Emerson, Lake & Palmer Album: “Tarkus [13 Tracks]”

I admit to being an ELP fan from the actual days that Tarkus was current. Then and now, the album was courageous, and not completely accessable. I give it four stars rather than five because it is somewhat inconsistent in compositional quality. And yes, every now and again on this album Greg Lake's vocals are flat, and it grates my ear to hear it. But the overall virtuosity of the band must be appreciated, as well as the fact that they were stepping into uncharted territory. One can also regard with some melancholy how this period corresponded to a time when ELP could be seen to be maintaining progressive rock "progress," much as King Crimson would do. Sadly, KC continued to grow and evolve (if in fits and starts) while ELP fizzled out.

For me, most of the material from Tarkus still sounds strong today, and why many cannot appreciate the challenging difference this music represents, compared to the overrated, repetitious, and derivative crap that one hears from many artists today, is puzzling. It just seems that many regard adventurism as pomposity, and it ticks them off. Yes, ELP can be pompous, and yes, sometimes breaking off in a non-comformist direction can lead to a dead-end. But I'd rather take the gems with the clinkers, unearthed by a band that tries to find something, than settle for the fool's gold consistently proffered by the mediocre.

ELP will always elicit admiration and scorn (and no ELP album more so than Tarkus). But to the scornful, I would ask the question, "why does everyone insist that ELP was so 'over the top'?" I saw the live stage shows back in the glory days, and for sure, there was a hell of a lot of "show" going on. But of course so did many others (The Who, Jimi Hendrix, etc.) who are not routinely hung with such scornful accusations. And any number of shock-rock, glam-rock, or any other kind of rock you can think of, bands have done much the same, and to a lesser purpose. For instance, what was Kiss all about in their first incarnation anyway, other than their version of an over-the-top show? From an over-the-top ELP, as seen in Tarkus, you could take away the musicianship, compositional talent, and add a large helping of exceptionally bad taste and you have anything Kiss ever did.

When it comes to Emerson Lake & Palmer, one of two pieces is usually voted the band's pinnacle of achievement: "Karn Evil 9" from 1973's BRAIN SALAD SURGERY or the titular suite from 1971's TARKUS. And if "Karn Evil 9" is one of my top candidates for Best Prog Work Ever, "Tarkus" is a monolithic achievement nevertheless, one of the first sidelong epics in the annals of progressive rock, and one of its greatest.

Flying high on Keith Emerson's savage keyboards, grounded by Carl Palmer's seismic drumming, embroidered with Greg Lake's dour vocals and complementary bass licks, "Tarkus" alternates peaks of the loftiest beauty with storms of the basest profanity. There's a plot in Lake's overblown lyrics somewhere - I think it has to do with war, and the armadillo-tank on the LP cover, and something about a manticore as well - but lyrics have never been all that important in prog. They sound profound, and that's all that matters. The suite is partitioned into seven movements, but it's often difficult, amidst the hail of screaming organ solos and percussive whiplash, to discern where one ends and another begins. Besides, I listen to "Tarkus" as a whole, a mammoth example of everything good (and bad) about prog rock, so it's rather pointless to focus on the individual parts. It's a monster, to be sure, some of the most intricate, bloodthirstily confrontational music of the rock era.

Two prog workouts ("Bitches Crystal", "A Time & a Place"), a pair of goofy throwaways ("Jeremy Bender", "Are You Ready Eddy?"), and a bipartite mini-epic ("The Only Way (Hymn)"/"Infinite Space(Conclusion)") flesh out the remainder of the disc. After a behemothic opening like the title cut, the rest of TARKUS should be an anticlimax, and in many ways it is. But if it doesn't achieve the demented grandeur of Side I, Side II allows the band to calm down, stretch out, and defuse their self-conscious pomposity a bit. "The Only Way (Hymn)"/"Infinite Space (Conclusion)" in particular is great, featuring ecclesiastical organ, blazing bass figures, and a couple melodies "borrowed" from Bach.

If 70s prog ever needed a "poster band", there would be few acts better qualified to fill that role than ELP. By the same token, TARKUS plays about as near a 70s prog "poster album" as any album possibly could.

This album gave to progressive rock a definition. Rock became more than a 4/4 rhythm, it was an alive style. The beginning of the Tarkus suite has one of the most complex Moog synth sounds, which ELP used a sample in the 92/93 tour. Lake's and Emerson's styles are melted for good in this album. It seems that they were trying to fuse musical ideas, not to stablishing poles as they did after. Palmer is, as always, perfect in everything.

Tarkus is one of the best essays on progressive rock, number one in 1971 UK charts. It's true that it's not as united as Brain Salad Surgery, but on the other hand, it's very fluent, and the sound production is a lot better (I don't know what's wrong with the sound of the latter, Lake's voice is different than in any other record, as the Hammond organs - maybe it's due to Eddie Offord's sound engineering absence). The live version of Tarkus in 1973/74 was bigger and very interesting also (available in "Welcome Back My Friends..."). I recommend you hear it and compare with the original.

What was the "B-side" of Tarkus has a lot of different genres, from rocky to classical, from almost heavy rock (Bitches Crystal) to pure humored rock (Are you ready, Eddie?) and fascinating homages to J. S. Bach in "The Only Way", one of the most beautiful songs they did, followed by one of the most despaired: Infinite Space.

This album is from a time when any music of ELP was a rock treasure. It's very different from their 90's records, which you rather get a single really good song (not to mention the lot of 90's "best of"s, anthologies and repeated material that made loyal fans spend money for few never-released-before songs).

On no other ELP record does KE's C3 sound like it does here.It's a living thing that moans,screams and fulminates anger,aggression,and Balls galore.The same can be said for most of his Moog patches as well.Tarkus is brilliant through and through.Brilliant composition and writing craft(Keith and greg),brilliant execution and playing(all three boys),brilliant sounds(Hammond C3 and The beast called Moog),brilliant production(the late great are you ready Eddie Offord),and lastly brilliant-cheesey fantasy sci-fi story line and art work,that made more of an impression on the original lp.I don't even think the cd has the inner sleeve story board pics.I always wanted to see a cartoon with this art work and music-Tarkus by Ralph Bakshi.Speaking of first impressions(no Brain Salad pun intended),you can't fathom a ten year old's reaction to first hearing Eruption,thanks to two older brothers who brought the lp home in early 72.I'm 43 now-i was ten then.and i still ha ven't recovered.Keith Emerson is the main reason i am a Composer concert-jazz pianist today.Without his influence i would never have discovered classical music,or Prokofiev,Scriabin,Gershwin,Mennin,Rachmaninoff,Ravel,Chopin,Bach,Sondheim,or even Corea.How many thousands of others world wide share the same sentiments?This reason alone makes him a critical force in late 20th century music,specifically in regards to the piano and composition.To his detractors i would say get over your resistant need to find fault with his showman persona(also important to that ten year old who in addition to his music thought keith was so damn cool looking mean and lean over all those keys),and try to grasp his essential significance.And like it or not Tarkus 30 + years on, is still significant.From that opening layered C-3 crescendo swell(never done live)to that stack o fourths left hand ostinato figure,Tarkus still kicks [...]!

If Tarkus had been written by a Western Art Music composer, it would have been recognized for the complex atonal arrhtymical masterpiece that it is.

For most Rock listeners and critics, however, this album asked simply too much from them. It is a complex work, full of invention and shifting horizons, far more complex and coherent than even the most celebrated rock albums previously called complex.

Is this good music? Good question. I love it, but I could well understand how people might be put off of Tarkus, given its harsh edges, mish-mash of styles, and long playing time. Still, it is an important album in Prog rock, and ups the ante for all others in the genre, and no other band has yet come close to this, then or now.

As synthfool, Proghead, ELP fan, I would love to see a new recording of this album, since frankly, the original sound is flat and sometimes muddy.

If you don't like Progressive rock, stay away!