Emerson, Lake & Palmer (album)

Last updated

Emerson, Lake & Palmer
ELP-ELP.jpg
Studio album by
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Released20 November 1970
RecordedJuly–September 1970
Studio Advision, London
Genre
Length41:13
Label Island
Producer Greg Lake
Emerson, Lake & Palmer chronology
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
(1970)		 Tarkus
(1971)
Singles from Emerson, Lake & Palmer
  1. "Lucky Man"/"Knife-Edge"
    Released: December 1970 [1]

Emerson, Lake & Palmer is the debut studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It was released in the United Kingdom by Island Records in November 1970, and in the United States by Cotillion Records in January 1971. After the group formed in the spring of 1970, they entered rehearsals and prepared material for an album which became a mix of original songs and rock arrangements of classical music. The album was recorded at Advision Studios in July 1970, when the band had yet to perform live. Lead vocalist and bassist/guitarist Greg Lake produced it.

Contents

Upon release, the album went to No. 4 in the UK and No. 18 in the US. [2] [3] Lake's song "Lucky Man" was released as a single in 1970 and helped the group achieve radio airplay; it peaked at No. 48 in the US. After a warm-up gig in Plymouth, the band performed songs from the album at their next, a spot at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival which propelled them to widespread fame. In 2012, Steven Wilson prepared a special edition that features a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes, plus bonus material.

Songs

Side one

"The Barbarian" is an arrangement of Béla Bartók's 1911 piano piece Allegro Barbaro , but original early pressings of the album credit the track to the group. [4] [5] Bartók's widow contacted the band shortly after the album's release to request that the credit be corrected. [6]

"Take a Pebble" was penned by Lake, with the primary sections being a jazz keyboard arrangement by Emerson, and the middle section being a folk guitar work by Lake with water-like percussion effects from Palmer, plus bits of clapping and whistling.

"Knife-Edge" is based on the first movement of Leoš Janáček's orchestral piece Sinfonietta (1926), [5] with an instrumental middle section that includes an extended quotation from the Allemande of Johann Sebastian Bach's first French Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812, but played on an organ rather than a clavichord or piano. Lake provided the lyrics, with assistance from Richard Fraser, a member of the group's road crew.

Side two

"The Three Fates" is a three-part "pseudo suite", [4] written and predominantly performed by Emerson. Each section is named after the three sisters of Greek mythology known as the Three Fates, or Moirai: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. The "Clotho" movement was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London, with Emerson playing the venue's pipe organ. "Lachesis" is a short piano piece that features baroque and jazz influences, ending in grand, sweeping arpeggios. "Atropos" sees Emerson play a piano vamp in 7/8 with percussion accompaniment from Palmer. [7] An improvisational section is played on top, which transforms into a polymetrically played repeated sequence in 4/4 time. The resonance of the final chords is curtailed by the sound of explosions.

Palmer's solo spot "Tank" was composed with Emerson. The first section features Emerson on clavinet and piano, Lake on bass and Palmer on drums. The middle section is a drum solo. The final section features Emerson on clavinet and Moog synthesizer.

"Lucky Man" is a song written by Lake on the acoustic guitar when he was 12. It features an improvised Moog synthesizer solo by Emerson at the end, liberally using portamento. [8] [9] [10] A 5.1 surround sound mix of the song was released on a 2000 reissue of Brain Salad Surgery .

Artwork

The album's cover is a painting by British artist Nic Dartnell. Although it has been said to be originally intended for the American group Spirit, and that the bald-headed man on the left of the cover is Spirit's drummer, Ed Cassidy, the artist denied this in an interview with Mike Goldstein of RockPoP:

"I'd like to take a moment and dispel a rumor that, according to Wikipedia, the image is somehow linked to the LA band Spirit. The fact is that, at the time I painted the ELP 'Bird', I also painted a portrait of Spirit which I sent to them in LA. A very similar bird was featured in the corner of that painting. I got a message from Spirit to say that if they had received their painting in time they would have put it on the back of Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus . I became friendly with Randy California over the years and I took the photograph that is on his 1982 12" EP All Along the Watchtower. The bald image in "Bird" has no connection to Ed Cassidy of Spirit and doesn't look anything like him. Ed still has the Spirit portrait – so I'm told."

— Nic Dartnell, [11]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [12]
Christgau's Record Guide C [13]
Rolling Stone (favorable) [14]
Classic Rock RevisitedA [15]
The Daily VaultA− [16]
Sound & Vision Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [17]

The album was initially released to highly positive reviews in influential publications like New Musical Express and Rolling Stone , the latter raving "this is such a good album it is best heard as a whole". One notable exception was Robert Christgau, who disdained nearly all progressive rock, who stated: "This opens with 'The Barbarian,' a keyboard showpiece (not to slight all the flailing and booming underneath) replete with the shifts of tempo, time, key, and dynamics beloved of these bozos. Does the title mean they see themselves as rock and roll Huns sacking nineteenth-century 'classical' tradition? Or do they think they're like Verdi portraying Ethiopians in Aida ? From such confusions flow music as clunky as these heavy-handed semi-improvisations and would-be tone poems." [13] Retrospective reviews have continued to be largely positive, with AllMusic awarding four-and-a-half stars and The Daily Vault hailing it as a "dizzying mix of keyboard solos, incredible bass work, excellent vocals and powerful drums". Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock commented of the album, "Still hailed by many as the band's best effort, it established the blueprint for a musical style which, for all the bullish puffing of the band's 'progressive' credentials, they would develop hardly at all." [18]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."The Barbarian"(instrumental) Béla Bartók (arr. Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer)4:27
2."Take a Pebble"LakeLake12:32
3."Knife-Edge"Lake, Richard Fraser Leoš Janáček, J. S. Bach (arr. Emerson)5:04
Total length:22:03
Side two
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."The Three Fates"
  1. "Clotho"
  2. "Lachesis"
  3. "Atropos"
(instrumental)Emerson7:46
  1. 1:48
  2. 2:43
  3. 3:15
2."Tank"(instrumental)Emerson, Palmer6:49
3."Lucky Man"LakeLake4:37
Total length:19:12

2012 reissue

In May 2012, Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree remixed the album for a three-disc reissue containing the original mix, the Wilson remix, and a DVD-Audio with Wilson's 5.1 surround sound version and a higher-bitrate version of his stereo mix.

CD 2 – The Alternate ELP New 2012 Stereo Mixes
No.TitleLength
1."The Barbarian" (Bartók, arr. Emerson, Lake & Palmer)4:32
2."Take a Pebble" (Lake; arr. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but not always credited)12:36
3."Knife-Edge (with extended outro)" (Janáček & Bach, arr. Emerson, lyrics by Lake and Fraser)5:38
4."Promenade" (Modest Mussorgsky, arr. Lake and Emerson, lyrics by Lake)1:29
5."The Three Fates: Atropos" (Emerson)3:11
6."Rave Up" (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)5:02
7."Drum Solo" (Palmer)3:02
8."Lucky Man" (Lake)4:39
Total length:40:09
Bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
9."Take a Pebble (alternate take)" (Lake)3:40
10."Knife-Edge (alternate take)" (Janáček & Bach, arr. Emerson, lyrics by Lake and Fraser)4:19
11."Lucky Man (first Greg Lake solo version)" (Lake)3:02
12."Lucky Man (alternate take)" (Lake)4:41
Total length:55:51

The remixed versions have different track listings from the original album. The first two sections of "The Three Fates" ("Clotho" and "Lachesis") and "Tank" were omitted, for multitrack tapes for these pieces were unavailable; meanwhile, unreleased material was added. "Knife-Edge" has an extended ending; due to the difficulty of reproducing the song's original tape slowdown ending digitally, Wilson decided to include the end of the original album session at its original speed. The 5.1 remix replaces "Tank" with an unreleased instrumental called "Rave Up", which bears some similarity to the instrumental section of "Mass" on Tarkus .

The remixed stereo versions include all of the above while adding more unreleased material: a vocal version of Modest Mussorgsky's "Promenade" (the first live version of which appears on Pictures at an Exhibition ) replaces the missing sections of "The Three Fates"; a new otherwise untitled "Drum Solo" by Carl Palmer (similar but not identical to a section of "Tank") is added between "Rave Up" and "Lucky Man"; "Lucky Man" is followed by an unfinished alternate take of "Take a Pebble", complete with some studio banter, an unreleased take of "Knife-Edge" (lacking vocals and final section), and two versions of "Lucky Man", the first being Greg Lake's original demo, the second an unreleased complete band version.

Personnel

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Production

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [30] Gold100,000^
United States (RIAA) [31] Gold500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emerson, Lake & Palmer</span> English progressive rock band

Emerson, Lake & Palmer were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards) of the Nice, Greg Lake of King Crimson and Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster. With nine RIAA-certified gold record albums in the US, and an estimated 48 million records sold worldwide, they are one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock groups of the 1970s, with a musical sound including adaptations of classical music with jazz and symphonic rock elements, dominated by Emerson's flamboyant use of the Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, and piano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Emerson</span> English keyboardist, songwriter, and composer

Keith Noel Emerson was an English keyboardist, songwriter, composer and record producer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s. He became internationally famous for his work with the Nice, which included writing rock arrangements of classical music. After leaving the Nice in 1970, he was a founding member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early progressive rock supergroups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Nice</span> English progressive rock band

The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band.

<i>Pictures at an Exhibition</i> (Emerson, Lake & Palmer album) 1971 live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Pictures at an Exhibition is a live album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in November 1971 on Island Records. It features the group's rock adaptation of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, performed at Newcastle City Hall on 26 March 1971.

<i>Tarkus</i> 1971 studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Tarkus is the second studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on 14 June 1971 on Island Records. Following their debut tour across Europe during the second half of 1970, the group paused touring commitments in January 1971 to record a new album at Advision Studios in London. Greg Lake produced the album with Eddy Offord as engineer.

<i>Works Volume 1</i> 1977 studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Works Volume 1 is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released as a double album in March 1977 on Atlantic Records. Following their world tour supporting Brain Salad Surgery (1973), the group took an extended break before they reconvened in 1976 to record a new album. They were now tax exiles and recorded new material in London and overseas in Montreux, Switzerland and Paris, France. Works Volume 1 features a side dedicated for each member to write and arrange their own tracks, while the fourth side features songs performed collectively. Keith Emerson recorded his Piano Concerto No. 1, Greg Lake wrote several songs with lyricist Peter Sinfield, and Carl Palmer recorded tracks of varied musical styles.

<i>Works Volume 2</i> 1977 studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Works Volume 2 is the sixth studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in November 1977. Unlike Works Volume 1, Works Volume 2 was a single album compilation of leftover tracks from other album sessions, similar to The Who's Odds & Sods or Led Zeppelin's Coda. While many derided the album for its apparent lack of focus, others praised it for showing a different side of the band than usual, with blues, bluegrass and jazz being very prominent as musical genres in this recording.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Lake</span> English musician (1947–2016)

Gregory Stuart Lake was an English bassist, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP).

<i>Trilogy</i> (Emerson, Lake & Palmer album) 1972 studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Trilogy is the third studio album by English progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in June 1972, by Island Records. The group had spent most of 1971 touring, which paused in September so they could record a new album at Advision Studios with Eddy Offord resuming his role as engineer. It would be his last with the group, as he later elected to work full-time with Yes. The album features "Hoedown", an arrangement of Aaron Copland's ballet composition which became a live favourite.

<i>Love Beach</i> 1978 studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Love Beach is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It was released in November 1978 by Atlantic Records as their final studio album released prior to their split in the following year. By the end of their 1977–1978 North American tour internal relations had started to deteriorate, but the group were contractually required to produce one more album. They retreated to Nassau, Bahamas as tax exiles to record Love Beach with lyricist Peter Sinfield who is credited as a co-writer of each track. After Greg Lake and Carl Palmer had finished recording their parts they left the island, leaving Keith Emerson to finish the album himself.

"Tarkus" is the title track of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's second album. The progressive rock epic lasts 20:35. It was the longest studio suite by the band until the three impressions of "Karn Evil 9". The name "Tarkus" refers to the armadillo-tank from the William Neal paintings on the album cover. The artist has explained that the name is an amalgamation between 'Tartarus' and 'carcass'. Consequently, the name refers to the "futility of war, a man made mess with symbols of mutated destruction." The song "Tarkus" supposedly follows the adventures of Tarkus from his birth, through a fight with a manticore, which he loses and concludes with an aquatic version of Tarkus named "Aquatarkus". Keith Emerson, when asked what work he is proudest of, named his "Piano Concerto" and "Tarkus".

<i>Emerson, Lake & Palmer in Concert</i> 1979 live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Emerson, Lake and Palmer in Concert is a live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), recorded at their 26 August 1977 show at the Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada which is featured on the album cover. It was released by Atlantic Records in November 1979, following ELP's breakup. It was later re-released and repackaged as Works Live in 1993. Some of the tracks were not from the Montreal concert, but from other concerts during their 1977–1978 tour, such as "Peter Gunn" and "Tiger in a Spotlight".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emerson, Lake & Powell</span> English progressive rock band

Emerson, Lake & Powell, sometimes abbreviated as ELP, were an English progressive rock band, considered by many as a variant lineup of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, that released one official studio album in 1986. The album's debut single was "Touch and Go" which peaked at number 60 on the Billboard charts on 19 July 1986.

<i>Live in Poland</i> (Emerson, Lake & Palmer album) 1997 live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Live in Poland is a live album by the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It features a performance in Katowice, Poland, during June 1997. The performance was originally released exclusively in Poland in 1997, with a different cover, by Polish music company Metal Mind Productions. It would be released internationally for the first time at Austria in 2001, and for the rest of the world during April 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epitaph (song)</span>

"Epitaph" is the third track on British progressive rock band King Crimson's 1969 album In the Court of the Crimson King. It was written by Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, and Michael Giles with lyrics written by Peter Sinfield.

<i>From the Beginning</i> (box set) 2007 box set by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

From the Beginning is a box set which presents aural and visual documentation celebrating Emerson, Lake & Palmer's career; consisting of five discs that include a number of single b-sides, significant live recordings, alternative studio mixes and material taken from band rehearsals, plus a bonus DVD featuring 'The Manticore Years' documentary, presented in a deluxe book-style sleeve complete with a 60-page picture booklet containing extensive sleeve notes by the band discussing the ELP years. It also contains rare and previously unseen photographs and images.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emerson, Lake & Palmer discography</span>

The discography of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, an English progressive rock band, includes 9 studio albums, 24 live albums, 12 compilation albums and 17 singles.

<i>High Voltage</i> (Emerson, Lake & Palmer album) 2010 live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

High Voltage is a double live album by British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 2010.

Spontaneous Combustion were an English progressive rock band formed in 1968 in Poole, Dorset, with brothers Gary Margetts and Tris Margetts, and Tony Brock. The band released three albums and four singles working with producers Greg Lake, Robert Fripp, Robert Kirby, and Conny Plank before ending in 1981 when Tris Margetts became bassist in the Greg Lake Band with Gary Moore. In 2012 their albums and singles were remastered and released as deluxe reissues with reproductions of artwork, and singles that weren't previously on albums; additional deluxe reissues have released in the decade since. Their original records and artwork are collector's items.

References

  1. ↑ "ELP singles". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  2. ↑ "Official Charts Company Emerson, Lake & Palmer". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "The Billboard 200". AllMusic . Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  4. 1 2 Millward, Steve (2014). Different Tracks: Music and Politics in 1970. Troubador. p. 166. ISBN   978-1-78306-476-2.
  5. 1 2 Macan, Edward (1996). Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture. Oxford University Press. pp. 253 n.35. ISBN   978-0-19-535681-6.
  6. ↑ Macan, Edward (2006). Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Open Court, p. 112. ISBN   9780812695960.
  7. ↑ Macan, Edward (2006). Endless Enigma, p. 121.
  8. ↑ Romano, Will (2010). Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock. Backbeat Books. pp. 97–98. ISBN   978-1-61713-375-6.
  9. ↑ Couture, François. "'Lucky Man' - Song Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  10. ↑ "Ultra-Mega-Exclusive Interview With Greg Lake". Horizon Press Company. Archived from the original on 15 November 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  11. ↑ "UnCovered Interview – artist Nic Dartnell on his album cover for ELP's debut LP" . Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  12. ↑ Eder, Bruce. Emerson, Lake & Palmer at AllMusic. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  13. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: E". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  14. ↑ Grossmas, Loyd (15 April 1971). "Emerson, Lake & Palmer : Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone . Archived from the original on 11 December 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  15. ↑ ELP – Emerson Lake & Palmer and Tarkus Deluxe Editions Razor & Tie www.classicrockrevisited.com, accessed 7 August 2021
  16. ↑ Ray, Benjamin (2019). "The Daily Vault Music Reviews: Emerson, Lake & Palmer". dailyvault.com. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  17. ↑ Mettler, Mike. "ELP Reissue Series: Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Tarkus; Pictures at an Exhibition". soundandvision.com. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  18. ↑ Stump, Paul (1997). The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock. Quartet Books Limited. pp. 98–99. ISBN   0 7043 8036 6.
  19. ↑ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  20. ↑ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 5358". RPM . Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  21. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Emerson, Lake & Palmer" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  22. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Emerson, Lake & Palmer" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  23. ↑ "Classifiche". Musica e Dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 27 May 2022. Set "Tipo" on "Album". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Emerson Lake & Palmer".
  24. ↑ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN   4-87131-077-9.
  25. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Emerson, Lake & Palmer". Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  26. ↑ "Emerson, Lake & Palmer | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  27. ↑ "Emerson, Lake & Palmer Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  28. ↑ "Jaaroverzichten – Album 1971" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
  29. ↑ "Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. 1971. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  30. ↑ Emerson, Keith (11 November 1971). Emerson, Lake & Palmer Gold (Pictures of an Exhibitionist). p. 217. ISBN   9781844540532 . Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  31. ↑ "American album certifications – Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Emerson, Lake & Palmer". Recording Industry Association of America.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.