We will play what we want, when we want, anyway we want.' That sums up (Keith) Emerson, (Greg) Lake, and (Carl) Palmer, and the culture that spawned them. When ELP played live, Dave Brubeck rubbed shoulders with the Who, and Ginestera rubbed shoulders with Deep Purple.
One English dictionary defines progressive as ‘making use of, or interested in, new ideas, findings, or opportunities’. It goes on to define progressive rock as ‘a type of rock music that is characterised by extended, sometimes experimental instrumentals usually featuring keyboard instruments, and often showing classical influences’. A perfect definition of ELP.
The band already had a pedigree of innovation and experimentation before they formed. Keyboard Keith Emerson brought his love of controversial jazz and classical inspired rock pieces with him from the Nice. Singer, guitarist, and bass player Greg Lake brought experimental twentieth schizoid angst with him from King Crimson. Drummer Carl Palmer had soaked up the showmanship of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. They pushed their musicality to its limits and beyond, and regularly appeared at the top of their own categoies in music awards. Even though there were only three people on the stage, the stage was full. Greg Lake often looked dwarfed by Carl Palmer's battery of drums, and Emerson’s bank of keyboards. Emerson pioneered the use of Robert Moog’s synthesisers; Carl Palmer’s kit was one of the earliest to feature electronic drums... Techno-rock.
The weeds in the garden labelled ELP as pretentious because they refused to be imprisoned by the artistic, genre, and technical limitations. This is demonstrated on the first track Jerusalem. ELP break the rules straight away by performing a hymn and making it listenable. The limitations of the three piece are trampled into the ground as the band produce a sound that has a fullness and majesty usually produced by a choir. Carl Palmer’s drums add to the sound, and, they do more than just keep time... they illustrate!
Next, the band tackle a classical piece: Toccata. This is an adaptation of Ginestera’s 1st Piano Concerto. This piece takes both classical music and rock further. ELP remould the concerto, and make it their own. A piano concerto becomes a showpiece for a drummer and the arrangement allows Palmer to stretch himself. One of the hallmarks of progressive rock is that the drummer is allowed to be a total musician; to realise all the artistic possibilities available to him.
Toccata can only be described as avant-garde in some sections. The three-minute pop song is left behind, and the soul is taken to uncomfortable places, well beyond the back beat.
OK. So, we’ve had a hymn, a classical piece, and now we have a rock ballad: Still … You Turn Me On. (Oi! It’s feeling a bit cramped here. What’s this thing with labels. It’s just good music!). Turm Me On starts with vocal over acoustic guitar. It’s a contrast to the previous tracks. The melody develops in a way that gives a sense of expanding space. Imagin e a close-up of Lake singing with a dense forest behind him. The camera gracefully pulls back, then pans upwards. We see the tops of the trees with the sunlight streaming through. Falling leaves dance, and the lyrics describe his confusion. Ballads were always Lake ’s strength.
The band indulge in some black humour on Benny the Bouncer:’ he’d slash your granny’s face given half the chance’. The track is a sharp contrast to the majestic, cerebral, and ethereal atmospheres of the opening tracks. Down to earth - with a bump. Simple bass, guitar, and ragtime piano over which the lyrics tell a story of East End bouncers and dance hall violence. Pete Sinfield (a colleague of Greg Lake’s in King Crimson) tells a tale of one of the true faces of entertainment as Savage Sydney puts a hatchet in Benny’s head, and the ‘terrible sight’ is the people’s delight. Sinfield takes a dig at religious violence, when Benny is made a bouncer at St. Peter’s Gate.
Benny the Bouncer is the pre-shock before the last piece - Karn Evil 9. Sinfield explores the depravity under the beauty further. The tarot card the Devil is explored from all angles: the mundanity of everyday life that traps the human spirit, the degradation behind the lure of glamour, humanity selling out to technology.
The album cover sums up the track. The painting is by H.R. Giger. An artist that would give us the horror of Alien many years later. The band saw it on the wall in Giger’s house in Switzerland, and decided to go for a gatefold sleeve for the album. A beautiful, serene image is covered by an image of decay – the true beauty buried by the decay.
The track uses a classical structure to take us though each facet of the theme. The First Impression – Part 1 opens with an organ riff that immediately reminds you of Bernstein and Copeland. The band are totally at home with the constantly changing rythms and time signatures, while people’s souls are lost to the hustle and bustle of modernity. Keith Emerson gleefully frees his soul with his musical pyrotechnics, and Lake pleads with us ‘to protect what’s left of humanity.’
First Impression – Part 2 is probably the best known track on the album. It has even been used as the theme tune for a British prime time TV show. Quite appropriate as the track describes life as a carnival. But, instead of Grease and candy floss, think of Raymond Bradbury’s ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’. Life as a freak show; a blade of grass becomes a circus oddity.
The band throw all genre limitations out of the window on Second Impression. 'We will play what we want, when we want, anyway we want.' The track starts with Emerson playing jazz on a distorted piano – ragtime on the edge working its way into latin rythms. The mood is frazzled and fraught. The it breaks down. The piano is timid, frightened, then the chords crawl out of the wreckage. It sets up a call and response pattern with bass, calling for help and getting it. The piano grows in confidence. This is almost a ballet. It becomes more strident, finds its legs, and picks up the pace. The downward spiral moves ever upwards, more and more frantic – again. Has any lesson been learned?
The conclusion – the Third Impression. The ghost has become encased in the silicon machine. Carbon trapped in silicon. The alienation from humanity. The antithesis of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. On this track the human race has become too big for its boots, and implodes. Destroyed in its quest for perfection by its own imperfection. Tripped up. We end with a machine going out of control.
In a time in which musicians indulge in musical limitations Emerson, Lake, and Palmer show it up for the pretence that it is. As Greg Lake himself said ELP tried to break down barriers. We will play what we want, when we want, anyway we want. Free the spirit.
