ELP epics: which is more lyrically bogus?

All of Tarkus is awesome, especially the lyrics. I think the lyrics are excellent, some of the best they ever wrote. Karn Evil 9 is a bit less good, specially the last impression.

The only prog lyrics that I take seriously are Peter Gabriels and Neil Pearts.ELP were'nt the greatest lyric writers...really?? .......no sh*t Shirlock.I am getting very pissed off with this blatant ELP bashing masquerading as meaningfull discussion.Bollocks is what it is.This is an ELP thread deliberately started by a NON ELP FAN to antagonise ELP fans ...balatantly.Why don't you just leave it ffs.

Ditto. A waste of bandwith. And energy.

Sweetnighter wrote: Emerson, Lake, and Palmer: Masterful musicians! Storywriters? Not so sure. Here's my interpreted synopsis of the two epics. Tarkus: Large robotic armadillo drives around and kills things. Born out of some large egg that came from a volcano. Fights other quasi-robotic animals. Major battle with Manticore, a... uh... thing that looks sorta like a tiger... or wolf... or something. Swims away. (See gatefold album for the animated version) The lyrics of Tarkus and the pictures in the album don't really connect, so I'm sort of drawing from both. Each one has a battle... but thats about it. How do the lyrics of Mass connect to the rest of the story... I guess I'm not seeing the "weaver in the web he made" allusion.

 

Okay... "Tarkus", on first glance of the cover art and subtitles to the epic, might suggest extreme pretentious tendencies, but upon actually listening to the piece, it's actually a lot less serious than it appears. For one thing, the music chronicles the absolutely hilarious adventures of an 'armadillo tank' attacking on a huge battlefield, detailed in the pictures of the liner notes. I won't actually go into what happens here, as reviewers have done it in an amusing enough way, but what I will say is that the structure is also considerably less overwhelming - the suite is in actuality a vehicle for Greg Lake's short pop numbers that are connected by complex, but not overlong and well-structured Emerson synth passages, which might actually be the man at his absolute peak. They range from the absolutely fantastic opening synth barrage of 'Eruption' to the great soloing transitions that either lead up to the poppier sections ('Iconoclast') or the battlefield portions ('Iconoclast'). Plus, that really weird synth march that ends the tune and includes reprises from the epic's most memorable themes ('Aquatarkus') might be an acquired taste because of its' tone, but once you acquire it, there's an extremely fun, quirky and engaging kind of quality to it.

As for the actual song oriented sections that are covered by Lake here, 'Stones Of Years' serves as a perfect way to emerge out of the blast of 'Eruption' - it's a great ballad portion featuring a highly beautiful melody (love the 'ahhhhhhhh's following the opening verse, too), and a nice, sparse bassline over nicely flowing keyboard parts. I should also mention that the lyrics themselves don't have much to do with the story of Tarkus, and that's especially apparent in the 'Mass' portion. That, however, doesn't matter at this point of the song, since the melody here is the catchiest moment of ELP's career, hands down. What an incredibly addictive hook that will stick in your head for hours on end, and it moves at such a great pace. And of course, the 'Battlefield' portion is sung with such conviction that you really might believe something earthshattering has happened with the  armadillo tank destruction - it's great!

As much as the professional nature and epic tendencies of the "Tarkus" suite might make for the career highlight for the band, though, it also threatens to overshadow the whole second side of the album.

He does use synths during Eruption.. actually the synths are the foundation.. of which the Hammond plays over...

As far as connecting the lyrics, especially those of "Mass"

It starts out with Stones of Years... which is Tarkus' lament to the Manticore.. a mythological creature that has been around for ages... Tarkus thinks he's just an old man who can't see or listen to reality around him... A blow hard... who only speaks, but doesn't listen...

This is were the trouble begins...

Mass: This is were Tarkus thinks that those that preach are a bunch of hypocrites.. and you lie in the bed that you make... it also throws in Greg's feelings about mass religion at the time... that religion ( or basically those that preached religion) were the center of most wars...

Battlefield:  At the end of the war... did we really win anything at all ??  Leading into Aquatarkus... a kind of metamorphosis.. learning the truth and sailing away in victory, but disgust....

Edited by threefates