Emerson, Lake & Palmer (album)

"The Barbarian" is an arrangement of Béla Bartók's 1911 piano piece Allegro Barbaro, but original early pressings of the album credit the track to the group.{{cite book |last=Macan |first=Edward |title=Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4U_NJpF_FmIC&pg=RA2-PT143 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |pages=253 n.35 |isbn=978-0-19-535681-6}} Bartók's widow contacted the band shortly after the album's release to request that the credit be corrected.Macan, Edward (2006). Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Open Court, p. 112. {{ISBN|9780812695960}}.

"Take a Pebble" was penned by Lake, with the primary sections being a jazz keyboard arrangement by Emerson, and the middle section being a folk guitar work by Lake with water-like percussion effects from Palmer, plus bits of clapping and whistling.

"Knife-Edge" is based on the first movement of Leoš Janáček's orchestral piece Sinfonietta (1926), with an instrumental middle section that includes an extended quotation from the Allemande of Johann Sebastian Bach's first French Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812, but played on an organ rather than a clavichord or piano. Lake provided the lyrics, with assistance from Richard Fraser, a member of the group's road crew.

"The Three Fates" is a three-part "pseudo suite",{{cite book |last=Millward |first=Steve |title=Different Tracks: Music and Politics in 1970 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94d0BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA166 |publisher=Troubador |year=2014 |page=166 |isbn=978-1-78306-476-2}} written and predominantly performed by Emerson. Each section is named after the three sisters of Greek mythology known as the Three Fates, or Moirai: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. The "Clotho" movement was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London, with Emerson playing the venue's pipe organ. "Lachesis" is a short piano piece that features baroque and jazz influences, ending in grand, sweeping arpeggios. "Atropos" sees Emerson play a piano vamp in 7/8 with percussion accompaniment from Palmer.Macan, Edward (2006). Endless Enigma, p. 121. An improvisational section is played on top, which transforms into a polymetrically played repeated sequence in 4/4 time. The resonance of the final chords is curtailed by the sound of explosions.

Palmer's solo spot "Tank" was composed with Emerson. The first section features Emerson on clavinet and piano, Lake on bass and Palmer on drums. The middle section is a drum solo. The final section features Emerson on clavinet and Moog synthesizer.

"Lucky Man" is a song written by Lake on the acoustic guitar when he was 12. It features an improvised Moog synthesizer solo by Emerson at the end, liberally using portamento.{{cite book |last=Romano |first=Will |title=Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2lVMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT97 |year=2010 |publisher=Backbeat Books |pages=97–98 |isbn=978-1-61713-375-6}}{{cite web |last=Couture |first=François |title='Lucky Man' – Song Review |url={{AllMusic|class=song|id=t1538224|pure_url=yes}} |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=2019-06-29}}{{cite web |title=Ultra-Mega-Exclusive Interview With Greg Lake |url=http://horizonpresscompany.com/news/?p=2530 |url-status=dead |publisher=Horizon Press Company |access-date=29 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115121101/http://horizonpresscompany.com/news/?p=2530 |archive-date=15 November 2012}} A 5.1 surround sound mix of the song was released on a 2000 reissue of Brain Salad Surgery.

The album's cover is a painting by British artist Nic Dartnell. Although it has been said to be originally intended for the American group Spirit, and that the bald-headed man on the left of the cover is Spirit's drummer, Ed Cassidy, the artist denied this in an interview with Mike Goldstein of RockPoP:

{{Blockquote

| text = "I'd like to take a moment and dispel a rumor that, according to Wikipedia, the image is somehow linked to the LA band Spirit. The fact is that, at the time I painted the ELP 'Bird', I also painted a portrait of Spirit which I sent to them in LA. A very similar bird was featured in the corner of that painting. I got a message from Spirit to say that if they had received their painting in time they would have put it on the back of Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. I became friendly with Randy California over the years and I took the photograph that is on his 1982 12" EP All Along the Watchtower. The bald image in "Bird" has no connection to Ed Cassidy of Spirit and doesn't look anything like him. Ed still has the Spirit portrait – so I'm told."

| author = Nic Dartnell

| title =

| source = {{cite web|url=http://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2012/06/uncovered-interview-artist-nic-dartnell-on-his-album-cover-for-elps-debut-lp-.html|title=UnCovered Interview – artist Nic Dartnell on his album cover for ELP's debut LP|access-date=26 January 2014}}

| character =

| multiline =

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{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{rating|4.5|5}}{{AllMusic |class=album |id=emerson-lake-palmer-mw0000650116 |title=Emerson, Lake & Palmer |last=Eder |first=Bruce |access-date=20 October 2018}}

|rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

|rev2Score = C{{cite book |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: E |chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=E&bk=70 |title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies |publisher=Ticknor & Fields |year=1981 |access-date=24 February 2019 |isbn=089919026X}}

| rev3 = Rolling Stone

| rev3Score = (favorable){{cite magazine |last=Grossmas |first=Loyd |title=Emerson, Lake & Palmer : Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Music Reviews : Rolling Stone |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/emersonlakepalmer/albums/album/199224/review/5944805/emerson_lake__palmer |url-status=dead |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=15 April 1971 |access-date=3 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211144529/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/emersonlakepalmer/albums/album/199224/review/5944805/emerson_lake__palmer |archive-date=11 December 2007}}

| rev4 = Classic Rock Revisited

| rev4Score = A[https://www.classicrockrevisited.com/show_review.php?id=905 ELP – Emerson Lake & Palmer and Tarkus Deluxe Editions Razor & Tie] www.classicrockrevisited.com, accessed 7 August 2021

| rev5 = The Daily Vault

| rev5Score = A−{{cite web |last=Ray |first=Benjamin |title=The Daily Vault Music Reviews: Emerson, Lake & Palmer |url=http://dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=2673 |work=dailyvault.com |year=2019 |access-date=28 January 2019}}

| rev6 = MusicHound Rock

| rev6Score = {{rating|3|5}}{{cite book|editor1-last=Graff|editor1-first=Gary|editor2-last=Durchholz|editor2-first=Daniel|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Farmington Hills, MI|year=1999|section=Emerson, Lake & Palmer/Emerson, Lake & Powell|isbn=1-57859-061-2|pages=387–388}}

| rev7 = Sound & Vision

| rev7Score = {{rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web |last=Mettler |first=Mike |author-link=Mike Mettler |title=ELP Reissue Series: Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Tarkus; Pictures at an Exhibition |url=https://www.soundandvision.com/content/elp-reissue-series-emerson-lake-palmer-tarkus-pictures-exhibition |website=soundandvision.com |date=14 December 2016 |access-date=17 February 2019}}

}}

Upon release, Loyd Grossmas at Rolling Stone enthused "this is such a good album it is best heard as a whole". Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said: "This opens with 'The Barbarian,' a keyboard showpiece (not to slight all the flailing and booming underneath) replete with the shifts of tempo, time, key, and dynamics beloved of these bozos. Does the title mean they see themselves as rock and roll Huns sacking nineteenth-century 'classical' tradition? Or do they think they're like Verdi portraying Ethiopians in Aida? From such confusions flow music as clunky as these heavy-handed semi-improvisations and would-be tone poems."

In a retrospective review, Bruce Eder at AllMusic claimed it "showcased the group at its least pretentious and most musicianly" while The Daily Vault hailed it as a "dizzying mix of keyboard solos, incredible bass work, excellent vocals and powerful drums". Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock commented of the album, "Still hailed by many as the band's best effort, it established the blueprint for a musical style which, for all the bullish puffing of the band's 'progressive' credentials, they would develop hardly at all." However, he found significant shortcomings with all of the individual songs, excepting only "Atropos", which he called the album's best track.{{cite book |last=Stump |first=Paul |title=The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock |date=1997 |publisher=Quartet Books Limited |isbn=0 7043 8036 6 |pages=98-99}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side one

| title1 = The Barbarian

| writer1 = Béla Bartók, arr. Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer

| length1 = 4:27

| title2 = Take a Pebble

| writer2 = Lake

| length2 = 12:32

| title3 = Knife-Edge

| writer3 = Emerson, Lake, Richard Fraser, Leoš Janáček, Johann Sebastian Bach

| length3 = 5:04

| total_length = 22:03

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| title1 = The Three Fates" {{plainlist|

• a. "Clotho" (1:48)
• b. "Lachesis" (2:43)}} c. "Atropos

| note1 = 3:15

| writer1 = Emerson

| length1 = 7:46

| title2 = Tank

| writer2 = Emerson, Palmer

| length2 = 6:49

| title3 = Lucky Man

| writer3 = Lake

| length3 = 4:37

| total_length = 19:12

}}

In May 2012, Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree remixed the album for a three-disc reissue containing the original mix, the Wilson remix, and a DVD-Audio with Wilson's 5.1 surround sound version and a higher-bitrate version of his stereo mix.

{{Track listing

| headline = CD 2 – The Alternate ELP New 2012 Stereo Mixes

| title1 = The Barbarian

| length1 = 4:32

| title2 = Take a Pebble

| note2 = Lake; arr. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but not always credited

| length2 = 12:36

| title3 = Knife-Edge (with extended outro)

| length3 = 5:38

| title4 = Promenade

| writer4 = Modest Mussorgsky, arr. Lake, Emerson / lyrics: Lake

| length4 = 1:29

| title5 = The Three Fates: Atropos

| length5 = 3:11

| title6 = Rave Up

| writer6 = Emerson, Lake, Palmer

| length6 = 5:02

| title7 = Drum Solo

| writer7 = Palmer

| length7 = 3:02

| title8 = Lucky Man

| length8 = 4:39

| total_length = 40:09

}}

{{track listing

| headline = Bonus tracks

| title9 = Take a Pebble (alternate take)

| length9 = 3:40

| title10 = Knife-Edge (alternate take)

| length10 = 4:19

| title11 = Lucky Man (first Greg Lake solo version)

| length11 = 3:02

| title12 = Lucky Man (alternate take)

| length12 = 4:41

| total_length = 55:51

}}

The remixed versions have different track listings from the original album. The first two sections of "The Three Fates" ("Clotho" and "Lachesis") and "Tank" were omitted, for multitrack tapes for these pieces were unavailable; meanwhile, unreleased material was added. "Knife-Edge" has an extended ending; due to the difficulty of reproducing the song's original tape slowdown ending digitally, Wilson decided to include the end of the original album session at its original speed. The 5.1 remix replaces "Tank" with an unreleased instrumental called "Rave Up", which bears some similarity to the instrumental section of "Mass" on Tarkus.

The remixed stereo versions include all of the above while adding more unreleased material: a vocal version of Modest Mussorgsky's "Promenade" (the first live version of which appears on Pictures at an Exhibition) replaces the missing sections of "The Three Fates"; a new otherwise untitled "Drum Solo" by Carl Palmer (similar but not identical to a section of "Tank") is added between "Rave Up" and "Lucky Man"; "Lucky Man" is followed by an unfinished alternate take of "Take a Pebble", complete with some studio banter, an unreleased take of "Knife-Edge" (lacking vocals and final section), and two versions of "Lucky Man", the first being Greg Lake's original demo, the second an unreleased complete band version.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

• Keith Emerson – Hammond organ, piano, clavinet, pipe organ, Moog modular synthesizer
• Greg Lake – vocals, bass, acoustic and electric guitar
• Carl Palmer – drums, percussion

Production

• Greg Lake – producer
• Eddy Offord – engineer
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer – arrangement, direction
• Nic Dartnell – cover painting

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:center;" |+ Weekly chart performance for Emerson, Lake & Palmer ! Chart (1970–1971) ! Peak position
scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report){{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6}} | align="center"| 9
{{album chart|Canada|17|chartid=5358|rowheader=true|access-date=17 October 2023}}
{{album chart|Netherlands|4|artist=Emerson, Lake & Palmer|album=Emerson, Lake & Palmer|access-date=17 October 2023|rowheader=true}}
{{album chart|Germany4|7|artist=Emerson, Lake & Palmer|album=Emerson, Lake & Palmer|id=12978|access-date=17 October 2023|rowheader=true}}
scope="row"|Italian Albums (Musica e Dischi){{cite web|url=http://www.musicaedischi.it/classifiche_archivio.php|title=Classifiche|work=Musica e Dischi|language=it|access-date=17 October 2023}} Set "Tipo" on "Album". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Emerson Lake & Palmer". | align="center"| 20
scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon){{cite book|title=Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005|publisher=Oricon Entertainment|location=Roppongi, Tokyo|year=2006|isbn=4-87131-077-9|language=ja}} | align="center"| 66
{{album chart|Norway|18|artist=Emerson, Lake & Palmer|album=Emerson, Lake & Palmer|access-date=17 October 2023|rowheader=true}}
{{album chart|UK2|4|date=19701206|access-date=17 October 2023|rowheader=true}}
{{album chart|Billboard200|18|artist=Emerson Lake Palmer|access-date=17 October 2023|rowheader=true}}

class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:center;" ! Chart (2016) ! Peak position

{{album chart|UKIndependent|45|date=20160805|access-date=17 October 2023|rowheader=true}}

{{album chart|UKRock|35|date=20160805|access-date=17 October 2023|rowheader=true}}

{{col-2}}

class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" |+ Year-end chart performance for Emerson, Lake & Palmer ! scope="col" | Chart (1971) ! scope="col" | Position
scope="row" | Dutch Albums (Album Top 100){{cite web|url=https://dutchcharts.nl/jaaroverzichten.asp?year=1971&cat=a|title=Jaaroverzichten – Album 1971|publisher=Hung Medien|language=nl|access-date=27 July 2023}} | 46
scope="row" | German Albums (Offizielle Top 100){{cite web|url=https://www.offiziellecharts.de/charts/album-jahr/for-date-1971|title=Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts|date=1971|publisher=GfK Entertainment charts|language=de|access-date=2 April 2022}} | 16

{{col-end}}

{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United Kingdom|award=Gold|relyear=1970|certyear=1971|certref={{cite magazine|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-UK/Music/Sounds/IDX/Sounds-1971-11-06-IDX-3.pdf|access-date=6 June 2024|title=Emerson, Lake, Palmer – special concerts|magazine=Sounds|date=6 November 1971|page=3}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|title=Emerson|award=Gold|type=album|relyear=1970|certyear=1971}}

{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}

{{reflist}}

{{Emerson, Lake & Palmer}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:Emerson, Lake & Palmer albums

Category:1970 debut albums

Category:Albums produced by Greg Lake

Category:Island Records albums

Category:Atlantic Records albums

Category:Cotillion Records albums

Category:Popular songs based on classical music