Emerson, Lake & Palmer were considered to be one of the first "super-groups", being formed by ex-The Nice keyboard player Keith Emerson, King Crimson singer and bassist Greg Lake, and ex-Atomic Rooster drummer Carl Palmer. They were seen to be in the vanguard of the Progressive Rock movement.
My introduction to Emerson, Lake and Palmer was via a friend who lent me his copy of "Pictures At An Exhibition" to listen to, and as I liked it I bought my own copy.
A couple of years later I heard "Lucky Man" on the radio, found it came from ELP's first album so I decided to buy that. Frankly though, the LP was a bit of a disappointment. Whilst I didn't particularly dislike anything on it at the time, there also wasn't anything that I thought was special. After a few plays, I wasn't too interested in hearing it again.
I knew ELP had a reputation for plundering the
classics but my knowledge at the time was such that I had little idea what they had been plundering here, apart for the label on the disc giving the writing credit for Barbarian to Bartok and Knife-Edge to Janacek !
Looking at the track listing again, "Lucky Man" is the only one I can remember, so it would be interesting to listen again to see what, if anything, comes back, and whether the album has improved with age. After all it is now 53 years old.....
Side One opens with "The Barbarian" which I now know is an arrangement of Hungarian composer Bela Bartok's Allegro Barbarian, a piece written for the piano. I also took the opportunity to listen to one of the performances of the original on YouTube.
The first section might be labelled classic ELP with bombastic organ, bass and drums before leading into what is a fairly faithful reproduction of Bartok's original with just a hint of jazz piano flourishes and supporting drum and gong, before a reprise of the initial arrangement. On my first listen I was thinking what was the point, but on a second hearing I decided I quite liked it.
It wouldn't be a progressive rock album without a track over 10 minutes long, and "Take A Pebble" ticks that box, weighing in at 12 minutes 32 seconds. Beginning with a slow intro of keyboard, bass and percussion before Lake's enters singing a gentle ballad and sounding a lot like Justin Haywood from The Moody Blues. The track moves on to a lively piano break repeating the vocal harmony before fading into soft acoustic guitar and water like percussion effects which reminded me of parts of "Close To The Edge" by Yes. The acoustic guitar leads into a hoe-down rhythm and hand-claps. Another jazz piano interlude follows, which frankly goes on a bit too long before the vocals return to bring the song to its conclusion. I had totally forgotten the track, but overall I liked it, although I felt it could have done with a little editing.
"Knife-Edge" is apparently based on a movement from Czech composer Leos Janacek's orchestral piece "Sinfonietta" with a middle section from Johann Sebastian Bach's "French Suite No 1 in D minor". Another song I had completely forgotten and it was like listening to for the first time and I didn't recall any of it. It starts with just the bass and vocal before the drums and organ join in. You tend to either love or hate Emerson's organ playing and here it eventually falls into the annoying category, especially as the outro goes on way too long. For some reason I kept thinking is sounded like Ian Gillan era Deep Purple ! If the excesses had been curbed, this could have been a decent 3 minute single rather.
It also wouldn't be a progressive rock album without a track with its title split into several parts and the instrumental "The Three Fates" which opens side two fulfills that criteria, with three sections named after the Three Fates from Greek Mythology.
The first par"Clotho", is notable for its pipe organ, which could feature in a gothic horror movie. "Lachesis" is a baroque/jazz piano piece whilst "Atropos" is manic jazz piano and drums. There didn't appear to be any involvement from Greg Lake on this track, maybe he was on a cigarette break or stuck in the toilet when they were recording this ? Whilst primarily being a vehicle to demonstrate what a fantastic keyboard player Keith Emerson is, it comes across as showing off, and quite frankly I couldn't wait for it to end.
"Tank" includes a drum solo, something that seemed to be mandatory for live performances for many bands in the 1970s, so it's hardly surprising that a super-group drummer includes one on their first album. It could have been worse, and the track is slightly redeemed by the toe-tapping outro, although again this goes on far too long.
The acoustic guitar ballad "Lucky Man" closes the album, and feels a little out of place with most of what has gone before. The electric guitar solo is enjoyable, but the Moog solo tacked onto the end was probably not necessary but maybe it was felt that Emerson had to be involved on every track one way or the other.
In summary, the album is good in parts, and if the over indulgent excess had been curbed it could have been so much better. In most cases when I have replayed an album, I remember the song once it starts. Here though, I was unable to recall anything apart from "Lucky Man" so it was like hearing it for the first time, and for "The Three Fates" and "Tank", the last time !
Track Listing :
Side One :
1. The Barbarian
2. Take A Pebble
3. Knife-Edge
1. The Three Fates
1) Clotho
2) Lachesis
3) Atropos
2. Tank
3. Lucky Man
Released 1970
UK Chart Position : 4
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