to complete the rhythm of the title.
The 1st Impression tells of a dark future where people are oppressed and everyone is sufferring. Into this bleak landscape arrives a very strange carnival, featuring amazing, bizarre exhibits ("rows of bishop's heads in jars" and "seven virgins and a mule"). "Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression" is split about two-thirds of the way through, fading out to return on Side 2.
The closing third clocks in at 4:45, making it a suitable length for playing on Classic Rock stations, which it does from time to time. (I always found that rather odd, since it includes reprises of both the guitar solo melody and the "carnival" synthesizer theme, so musically it feels like the conclusion of a longer piece of music, which it is, and not a standalone piece. But that's only because I was familiar with the live version first. On the live version, they play it straight through, uninterrupted.)
After the mindblast of the 1st Impression, the 2nd Impression is instrumental and nearly all acoustic. It starts with a jazz trio (piano, bass, drums) and leads into a brief synth solo (probably keyboard, but possibly percussion) playing a steel drum patch, then goes into a very quiet section, again with the trio. Things slowly build back up, and eventually the jazz trio theme returns to finish the tune.
The 3rd Impression is the great space battle (remember that this is a sci-fi epic) with musical and lyrical imagery comparing it to a noble war fought by men in shining armor, wielding swords, fighting for the honor of their king. In this futuristic battle, however, wars are fought by space ships controlled by computers. Even after winning the war, the storyteller, commanding one of the ships, gets into an argument with the ship's computer. And since this is a 1970's dystopian saga, the ending is not really surprising.
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Brain Salad Surgery is Emerson Lake & Palmer at their most outrageous. Everything on this album is pushed to eleven. The music, the arrangements, the lyrics, the packaging, and the cover art itself. The title is a reference to fellatio; the woman in the interior painting originally had a phallus before her, but Atlantic objected and it had to be airbrushed out. ELP had their own label, but not full autonomy, it would seem. The synthesizers were nearly non-stop. Not one, but two controversial pieces on the album.
It's my favorite ELP studio album. I've spoken to people who don't like ELP, or who like ELP but not this album, and the reasons are similar. It's so over-the-top. They're raving egomaniacs, all three of them, and it comes through in their music. True. I thought that was the whole idea.