Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Label: Sanctuary Records
Release: 1974
Duration: 1:49:41
Rating: 5/5
In 1974, England’s prog rock champions Emerson, Lake & Palmer were at the peak of their careers, both creatively and commercially. When they first appeared, hardly anyone expected that one of the first bands to successfully fuse classical music and rock would win over the masses so fast, but those who had followed all three members since their earlier bands weren’t too surprised when they started selling out huge stadiums like it was nothing.
Their onstage excesses, the most notorious probably being Emerson stabbing knives into his keyboards, playing on a red carpet, hiring three trucks to haul each member’s stage gear separately, and flashing bare backsides at thousands of fans in the middle of jam-packed stadiums, became part of countless rock legends, and one of the favorite theories for why prog rock started losing popularity so quickly after the mid-seventies. ELP never even tried to hide that they loved basking in the glory and revelling in the pomp, which made them one of the few, if not the only, prog bands to milk their star status at every opportunity and still steer clear of the scandals that usually dogged their peers, the ones who played somewhat simpler, blues-rooted rock variations.
The double live album “Welcome Back My Friends…” sounds, with its mile-long title alone, at least as pompous as the shows of the holy three kings of prog rock were back then. The album’s title comes from the opening line of the suite “Karn Evil 9: First Impression, Part 2”. The original release spanned a whole three vinyl records, with sleeves specially marked with the initials of all three members, while the CD version fits on two discs. All the recordings come from the “Someone Get Me a Ladder” world tour, which ran from 1973 to 1974.
The track selection is a dream in every respect and shows just how much firepower ELP had at their disposal while sitting on the prog throne. A set list that includes the complete versions of both “Tarkus” and “Karn Evil 9”, without a doubt the two best things in their story, is simply a sure-fire win, and it showcases everything that made these three legends great. “Hoedown”, a fan-favorite adaptation of a classical piece originally written by the American composer Aaron Copland, is a superb opener: it kicks the album off on a positive, razor-sharp note, with Emerson’s playful runs on Hammond organ and Moog modular, while Palmer’s drum marches rattle away fiercely in between. After that successful warm-up comes the mighty anthem “Jerusalem”, once again a genuine incarnation of ELP’s legendary epic grandeur and pomp, with Lake’s excellent vocals on the English national wake-up call, conceived in the 19th century by the legendary English poet William Blake, and the mighty, sacral drapes of Emerson’s organ.
The chaotic “Toccata” provides yet another contrast. Emerson adapted it with the blessing of its original author, the famous Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, and it shows off that experimental, avant-garde side of ELP’s vocabulary, which they would neglect more and more in the years that followed. Emerson’s virtuoso frolicking on the Moog modular, coaxing out all sorts of colorful electronic sounds, feels like watching a small kid who has just been handed their favorite toy and starts squeaking it with delight.
With the sudden shift into fifth gear at the start of the first section of the mega epic “Tarkus”, the legendary suite about a warlike armadillo-tank in the middle of a post-apocalyptic world, the devil takes over and all bets are off. Comparisons with the studio version are inevitable, and although that one still stays superior to the live take, this one has a heap of thrilling improvisations that further enrich the original course of this unforgettable sci-fi epic. That’s especially true for the three central sections, “Stones Of Years”, “Manticore” and “Battlefield”, where they threw in quite a few random improvised bits that offer much more than just admiring the technical chops of all three legendary players. Emerson’s boundless revelling on the Moog modular and the Hammond is really just the warm-up for what awaits the listener at the end of the album.
For everyone who, besides ELP, is also a big King Crimson fan and therefore very likely a devoted follower of Greg Lake, there’s an extremely pleasant surprise in the middle of the “Battlefield” section. Lake’s epic guitar solo, which ranks at the very top of his guitar career, is followed by Sinfield’s legendary line “Confusion Will Be My Epitaph”, which of course comes from the King Crimson classic “Epitaph”. It’s also one of the rare moments when ELP, or rather Lake, tip their hats to King Crimson, since apart from the early days of their career, when they didn’t yet have enough material of their own, they steered clear of playing classics from their former bands. The closing cataclysm with “Aquatarkus”, which recreates the main motif of the entire suite at an even more dramatic level, comes off as the golden capstone on top of the pyramid. A further demonstration of virtuosity and sensitivity combined to create stunningly beautiful arrangements follows with Lake’s psychedelic folk-rock gem “Take a Pebble”, into which they slyly slip the evergreen ballads “Still You Turn Me On” and “Lucky Man”. Lake’s singing talent was at its peak here, so it’s no surprise that he delivers both ballads with exceptional heart and inspiration.
The second disc keeps up the sheer bliss for every last prog rock maniac, even though it’s not opened by some traditional ELP classic but by Emerson’s solo spot. The keyboard wizard of course couldn’t help being himself, so “Piano Improvisations” is a collage of various piano improvisations from the world of classical music, headed by “Fugue” in the original version by the Austrian composer Friedrich Gulda, while the variation on the classic “Little Rock Getaway”, originally written by the American jazz pianist Joe Sullivan, is a bit of a surprise, since Emerson was never exactly a fervent fan of jazz pianists. Emerson’s piano improvisations are played as a longer interlude before the continuation, or rather conclusion, of “Take a Pebble”, where the romantic side of the band, always embodied by Lake, comes to life once more.
From romance we leap straight into mischief with a jokey medley of two popular social satires, “Jeremy Bender” and “The Sheriff”. Both saloon burlesques, which transport the listener to the Wild West, flow into each other beautifully and provide some much-needed relaxation before the album’s second big, wildly dramatic peak. That’s of course the next super epic, “Karn Evil 9”, the only composition in the legendary trio’s story that can stand shoulder to shoulder with “Tarkus” in quality, number of great ideas and complexity as the peak of their songwriting career. This version is stretched by more than five minutes from the original half hour, which means there’s a string of unexpected improvisations to be found in it, spicing things up even more. It’s hard to say which version of this prophetic sci-fi epic about computers ruling over humans is better, but it has to be said that the live version is played with incredible fire and 110% effort from all three members. Sad but true, ELP never managed to play either of the two super epics with such confidence again, and in later years they increasingly shortened them or even dropped them from the live set altogether.
“Welcome Back My Friends…” is one of those classic live albums that gives you the best possible window into a band’s most fertile period, in this case the golden creative years of this legendary prog rock trio. The tour was so grueling that ELP needed a whole three years to recover enough to release a new studio album, or rather two new studio albums under the shared title “Works”. By then their star had already faded considerably, which means they never recovered, neither creatively nor commercially, so “Welcome Back My Friends…” is their last release that still deserves a place in the collection of every fan of prog and classical rock.
Lineup
Keith Emerson – keyboards, vocals on “Karn Evil 9 – 1st Impression”
Greg Lake – vocals, bass guitar, electric and acoustic guitar
Carl Palmer – drums, percussion
Production
Greg Lake
Tracklist
CD1:
1. Hoedown (4:55)
2. Jerusalem (2:51)
3. Toccata (7:24)
4. Tarkus (16:42)
a) Eruption
b) Stones Of Years
c) Iconoclast
d) Mass
e) Manticore
f) Battlefield (Including “Epitaph”)
g) Aquatarkus
5. Take A Pebble (11:07) (Including “Still… You Turn Me On” {Lake} and “Lucky Man” {Lake}
CD2:
1. Piano Improvisations {Emerson} (11:53)
(Including “Fugue” {Friedrich Gulda} and “Little Rock Getaway” {Joe Sullivan})
2. Take A Pebble (Conclusion) {Lake} (3:33)
3. Jeremy Bender / The Sheriff (Medley) {Emerson / Lake} (5:06)
4. Karn Evil 9 (35:19)
a) 1st Impression (Includes Percussion Solo (Con Brio)
b) 2nd Impression
c) 3rd Impression
