EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER
Back to the main page

Comment using:
[email protected]
(Specify what name or how much of it you want to see appear, specify what you are commenting about)


Albums reviewed:
1970 – Emerson Lake and Palmer (9)
1971 - Tarkus (6-)
1972 - Pictures at an Exhibition (GAP)
1972 - Trilogy (7)
1973 - Brain Salad Surgery (9-)

The Nice, Atomic Rooster and King Crimson all putrefied to the point of losing a limb. This mass of decaying limbs were dumped in the same hole, decomposed underground, and eventually, an evil hand came out of the soil (a bit like Shredder in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, yeah this image struck me) and the mutant result was born. Emerson Lake and Palmer, the super-meta-group. They're out there to blow your brains out!

But even the most brain-blower creatures must be young and innocent at some point, and ELP are exactly that on their first self-titled album. Even the pretentious bits seem to have been done very honestly. They decide to start "lightly" with a rock arrangement of Bartok's barbarian piece. And it rocks. Just listen to how TIGHT this album is; from the start, you know. Listen to those machine-gun-rapid-yet-subtle drum sounds at the back, and how evil this mixture of keyboard and bass guitar is! The Barbarian is a rather impressive way to start a career! But you will not understand what I mean by "innocence" until you hear Take a Pebble. In the end, it is a very quiet track, it is like being on the side of a lake at dusk and throwing rocks in the water once in a while. Greg Lake consolidates his spot as one of the best singers of rock music. Just listen to the "disturbing the waters, of our lives!" line. In the right mood, it is shiver inducing. So yes, ELP can provide a real emotion once in a while. Not just "woah cool dude" reactions. And the middle section of Take a Pebble is so gorgeous, with quiet acoustic guitar, people having fun and clapping hands, then, gorgeous piano... And as all tracks of this kind that respect themselves, it comes back with the wonderful lyrics and Greg's angelic voice. Yup, it's one of ELP's best moments. And with the first two tracks, you know what ELP could have been, before they transformed into this monster. I am always mesmerized by the subtlety of the melodies, and the superb drum touch of Carl Palmer. The rest of the tracks keep a pretty good quality. It seems the songs on this album breath much better than songs on any of their other albums. They don't seem to be choking with too much sound, too much keyboards. There is place for you to breath in all the the pieces, and even when it gets noisy, it appears to me that Palmer's drums free some space. I even think his drum solo on Tank is fun to listen to; it is very constant and fiery. People attack The Three Fates all the time for being so pompous and vomit-inducing because of the overbearing keyboards and self-admiring piano. Admittedly, the first organ part is a bit too much, but the piano sections and odd synth parts that follow are either really beautiful or very exciting! The weird "synthesizer" sounds on this album are great! The tones are different from what was to come somehow, they sound fresh... And the beautiful acoustic guitar hit ballad Lucky Man closes the album perfectly. It concludes very well because it reeks innocence, yet has odd keyboards sounds here and there, telling you exactly what this album was about. It is a wonderful soothing song. I do not think ELP ever made a better album. I cannot explain totally what makes 'Emerson Lake and Palmer' much better than say, 'Tarkus', but it has to do with the tightness, the space between the sounds, the innocence, your capacity to breath and enjoy the lakeshore.

Simon Lac, July 24th 2005

 

Somehow, for me, the arrangements on 'Tarkus' are much less tight. And we all know that if ELP are not tight, there isn't much left going for them. Think about it though, when you are listening to 'Tarkus', once you have explored an oddly tropical savannah while being followed by the famous armadillo tank (which should happen when you listen to the title track), what is next? Yes, Tarkus is a wicked track. Emerson's keyboards explode, the bass lines add thunder to all the geeky sections, Palmer slams your face, armadillos fight giant flying dinosaurs, alright! All of this seems to be happening on a big plain, and there is a volcano in the background there, it's pretty neat. Rating this as the best 15+ minutes prog rock epic? Nope my friend, you are sticking your finger in your own eye up to the elbow (that is a Québec expression meaning that you are just wrong). It is a good track though. It doesn't do much emotionally for me, it's just neat as hell (because we all know hell is NEAT). Of course, people who are emotionally touched by ELP should get out more. However, I can still hope to get a little uplifting feeling somewhere? It doesn't really achieve that. But anyhow, as I was saying, what is left from there? A totally forgettable second side. Those must be the most underwhelming tracks of the classic ELP era. They start the "let's lighten things up with a throwaway" thing with Jeremy Bender, a track that is nice and fun, but still remains that throwaway. Of course, do I even need to mention the "Why did he lose six million jews?" line in track number four? I hated that line from the moment I first heard it. Hey, I am a francophone, the first time I listen to an album, I rarely pay attention to the lyrics, but this struck me on my first listen, without having read about it beforehand. So, it MUST be totally stupid. And the music on The Only Way and Infinite Space is rather dull by ELP standards. They are like long complains of church organ that aren't even flashy. I only like that "shuffling" piano part in The Only Way slightly. And Are You Ready Eddy? is a second throwaway, and it blows. Who needs two of those on an album? Lake sings "vibe me Eddy! vibe me all night long!" "when you're vibing me Eddy! Nothing can go wrong!", non-stop at the end. I always hear the word "fuck" instead of "vibe". I'm sorry, but that's true. Yes so you get it, totally forgettable second half. I still don't understand how people can rate 'Tarkus' as the best ELP album. No way. The feeling I get from it is a great godzilla trip followed by an underwhelming ending. Stop after Tarkus.

Simon Lac, July 24th 2005

 

1972
Pictures at an Exhibition - GAP
A live onslaught of Mussorgsky's classic. Don't have it yet.

At least, the band gets slightly consistant. I don't know about 'Pictures at an Exhibition' yet, but I know that the year before, in 1971, they released this scarily uneven 'Tarkus'. The album has many songs, and they're almost all better than anything off 'Tarkus'' second side. I chose Trilogy as the best track. It has a nice and soft intro with piano and Lake's singing... I would have chosen Hoedown if it wasn't for this mighty freaked out part in the middle of Trilogy which makes it rule quite a lot. It's very percussive and the synth sounds of Emerson are very spacy but aggressive. The beat is weird... I always loved it back in the days when all I had from ELP was a compilation. Even on that one, Hoedown and Trilogy were highlights. Oh yeah, Hoedown is great too of course, it is like a... hoedown... but when I was a kid I used to think it was inspired by eastern music, which it isn't really... Emerson is on fire in that one (what a lame phrase). Sadly, there's this horrible, amelodical Living Sin, where Lake uses a down the throat pervert voice to create one of the band's worse mess. Well, yes, the album is quite consistantly fun to listen to. Nothing flabbergasting, just enjoyable. Pieces like Endless Enigma and Abaddon's Bolero sound nice, they're just long Emerson compositions that are not too complicated compared to stuff like The Three Fates, and they are much better than their sister tracks on 'Tarkus', yet, they don't leave much impression. Has anyone here ever played SEGA GENESIS' version of the game Shining Force 2? I don't know why, but Abaddon's Bolero takes me back to that game. Oh yes, and listen to From the Beginning, it is the mandatory "Greg Lake ballad" of the album (just like The Sheriff is the mandatory "let's pretend we have fun" track, not impressed really). Doesn't it make you sad that they didn't put more emphasis on simple compositons like that? From the Beginning, Lucky Man and later tracks on the 'Works' albums were often highlights. There's not much else to add really. The problem is not in the atmosphere. No, it does take me to a late evening somewhere in the east of the Rockies, except, there's not much happening there. It's like saying "okay I'm going to the desert!" to all your friends, and reality you just sit in a Albuquerque suburb all day long. Yeah, that's about it. It can be fun though. Hmm, is I know Albuquerque is in New Mexico, but is it really in a desert looking place? I'm not sure I care though.

Simon Lac, September 10th 2005

 

The culmination of pretentious sprawl. But considering pretentious sprawl was all ELP were about past their first album, this has to be their culmination as sprawlers. They pull it off mostly throughout the album. 'Brain Salad Surgery' as you probably all know, consists of a small selection of short songs (most of which rule mercilessly), followed by the giant half-hour Karn Evil 9 sprawl (it took me a while to get the 'carnival' pun... Yeah, I'm that good). Some of the finest technology available to the band was used on the album, and it is highly "produced" indeed. The synthesizer sounds seem to come from space and are all breezy/whirry, and Palmer's drum sounds are odd too, often passing through some encoder of some sort; just listen to that crazy (but surprisingly entertaining) drum solo in Emerson's mad thunderous take on Ginastera's Toccata. The drums in that one almost produce music and sound like a UFO's gear system or something of the kind. Same weirdness in Palmer's drums appears in 2nd Impression of KE9. So... Karn Evil 9 is about the very original topic of man against machine. It half works of course, certainly helped by the aforementioned synth tones. It also has the potential to be quite geeky, hell, it IS geeky, and the sounds coming out of your speaker won't help warding off the feeling. I mean, the computer encoded voice saying in a robotic way "LOAD YOUR PROGRAM - I AM YOURSELF" and at the end "I AM PERFECT, ARE YOU?". That's maybe a bit too much. What I am sure is too much is 30 minutes of that song. The 1st Impression Part 1 is entertaining because of the beat and the famous "show that never ends" line, but the second part is kind of useless, and the other impressions are exhibits in time signatures and synthesizer production. Not as bad as it could have been, just a bit long and partly pointless.

Now the first few tracks though, that's another story. They pack the punch. Jerusalem is usually despised for some "pretence" reason (how original). Weird, it's sort of poppish in my head. It's a great rendition. I have to say that I always was a fan of Jerusalem (all versions) anyway, despite the stupid British Christian white trash lyrics. As Greg Lake said himself, everything comes in the "Bring me my bow of burning gold! Bring me my arrows of desire!". True! And they arranged the song so that it highlights this particular part, and it's awesome, just listen to that steady beat coming in and all. Woh! And the last line of the chorus is always beautiful, as in all versions. No, what a rocking version of a beautiful melody! Best song here without a doubt. Play it LOUD; maybe then I won't be alone to get it! Last mention to Lake's usual beautiful ballad Still... You Turn Me On. I like this one a lot because it adapts to the weird tone of the album.

'Brain Salad Surgery' does feel like space quite a lot, and consequently manages to do something more than most other ELP albums I have. It IS one of the band's better albums: enough with the negative revisionism already! Oh and... I think I should use the word "sprawl" once more; I hadn't used it enough yet. So, SPRAWL.

Simon Lac, September 19th 2005