Brain Salad Surgery
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| Brain Salad Surgery | |||||
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| Studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer | |||||
| Released | November 19, 1973 | ||||
| Recorded | June-September 1973 | ||||
| Genre | Progressive Rock | ||||
| Length | 45:04 (58:43 on 1996 re-release) | ||||
| Label | Manticore Records | ||||
| Producer | Greg Lake | ||||
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| Emerson, Lake & Palmer chronology | |||||
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Brain Salad Surgery is the fourth studio album by progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1973 and the first under their Manticore Records imprint. It features cover art by controversial surreal artist H. R. Giger. According to the 1996 re-release notes, Manticore Records president Mario Medious "nicked the title from a slang lyric in Dr. John's 1973 hit, "Right Place, Wrong Time" (released January 26, 1973), Just need a little brain salad surgery/Got to cure this insecurity, to replace the working title Whip Some Skull on Yer (both titles are euphemisms for fellatio[1]).
Contents |
[edit] Contents
The album is an epic, futuristic fusion of rock and classical themes. Lyrics were co-written by Greg Lake with fellow ex-King Crimson member (and frequent ELP collaborator) Peter Sinfield.
[edit] Jerusalem
"Jerusalem" was the only single, but it was not released in the UK due to objections from the BBC.
[edit] Toccata
On the instrumental "Toccata", based on Alberto Ginastera's 1st piano Concerto, special synthesized effects were produced not only by Keith Emerson but by Carl Palmer using newly-developed drum synthesizers. Ginastera's agent apparently did not care for ELP's rendition and wasn't going to clear the publishing rights; however, Ginastera himself liked it a lot and arranged for clearance. "Toccata" also gained fame as the theme to the New England cult TV show Creature Double Feature.
[edit] Karn Evil 9
The album's longest composition, Karn Evil 9, which is more than 30 minutes in length, consists of three movements or "impressions", the first and third separated by an extended instrumental passage. The most well-known section is "Karn Evil 9 - 1st Impression, Part 2" (Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends...). "Karn Evil 9" was so long that the first movement originally had to be split between sides 1 and 2 of the album. The original U.S. CD release also divided the piece, but subsequent releases have presented it in an uninterrupted version.[2]
"Karn Evil 9" includes vocal credit for Keith Emerson, and is Emerson's only official vocal credit on an ELP record.
[edit] Album cover
The album cover is considered one of the most memorable (and often disturbing) of its time. It features distinctive Giger monochromatic biomechanical artwork, integrating an industrial mechanism with a human skull and the new ELP logo (created by Giger). The lower part of the skull's face is covered by a circular "screen", which shows the mouth and lower face in its flesh-covered state. In the original LP release, the front cover was split in half down the center, except for the circular screen section (which was attached to the right half). Opening the halves revealed a painting of the complete face: a human female (modelled after Giger's wife [3]), with "alien" hair and multiple scars, including the infinity symbol and a scar from a frontal lobotomy. The two images of the woman are very similar, but the outer image (in the circle) contains what appears to be the top of a phallus below her chin, arising from the "ELP" column below (the second painting originally had the complete phallus, but this was removed at the insistence of the record company [4]). The back cover was solid black with the album title in plain white lettering.
On later vinyl printings (and most CD releases), the front cover is a single piece, and the alternate ("face") view is used on the back cover. However, the 1993 Victory Music CD reissue packaged the album in a special Digipak with the original split cover art, which also unfolded to reveal a small poster with the lyrics and band photos from the original album inner sleeve.
Both paintings were created in pure shades of grey airbrush, to appear metallic and mechanical. However, on some releases of the album, the cover was printed with too much red, making the image (in Giger's words) "cow-shit-pile-brown" [1].
Giger's ELP logo, using a circular enclosure of the "E" and upper portion of the "P", around a column formed by the "L" and the vertical of the "P", became a standard for the band and has been used extensively since[3].
The paintings for the cover are titled "Work #217 ELP I" and "Work #218 ELP II". The original acrylic-on-paper paintings were lost (or stolen) after a Giger exhibition at the National Technical Museum in Prague, which ended August 31, 2005[5].
[edit] Alternate releases
In addition to the standard vinyl, cassette, and CD releases, the album has also been released on DVD-Audio, remixed into Dolby 5.1 and in many cases using alternative vocal tracks.
[edit] Track listing
- "Jerusalem" (William Blake, Hubert Parry as adapted by Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer) – 2:44
- "Toccata" Adaptation of Ginastera's 1st piano Concerto, 4th movement (Alberto Ginastera, arr. Emerson) – 7:22
- "Still...You Turn Me On" (Lake)– 2:53
- "Benny the Bouncer" (Emerson, Lake, Peter Sinfield) – 2:21
- "Karn Evil 9" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 29:54
- "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 1" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 8:43
- "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2" (Emerson, Lake) – 4:46
- "Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression" (Emerson, Lake) – 7:07
- "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression" (Emerson, Lake) – 9:03
- "The Making of Brain Salad Surgery" (on the 1996 Rhino Records release.) - 13:38
[edit] Personnel
- Keith Emerson – organs, piano, harpsichord, accordion, custom-built Moog synthesizers & Moog Polyphonic ensemble, computer voice on 5
- Greg Lake – vocals, bass, guitar, 6 string electric guitar, 12 string electric guitar
- Carl Palmer – percussion, percussion synthesizers
[edit] Additional recordings
Three further songs were recorded at the Brain Salad Surgery sessions but were not included on the album:
- The instrumental "When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine" appeared on the B-side of the single version of "Jerusalem".
- The song "Brain Salad Surgery" surprisingly did not appear on the album of the same name, but was released on a promotional 7" flexi-disc together with excerpts from the album. It was also later used as the B-side of "Fanfare for the Common Man".
- The song "Tiger In A Spotlight" was released as a single in 1977. However, the melody was used during instrumental jams on tour, as heard in the extended Take A Pebble recording on the Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends album.
All three songs were later included on Works Volume II.
[edit] Singles
- Jerusalem / When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine
[edit] Promotion
In support of the album, ELP embarked on a world tour (their largest to date), titled the Someone Get Me A Ladder tour (the name is borrowed from a Still... You Turn Me On lyric). A live album of the tour, Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends (also named for a Karn Evil 9 lyric) was released in 1974.
[edit] Links
[edit] References
- ^ a b Background History by H.R. Giger. Official Giger website.
- ^ For example, Rhino Entertainment R2 72459, 1996.
- ^ a b http://www.brain-salad-surgery.de/Artwork.html
- ^ Background History by Keith Emerson. Official Giger website.
- ^ Missing In Prague. Official Giger website.
