Emerson, Lake & Palmer — Brain Salad Surgery

★★★

   The legendary supergroup of progressive rock, Emerson, Lake and Palmer was formed in 1970 by pianist and organist Keith Emerson who was known before as a member of progressive band The Nice, Greg Lake, singer and bassist of King Crimson and Carl Palmer, drummer of Atomic Rooster. Trio achieved instant success, in Isle of Wight Festival in August and with their debut album Emerson, Lake & Palmer released in November 1970. Next four albums established their position as legendary band of progressive rock: Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition in 1971, Trilogy in 1972 and Brain Salad Surgery in 1973. Especially Brain Salad Surgery was a kind of recapitulation of first chapter in the history of the band. Next albums were released after three and half year period – 2LP Works Volume 1 and Works Volume 2 did not occurred to be the next success and bright ELP fame became fading. 

   Characteristic decision is lack of title composition Brain Salad Surgery, which was recorded but not included into the program. It was published with two other songs recorded in 1973 on Works Volume 2, and as other songs of 1977 gone generally unnoticed. Program opens with Jerusalem song. It is modified version of popular hymn written by Hubert Parry (1848-1918) to William Blake’s poem And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time. Using this anthem as an opening of modern, progressive album was clear and strong statement. The idea of England as Jerusalem build among dark Satanic Mills is strong vision that makes Parry’s song most popular patriotic song and unofficial national anthem. In version modified by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, this song was published as a single to express band’s open affection to England but BBC banned this version. In fact BBC leading personalities John Peel was against ELP from the very beginning, after Isle of Wight performance he said this was “waste of talent and electricity”. Musicians were disappointed with the decision which was probably result of massive use of Moog Apollo, the first-ever polyphonic synthesizer and electronic sound effects.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer • Brain Salad Surgery (1973)

   After this hymnal, sublime entrance, Toccata by Alberto Ginastera, arranged by Keith Emerson shows opposite face of the band, virtuoso, creative and competitive. Its intensive motoric rhythm with irregular accents, already known from Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition, was the hallmark of trio music. Here Keith Emerson shows his huge potential as virtuoso of electronic keyboard. Typical element in Emerson, Lake & Palmer albums was the opposition of ballades. Such position in program of Brain Salad Surgery takes Greg Lake’s lyric song Still...You Turn Me On with nice contrasting electronic inserts. This composition in pure style of progrock is overcome with Benny the Bouncer sounding like a glam rock parody with a saloon style piano. But in 1973, in context of the whole genre this was just one more view into the futuristic sound possibilities and progressive arrangements promising new level of musical creativity. This context was reinforced by the album artwork created by H. R. Giger.
   The program is closed by Karn Evil 9, almost half hour long, extended work of three polystylistic impressions and longest studio composition of the band.  It is placed on big part of first side and whole second side. First impression is divided on two sides of vinyl record. Starting with blues phrase, it shortly takes position of hard rock expression with changes of tempo, meter and syncopations. Every previous album of ELP gave new evidence every musician of the trio was musical erudite. Keith Emerson was the leader on this field. Here band is balancing all the styles used by progressive rock bands, even jazz. In climax of Emerson’s piano improvisation one can hear St. Thomas theme by Sonny Rollins played with clearly jazzy feeling. Words were written by Greg Lake with support of Peter Sinfield, poet known for his contribution in In the Court of the Crimson King and member of King Crimson band. Electronically processed Keith Emerson’s voice was used in the end of third Impression. In effect of ambitious idea and consequent work, Karn Evil 9 was not only massive, but spread to cover widely developed progressive rock.

King Crimson – In the Wake of Poseidon

   Shortly after their 1969 debut, in January 1970 at the very same Wessex Sound Studios in London where they made up their first, King Crimson started recording sessions for the second album. It took nearly four months in studio and in May 15th, 1970 new album was released by Island label in UK and Atlantic in US. This was quite tough moment for the band. There were different  and contradictory tendencies among musicians. After only one year the band became unstable and begin constantly rebuilding its line-up with frequent broke-ups. The situation lasts from the December 1969, when Ian McDonald and Michael Giles left the band to the middle of 1971. But since later line-ups were changing rapidly and musicians were playing in different configurations, you can tell this is constant problem with this band. But even taking into account artistic disagreements, in Spring 1970 there was still great atmosphere for experimenting with rock and crossing it virtually with every genre.
   On second album, called In the Wake of Poseidon basic line-up of the band has been reduced to Robert Fripp playing guitar, mellotron & devices, lyricist Peter Sinfield, singer Greg Lake and drummer Michael Giles who appeared only on studio recordings. Greg Lake was at the moment involving in Keith Emerson’s new project which has to be Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Robert Fripp invited to the studio friends he recorded and played before, Mel Collins playing saxophones and flute, bassist Peter Giles, pianist Keith Tippett and Gordon Haskell singing in Cadence and Cascade. Also these musicians were presenting various aspirations. Brothers Giles were open for Fripp’s ideas, but didn’t ready for touring, Keith Tippett was jazz musician and composer on his own and Gordon Haskell, who was Robert Fripp’s friend but wasn’t convinced of his ideas. Mel Collins occurred to be important member of the band with strong influence on directions of the band’s progress.

King Crimson – In the Wake of Poseidon (1970)

   Cover of second King Crimson’s album is displaying 1967 painting by Tammo De Jongh called The 12 Archetypes or The 12 Faces of Humankind. Psychedelic, dark and mysterious visions in Sinfield’s lyrics, music build on obsessive repetitions, citations and sound of the band. In The Devil’s Triangle dominate citations of Mars: Bringer of War from suite The Planets by Gustav Holst. This setting was played during band’s concerts in 1969 under title Mars, but in time of editing the album this title was forbidden by the legal estate of the composer. Construction of the album has a concentric pattern. The axis is Fripp’s theme Peace in vocal version in the opening, solo guitar theme in the center episode and vocal in the ending one. Just like in first album different trends are reflected in varying compositions. Second album designates the moment when Robert Fripp started to serve as the leader of the band. His ideas, not always shared by musicians of the band, but consequently realized became gradually main force of the band. This great musician and creative artist was naturally predisposed for this role. Of course, it is easier to talk about some processes from the perspective of next decades, but it is still an adventure giving you experience and helping to understand cultural mechanisms.
   Criticism against King Crimson’s second album refers usually to some repetitions of formal concepts used on previous one. It’s a strange attitude considering most of rock bands used the same concepts again and again to complete exhaustion. The fact is In the Wake of Poseidon is less radical, it sounds less chaotic and brings lots of new ideas in sound and construction. Actually this works can be seen as searching for relative stability while In the Court of the Crimson King was revolutionary piece of art. But demanding a next revolution, as some critics did only few months after the first, looks ridiculous. Compositions included on the second album of King Crimson are more compact and consequent than those known from In the Court of the Crimson King. It is also better edited in an artistic and technical meaning, with more proportional dynamics, more balance between discipline and chaos. This makes Peter Sinfield’s poetry sounds mysterious and yet more justified. And it’s a good idea to listen both even if the goal would be to track similarities between these two.

King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King

   King Crimson is the group occupying very special place in the history of 20th century music. Just like Frank Zappa in US, who transformed rhythm and blues elements not only in rock, but into highly independent artistic creation, King Crimson created music out of elements some critics were able to reference only as the rock genre. This was a consequence and some kind of schematic thinking. Trying to advocate for such position, many used term “progressive rock” as the term defining every kind of creative music crossing the boundaries of rock style and its social function. The term “progressive” has also a deeper meaning. Rock music has always been medium for rebellion, first moral, than social and political. In late sixties rock music became a revolt against current ideology and esthetics. The whole wave of experimenting rock brought dozens of groups and the one of the best was King Crimson.
   Debut of King Crimson became groundbreaking event and almost instant success. This was the fruit of the year of 1969. Formed in the end of 1968, group started rehearsals in January and gave first public concert April 9th, 1969. The great entrance turns out to be the memorable concert July 5th in Hyde Park. This was festival where King Crimson had the chance to play for 500 thousands listeners as second band in the gig after Screw but before Alexis Korner, Roy Harper, Battered Ornaments, Family, The Ear Band and biggest stars of the evening Rolling Stones. King Crimson played seven songs in its first lineup – Robert Fripp, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald and Michael Giles. These musicians recorded also the first album of the band. Recorded in span of one month, July 21st to August 21st, and released October 10th this debut recording of King Crimson became instant success and probably most influential progressive rock  album.

King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

   It is always worth asking, what gave the record such powerful position, especially when it is widely recognized as a milestone. In the Court of the Crimson King was concept album integrating music, poetry and cover design. Poetic layer of King Crimson compositions was integrated with the music so in the credits author of the lyrics was mentioned along with musicians. According first edition cover’s information the band's musicians were: Robert Fripp (guitar), Ian McDonald (reeds, woodwind, vibes, keyboards, mellotron, vocals), Greg Lake (bass guitar, lead vocals), Michael Giles (drums, percussion, vocal) and Peter Sinfield (words and illumination). It is reasonable to take into account one more person and expand this line-up by Barry Godber, the author of cover paintings, what has been done in later re-editions and publications. The paintings were the only known works of Barry Godber who died three months after album has been released. This cover gave the record strong outfit and became clear signal to buyers that this is not yet another set of hit songs.
   The force of expression and contrasts between extremely different fragments may be the most characteristic feature that distinct music of King Crimson and other progressive bands of the era. Most of material was composed as collective band’s creation. Only two of five compositions are composed in traditional rock song form. But even these two sound like breaking a taboo. Distorted voice in 21st Century Schizoid Man and symphonic pathos of Epitaph are clear indications of what the artists’ ambitions want to aim. Ballad I Talk to the Wind was extended by flute solo. Arrangements of wind instruments were more jazz than rock type. More comprehensive from formal point of view were multipart compositions on B-Side, Moonchild and The Court of the Crimson King. Partly improvised and thus connected to some jazz concepts, experimenting with space and time, opening for many directions, compositions from first album show many possible directions confusing some reviewers. Comparing to compositions played this time by the group it is clear this was the mild selection. But still the music of King Crimson was hard to define with any conceptual apparatus rock critics were able to use. Fortunately listeners have enough intuition to avoid misunderstandings.