BRAIN SALAD SURGERY

Brain Salad Surgery is quite often regarded as Emerson, Lake and Palmer at their peak. Few should disagree. The first progressive rock supergroup, Emerson, Lake and Palmer had it all, Greg Lake, one of the best voices in rock history and an excellent bassist and electric guitarist. Kieth Emerson, possibly THE keyboardist of keyboardists, brought an energy and an edge to the band that few groups could match. And of course the drum prodigy carl palmer, who was never afraid to show off what he could do.

The first side of the record begins with the bands own take on William Blake's "Jerusalem", it is a stunning rendition of the classic and an excellent way to kick off such a charismatic record, Lakes vocals are powerful and memorable and lines such as "Bring me my bow, bring me my arrows of desire" just seem so much more meaningful from his wonderfully ENGLISH voice. Next up is another take on a classic, the seven minute "Toccata" may be the darkest song that ELP ever produced, It is violent and harsh! and one of the greatest instrumentals in the ELP catalogue. The song that follows is another one of Lakes acoustic ballads that serves as a good way to relax after the energy of the first two tracks, "Still... You Turn Me On" may not be as good as trilogy's "From The Beginning" but none the less is a very enjoyable song which may have become a hit single if Emerson and Palmer had not prevented it from being released. The ridiculous "Benny The Bouncer" follows, a humourous short piece not to be taken too seriously featuring some of Emersons barrelhouse piano.

This all leaves plenty of space for the epic "Karn Evil 9".One of the longest and greatest epics in progressive rock history,almost eveything that made ELP great are all in this piece. Some peoples attention may begin to drift after a while, but anybody that truly understands progressive music will know that keeping your mind on the music is vitally important to understand it, and in the end are rewarded beyond belief. Karn Evil 9 really was a success in creating the worlds most exciting "classical/rock hybrid". Its futuristic sci-fi theme, looking back now, may seem scarily appropriate to todays society (Computers taking over peoples lives). Karn Evil 9 may be near the 30 minute mark but the energy and intensity in the bands playing can keep the listener satisfied all the way through (In fact I wish it was longer). The amount of clever hooks, and wonderful separate sections could fuel ten separate records, but you get it all in 30 minutes. One of my favourite keyboard hooks is near the start of the piece around the 1:30 minute mark where Emerson delivers a fantastic synth line. The piece also features another wonderful innovation, the first use(?) of electronic drums built for the piece itself and used in all the right places by Palmer. It also gave us one of rocks most memorable lines "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, We're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside"

Altogether a stunning record and one of the greatest ever released. Very highly recomended.