Author Topic: Emerson Lake & Palmer Discography  (Read 46539 times)

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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Tarkus (1971)
« Reply #105 on: February 02, 2013, 08:39:15 AM »


I am reminded-holy shit here comes a Jaq story from the 80s song thread in a discography thread-of when the girl I lost my virginity to got her first car. She worked long and hard coming up with a license plate for it, and finally settled on OYOYOY. She was going for "Oh why oh why oh why" but endlessly had to field the question "why does your license plate say "Oi Oi Oi?" And endless peals of laughter from me when we'd go anywhere and AC/DC's TNT would come on the radio.

Beautiful girl. Best legs I've ever seen. Oh, oh so very dumb.

Awesome. :coolio

As for Pictures at an Exhibition, I somehow have never heard this whole album. ???  I guess I was always so keen on the 14-minute excerpt that they put on The Atlantic Years compilation that I was happy with that and never bothered getting around to the whole album.  The fact that it was a live album is probably why I never bothered.

Offline Orbert

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)
« Reply #106 on: February 02, 2013, 09:15:15 AM »
The excerpt is good, but you do need to hear the whole thing.  It is amazing.

Offline Pols Voice

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)
« Reply #107 on: February 02, 2013, 12:42:51 PM »
Really good album. I was already a little familiar with Mussorgsky's original piece when I first heard this (I owned it but didn't listen to it much). The band did a good job reworking it into a rock context. I particularly like The Gnome.
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Offline Big Hath

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)
« Reply #108 on: February 02, 2013, 07:01:39 PM »
To be honest, I've never listened to this version of Pictures.  That being said, I would be interested in listening to their version of "The Great Gate of Kiev", although I find it hard to imagine they would be able to capture/reproduce the majesty of the brass playing the triumphant reprise of the main theme near the end.  Goodness, that section gives me goose bumps every time.
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Offline Perpetual Change

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)
« Reply #109 on: February 02, 2013, 07:48:29 PM »
This album is good, but I don't listen to it much,  even though I have it oin both vinyl and CD. The Fritz Reiner orchestrated version is just too good, so that's my Pictures go-to.

Offline The Letter M

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)
« Reply #110 on: February 02, 2013, 08:36:03 PM »
Just gave this album a spin and I have to say - it's a LOT better than I originally recall it being! I actually really enjoyed the whole thing, and there's some great playing from all 3 members. Even though it IS a live album, the fact that the music wasn't released prior gives it a sense of new-ness, something some live albums don't really have, especially if it's just studio-songs replicated in front of a live audience.

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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)
« Reply #111 on: February 02, 2013, 11:07:52 PM »
The excerpt is good, but you do need to hear the whole thing.  It is amazing.

I listened to it earlier on youtube; definitely pretty sweet.  But I still think that excerpt I have does a good job of narrowing it down to all of the best parts. :shrug

It did, however, remind me of what an underrated bass player Greg Lake was.  He sometimes get lost in the mix, what with Emerson and Palmer both having been so awesome in their heyday, but some of Lake's playing in that tune is flat-out sick. :hefdaddy :hefdaddy

Offline Orbert

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)
« Reply #112 on: February 05, 2013, 11:17:38 AM »
MusicRadar has a new interview with legendary Engineer/Producer Eddie Offord (Yes, ELP, etc.)

He talks about Emerson Lake & Palmer:

“I had a lot of fun with those guys. They were always up to no good, playing pranks and horsing around. Musically, they fit together very well. They were three dynamic and very different personalities. I don’t remember any tensions between them. Whatever problems they had came later in the decade, after I stopped working with them.

Keith Emerson is probably the most technically brilliant pianist in rock ‘n’ roll. I remember doing a song with him called Jeremy Bender [from Tarkus], and he wanted to get a honky tonk sound. There was a Steinway in Advision, and he triple-tracked his part. I slowed the tape down to get that slightly out-of-tune effect, and when I played everything back, it sounded like one guy playing one piano. That’s how spot-on his playing was – every note synced up.

“His organ sounds – my gosh! He’d come to the studio with three or four Leslies and all kinds of Marshall cabinets. He’d take up one entire wall with all of this stuff. It sounded incredible.

“Right around this time, Robert Moog invented the synthesizer. We had one of the first models in the studio. There was a lot of patching involved. At first, I was in charge of programming sounds for Keith. He’d be like, ‘Oh, that sounds good… Oh, I like that.’ Eventually, he perfected it himself and became a real wiz. The first synths weren’t polyphonic; you could only play one note at a time on them. So if you wanted a horn section, you could take up six or eight tracks to get it sounding big. That would be very time-consuming.

“Concepts and structured songs were a little more formed before they got in the studio; they were more together with material than Yes. There was a lot of experimentation with ELP. Songs could change quite a bit sometimes.

“On Tarkus is a song called Are You Ready, Eddy? Normally, before every take, Greg Lake would ask, ‘Are you ready, Eddy?’ And I would say, ‘Yeah, we're rolling.’ What I didn’t know was, they had secretly rehearsed this song, and they went straight into it, just as a joke. Later, they decided to put it on the record.

“There was a very old cockney woman who worked for Advision Studios; she would make sandwiches for us. The band loved to ask her what there was to eat. Her reply was always the same: ‘We've only got 'am or cheese.’ We recorded her and put her on the end of the track.”


Offline Jaq

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)
« Reply #113 on: February 05, 2013, 11:35:37 AM »
That solves the problem of what I'm going to read during lunch :D
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Offline ytserush

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Tarkus (1971)
« Reply #114 on: February 05, 2013, 11:34:01 PM »
I've listened to the Nice, which is why I think anyone making a case for them being the first prog band has a point. People tend to get hung up on defining prog by how it turned out, not by how it came to be, so they like to point at the most recognizable and best known moments. The Nice kicked ass.

They absolutely did. Some of it was even proto-punk in a way. Almost criminal that not many people know that.



Anyhoo, Pictures At An Exhibition never really clicked for me until I got the remaster.  I think it was definately flawed upon its original release, but it's grown on me over the years. The strange part about it is that I like every version of it better than the original release. It just sounds so much better.

Doesn't hurt that Carl Palmer's recent version adds another dimension to it. At least it does for me.

Offline Orbert

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Emerson Lake & Palmer: Trilogy (1972)
« Reply #115 on: February 07, 2013, 08:45:56 PM »
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Trilogy (1972)



The inside gatefold.

The Endless Enigma (Part One)
Fugue
The Endless Enigma (Part Two)
From the Beginning
The Sheriff
Hoedown
Trilogy
Living Sin
Abaddon's Bolero

----------

After a debut album boasting three instrumental tracks out of six, full-blown performances on a pipe organ and the world's first Moog synthesizer solo, a follow-up featuring the (arguably) first sidelong prog epic, and a third album which was a full band treatment of a classical suite, Trilogy was the closest thing to a "normal" album by Emerson Lake & Palmer so far.

Sure, we have the three-part opening suite (the two parts of "The Endless Enigma" linked by the "Fugue"), the nine-minute title track opening what was originally Side Two of the album, and yet another rock treatment of a classical piece ("Hoedown"), but that's pretty tame by ELP standards, and as far as the prog excess goes on this album.  For this reason, Trilogy is often recommended as an ELP starting point for non-proggers, and is often named as a favorite by ELP fans.  Emerson Lake & Palmer were maturing as both songwriters and composers, seeming to "settle" for writing good songs as opposed to trying to show off their chops.  Similarly, the songs feel more like group compositions than three musicians fighting each other for space.

"Fugue" is an actual fugue in the classical sense, and Emerson had to work it out and write it all down in order to play it and record it.  He seemed almost embarassed that he had to do that, pointing out how other guys are "very clever" and can play such things on the fly, but he had to actually practice it.

"From the Beginning" is Lake's acoustic ballad, another hit single at the time and another Classic Rock staple today.  As with "Lucky Man" from the debut, there is both a guitar solo and a Moog solo, although this time they both appear at the end of the song, one after the other.

"The Sheriff" will always feel to me like a sequel to "Jeremy Bender" from Tarkus.  This is because my introduction to ELP was the live album Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show that Never Ends, Ladies and Gentlemen... Emerson Lake & Palmer, on which those two songs are played as a medley.  Actually, they're each played in their entirety, going directly from one to the other, and the transition is so seamless that I honestly never knew where one song ended and the other began until I heard the separate studio versions of the songs.  Anyway, it's another Honky-Tonk adventure.

"Living Sin" is a straight-ahead rocker, ELP style of course, and the only song credited to all three of them.

"Abaddon's Bolero" is an eight-minute instrumental in the Bolero style.  It's a slow-cooker, building by adding parts and variations on a single theme.  Honestly, this is probably my least favorite ELP instrumental.  It's repetitive and just doesn't seem to go anywhere.  I too have classical training in my background, and I've never been a fan of "theme and variations".
« Last Edit: July 12, 2015, 11:11:50 AM by Orbert »

Offline Nel

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Trilogy (1972)
« Reply #116 on: February 07, 2013, 09:15:32 PM »
"From The Beginning" is a song I've always loved. I usually play it along with The Guess Who's "Talisman". Don't really remember the rest of the album though. Been a while since I listened to the whole thing.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Trilogy (1972)
« Reply #117 on: February 07, 2013, 10:39:35 PM »
Few songs have ever destroyed me for several months straight the way Trilogy did the first time I heard it.  I swear, I annoyed the hell out of my family for months by blaring that song to the max in my room. :lol  I still love it to death, and I think it is still the best example of crazy technical keyboard playing still managing to sound melodic and awesome at the same time.  Just an unbelievable song. :hefdaddy :hefdaddy

I am also a huge fan of the Endless Enigma/Fugue/Enigma II suite.  Such awesome vocal melodies, as well as more killer playing by Emerson.

From the Beginning is also a killer tune, and I love Hoedown as well.

The rest of the songs are all pretty good, but don't really stand out.  I agree about Abaddon's Bolero, Orbert.  Nice theme, but it doesn't really go anywhere and comes off as a bit tedious and meandering.

Overall, great record, though.  It was my favorite ELP record at one point, but is now probably my 3rd or 4th favorite (behind the debut, Black Moon and possibly Brain Salad Surgery).

Offline Perpetual Change

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Trilogy (1972)
« Reply #118 on: February 08, 2013, 07:36:26 AM »
Oooh, Trilogy. This is where things really start getting good, IMO. To start, a disclaimer: Whoever remastered this record for CD really did a butchering. I'm listening to it for the first time, and it's compressed out the wazzoo. So much power has been robbed from the original recordings. I'm starting to think that vinyl is definitely the only way to go for ELP.

Anyway, the album: First off, I've always thought the opening tracks were so awesome. I guess through covering Pictures, Emerson realized that a dirty hammond organ was the best bet for getting something close to the power of an entire orchestra, and man does it hit hard: "Your words waste and decay, nothing you say...". I've just always thought that song was so badass, and is aggressive while maintaining the best side of Lake's pretension and sophistication.

"Hoedown" is my favorite of the Copland-riffing stuff ELP did, while "From the Beginning" is IMO the best of the Lake acoustic ballads. "The Sherrif" is better than "Jeremy Bender" because, while they're similar, the latter has lyrics which obviously some kind of inside joke I don't get.

Trilogy speaks for itself, and the Bolero is underated; It starts out weak and uneventful, but it eventually grows into something much more bombastic. If the Endless Enigma stuff opens the album with a knife to the jugular, Bolero closes it with a victorious parade procession out of the arena.

Trilogy is the second best ELP album, and is the first record where I think ELP really get EVERYTHING right.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2013, 07:45:27 AM by Perpetual Change »

Offline Jaq

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Trilogy (1972)
« Reply #119 on: February 08, 2013, 10:36:27 AM »
Trilogy now has the misfortune, with my discovery of Pictures at an Exhibition, of being smack in the middle of a run of epic albums from Tarkus to the live album, and sadly being just...good. My re-listen to it when this thread launched hasn't changed my opinion of it; it's a safe album by ELP's standards. It's still very good, don't get me wrong, but after the epic bombast of Tarkus, the sheer fearlessness of Pictures, and the impending over the top insanity of Brain Salad Surgery, Trilogy comes off as almost sedate by ELP's standards. It is the album where they finally gelled together as a band, and they did take the craft of this album, apply it to the ambition of their work thus far, and end up with Brain Salad Surgery, but it just simply lacks something to me.

I do agree that it's the best album to start off a newcomer to ELP with, though. It has enough of the elements that are recognizably ELP to introduce the band, without overwhelming them with the over the top nature of other ELP albums.
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Offline Orbert

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Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #120 on: February 11, 2013, 11:02:07 PM »
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

----------

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.

----------

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.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2015, 11:17:26 AM by Orbert »

Offline The Letter M

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #121 on: February 11, 2013, 11:16:44 PM »
BSS is definitely my favorite (and I'm sure as well for lots of other fans) ELP album. The epic "Karn Evil 9" is ELP firing on all cylinders. And the other usual elements of ELP are here and at maximum levels - the Lake ballad, the honky tonk piece, the classical cover, and the crazy instrumental. This was everything they had been working up to, refined and polished.

I think if anyone wanted to listen to the pinnacle of ELP, this would be it, and it has been for me ever since I discovered prog rock! Of all their albums, this was my most listened-to and my favorite!

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Offline ytserush

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #122 on: February 12, 2013, 12:24:08 AM »
Damn! I knew I'd be falling behind on this.


I love Trilogy. The Mobile Fidelity CD copy I have sounds better than anything I've heard. 

If you wanted to show someone what Emerson Lake and Palmer is about, you give them this album. It's got footprints in folk, fusion, classical, comedy. It's got it all really and nothing is more than 9 minutes long.

Although I think the perception seems to be that that this is the ugly stepchild of what people call their "classic" period.


While I love the artwork and liners of Brain Salad Surgery, I'm not as into the album as others seem to be.

The major reason for this is that Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends, Ladies and Gentleman...Emerson Lake and Palmer is one of my favorite albums of all time (in spite of its sonic problems) and everything gets measured by this album. The performances on it are much more inspiring to me than on the studio album and I've never been able to get around that.
I just wish it was mastered better.

Side note: The Rhino CD has a lenticular cover that is really cool, but when I want to listen to it I pull out my Sanctuary pressing, which sounds better.



Offline Jaq

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #123 on: February 12, 2013, 01:26:39 AM »
Brain Salad Surgery simply is my favorite progressive rock album EVER. Though I like a lot of prog bands more, Brain Salad Surgery is my favorite for, mostly, Karn Evil 9-the song so long it went across two sides, a thing which is totally lost in today's world where it runs in succession-but because it is the defining example of a progressive rock band aiming for the top and doing it at 110%. It's insanely over the top in every thing from composition to performance to even the packaging. It's three musical egomaniacs standing on top of a mountain proclaiming to the world that they're musical egomaniacs and they don't give a damn what the world thinks, because they're so damn good you'll love the album anyway. And people did. True, a lot of the excesses of ELP didn't do prog any favors in the long run, but on Brain Salad Surgery, their bombastic nature worked perfectly and made my favorite prog album of all time. It's sublime. It's not for everyone-if you like your prog subtle, this ain't for you-but if you like music that doesn't just push the limits, it kicks them in their face and walks by laughing at them, then this album is for you.
The bones of beasts and the bones of kings become dust in the wake of the hymn.
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Offline Perpetual Change

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #124 on: February 12, 2013, 06:55:48 AM »
Yup, this is the best them.

I will try and post more thoughts later.

Enjoy this installment, guys! It's a spiral downward from here. A slow spiral at first, but a spiral nonetheless. And it never really gets good again.

Offline Perpetual Change

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #125 on: February 12, 2013, 06:59:55 AM »
BTW, I have never heard the title track of this album, which apparently didn't make the final cut. Is it any good?

Offline Orbert

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #126 on: February 12, 2013, 07:38:07 AM »
The song "Brain Salad Surgery" ended up on Works, Volume Two.  It's not bad.  Just over three minutes long, with half of that instrumental intro, it's a "regular" ELP song which, come to think of it, is the one thing we don't have on this album.  We have a hymn (which is new ground), the classical cover (which also counts as the instrumental), the Lake ballad, the honky-tonk piece, and the epic.  No regular-length straight-on rocker.  "Living Sin", "Bitches Crystal", and "Knife-Edge" from previous albums all fit that bill.

"Brain Salad Surgery" suffers from the same weakness as a lot of ELP songs, and that's the lyrics.  There aren't a lot, but they pretty much sound like they were written around the title, which IMO isn't the right way to do it.  It was cut, along with the instrumental "When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind, I'll Be Your Valentine", which wins the award for longest title in the ELP catalogue.  It's a catchy little tune, a bit under four minutes, and also ended up on Works, Volume Two.  Keeping those two instead of "Jerusalem" would have resulted in an album more in the ELP formula, but I don't think that that was a consideration.  Brain Salad Surgery, the album, is stronger for having "Jerusalem" as the opener, and also meant breaking new ground yet again.

Offline Perpetual Change

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #127 on: February 12, 2013, 07:52:42 AM »
Yeah, Jerusalem was the perfect way to open the album. As the Karn Evil stuff was the perfect way to end it.

Even though this is my favorite ELP album, the other songs you mentioned are some of my least favorites. The classical song I can't spell that begins with a "T" is impressive, but it leaves me a bit cold. "Still... You Turn Me On" has always done the same, and I don't like it as much as "Lucky Man" or "From the Beginning". As a honky-tonk piece "Benny the Bouncer" is completely offensive to the ears, and genuinely skippable. But for some reason, if I had to take one ELP album, it'd be a VERY close match between this and Trilogy, and this would probably prevail.

Offline Orbert

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #128 on: February 12, 2013, 07:58:47 AM »
I feel pretty much the same way, except that I don't consider "Benny the Bouncer" skippable.  I actually like that one for some reason.  Maybe because I'm a pianist and once tried to learn it (and almost succeeded), or maybe because I got this album very early in my musical career and was able to get into everything about it.  But yeah, "Still... You Turn Me On" is one of my less favorite Lake songs, and "Toccata" (double "c", single "t", the opposite of what spelling rules dictate) is amazing but that's the one I sometimes skip.

And still, "Karn Evil 9" is so awesome that it still pushes the whole album to the top for me.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #129 on: February 12, 2013, 08:43:13 AM »
I have never been overly crazy about the 2nd Impression of Karn Evil 9.  I love both parts of the 1st Impression and the 3rd, but the 2nd is just too wanky for me, I suppose. 

I love both Jerasulem and Still... You Turn Me On. 

Toccata has some cool parts in it, but is not one I've ever revisited a lot. 

Benny the Bouncer.. pass.

Overall, probably my 3rd or 4th favorite ELP record. 

Offline Nel

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #130 on: February 12, 2013, 09:22:01 AM »
I like Jerusalem and the part of Karn Evil 9 that's always played on the radio, but I don't really think much of the rest. Especially the other Impressions from Karn Evil 9. I've never found the rest of that song really fun to listen to.

And I love the album art for this one. It feels like someone holy, with all their sense of calm and serenity, is being locked behind this cold and soulless wall.
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Offline LieLowTheWantedMan

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #131 on: February 12, 2013, 09:25:15 AM »
Toccata is great, y'all are mad.

Offline Unlegit

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #132 on: February 12, 2013, 10:25:44 AM »
Karn Evil 9  :tup

Offline The Letter M

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #133 on: February 12, 2013, 12:00:52 PM »
As a side note, Steven Wilson revealed today in a new interview that Jakko Jakszyk will "take over the ELP remix series". Wilson says: “He’ll do a great job.”

https://www.progrockmag.com/news/steven-wilson-wont-work-on-elp-again/

So it seems we may get Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery Surround Sound Remixes (eventually)!!!

-Marc.
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Offline Perpetual Change

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #134 on: February 12, 2013, 12:04:08 PM »
Nice. Whoever did the last round of remixes really butchered the job IMO.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #135 on: February 12, 2013, 12:45:40 PM »
BTW, since those in this thread are obviously fans of both ELP and DT, do you all hear the ELP influence in the instrumental section of In the Presence of Enemies Part 2?  I always thought the keyboard leads around the 10:30 or so mark were a direct homage to the end of Karn Evil 9?  The way they bounce all around is eerily similar.

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #136 on: February 12, 2013, 12:46:45 PM »
Nice. Whoever did the last round of remixes really butchered the job IMO.

If you mean last year's Emerson Lake & Palmer and Tarkus remasters and 5.1 remixes, Steven Wilson did those.

Offline Perpetual Change

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #137 on: February 12, 2013, 01:18:45 PM »
Nice. Whoever did the last round of remixes really butchered the job IMO.

If you mean last year's Emerson Lake & Palmer and Tarkus remasters and 5.1 remixes, Steven Wilson did those.

No, I haven't heard those, but I'm sure they're good. I have some CDs that were done in 2002 or 2005. Trilogy sounds really compressed and clippy.

BTW, since those in this thread are obviously fans of both ELP and DT, do you all hear the ELP influence in the instrumental section of In the Presence of Enemies Part 2?  I always thought the keyboard leads around the 10:30 or so mark were a direct homage to the end of Karn Evil 9?  The way they bounce all around is eerily similar.

JP always compares DT to Yes, but I think they were always way more like ELP, especially after Jordan joined.

Offline The Letter M

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #138 on: February 12, 2013, 01:27:53 PM »
Nice. Whoever did the last round of remixes really butchered the job IMO.

If you mean last year's Emerson Lake & Palmer and Tarkus remasters and 5.1 remixes, Steven Wilson did those.

No, I haven't heard those, but I'm sure they're good. I have some CDs that were done in 2002 or 2005. Trilogy sounds really compressed and clippy.

BTW, since those in this thread are obviously fans of both ELP and DT, do you all hear the ELP influence in the instrumental section of In the Presence of Enemies Part 2?  I always thought the keyboard leads around the 10:30 or so mark were a direct homage to the end of Karn Evil 9?  The way they bounce all around is eerily similar.

JP always compares DT to Yes, but I think they were always way more like ELP, especially after Jordan joined.

Agreed - I always felt like most of JR's influence, in terms of 70's Prog Keyboard icons, had always been large parts of Wakeman and Emerson, with bits of Banks thrown in, at least, among those three.

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Offline ytserush

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Re: Emerson Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
« Reply #139 on: February 14, 2013, 03:27:08 PM »
Toccata is great, y'all are mad.

So is Jerusalem...Hell so is the rest of the album -- especially live.



I think this thread has inspired me to break out one of the official bootleg boxes this weekend.



As far as bad mixes of Trilogy go, pick up the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs version. You won't complain about the sound after listening to that.

I haven't heard the most recent reissue (2011?), but I can't imagine it sounding better than this.