Tarkus | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 4 June 1971 [1] | |||
Recorded | January–February 1971 | |||
Studio | Advision, Fitzrovia, London | |||
Genre | Progressive rock [2] | |||
Length | 39:05 | |||
Label | Island (UK) Cotillion (US) | |||
Producer | Greg Lake | |||
Emerson, Lake & Palmer chronology | ||||
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Emerson, Lake & Palmer studio chronology | ||||
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Tarkus is the second studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on 4 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.
Side one features the 20-minute conceptual title track written by keyboardist Keith Emerson, the opening of which created friction between Lake and Emerson that almost split the group, but Lake agreed to pursue it and contributed musical ideas for it and wrote the lyrics. Side two features a collection of unrelated tracks of different styles. The artwork was designed by William Neal.
Tarkus went to number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the only album by the band to do so. It was a top 10 album worldwide, including the US, where it peaked at number 9. The album reached gold certification in the UK and US, the latter for 500,000 copies sold. It has been reissued and remastered several times, including a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound edition by Steven Wilson, with bonus and previously unreleased tracks from the original sessions, released in 2012.
After their debut live gigs in August 1970, the band toured across the UK and Europe for the rest of the year, during which their debut album, Emerson, Lake & Palmer , was released. While on tour, Emerson found that he and drummer Carl Palmer were exploring more complex rhythmic ideas. He took patterns that Palmer was playing on his practise drum pads and found that they complemented runs that he had developed on the piano, and used this as a basis for material on Tarkus. The group approached the album by having a centrepiece track in order to establish a concept, but a definite story or idea for it had not been discussed at this stage. [3]
The group paused touring commitments in December 1970 and set the following month aside to record. As with their debut, the band recorded at Advision Studios in London with Lake handling the production duties and Eddy Offord returning as engineer. [4] Early into the sessions Emerson presented the basis of the title track to Lake and Palmer; Lake was less than enthusiastic with its direction and threatened to leave the group. A subsequent meeting amongst the band and their management convinced Lake to stay, and he went on to contribute to the track and most of the other songs on the album [5] including the lyrics, for which he used the artwork as inspiration. [3] Although Lake thought the opening was "too demonstrative" for the sake of being clever, he did not want to split the group over such an issue and got into the album as recording went on. [6] The band could only work out "Tarkus" during the January 1971 studio sessions, so they booked further time at Adivsion in February to work on side two, for which they had no material prepared. [7]
Side one is occupied by the 20-minute title track which has seven sections. It was written by Emerson, with Lake credited for "Battlefield" and contributions to "Stones of Years" and "Mass". It is a conceptual piece in which its narrative remains ambiguous and open to interpretation, but the artwork depicts the Tarkus character in the form of an armadillo tank hybrid who is born and loses a fight with a manticore, which concludes with the appearance of an aquatic version of Tarkus named Aquatarkus. [5] Lake said the song is about "the futility of conflict, expressed in this context in terms of soldiers and war — but it's broader than that. The words are about revolution, the revolution that's gone, that has happened. Where has it got anybody? Nowhere." [7] He added that the songs concern "the hypocrisy of it all" and the closing march "a joke". [7]
Emerson wrote the first musical ideas for "Tarkus" from a 10/8 rhythm that Palmer had played on his practice drum pad backstage at a gig. [8] He composed the entire piece in six days on his upright piano at his London apartment, and wrote the score on manuscript. After the band rehearsed it for six days, they put it to tape; Emerson said once Lake and Palmer had mastered the 5/4 and 10/8 rhythms, "everything else flowed." [8] [7] Emerson transposed "a fleeting run of one bar" from the Allegro of Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 to bridge a transition between two parts of "Eruption". [3] The section is played in a 5/4 time signature which was a "frustrating" meter for Lake to play. [7] Emerson wanted the "Aquatarkus" section to have a sound that resembled a snorkel tube as he was into scuba diving at the time, so he generated one from his Moog synthesizer and played it during the marching beat. [6] The group would not record a longer track in the studio until 1973, with the 29-minute "Karn Evil 9".
Side two features six songs unrelated to the conceptual title track. "Jeremy Bender" is a rendition of the Stephen Foster song "Oh! Susanna" and Emerson's performance was influenced by Floyd Cramer, one of his favourite pianists. [3] It came about when Emerson was playing the song's chord progressions on a honky-tonk piano and incorporated some fifth-root chords, which the band liked. [8] The closing features handclaps from Emerson and Palmer. [6] "Bitches Crystal" originated from the idea of playing a boogie-woogie part in a 6/8 time signature, with Emerson naming Dave Brubeck's "Countdown" as an influence to his playing on it. [6] The band had a firm idea on the direction of the track early on, although some parts were difficult for the group to put down. Lake was not a fan of Brubeck as Emerson was, but Palmer was into Brubeck's drummer Joe Morello and Emerson noticed his style of drumming in Palmer's performance. [8]
"The Only Way (Hymn)" contains themes from Toccata and Fugue in F major, BWV 540 and Prelude and Fugue VI, BWV 851 by Bach, and features Emerson on the pipe organ at St Mark's church in Finchley, north London which was put down using a mobile recording facility. [6] [9] Lake wrote the lyrics after the music was recorded; Emerson and Palmer considered the religious implication in the line: "Can you believe God makes you breathe, why did he lose six million Jews?" was a bit too strong, but they went along with it. [3] [8] "Infinite Space (Conclusion)" features Emerson playing a 7-ft Bechstein grand piano, and came about from the band's decision to follow the profound lyrics on "The Only Way" with a laid-back piece. [8]
Emerson said Led Zeppelin were a loose inspiration for "A Time and a Place", and was listening to the band a lot at the time. He recalled the track being put down in about three takes. [8] Although not credited, the music to "Are You Ready, Eddy?" was largely inspired by Bobby Troup's 1956 song "The Girl Can't Help It". Its title was a phrase the band yelled out to Offord when they were ready to record. Palmer is heard saying "They've only go' 'am or cheese!", which is what an elderly lady at Advision said to the band when they sent her round to a nearby sandwich shop and announce what they had available. Emerson said Palmer could mimic her mix of Greek and cockney accents "wonderfully", and recalled the confusion from some American fans who could not understand what it was about. [3] The track was "an impromptu jam" and a one-off take, and played in celebration of completing work on Tarkus. [10] [8]
One track left as an outtake was Lake's "Oh My Father", an autobiographical ballad dealing with grief over the recent death of his father. Featuring layers of acoustic guitars, piano, and a wah-wah guitar solo it might have balanced the keyboard-heavy tracks on the album but Lake ultimately thought it was too personal for release; it was eventually included on the 2012 deluxe reissue. Another outtake unearthed for the reissue, "Unknown Ballad", was a song actually titled "Just A Dream" recorded during the sessions when Emerson and Palmer were out of the studio, featuring Lake on piano and his friend Gary Margetts (of the group Spontaneous Combustion) on lead vocal, with brother Tris Margetts on bass and Lake helping out on backing harmonies.
The album was packaged in a gatefold sleeve and features artwork by Scottish artist William Neal, whose armadillo has since become an iconic image in progressive rock. [11] Neal was involved with the London-based CCS Associates which typically produced art for reggae albums but occasionally they were given other records to work on, which was the case with Tarkus. When the band rejected the designs already completed, Neal recalled: "On one of my drawings, there was a small doodle at the bottom of the page. This was of an armadillo with tank tracks on it but it was just an idea that wasn't really going anywhere." [12] It originated from one of Neal's initial designs of a machine gun with a belt of bullets replaced by a row of keyboard keys, which he inadvertently sketched on with a pencil during a phone conversation which produced the tank image. [6] Emerson liked it and suggested it be developed "into more of a cartoon story", as by which point he had written "Tarkus" and thought the music fit with the imagery. [12] Neal was given a copy of the album to listen to while he completed the final cover, which inspired the other drawings. [6] The gatefold presents eleven panels that illustrate the events of the title track, beginning with an erupting volcano, below which Tarkus emerges from an egg. Tarkus then faces a number of cybernetic creatures, culminating in the battle against the manticore which stings Tarkus's eye, and Tarkus retreats bleeding into a river. [11]
Emerson went away with Neal's designs and began to think of album titles. "To everyone, it represented what we were doing in that studio. The next day on my drive up from Sussex the imagery of the armadillo kept hitting me. It had to have a name. Something guttural. It had to begin with the letter 'T' and end with a flourish". [13] Emerson acknowledged that Tarka of Tarka the Otter may have been an inspiration, "but this armadillo needed a science fiction kind of name that represented Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in reverse. Some mutilation of the species caused by radiation", at which point he came up with "Tarkus". [13] The "Tarkus" on the front cover is made from whitened bones from the skeleton of a devoured lizard. [6]
Tarkus was released on 4 June 1971 in the UK on Island Records, appearing two months later in the US by Atlantic Records' subsidiary label Cotillion Records. [14] It is one of only two ELP studio albums to reach the Top 10 in the United States, making it to No. 9 ( Trilogy , the following year, got to No. 5), while in Britain it is their only number-one album. [14] Additionally, Tarkus spent a total of 17 weeks in the UK Albums Chart. [15] In Japan the album was released on Atlantic Records. Later vinyl reissues were on the Manticore label.
Tarkus was certified gold in the United States shortly after its release on 26 August 1971. [16]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [17] |
Sound & Vision | [18] |
Classic Rock Revisited | A [19] |
The Daily Vault | A [20] |
Sea of Tranquility | [21] |
Classic Rock | [22] |
Although it is now considered a quintessential progressive rock album, Tarkus received generally unfavorable reviews from critics upon its release. New Musical Express's Richard Green, who had given high praise to the band's debut, bemoaned that "there are some nice passages, but these are almost completely buried by the overall cacophonous ostentation." [23] In America, David Lebin in Rolling Stone wrote: "Tarkus records the failure of three performers to become creators. Regardless of how fast and how many styles they can play. Emerson, Lake and Palmer will continue turning out mediocrity like Tarkus until they discover what, if anything, it is that they must say on their own and for themselves." [24] On the other hand, Chris Welch at Melody Maker heaped praise, describing the title suite as "dramatic, probing, explosive, full of theatre and convincing grandeur." [25]
François Couture, in a retrospective review for AllMusic, said that Tarkus is "a very solid album, especially to the ears of prog rock fans – no Greg Lake acoustic ballads, no lengthy jazz interludes". Couture concluded, "More accomplished than the trio's first album, but not quite as polished as Brain Salad Surgery , Tarkus is nevertheless a must-have." [17] Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock praised the album's title track but criticized the "enervatingly portentous lyrics" and the traditional form of the solos (beginning and ending on downbeats, using blues voicings). He also said the two comedy songs ("Jeremy Bender" and "Are you Ready Eddie?") "have aged embarrassingly." [26]
Emerson said that Tarkus was one of his favourite albums, "not least because the title track has taken on a life of its own". [14]
In 2015, Sean Murphy of PopMatters ranked Tarkus the 21st best classic progressive rock album of all time. [27]
In 1993, the album was digitally remastered by Joseph M. Palmaccio and released by Victory Music in Europe and Rhino Records in North America. This was followed by two remasters by the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in 1994 [28] that are currently out of print. [29]
In August 2012, Tarkus was reissued by Sony Music and released in a 3 CD pack, containing a stereo mix from the Palmaccio master, a stereo mix in the form of an alternate version of the album, and a 5.1 surround sound mix by Steven Wilson. The set also contains previously unreleased tracks recorded during the sessions. [30]
Tarkus was reissued on record as a 12" picture disc by BMG as part of Record Store Day on 12 June 2021. [31]
All lyrics are written by Greg Lake
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Tarkus"
| Keith Emerson, Greg Lake | 20:59 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Jeremy Bender" | Emerson, Lake | 1:44 |
2. | "Bitches Crystal" | Emerson, Lake | 3:58 |
3. | "The Only Way (Hymn)" | Emerson, Lake | 3:51 |
4. | "Infinite Space (Conclusion)" | Emerson, Carl Palmer | 3:19 |
5. | "A Time and a Place" | Emerson, Lake, Palmer | 3:01 |
6. | "Are You Ready, Eddy?" | Emerson, Lake, Palmer | 2:13 |
Total length: | 18:06 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
8. | "Prelude and Fugue" | Friedrich Gulda / Performed by Keith Emerson on piano | 3:17 |
Total length: | 21:23 |
All lyrics are written by Greg Lake (except "Unknown Ballad")
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Tarkus"
| Emerson, Lake | 20:46 |
2. | "Jeremy Bender" | Emerson, Lake | 1:57 |
3. | "Bitches Crystal" | Emerson, Lake | 3:59 |
4. | "The Only Way (Hymn)" | Emerson, Lake | 3:47 |
5. | "Infinite Space (Conclusion)" | Emerson, Palmer | 3:23 |
6. | "A Time and a Place" | Emerson, Lake, Palmer | 3:03 |
7. | "Are You Ready, Eddy?" | Emerson, Lake, Palmer | 2:12 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
8. | "Oh, My Father" | Lake | 4:07 |
9. | "Unknown Ballad" ("Just a Dream" by Spontaneous Combustion) | Gary Margetts, Mike Rowe | 3:04 |
10. | "Mass (Alternate take)" | Emerson, Lake | 4:30 |
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Production
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada) [48] | Gold | 50,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [49] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [50] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
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.
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.
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, the piano suite by Modest Mussorgsky, performed at Newcastle City Hall on 26 March 1971.
Peter John Sinfield was an English poet and songwriter. He was best known as a co-founder and lyricist of King Crimson. Their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King is considered one of the first and most influential progressive rock albums ever released.
Brain Salad Surgery is the fourth studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on 7 December 1973 by their new record label, Manticore Records, and distributed by Atlantic Records.
Works Volume 1 is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released as a double album on 25 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.
Works Volume 2 is the sixth studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on 25 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.
Gregory Stuart Lake was an English musician, singer, and songwriter. He gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP).
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, and 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.
Manticore Records is a record label launched by the Manticore production company in 1973. These companies were owned by the members of the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer and their manager, Stewart Young. The manticore was first featured in the artwork for the second ELP album Tarkus, as one of the eponymous creature's adversaries. Manticore was initially the name given to ELP's music publishers, credits first appearing in the credits on Trilogy, released on Island in 1972.
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.
Love Beach is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It was released on 17 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.
Edward Offord is an English retired record producer and audio engineer who gained prominence in the 1970s for his work on albums by the progressive rock bands Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes.
"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".
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.
Richard Fraser was a lyricist for the British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP).
"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.
"Tiger in a Spotlight" is a song by the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It was recorded in 1973, but not released until 1977, when it was released on the album Works Volume 2. "Tiger in a Spotlight" was released as a single in Germany, and was added to the setlist for the 1978 tour.
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.