TARKUS

Tarkus is the second album from ELP and sees the group in full flight. Although most ELP fans can all agree that the title track that takes up the entire first side of the album is one of the greatest tracks that the group ever produced, sadly a lot of people also consider the songs on the second side as "throwaways", I disagree with this for two reasons, 1) The songs are of course lighter, and after a full twenty minutes of the intense Tarkus I think that a few lighter, more simple tracks help the record overall to keep things from going too over the top, or becoming too serious. 2) A lot of people have this impression that ELP were extremely pretentious, and took themselves too seriously for their own good, obviously then those people have never heard "Jeremy bender" or "Are you ready eddy?". There is a lot of great humour on the second side of the lp and it shows that the band had another side to them, and weren't always interested in "showing off".

Tarkus could be considered to be the bands first true epic. Innovative for it's time and with some excellent ideas, the band really seemed to be getting somewhere, or so you would think. In fact, around the time that keyboardist Kieth Emerson was developing the project he decided to show his bandmates a rough idea of what he was working on, Greg Lake was horrified, and remarked that if that was what he wanted to play he'd better find somebody else to play with him. But having already booked studio time Lake was convinced that he should at least give it a try, soon afterwards Lake began to fall in love the project, and things began to take shape. The track proved an unusual one, An ominous vocal intro opens for an edgy section that had a 5/4 time signature, this was unusual for the time and sounded odd, but at the same time, absolutely great. One thing thats great about tarkus is that it contains some of the best lead guitar from Lake on an ELP track. Tarkus is broken into many different sections and with Lakes lyrics and the illustrations on the sleeve, it begins to tell a story, muddled but at the same time interesting. It is a piece that I dont think will ever be forgotten as long as there are people who are interested in music that was innovative and broke boundries.

Side two may not be as powerful, but it is still very enjoyable. The first song "Jeremy bender" is a spirited and catchy little tune with some of the wildest lyrics Lake ever wrote "Jeremy bender was a man of leisure, took his pleasure in the evening sun, laid him down in a bed of roses, finally decided to become a nun". Other highlights include "Bitches crystal", another "barrelhouse boogie" piano type song and the slightly harder edged "A time and a place" , While neither of them would be considered the best of ELP, they are great tracks. Also "Are you ready eddy?" should be mentioned just for its "throw caution to the wind" type attitude that proves to be a great way to end the record, with a bit of humour!

Overall the album may not be as strong as the two masterpieces that would follow "Trilogy" and "Brain salad surgery", but it is an excellent addition to any progressive rock collection, and a must have for ELP fans.