Brain Salad Surgery is the fourth studio album by progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1973 and the first under their Manticore Records imprint. It features cover art by surreal artist H. R. Giger. According to the 1996 re-release notes, Manticore Records president Mario Medious "nicked the title from a slang lyric in Dr. John's 1973 hit, "Right Place, Wrong Time" (released January 26, 1973), Just need a little brain salad surgery/Got to cure this insecurity , to replace the working title Whip Some Skull on Yer (both titles are slang expressions for fellatio).
In 2007, Shout Factory Records released remastered versions of Brain Salad Surgery and the entire Emerson, Lake & Palmer catalog.
Contents
The album fuses rock and classical themes. Lyrics were co-written by Greg Lake with fellow ex-King Crimson member (and frequent ELP collaborator) Peter Sinfield.
Jerusalem
"Jerusalem", an adaptation of Hubert Parry's hymn based on William Blake's poem "And did those feet in ancient time", was the only single, but it was not released in the UK due to objections from the BBC.
Toccata
The instrumental "Toccata" is based on the Fourth Movement of Alberto Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto, arranged by Keith Emerson with special synthesized effects; Carl Palmer wrote a percussion accompaniment using newly-developed drum synthesizers. Ginastera's agent apparently did not care for ELP's rendition and wasn't going to grant the publishing rights. Emerson, however, contacted Ginastera himself, who liked it and personally arranged for clearance. "Toccata" also gained fame as the theme to the New England cult TV show Creature Double Feature .
Karn Evil 9
The album's longest composition, Karn Evil 9, which is nearly 30 minutes in length, consists of three movements or "impressions", the first and third separated by an extended instrumental passage. The most well-known section is "Karn Evil 9 - 1st Impression, Part 2" ( Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends... ). "Karn Evil 9" was so long that the first movement originally had to be split between sides 1 and 2 of the album. The original U.S. CD release also divided the piece, but subsequent releases have presented it in an uninterrupted version.
"Karn Evil 9" includes vocal credit for Keith Emerson, and is Emerson's only official vocal credit on an ELP record, despite the fact that the only 'vocals' he contributed to the song were those of the computer voice in the Third Impression.
The album credits read "Many thanks and a garland of martian fire flowers to Pete Sinfield for his collaboration on Benny The Bouncer and Karn Evil 9." Sinfield was a member of King Crimson, as was Greg Lake.
Album cover
The album cover is considered one of the most memorable (and often disturbing) of its time. It features distinctive Giger monochromatic biomechanical artwork, integrating an industrial mechanism with a human skull and the new ELP logo (created by Giger). The lower part of the skull's face is covered by a circular "screen", which shows the mouth and lower face in its flesh-covered state. In the original LP release, the front cover was split in half down the center, except for the circular screen section (which was attached to the right half). Opening the halves revealed a painting of the complete face: a human female (modelled after Giger's wife), with "alien" hair and multiple scars, including the infinity symbol and a scar from a frontal lobotomy. The two images of the woman are very similar, but the outer image (in the circle) contains what appears to be the top of a phallus below her chin, arising from the "ELP" column below (the second painting originally had the complete phallus, but this was removed at the insistence of the record company). The back cover was solid black with the album title in plain white lettering.
On later vinyl printings (and most CD releases), the front cover is a single piece, and the alternate ("face") view is used on the back cover. However, the 1993 Victory Music CD reissue packaged the album in a special Digipak with the original split cover art, which also unfolded to reveal a small poster with the lyrics and band photos from the original album inner sleeve. The 1996 Rhino edition used a lenticular cover, with the two images morphing into each other when the case moved.
Both paintings were created in pure shades of grey airbrush, to appear metallic and mechanical. However, on some releases of the album, the cover was printed with too much red, making the image (in Giger's words) "cow-shit-pile-brown".
Giger's ELP logo, using a circular enclosure of the "E" and upper portion of the "P", around a column formed by the "L" and the vertical of the "P", became a standard for the band and has been used extensively since.
The paintings for the cover are titled "Work #217 ELP I" and "Work #218 ELP II". The original acrylic-on-paper paintings were lost (or stolen) after a Giger exhibition at the National Technical Museum in Prague, which ended August 31, 2005.
The artwork remains iconic for Keith Emerson. Now a resident of California, he had the primary imagery airbrushed onto the fuel tank of his Harley Davidson motorcycle, pictured on his official page with himself and separately with Moog synthesizer inventor Robert Moog astride.
Alternate releases
In addition to the vinyl, cassette, and CD releases, the album has also been released on DVD-Audio, remixed into Dolby 5.1 and in many cases using alternative vocal tracks.
Track listing
CD
- "Jerusalem" (William Blake, Hubert Parry as adapted by Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer) – 2:44
- "Toccata" (Alberto Ginastera, arr. Emerson) – 7:22
- "Still...You Turn Me On" (Lake)– 2:53
- "Benny the Bouncer" (Emerson, Lake, Peter Sinfield) – 2:21
- "Karn Evil 9" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 29:41
- "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 1" (Emerson, Lake) – 8:37
- "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2" (Emerson, Lake) – 4:46
- "Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression" (Emerson) – 7:07
- "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 9:13
1996 Rhino Records bonus track
Shout Factory edition
In October 2007, Shout Factory re-released Brain Salad Surgery with two bonus tracks, an alternate mix of "Jerusalem" and an instrumental mix of "Karn Evil 9" (tracks 9 and 10, respectively).
Deluxe edition
Sanctuary Records released a remastered version of the album in 2008, containing three discs. The first disc consists of the original album; the third disc is the same, but on Super Audio CD in surround sound. The second disc contains different recordings and mixes of the album's tracks, as well as two bonus tracks: When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine and Brain Salad Surgery .
LP
The CD was released in a miniature reproduction of the original LP packaging, including die-cut artwork, mini-poster (with complete lyrics) and a 24-page booklet with rare photos and an essay by music reporter Dave Thompson.
Side one
- "Jerusalem"
- "Toccata"
- "Still...You Turn Me On"
- "Benny the Bouncer"
- "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 1"
Side two
- "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Pt. 2"
- "Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression"
- "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression"
Personnel
- Keith Emerson – organs, piano, harpsichord, accordion, custom-built Moog synthesizers & Moog Polyphonic ensemble, computer voice on Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression
- Greg Lake – vocals, six and twelve string acoustic & electric guitars, bass
- Carl Palmer – drums, percussion, percussion synthesizers
- Produced By Greg Lake
- Engineered & Mixed By Chris Kimsey & Jeff Young
Additional recordings
Three further songs were recorded at the Brain Salad Surgery sessions but were not included on the album:
- The instrumental "When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine" appeared on the B-side of the single version of "Jerusalem".
- The song "Brain Salad Surgery" surprisingly did not appear on the album of the same name, but was released on a promotional 7" flexi-disc together with excerpts from the album. It was also later used as the B-side of "Fanfare for the Common Man".
- The song "Tiger In A Spotlight" was released as a single in 1977. However, the melody was used during instrumental jams on tour, as heard in the extended Take A Pebble recording on the Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends album.
All three songs were later included on Works Volume II .
Singles
- Jerusalem / When the Apple Blossom
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