Brain Salad Surgery

Brain Salad Surgery, a euphemism for oral sex (from Dr. John's "Right Place, Wrong Time"), was Emerson, Lake & Palmer's first album on their own Manticore imprint, and came complete with a H.R. Giger cover and poster. It continued the long-standing tradition of covering the classics, opening with a concise rendition of Hubert Parry's "Jerusalem." The adaptation of an Alberto Ginastera piece, "Toccata," is a highlight, featuring Carl Palmer's percussion synthesizers in a surprisingly expressive role. Greg Lake gets his one-per-album allotment of acoustic guitar with the ballad "Still… You Turn Me On," though the song's arrangement steals the show. Spilling over from the first side and filling up the second, the three-part epic "Karn Evil 9" is the album's zenith. A sci-fi saga, it featured lyrical assistance from Pete Sinfield, who changed the working title from "Ganton 9" to a play on the word carnival. "1st Impression, Part 2" kicks off with the classic line "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends," instantly becoming the band's calling card and an FM radio staple. Lake's production is a little heavy on the reverb, but it's chock-full of everything ELP that's either loved or hated. "2nd Impression" shifts the focus from electric to acoustic and from rock to jazz, and is all Keith Emerson. His fluid piano is spoiled only by his slightly brisk, if not forced, tempo. The "3rd Impression" roars back to form, with Lake singing something about man vs. computer, and of course culminating in a big apocalyptical refrain; it's one of the band's most frenetic pieces. Whatever may be said, ELP were very good at their game, and that game didn't get much better than "Karn Evil 9." In hindsight, the album would be the group's last stand. It was a great commercial success, reaching No. 2 in the UK and No. 11 in the US. ELP then undertook a mammoth world tour with semi-trailers of equipment, spinning drum platform, flying piano and a quadrophonic PA. A live document—no less than a triple-album with a title long enough to match—was released in August 1974, and also reached the Top 5 on both sides of the Atlantic. At the tour's conclusion, the band took an extended break that would last for well over two years.