BRAIN SALAD SURGERY

ELP's Brain Salad Surgery is an essential album in any progressive rock collection. This is a fact. No opinion can change it. I can't believe some of the negative responses. Are you kidding me? ELP was a band that did what they were good at and made no apologies. They went straight for the throat. BSS is the culmination of all of their aspirations. Big, bombastic, self indulgent, daring etc. all of these in full force here. This is the pure definition of prog. Ignoring all of the boundaries and just going for it.

The album starts off with Jerusalem. A traditional English hymn trumpeting out in an explosive fanfare here. Awesome and very powerful.

Next up is Tocatta. Based on the Fourth Movement of Alberto Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto on the Fourth Movement of Alberto Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto. A masterpiece in itself. I used to use this song to test my new stereo equipment. It had al the highs and lows, the soft and the hard.

Still You Turn Me On. Probably the best of all of Greg Lake's ballads.

Benny The Bouncer. Just pure fun. Hilarious lyrics make up this piece of comic relief. Still the excellent musicianship is evident.

Next is The Karn Evil 9 Suite. A technical masterpiece full of the technical mastery ELP are known for with the lyrics of the great Peter Sinfield. I don't really know what else to say about it other than they don't hold back at all and the music benefits from it.

Like I said earlier, this is essential in a prog collection. Not having this would be like not having The Sex Pistols or the Ramones first album in your punk collection. Like having a Beatles collection minus Sergeant Peppers. Like having a metal collection without Black Sabbath's Paranoid etc.....