Emerson, Lake & Palmer
In an article from Prog 17, the late Keith Emerson remembers how ELP’s second album was an opportunity for the trio to prove themselves.
A dip back into the archives as the late Keith Emerson tells the story of Tarkus.
For Emerson, Lake & Palmer the year 1971 represented an opportunity to establish that this union of three giant talents was more than a mere transient supergroup, but had the chance to become a firm fixture on the prog scene. Their self-titled debut album from the previous year had displayed some consummate musicianship and spectacular performances, yet had also been rather inconsistent. But it did create a solid base from which the trio were now ready to launch innovative and challenging thoughts. As was to be proven on Tarkus.
What was to give this album its tone, timbre and colouring was the epic title track, which took up the whole of the first side of the original vinyl, being split into seven movements. This was a bold, adventurous step for the band, and one that relied heavily on Keith Emerson’s own aspirations and influences. In fact, it was the keyboard master who really came up with the musically complex composition in the first place.
“After the release of ELP’s first album and during the live recording of Pictures At An Exhibition, it is coincidental that Carl Palmer and I were working individually on the same sort of complex rhythm ideas,” recalled Emerson in 2010. “He was doing this on his practice drum pads, while I was at home on an upright piano in London and a Steinway in Sussex. As my ideas seemed to complement what Carl was up to, I pursued this direction.
“We focused on a centrepiece first to establish a concept. Sometimes we didn’t know if it would become a conceptual piece of work at all. All of the compositions had to bond and work together, and if they didn’t they were used somewhere else.”
For this 20-minute exposition, Emerson drew heavily on the work of both Frank Zappa and the Argentinian classical composer Alberto Ginastera.
“I was a huge admirer of Frank Zappa, and had met him on a few earlier occasions when he wanted my advice on how to cope with English orchestras. Frank was of the opinion that there really should not be time signatures. That’s how I felt. Why be governed and dictated to by a 4/4 or
3/4 rhythm by adding or subtracting notes just to make it fit?”
Ginastera’s inspiration is also readily acknowledged by Emerson. In fact, he was to adapt the Argentine’s first piano concerto under the title of Toccata for the 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery. Ginastera absolutely loved this adaptation, claiming that Emerson had captured the essence of the mood by making it frightening.
Over the years, there have been unfair suggestions that some of the musical rhythms and thoughts used in the Tarkus track itself were directly lifted from other sources, with Ginastera in particular being regarded as having been ripped off. This is something that has plagued ELP for five decades. Yet despite the fact that this accusation has taken on a life of its own across the years, Emerson remained irritated by the suggestion that this might have been the case.
“I wish to point out here that there is no plagiarism and no line of Ginastera or anyone else’s was used
“Zappa said there should be no time signatures. We agreed. Why be governed by a 4/4 beat?”
Keith Emerson
in my composition,” he said. “There is a slight bow in the direction of Prokofiev in Eruption [the opening movement], where I transposed a fleeting run of one bar from the Allegro of his Third Piano Concerto In C, as it helped the transition and my wish to not have any key or time signatures. In some way I was searching for a kind of musical Esperanto – but that soon diminished.”
In the end, Emerson presented virtually the whole of Tarkus as an almost finished composition to Palmer and bassist/vocalist Greg Lake (who was also to produce the album). All that was missing was the lyrics, which Lake added later. Now, according to multiple interviews conducted with members of the band in the past, Lake was somewhat less than impressed by what Emerson had come up with. And the keyboardsman openly admitted that this was indeed the case.
“I don’t think Greg was too enthused, because at that time I hadn’t written any ideas for a song,” he mused. “But he settled into producing it, while
Eddy Offord engineered, at Advision Studios, London.”
However, while there was certainly room for lyricism in what had been musically prepared, it was to be the eventual cover artwork that inspired Lake’s now famed anti-war approach to the words. Emerson remembered vividly the first time he saw the illustration that became so entwined with the album, and gave it such an original imagery.
“One day I walked into the studio after my long drive from Sussex. Greg and Carl were looking over the artwork of an artist that had just dropped by [William Neal]. We were all fascinated by his artwork, particularly the armadillo with cannons and the dodo bird with guns on its wings like a Spitfire.
“To everyone, it represented what we were doing in that studio. The next day on my drive up from Sussex, the imagery of the armadillo kept hitting me. It had to have a name. Something guttural. It had to begin with the letter ‘T’ and end with a flourish.
“Tarka the Otter may have come into it, but this armadillo needed a science fiction kind of name that represented Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in reverse. Some mutilation of the species caused by radiation… Tarkus!”
With the vision now in place, Lake delivered some of the most potent lyrics of his career. But the album was about a lot more than just the title epic. The second side saw a far more conventional collection of six songs, and some of these have become celebrated as part of the ELP legend. For instance, there’s Jeremy Bender, which has its roots in an American folk song.
“Yes, it was our adaptation of the traditional song Oh, Susannah and even has a nod towards the great 20th century American pianist Floyd Cramer, who was always a favourite of mine.”
Battlefield features a rare electric guitar solo from Lake and, admitted Emerson, “was certainly inspired by [Lake’s former band] King Crimson. We even used to do part of that band’s Epitaph when performing Battlefield live – that was co-written by Greg.”
However, one of the most emotive songs here is The Only Way, which is based on music by Bach, with extra elements from Emerson and Lake. It features the challenging line ‘Can you believe God makes you breathe/Why did he lose six million Jews?’ This certainly made Emerson and Palmer just a little bit uncomfortable.
“The track Tarkus remains today one of my favourites to play in any format.”
Keith Emerson
“Carl and I thought the religious implication was a bit strong, but we went along with the question, although it was a disturbing one,” remembered Emerson.
“The music of Bach had always played a part in my musical inspiration, right from when I had a little jazz trio in Sussex. For The Only Way I found a church with a pipe organ and had fun holding down the F bass pedal while I played Bach’s Toccata In F and then utilised the Sixth Prelude piece over it.”
While much of this album does veer towards the more serious side of ELP, there was a note of welcome jocularity brought right at the end with the track Are You Ready Eddy?, one of only two songs to be composed by the entire band (although it is based on the 1956 Little Richard song The Girl Can’t Help It). This is about the engineer Eddy
Offord, who was closely associated with the band.
“It’s a phrase we’d yell out every time we were ready to record.”
But it does feature Palmer shouting out the message, “They’ve only go’ ’am or cheese!”. This showed up the humorous sound of the band (yes, there was one).
“As with most ELP albums, when completion was just around the corner, we would relax and have fun, like a wrap party,” he remembered. “On the corner of Gosfield Street in central London, where Advision was situated, there was a sandwich shop. Advision was very basic and didn’t have a studio canteen. We used to send out the elderly lady, who was a mixture of Greek and London cockney, to pick up the order. Carl thought she was hilarious and used to mimic her wonderfully, especially when she poked her head round the studio door to announce that the sandwich shop only had ham or cheese. She seemed to speak down her nose and drop her ‘H’s and ‘T’s so it came across like, ‘They’ve only go’ ’am or cheese’. We used it on the album, which caused confusion with the Americans who didn’t understand what we were on about.”
The album was released in the UK on June 14, 1971, appearing two months later in the US. It’s one of only two
ELP records to reach the Top 10 in the States, making it to No.9 (Trilogy, the following year, got to No.5), while in Britain it was their only No.1 record. It still remains one of the most satisfying and demanding of all ELP’s albums, standing out because of the musical risks taken and the fact that it sounded like three men on a mission to push the envelope as much as to prove they were among the biggest names of the era.
Keith Emerson admitted that Tarkus was one of his favourite albums, not least because the title track has taken on a life of its own. A version by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded live in March 2010, was released under the title Tarkus – Classical Meets Rock, and at the time, the keyboard player was delighted with the compliment.
“Back in 1971, I would never have thought that eventually a Japanese Orchestra would bring my composition to the symphonic stage, and I am most honoured that they did so.
“Behind it all I always carried Ginastera’s ideology in my head. If he’d managed to get orchestras to play his way, then I would also try. The track Tarkus remains today one of my favourites to play in any format.”
Carl Palmer’s Legacy continues to perform ELP’s music. The drummer’s live project will be back on tour in February 2021.
For more info, see www.carlpalmer.com.