Emerson, Lake and Palmer - The Barbarian & Take a Pebble

 

The Barbarian:

Take a Pebble:

Emmerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) are not one of my favorite progress rock groups. Taste is subjective and while I hold a fairly similar amount of respect for ELP compared to most progressive rock groups, they are lower top ten in progressive rock rankings for me. For many reasons I think about ELP a lot. The did that crazy live album where they covered Modest Mussorgsky’s entire arrangement of “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Before forming ELP, the “L” Greg Lake worked with King Crimson on their debut and most important album “In The Court of the Crimson King.” They wanted to recruit Jimi Hendrix so they could be called HELP (Hendrix, Emmerson, Lake and Palmer) and I am not sure how that would have worked out; I assume it would have been awesome, but I am skeptical if it could possibly be better than the music that was achieved in reality. Of course, the single biggest reason I often think about ELP is because they got some great music.

ELP fall into the curious part of my music appreciation where I respect them more than I appreciate them. While I acknowledge their music is great, I do not listen to them all that often. I rarely listen to individual tracks by ELP, usually I put on an entire album of theirs and let if play. Mostly their first three albums, though looking at their discography now, I am embarrassed to admit that ELP have many more albums than I thought they did, so I have some homework to do. Those first three albums though, I know those reasonably well.

The song(s) by ELP I have listened to the most, and by extension are probably my favorites are “The Barbarian” and “Take a Pebble.” The first two tracks on from ELP’s debut self titled album.

The first reason this pair of songs has been listened to so much was actually already explained above, I tend to listen to entire ELP albums at a time. I have listened to ELP’s debut album in it’s entirety many times and just as many times got distracted and only listened to the first part of it. Combined, “The Barbarian” and “Take a Pebble” are just shy of seventeen minutes. So I have listened to the intro, the majority of the first side of ELP’s debut album more than any other piece of their music.

The second reason is mostly random. As is chance, ELP naturally pop up randomly on my desktop music playlist, but interestingly the only one song ever randomly played enough times for me to remember it deeply, and that song is “The Barbarian.” Which in turn if I am paying attention will prompt me to play “Take a Pebble” after, since “The Barbarian” flows into “Take a Pebble” by design. ELP is an album band after all.

While I am not certain, I am currently operating under the belief that “Lucky Man” is ELP’s most successfully popular radio friendly track. Also, “Lucky Man” is the last song on ELP’s debut album, so interestingly enough I am less familiar with that song than I am the intro tracks. I am presumably in the minority in that regard.

Progressive rock, at it’s apex, should be a powerful psychedelic experience. The listening should be taken on our journey of experiment and enlightenment. The instrumental “The Barbarian” opens with an confrontational keyboard intro, which sharp edge strikes build a tension of conflict and dread. In the second act, the keyboard’s once again carries the track with a frantic, very progressive rock solo, before returning to an more aggressive very of the intro which transforms into the outro. Since they called it “The Barbarian” and I relate to that word a lot (I am about as much of a barbarian in my white-collar job as I can get away with), so my imagination runs wild with ideas of adventure and combat when I listen to ELP first studio song.

“Take a Pebble” is a more typical progressive rock song. By “typical” I mean, it is long, complicated, multi-layered, and highly thought invoking. Because of it’s length “Take a Pebble” is very nearly also an instrumental. Emerson’s keyboard performs a sword dance which segues to an acoustic guitar solo by Lake, which in turn becomes an even more classical keyboard solo by Emerson, at least the rhythm is a more classical complete sound, numerous flares of frolicking notes are added for an even more experimental keyboard melody than anything heard on the album so far. Then we are back to continuity with a final verse. The broad structure of the song is thus, vocals, keyboard, guitar, keyboard, vocals, which I respect and enjoy thoroughly.

ELP is one of those bands, which I will probably keep going back to for the rest of my life. Gradually listening to their albums more and more, but for whatever reason I feel the need to do it in slow motion. They are a band I respect more than I enjoy, but I do enjoy their music a lot.

- King of Braves