"Take a Pebble" | |
---|---|
Song by Emerson, Lake & Palmer | |
from the album Emerson, Lake & Palmer | |
Released | 1970 |
Recorded | 1970 |
Genre | Progressive rock [1] |
Length | 12:31 |
Songwriter(s) | Greg Lake |
Producer(s) | Greg Lake |
"Take a Pebble" is a song by the British progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It is the second track of their eponymous debut album. It was written by Greg Lake, and arranged by the full band.
The song starts as a soft ballad. On the original recording it begins with Keith Emerson holding down voicing on the piano keys (without having the hammers strike the notes) while strumming the grand piano strings with a plectrum, as Greg Lake enters on electric bass guitar, and Carl Palmer on subtle percussion. Emerson then switches to fast Eb-Minor and F-Minor ascending and descending hand-over-hand piano runs in the first 8 bars of the first "A" section when Lake first enters singing "Just take a pebble and cast it to the sea".
Emerson switches back to strumming the grand piano strings with a plectrum between the first and second "A" sections, while the bass and drums play. Then, Emerson improvises behind Lake's singing in the first 8 bars of the second "A" sections. A short piano interlude leads into a composed band jazz section where the theme Lake has previously sung is developed and expanded much further (on the original recording, another piano interlude leads into strumming the grand piano strings).
The short Greg Lake folk-style acoustic guitar section that follows in the middle of the original recording, where Lake briefly switches from playing electric bass guitar, with Palmer playing water-like percussion sounds, then a rhythmic hoedown-like strummed guitar chord section, with hand-clapping on 2 and 4, followed by plucked guitar arpeggios, gives an idea of what the original style of song may have sounded like, before Emerson's arrangement of the majority of the piece. Then another piano interlude leads into a modal jazz band improvisation, followed by the "head out" and coda.
The jazz-style sections are reminiscent in some ways of Keith Emerson's late-1960s jazz-style adaptation of "How Can We Hang On to a Dream?" (composed by American folk musician Tim Hardin) for his band The Nice. The ostinato in the left hand may have been based on a similar one from Musica ricercata , movement VII by György Ligeti.
In the earliest live versions of the piece, as seen in the Pictures at an Exhibition concert film from the Lyceum in December 1970, Lake would sing a few verses of the folk standard "Old Blue" toward the end of his acoustic guitar interlude. In later live versions of "Take a Pebble", the Greg Lake song "Lucky Man" (and later, "Still...You Turn Me On" followed by "Lucky Man" - as recorded on Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends... Ladies and Gentlemen ) was added to the Greg Lake folk-style acoustic guitar section, followed by a solo Keith Emerson jazz and blues piano medley of tunes (that the band would join in on the very end of), followed by a "Take a Pebble" band improvisation moving between F-minor and Eb-Minor (often featuring Palmer on timpani), and then the conclusion of the piece.
The Greg Lake folk-style acoustic guitar section and/or the format of inserting of other Greg Lake songs inside "Take a Pebble" was later completely dropped, and Emerson usually performs a shorter solo piano improvisation (not a medley of tunes) based on an F-minor ostinato, followed by the "Take a Pebble" band improvisation, and then the conclusion of the piece (as seen in the Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Live at Montreux 1997 DVD). [2]
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans in the United States. The banjo is frequently associated with folk, bluegrass and country music, and has also been used in some rock, pop and hip-hop. Several rock bands, such as the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead, have used the five-string banjo in some of their songs. Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in Black American traditional music and the folk culture of rural whites before entering the mainstream via the minstrel shows of the 19th century. Along with the fiddle, the banjo is a mainstay of American styles of music, such as bluegrass and old-time music. It is also very frequently used in traditional ("trad") jazz. Banjo is also a common instrument for Caribbean genres like Biguine, Calypso and Mento.
Jazz guitar may refer to either a type of electric guitar or a guitar playing style in jazz, using electric amplification to increase the volume of acoustic guitars.
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section ; and to provide all or part of the harmony, i.e. the chords from a song's chord progression, where a chord is a group of notes played together. Therefore, the basic technique of rhythm guitar is to hold down a series of chords with the fretting hand while strumming or fingerpicking rhythmically with the other hand. More developed rhythm techniques include arpeggios, damping, riffs, chord solos, and complex strums.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in April 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake and Carl Palmer. With nine RIAA-certified gold record albums in the US, and an estimated 48 million records sold worldwide, they were one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock bands in 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.
Keith Noel Emerson was an English keyboardist, songwriter, 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. Emerson, Lake & Palmer were commercially successful through much of the 1970s, becoming one of the best-known progressive rock groups of the era. Emerson wrote and arranged much of ELP's music on albums such as Tarkus (1971) and Brain Salad Surgery (1973), combining his own original compositions with classical or traditional pieces adapted into a rock format.
Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 is an album by British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, recorded at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 and released on CD in 1997. At this concert ELP played "Pictures at an Exhibition".
Tarkus is the second studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in June 1971 on Island Records. Following their 1970 European tour, the group returned to Advision Studios in London, in January 1971, to prepare material for a follow-up. Side one has the seven-part "Tarkus", with a collection of shorter tracks on side two.
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 that were performed by the band, while the fourth side features songs written 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.
A rhythm section is a group of musicians within a music ensemble or band that provides the underlying rhythm, harmony and pulse of the accompaniment, providing a rhythmic and harmonic reference and "beat" for the rest of the band. The rhythm section is often contrasted with the roles of other musicians in the band, such as the lead guitarist or lead vocals whose primary job is to carry the melody.
Trilogy is the third studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in July 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. The album features "Hoedown", an arrangement of Aaron Copland's ballet composition which became a live favourite.
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking. The term "fingerstyle" is something of a misnomer, since it is present in several different genres and styles of music—but mostly, because it involves a completely different technique, not just a "style" of playing, especially for the guitarist's picking/plucking hand. The term is often used synonymously with fingerpicking except in classical guitar circles, although fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues and country guitar playing in the US. The terms "fingerstyle" and "fingerpicking" also applied to similar string instruments such as the banjo.
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.
"Tarkus" is the title track of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's second album. The progressive rock epic lasts 20:35. It was the longest studio song 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".
Flatpicking is the technique of striking the strings of a guitar with a pick held between the thumb and one or two fingers. It can be contrasted to fingerstyle guitar, which is playing with individual fingers, with or without wearing fingerpicks. While the use of a plectrum is common in many musical traditions, the exact term "flatpicking" is most commonly associated with Appalachian music of the American southeastern highlands, especially bluegrass music, where string bands often feature musicians playing a variety of styles, both fingerpicking and flatpicking. Musicians who use a flat pick in other genres such as rock and jazz are not commonly described as flatpickers or even plectrum guitarists. As the use of a pick in those traditions is commonplace, generally only guitarists who play without a pick are noted by the term "fingerpicking" or "fingerstyle".
Then and Now is a live album by British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1998.
Cinco canciones populares argentinas are a set of five songs for voice and piano, comprising both entirely new compositions as well as new settings of existing melodies, written in 1943 by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera as his opus 10. The five songs are as follows:
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.
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.
Guitar picking is a group of hand and finger techniques a guitarist uses to set guitar strings in motion to produce audible notes. These techniques involve plucking, strumming, brushing, etc. Picking can be done with:
"Lucky Man" is a song by the English progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer, from the group's 1970 self-titled debut album. Written by Greg Lake when he was 12 years old and recorded by the trio using improvised arrangements, the song contains one of rock music's earliest instances of a Moog synthesizer solo. "Lucky Man" was released as a single in 1970 and reached the top 20 in the Netherlands. The song also charted in the United States and Canada. The single was re-released in 1973 and charted again in the U.S. and Canada.