Happy 50th Birthday...Brain Salad Surgery - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Brain Salad Surgery is nothing short of a milestone, IMO. "Karn Evil 9" is one of those achievements that, for me, defines progressive rock.

Happy 50th!!

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I didn't buy my first ELP album until around three years ago. Unfortunately, it happened to be BSS. Some would say I was a Lucky Man to have picked up Brain Salad Surgery as my first ELP album and at a bargain price too, but I just say C'est La Vie. Smile

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - December 07 2023 at 16:36

Psychedelic Paul wrote:

I didn't buy my first ELP album until around three years ago. Unfortunately, it happened to be BSS. Some would say I was a Lucky Man to have picked up Brain Salad Surgery as my first album and at a bargain price too, but I just say C'est La Vie. Smile

Well, Paul, you're not quite a full-blown progger yet, but maybe later on. Tongue

Edited by David_D - December 07 2023 at 15:48

quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond

verslibre wrote:

"Karn Evil 9" is one of those achievements that, for me, defines progressive rock.

Now I listened again to "1st Impression, Part I" alone, and it seemed fine to me - maybe finally after 10 years and listening to a lot of Metal as well. Big smile

quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond

A great LP

Atlantic toned down the cover art much to Giger's disappointment. The Indian princess was based on his girlfriend of the time I think.

ELP previewed Karn Evil 9 1st Impression on their 1973 Italian tour that was the subject of the Return Of The Manticore documentary that was aired on the BBC. You can find a performance from Milan on the 3 disc Transmission Possible set. One thing that I notice that stands out is how heavy (weighty) Carl Palmer's bass drum is on the sound mix. That may just have been the venue or more likely the preference of the sound mixer at the time as it was broadcast on Italian radio.

I would recommend checking out the deluxe version of the album that has a couple of alternative instrumental versions of Karn Evil 9 3rd Impression. One is close to the version you can see them working on in the Return Of The Manticore documentary. I've always thought that Palmer struggled with that track a little and it took the world tour to iron out the kinks. The versions from Anaheim and Cal Jam 1974 are better than on the album imo.

verslibre wrote:

"Karn Evil 9" is one of those achievements that, for me, defines progressive rock.

By the way, actually, I find the first five ELP albums as the most archetypal Progressive Rock.

quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond

With painful honesty, I must confess, I don't like BSS.

Believe me, I have tried, many a time, to appreciate it, and I always find for me that it falls short of what came before it by the band, and I love every bit of the previous ELP albums, whether live or studio.

presdoug wrote:

With painful honesty, I must confess, I don't like BSS.

Believe me, I have tried, many a time, to appreciate it, and I always find for me that it falls short of what came before it by the band, and I love every bit of the previous ELP albums, whether live or studio.

I know you like the Organ to be front and centre stage. By this time Emerson was exploiting the synthesiser for all it was worth. Other than that it's the same band.

Sound wise it's quite different to the first four especially as Eddie Offord is no longer involved (the guy was a production engineering genius for ELP and Yes) and Lake's voice was beginnning to show a bit of wear and tear. The 'English Choirboy' purity was no longer apparent although BSS as an album didn't really need that!

Edited by richardh - December 08 2023 at 10:38

It’s still a head-scratcher to me what regard this album has amongst the voters at progarchives. BSS doesn’t even place in the top 100 prog albums, let alone the top 10.

To me, the real head-scratcher is that there are still some folks who care about the PA top 100. xD

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