Classical Composer Reacts to Karn Evil 9 (ELP) | The Daily Doug (Episode 273)

it's the daily dog welcome back my friends to the show that never ends hey y'all welcome back to the daily doug i am thankful that you are hanging out with me today on a wednesday it is the wednesday of thanksgiving week here in america and we are making this wednesday like our normal friday episodes on fridays we dive into longer pieces and do a little bit of an extended play listen and today we are going to karne evil 9 by elp uh so uh many people have been suggesting this song over the last several months and i am happy to be diving into it today the uh the lyrics that i said there at the beginning welcome back my friends to the show that never ends is from the first impression part two of this and that part i know but the rest of the piece i am relatively unfamiliar with so i am excited to be diving into this one today with all of you current evil 9 is from elp's 1973 album brain salad surgery their fourth album it was released this month 48 years ago uh previously on the channel we have listened to tarkus uh by elp that was from 1971 so this is a few years later uh the the pieces written by keith emerson and greg lake with a former king crimson lyricist peter sinfield so the musicians that we'll be hearing today are keith emerson he plays all the keyboards and the synthesizers and greg lake is on vocals uh the bass and guitars and carl palmer is on drums and percussion so uh carne evil 9 is sort of this adapted uh respelling of the word carnival and i wanted to be sure that i knew uh the etymology and the meaning of carnival so carnival is a period of revelry or a specific event of celebration a circus or an amusement show but the thing i found interesting is that the root of the word uh karn or karna right is meaning of the flesh or like meat right of us and or to um you know entertain us with with revelry of the flesh right so uh we're going to listen to this y'all in four parts i have a playlist here i've got um the they call movements in this impressions so this is 30 minutes long so strap in y'all uh we've got uh the first impression part one first impression part two and then we'll listen to uh the second impression and the third impression so i have these set so that between each of these sections the music will pause so that i can make sure that i'm hanging in with it and and uh can can say what we need to without interrupting the flow of the music in these uh little sections so i want to dive into it y'all let's let's not waste any time we are going to listen to the 2014 remastered studio version of this piece so let's dive in here is emerson lincoln palmer with their current evil 9 part 1. here we go [Music] interesting organ sounds contrapuntal at the beginning [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] coming through [Music] wow that was like a diminished chord for a second an arpeggio of a diminished chord they're moving all over the [Music] i place they keep coming back to a flat though [Music] what keith emerson's one of a kind isn't he [Music] it keeps coming back to a flat [Music] [Music] [Applause] there's that there's a diminished chord it's gonna be impossible to follow keith emerson's harmonic progressions y'all [Music] i love it so this first impression part one begins with the story of a bleak uh world cold and misty morning i heard a warning born in the air about an age of power where no one had an hour to spare where the seeds have weathered silent children shivered in the cold now their is captured in the lenses of the jackals for gold hmm [Music] [Applause] [Music] same progression but he went to a different key almost like a sequence [Music] [Applause] it gets back to where they were [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah this is so interesting and listen to the i know i mean keith's playing is unbelievable right but listen to the drums back there y'all palmer's just ripping it up [Music] how did they do this live how can keith play all that stuff live [Music] so this is a warning this first impression is a warning to humanity there must be someone who can set them free to take their sorrow from this odyssey [Music] now we've got an amazing show [Music] you want to see what happened here's the show right [Music] huh roll up i think that's a british saying like gather round be friends there's so much [Music] if you follow me there's a speciality some tears for you to see misery misery roll up see the show y'all you've been suffering for all to view [Music] for all of the crazy dramatics and chord progressions that we've been hearing he keeps coming back to a blast [Music] i think i'm ready to see the show y'all up a step [Music] whoa [Music] we're getting near the end of this first impression part one and like i said it's gonna stop for a second before it rolls into part two [Music] that's cool series of descending thirds [Music] um half steps going down [Music] okay oh i think we're going to get to see the show and it's just a second y'all but wow there's so much in this hole me so i i think they have uh uh hyped the show enough even though there's misery and there's uh a lot of bad stuff to see uh i still wanna see what they're gonna say so uh here is the first impression part two here we go as it continues and this is welcome back to the show the famous party stop because because it says welcome back my friends to the show that never ends we're so glad you could attend come inside come inside so they're inviting people into the carnival here to the show they're behind the glass stands a real blade of grass be careful as you pass move along move along so even something as ubiquitous and normal in our reality as a single blade of grass is seen as something rare uh in this reality to be um to be reveled about so let's keep going [Music] you gotta see this show y'all it's guaranteed to blow your head apart [Music] you're staying in the same key that's still in a flat [Music] is [Music] wow bass pedals listen to that that one [Music] wow [Music] oh selfie [Music] know [Music] weird it goes all these crazy places with these different chords but it ends up not modulated [Music] there's that third down another third [Music] down another third interesting okay down to step half step half step you know so these are reusing parts of this which is good for a piece this long big five chord to a one chord there [Music] [Music] or the tempo is getting just a little bit faster too it's like it's gaining intensity as they go along [Music] performing on a stool with a sight to make you drool seven virgins in a mule [Music] flat two [Music] you should have called me in to double for carl [Music] there's that same like diminished chord [Music] it goes back to a flat [Music] oh [Music] amazing absolutely incredible so much fun uh and i am recording as the the trash uh people are making sounds outside so don't adjust your sets y'all i'm gonna keep right on rolling because i'm into it now so hope that that doesn't mess things up too much i read before we move on that um that in the original uh record that the first impression part one was on the first side of the album and this first impression part two come see the show is on the second half of the album so literally you would have to take the needle off flip the album put the needle back on and then craig lake says welcome back my friends that's that's kind of cool how that happens but let us move ahead y'all this is uh the second impression so let's see what this one sounds like here we go drums [Music] piano i read this one as an instrumental [Music] let's just sit back and [Music] try to follow along [Music] reminds me of like the vince giraldi trio you know it's like charlie brown grew up and now he runs a hedge fund or something wow [Music] [Applause] [Music] listen to the percussion y'all [Music] [Applause] [Music] how are they getting that sound it sounds like they're playing a regular like acoustic piano but it sounds [Music] [Applause] like electrified in some way distorted in some way now it's a video game [Music] [Applause] [Music] when i hear this i get the feeling of a party like people just engaging in the carnival atmosphere sort of in blissful ignorance of the warnings that they're you know trying to convey to them [Music] it reminds me a little bit of um okay i was gonna say of leonard bernstein of some of his writing [Music] and then the first real breakdown [Music] of intensity that we've had in the entire piece so far so [Music] my i love all these sounds [Music] the piano is a wonderful instrument i mean you can get the regular sounds out of it but you've got that entire box full of strings that you can you know do other things with to make sound besides just hitting the keys [Music] kind of a tick tock in the background your impending societal doom my friends [Music] heed our warning it also is a really interesting choice with all of the organ heavy stuff in the first impression to go to piano for pretty much all of this [Music] it kind of takes us out of that carnival atmosphere and it's like providing commentary or context upon that other main sound it's one of those thirds again [Music] tritone toggle in there [Music] i gotta do more of a deep dive into keith emerson so i could see what made this guy tick his music is fascinating [Music] there's some more of those fourths that keith likes so much [Music] i can't there's no way to tell where he's going harmonically because he never stays anywhere long enough to set up shop and show you where he is and that's gonna be in it he's gonna finish okay y'all it is time i i need to go right into this this is the third impression uh the third and final let's see how this finishes out here we go [Music] okay back to the organ stuff [Music] i read that this continues the story begun in the first impression and now it's going to be describing sort of the clash or conflict between uh humans and the computers that we have created [Music] [Music] and i believe this is the section that peter sinfield uh assisted with in the lyrics [Music] fear that rattles in men's ears and rears its hideous head dread death in the wind [Music] it's the same place they were in the first impressions [Music] [Music] so they're asking why no man yields who flies in my ship danger let the bridge completely [Music] it's like here is superman stranger i think the danger in stranger is the computer talking load your program [Music] i am yourself it's the computer talking back [Music] no computer stands in my way only blood can cancel my pain [Music] wow [Music] guardians of a nuclear dawn let the maps of war be drawn it's more like an anthem here and there's still an a flat [Music] for as much of a conflict as they're talking about the music itself to me doesn't reflect the intensity of that conflict [Music] just my impression there's less dissonance in it and less rhythmic um chaos than i would have expected they've got a little bit of time left so they may get there [Music] we pause this conflict for an organ soul why because we can and we have the organ here let's play it y'all [Music] all over a static cord okay and they stay there [Music] i'm not sure where they are though [Music] it all it all goes it all kind of washes together [Music] where are they going the drumming though is is next level right i mean all of keith's playing and greg sing and everything but y'all the drums [Music] are so unique and just well done [Laughter] hey [Music] big triplets there's the conflict [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's a really impressive sound it's really cool [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my friends [Music] their graves need no flowers the tapes have recorded their names i am all there is [Music] negative limited [Music] but i gave you life what else could you do to do what was right i'm perfect are you is that how it's gonna end [Music] why the computer's finally taking over [Music] end of transmission [Laughter] and that's and that's how the uh the entire um album concludes it's like i hope the boys made it out okay i was like keith are you okay [Music] what a fascinating piece of music y'all i had read that uh that greg lake and peter sinfield had uh combined to work on the lyrics of this last section and they had written as i recall they had written schizoid man together uh for king crimson a few years earlier so they had been sort of tuned into this sort of societal warning societal prophecy uh of of uh repercussions for our uh misplaced priorities for some time i am enthralled by this y'all um it's it's much more uh it well it's good to get the context of the welcome back my friends the show that never ends because i never understood uh what piece that was from that it was part of a a warning or a putting on of a show to put our collective societal failures uh on display for everyone to see i never got that part i just was uh ignorant to that and always thought it was hey the show's about to start woohoo right so i am one of the ignorant people that never went bothered to read into it and figure out what was actually going on and i'm glad that i have done that now this makes uh really fascinating sense and i think it's uh effective it's an effective piece of music y'all there are pieces of classical music that are 30 minutes long that don't have near this level of sophistication of form of rhetoric of clarity of communication um i very much enjoyed this listen and i hope that you did as well karn evil 9 by lim limberson emerson lake and palmer celebrating its 48th anniversary this month it was released in 1973. um this has been this has been fun um i really really enjoyed it i hope that you did as well thank you all for being with me this week we're going to take a few days off for the thanksgiving holiday but we will be back next week with more editions of the daily doug and we will see you then on another edition of that i got all the way to the end and messed up my my outro we will see you next time on another edition of the daily doug

Channel: Doug Helvering

Views: 161,439

Keywords: The Daily Doug, Daily Doug, R. Douglas Helvering, Doug Helvering, Doug, Doug Reaction, musical analysis, music reaction, reaction, reaction vid, reaction video, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Emerson, Keith Emerson, Lake, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer, Palmer, ELP, E.L.P., Karn Evil 9, ELP reaction, reacting to ELP, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Karn Evil 9 reaction, Karn Evil 9 first listen, Karn Evil 9 analysis, classical composer reacts

Id: aqQzet8pYeM

Length: 38min 9sec (2289 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 25 2021