Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Label: Sanctuary Records
Release: 1973
Length: 45:04
Rating: 5/5
Brain salad surgery is the last triumph of the most notorious trio in rock history, and the sweetest one for it. People still disagree on whether “Brain Salad Surgery” is the alpha and omega of their artistic achievements (some favor “Tarkus” or even “Trilogy”), but it’s without a doubt one of their best works and sits in the elite company of the greatest rock albums of all time, even though it still often gets misunderstood and doesn’t get the respect it deserves. With it, the golden age of symphonic progressive rock hit its peak.
The album is packed with evergreen ELP classics (pretty much every track on it), and you could also call it a quasi-concept project, since its centerpiece is the nearly half-hour suite “Karn Evil 9,” the most ambitious creation in their story. Before we sketch out the details of this prog rock masterpiece, it’s only right to spend a few words on the background that led to its creation and shaped its look.
ELP were at the height of their popularity back then and enjoyed the status of some of rock’s most notorious superstars (the only ones in the entire history of prog rock who really milked that status and filled the gossip columns with all sorts of onstage and backstage excess). After wrapping up the “Trilogy” tour, they first founded their own label, Manticore (named after the mythological creature and one of the main characters of the album and suite “Tarkus”), and then locked themselves in the studio, where musical ideas came flying one after another. ELP never again showed as much creative drive as they did while making “Brain Salad Surgery.”
A big change in the lyric-writing department, which until then had been exclusively Lake’s turf and occasionally Emerson’s, came with the arrival of Peter Sinfield as an outside collaborator. Sinfield was Lake’s old buddy from the days of the original King Crimson, where he was the band’s fifth member and was already known as one of the most original wielders of the poet’s pen in rock. Sinfield had a small but important role on the album, contributing his poetic share to the first part of the suite “Karn Evil 9” and the entire lyrics for the burlesque “Benny The Bouncer.” Lake returned the favor by guesting on Sinfield’s solo album, which came out the same year on ELP’s Manticore label.
Just like on all of the earlier ELP albums, which stood out for their instrumental innovation, cutting-edge (for the time) electronic technology played a central role here too, and it was usually Emerson’s exclusive domain. The keyboard wizard expanded his rig, which until then had consisted solely of Hammond organ, piano and the monophonic Minimoog synthesizer, with the versatile, gargantuan Moog modular, then a revolution in the polyphonic use of electronic keyboards, and every now and then he even toyed with the accordion. Thanks to inventor Dr. Robert Moog, who brought new technology to market that year, Keith could now have his musical orgasms through polyphonic synthesizers too, which made his recording and composing work a lot easier in many ways. The other big innovation was Palmer’s electronic drums. The drum grandmaster could now whack away at electronic drums while also playing percussion like timpani and tubular bells. Today, modern MIDI recording technology has replaced most of these techniques, but the bits of music recorded with those innovations still sound anything but archaic on this album, even after the long test of time.
Of course, it’s the music that counts most, and it’s the reason the album enjoys its reputation as the embodiment of perfection in symphonic progressive rock. The grand, bombastic opening is announced by “Jerusalem,” Emerson’s adaptation of the popular British church hymn, which in its original versions is usually performed as chamber music. ELP turned it into a bombastic, epic rock anthem, with Emerson holding down a majestic church-organ sound on the keys while Lake shines with a superb vocal performance. His heartfelt delivery of the original lyrics, written by the legendary British polymath William Blake, takes the album’s atmosphere to the highest level of grandeur. Fun fact: the BBC refused to play it on the radio after it was released as a single, which proves that the liberal 60s had minimal influence on organizations as stuffily conservative as the BBC.
But Emerson wouldn’t be Emerson if he didn’t tackle at least one interpretation of a classical composition of his own. This time he picked a piece called “Toccata” for his wild classicist shenanigans, originally written by the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. It belongs to the realm of modern classical music. Unlike the trouble Emerson had in the early ELP years, mainly over copyright and the disapproval of his colleagues from the classical world, Ginastera proved to be a reasonable and open-minded composer who happily listened to Keith’s interpretation at his home and gave it his blessing. Keith turned it into a proper playground for his experiments with polyphonic Moog synthesizers, while Palmer keeps him convincing company with his assaults on the electronic drums. From the very first second, a spine-chilling atmosphere takes over, built from Emerson’s frenzied keyboard improvisations, Palmer’s wild drum marches and a variety of percussion. It makes this one of their more avant-garde creations.
“Still You Turn Me On” provides a big stylistic contrast and a change of mood. It’s another one of those lovely, romantic acoustic Lake folk ballads that are made to order for lovers of every kind. If Lake never became a real master of electric guitar or bass, largely thanks to his old King Crimson “friend” Robert Fripp, he proves here once again that he was often highly convincing as an acoustic guitarist. His combination of pastoral acoustic guitar chords makes for an exceptionally beautiful melody, which is every so often cut through by witty, razor-sharp wah-wah passages on Emerson’s accordion (the first time he’d tried anything like it). The singing is among the best of Lake’s career, which holds true for the whole album. But anyone who listens closely to the lyrics will find they’re actually anything but romantic, as they first seem, and are full of sarcastic sexual innuendo.
That’s followed by another shorter piece, the burlesque “Benny The Bouncer,” another silly, tongue-in-cheek little number in the tradition of their earlier hooligan creations like “Jeremy Bender,” “Are You Ready Eddy” and “The Sheriff.” This rowdy little assault manages to conjure up the fun atmosphere of 1950s saloon dance halls, where violence and cynicism rule. Emerson’s wild piano passages and Lake’s distorted vocals create the feel of a full-on saloon brawl. It’s all best embodied by the grotesque lyrics, which end with someone planting an axe in the bouncer’s head.
All of these tracks were just a warm-up for the grand finale and the core of “Brain Salad Surgery,” without which we couldn’t talk about a masterpiece of evergreen proportions. I’m talking about the nearly 30-minute super epic “Karn Evil 9” mentioned earlier, the most ambitious creation of their career, with which they proved they were still the epitome of innovation and kings of grand epic suites (they only made two in their career (besides “Karn Evil 9,” the one ELP fans respect most is “Tarkus”), but both still count as their greatest achievements).
What adds to the strange aura of mystery and grandeur at the same time, on top of its exceptional composition and performance, is the apocalyptic sci-fi concept of “Karn Evil 9,” which is dramatically tied to Giger’s cover. The story draws its inspiration mainly from classics like Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Orwell’s “1984.”
In the future, all crime has been wiped from the world forever, and with it all worldly decadence, creating a “clean” society. It’s kept in check by computers that monitor every move of human life. All forms of entertainment are banned, along with anything that could lead people to individual thinking and a rebellious spirit, and music is especially strictly forbidden. The goal is to turn people into the most impersonal, robotic beings possible, kindred in spirit to computers. Still, deep underground there’s a hidden world where a few people still live free, brewing a revolution and a rebellion against the rule of the computers. Sound familiar? Of course, you could see something very similar much later in the Matrix film trilogy or in movies like Equilibrium.
“Karn Evil 9” (its odd name comes from a word Emerson coined to describe its carnival atmosphere) is, in the tradition of all great epic suites, split into several sections. In this case, three sections; the first (together with its intro) is the opening warm-up with Lake’s vocals up front, the second is the grand turnaround with longer Emerson instrumental improvisations (mostly on piano), and the third is mainly Emerson’s final orgasm on polyphonic Moog synthesizers, which create a totally cybernetic atmosphere. The best-known and most beloved section is definitely the opening one, which contains Lake’s famous words “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends” (which later became the title of their first live album). Besides Emerson’s wizardry on his wealth of varied keyboards, whether Hammonds or Moog synthesizers, and Palmer’s assaults on the electronic drums, a majestic melody takes center stage and hits its climax with the dramatic central chorus. Gradually a carnival motif and mood take shape and then dominate the whole suite.
The second section is ruled by Emerson’s breathtaking solo wizardry, mainly on piano, and Palmer’s distinctive drum transitions. There’s no shortage of all kinds of witty improvisations from one of the greatest keyboard players of all time, either. The best part of the suite is its epic last stretch, a very convincing finale where a dramatic dialogue/epic battle between man and computer unfolds. Lake nails this vocal dialogue and creates an incredible atmosphere as two opposing forces, the organic and the electronic-cybernetic, fight for dominance. The latter embodies evil, which is why it’s deliberately distorted through Emerson’s vocoder effect, giving it an electronic sound. Both decide the future of humanity: will we return to nature and humanity, or become slaves of machines and artificial intelligence? It’s worth remembering that when the album came out, personal computers didn’t even exist yet, and back then all of this, unlike today, when computers pretty much run our everyday lives, seemed like pure science fiction.
At least as famous as the music was one of the strangest covers in music history, created by the Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger. He later earned immortal fame mainly as the creator of the sci-fi creature the xenomorph, better known in the films of the same name as the “alien.” The cover shows a woman’s face (only the mouth is visible) trapped in a virtual-cybernetic prison shaped like a skull. Giger’s original idea caused no small amount of controversy, since he had first drawn a penis in front of the face. After stormy reactions and pressure, he later retouched the painting so there’s a sort of light in that spot, but if you look closely, the outline of the penis is still visible. On the other side of the sleeve, which ties in with the cover, we can see a woman’s face freed from the artificial wall. You can see that her hair is strangely similar to the skin texture of the famous sci-fi monster. The cover concept was chosen because of the album’s original title, which was supposed to be “Whip Some Skull On Ya,” a phrase for oral sex. Well, “Brain Salad Surgery” is one of those phrases too, just a little less obvious. Both paintings are still missing today, as someone stole them during an exhibition of Giger’s work in Prague. Rolling Stone, a magazine that has traditionally sneered at everything that doesn’t smell like the taste of label corporations, MTV and similar muck, also picked it as one of the best album covers of all time.
With “Brain Salad Surgery,” the three wise men of prog rock created a timeless genre classic and their last studio masterpiece, which, together with the live double album that came out the following year, sealed their artistically and commercially most successful period. “Brain Salad Srugery” is an album that, along with “Tarkus,” remains the top contender whenever there’s a vote on their best album, and it’s also their finest monument to symphonic progressive rock, which was then peaking in popularity in Great Britain and Italy. Sadly, after the “Brain Salad Surgery” tour and the excellent live album that was its final product, ELP took a long break. As it later turned out, they never really recovered, and their golden days were inevitably over. “Brain Salad Surgery” is the crown jewel of the great trio at the peak of their artistic powers, and it belongs in the collection of every honest rock fan.
Lineup
Keith Emerson – Hammond organ, piano, accordion, Moog synthesizer, Moog polyphonic modular, computer voice on Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression
Greg Lake – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar
Carl Palmer – drums, percussion, electronic drums
Production
Greg Lake
Tracklist
1. Jerusalem
2. Toccata
3. Still…You Turn Me On
4. Benny the Bouncer
5. Karn Evil 9
Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 1
Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2
Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression
Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression
