Welcome Back My Friends: ELP’s Brain Salad Surgery at 50

Coming off the heels of three innovative studio albums and an expansive live set, all released over an astonished short span of 18 months, Brain Salad Surgery initially found Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer challenged to mine new material.

Consumed with touring, they hadn’t had the time to prepare, but regardless, what emerged for eventual release on December 7, 1973, proved to be one of their most adventurous efforts yet, not to mention their fourth release in just over three years.

Of course, when the band in question is ELP, a formidable supergroup by any measure, the word ambition is a relative term. The band was clearly defined by ambition, having emerged from the shadow of three bands that helped define the progressive genre in its formative stages — King Crimson, The Nice, and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown — the outfits that nurtured the talents of bassist, guitarist and vocalist Greg Lake, keyboard wiz Keith Emerson and drummer Carl Palmer respectively. Nevertheless, having recently formed their own record label, Manticore, it was imperative that the band offer an auspicious effort befitting their superstar status. 

That they did. Even the fold-out cover, designed by H.R. Giger, whose credits included albums by the Dead Kennedys, Magma, Danzig and Celtic Frost, and later, design work for the film Alien, managed to herald the fact that Brain Salad Surgery was destined to be an epic work. 

As always, the band drew freely from an array of influences, including classical, jazz and even a hint of ragtime. This was, after all, a band prone to excess, and there were no shortage of passages that proved the point, from the surprisingly gruff vocals and honky-tonk piano phrasing of “Benny the Bouncer,” to the dazzling and didactic frenzy and fury that typified “1st Impression — Part 1” of “Karn Evil 9.” There were other examples as well — the seemingly spontaneous piano improvisation of “2nd Impression” as well as the instrumental arrangement of “Toccata,” a track adapted from Argentine composer Alberto Ginastero’s Piano Concerto, 4” and subsequently starts with a surprisingly subtle invocation before racing to a scorching conclusion.

Given its fanfare — heralded by its triumphant opener “Jerusalem” and culminating in the concluding “Karn Evil 8 3rd Impression”  — Brain Salad Surgery didn’t rely on the typical familiarity factors, although it didn’t negate that element entirely. The now-familiar, carny-like announcement, “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends,” which signaled the start of Karl Evil 9, 1st Impression – Part 2,” not only served as immediate enticement for the masses but, appropriately, the title of Brain Salad Surgery’s immediate successor, a sprawling three disc, equally epic live album. The lyric is, of course, an ideal catch phrase, but in a very real sense, it also helped to ground the proceedings, even as it ricochets over swirling keyboards and Palmer’s kinetic drumming. 

So, too, acoustic and electric guitars figured more prominently in the arrangements overall, far more so than on any previous ELP album. Naturally enough, Emerson’s keyboards and synths still played a predominant role, but the fact that the group was willing to open up its instrumental arsenal demonstrated that they were able — and willing — to stretch their stylistic parameters, heretofore constrained by Emerson’s overriding imprint.

The other immediate catch-all came in the form of “Still… You Turn Me On,” a mellow interlude featuring Lake’s typically over-arched vocals, lots of wah-wah and plenty of romantic enticement. It was originally considered as a single, possibly because it was the only track that considered accessible enough as a stand alone offering. Ultimately though, it was nullified because A) Palmer didn’t play on the song and B) it wasn’t truly representative of the band’s deeper designs. 

“Jerusalem,” adapted from poet William Blake’s homage to England, was also briefly discussed as a possible single candidate, the first time in their collective career that the trio had even thought seriously about releasing a single in the first place. However objections from the BBC, which considered the poem something of a scared ode to the Empire, thought it come across as sacrilegious in the hands of an otherwise rowdy rock ‘n’ roll band, which, in effect, made it dead on arrival. 

That wasn’t the only controversy ELP initially encountered. The album’s original title, Whip Some Skull On Ya, a not so subtle euphemism for fellatio, met with fierce object from Manticore’s parent company, Atlantic Records, and forced an immediate change in tack. 

Fortunately, the lack of a single and the change of name didn’t hinder the album’s success. It managed to linger just outside Billboard’s Top Ten and, in fact, maintained its presence on that album chart for nearly a year. While reviews were mixed — some critics derided it as pretentious posturing while others criticized what they saw as a general lack of cohesiveness, it did eventually achieve gold status in terms of its sales and with it, a reputation as ELP’s most definitive effort overall.

Granted, it doesn’t qualify as an easy listen but it did raise the bar in terms of overall expectations. And in ELP’s case, that ensured an agreeable outcome. 

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Lee Zimmerman

Lee Zimmerman is a writer and columnist based in beautiful Maryville, Tennessee. Over the past 20 years, his work has appeared in dozens of leading music publications. He is also the author of Americana Music: Voice, Visionaries, and Pioneers of an Honest Sound, which will be published by Texas A&M University Press early next year.

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