24 November : Emerson Lake and Palmer

My entry point to Emerson Lake and Palmer was through my school friend Panda Meek, whose big brother had a quadraphonic HiFi system. I got a tape dub of Brain Salad Surgery from him, which I still have. I was never a huge fan of them, but their music intersected with my teen years and I liked Trilogy and, later, the live version of Aquatarkus. These days I barely listen to them, but a few years ago I revisited their early music and decided that my favourite of all their albums was this one, their debut, released 20 November 1970 (I know, I’m a couple of days late).

The reason I like it is that they were still new and the music reflects that; this is music full of possibilities, of hints at paths not taken when Emerson Lake and Palmer mutated into the continent-bestriding behemoth that was ELP. Listening again to the CD this afternoon confirmed me in that view. There’s a lightness of touch about some of this that’s appealing, particularly Take A Pebble, or at least the instrumental section, Lake’s lyric and vocals are conventional.

What I haven’t decided is whether there is anything obviously new about what they’re doing. When I wrote about Yes’s Time and a Word earlier this year, I thought it sounded fresh from the first note. Similarly, though I’m not a big Genesis fan, I thought Trespass had the benefit of sounding unlike anything else around at the time. This album is exactly what you’d expect a mash-up of the Nice, Atomic Rooster and King Crimson to be, and the freshness, for me at least, comes not from Emerson’s pounding of the Hammond or Moog, but from the jazz-leanings of his piano playing, which I’d like to hear more of.

I’m still not a particular fan of ELP as a whole, but I have a liking for bits of this album: mainly the bits where Emerson plays the piano. The most ‘ELP’-like track, Tank, is easily the most boring.

I listened on CD, but it’s easy to find everywhere else.