Brace yourself: tonight I tackle a task I've long avoided. I'm going to explain Emerson
Lake and Palmer’s “Karn Evil 9.”
As everyone who grew up in the 1970s surely knows, “Karn Evil 9” is a three-part song on the band’s fourth studio album, “Brain Salad Surgery.” Forget that “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends” bit. It’s the Third Impression that has both enthralled and repulsed me since I first heard it in Hoeing Hall at the University of Rochester in 1973. The lyrics begin with this memorable verse:
Man alone born of stone will stamp the dust of timeHis hands strike the flame of his soul.
Ties a rope to a tree, and hangs the universe
Until the wind of laughter blows cold.
Eloquent, but there is something maddeningly obtuse about those metaphors. “Stamp the dust of time?” “Hangs the universe?” How does one strike the flame of his soul? Why does he stop when the wind of laughter blows cold?
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| Brain Salad Surgery Emerson Lake and Palmer |
Thrust into the face of the night.
Draws a blade of compassion kissed by countless kings
Whose jewelled trumpet words blind his sight.
There's powerful Arthurian imagery there, godlike kings and the like. “Blade of compassion kissed by countless kings” has a fine alliterative ring. “Jeweled
trumpet words” -- a memorable phrase. But is there a
redundancy lurking in “words blind his sight?” I can't decide.
40 years on, I
haven’t a clue. But I keep thinking about it, which I suppose is a tribute to Sinfield's ability. I'm not going to get into Keith Emerson's Hammond organ and piano solos, or the steel drum passage on side 2. But these
lyrics made a searing impression on me. They were the backdrop for many strange adventures on the first floor of Hoeing Hall at the U of R. I still love “Karn Evil 9.”
The phrase "brain salad surgery" can also be found in Dr. John's 1973 smash hit "Right Place Wrong Time." Some say ELP liked the phrase so much that they used at as their album's title.
I confess that I never spent much time listening to this album. They kind of lost me after "Tarkus." (I even wrote a critical review of the album for the Syracuse New Times.)
ReplyDeleteBut I can see what you mean about these specific lyrics, especially considering that it's hard to see their connection to the purported theme of that section: "The Third Impression continues the story begun in the second,[3] describing a war between humans and computers, which can be interpreted in three different ways. One interpretation allows the victory to the humans, who reimpose their domain over the computers. The second interpretation allows victory to the computers, claiming that the computers were successful in dominating the humans and let them live only for the sake of gloating. The third interpretation, consistent with Peter Sinfield's original interpretation that "what [Man had] invented ironically takes him over"[2] has humans winning a war with the help of computers, only to find the computers taking over in the moment of victory."
Sinfield's lyrics are certainly much better than Greg Lake's, such as in "Still... You Turn Me On," when he wrote:
"Every day a little sadder
A little madder
Someone get me a ladder"
I could do better than that!
I should clarify that ELP lost me *with* Tarkus. I didn't get into that at all.
ReplyDeleteI saw Greg Lake perform solo about a year ago. I liked about a third of the set. It was one of those "musical autobiography" shows. Being in the front row made it more enjoyable, though.