Brain Salad
" Brain Salad Surgery "
Brain Salad Surgery represents Emerson, Lake & Palmer's finest work at the prime of their careers. It was released in the U.S. in November 1973, a year after they had formed their recording label, Manticore. It's release was followed by an intense world tour including the California Jam. The cover art for the album was done by H.R. Giger, who used his wife as a model.
Brain Salad plays the songs underlined, in green.
Songs on this album include:
Jerusalem ( music by Sir Charles Parry, lyrics by William Blake )
Toccata ( an adaptation of Ginastera's 1st piano concerto, 4th movement )
Still... You Turn Me On
Benny the Bouncer
Karn Evil 9
1st Impression
2nd Impression
3rd Impression
Jerusalem was
ELP's take on a famous British hymn sung in schools and played in the Royal
Albert Hall in England. The hymn was originally based off of a poem by William
Blake. It featured the debut of the first polyphonic synthesizer.
Toccata was Keith Emerson's interpretation
of classical Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto, 4th
Movement. The orignal song was intended for an orchestra to play, but this
interpretation narrows it down to performance by three people, without the use
of overdubbing. The "atmospheric sounds" near the end of the song were done on
the electric drums by Carl Palmer (not on the synthesizer, as most people
believe).
Still...You Turn Me On was one of Greg
Lake's acoustic ballads, in the tradition of "Lucky Man" from their debut album
and "From the Beginning" of Trilogy. Ironically, it was these ballads
that were played the most on the radio, and made ELP popular, yet they hardly
represent the band's capabilities or even members (Carl Palmer did not play on
this song).
Benny the Bouncer was a fun song that paralled "The Sheriff" from Trilogy and "Are You Ready Eddy?" from
Tarkus.
Karn Evil 9 was probably ELP's best song.
The original idea for the song was a planet (called "Ganton 9") on which evil
flourished. With the help of Peter Sinfield, they developed the name "Karn Evil
9" from their original idea, and from the comment that the music sounded like a
carnival. The first and second impressions generally follow this idea, dealing
with inhumanities and exploitation. The third impression addresses the concept
of computers taking over civilization. This dark prediction was made at a time
when computer technology was just beginning to develop.