ELP: Jerusalem, Toccata, Still You Turn Me On, & Benny the Bouncer REACTION/ANALYSIS | Episode 410

it's the daily dog hey y'all welcome back to the daily doug thanks for being with me today it's a friday my friends and we are making it a masterpiece friday today by going back to music by emerson lake and palmer i had planned to do uh this episode a week ago we could go friday for our masterpiece friday edition and i ended up postponing it to this week due to the the passing of alan white of yes and so last friday we took a look at some yes music and some of alan's great playing and so i am happy to uh finally close the loop on brain solid surgery it was last november november of 2021 that we listened to all of carne evil 9 from this album and now finally june of 2020 we are listening to the first four tracks from this classic 1973 release we've got keith emerson on just about any keyboard instrument he can find and he is also the composer of most of this music we've got greg lake on vocals the bass guitar regular guitars and and production and carl palmer on drums percussion and uh this is going to be interesting to take a look at percussion synthesizers in 1973 i had no idea so let's start with the first track y'all it's always a good idea and that track is jerusalem now this is an adaptation of a classic hymn by the british composer hubert perry using words from the preface of william blake's epic poem milton i know of william blake i have set some of his words before and i know of hubert perry i actually most know perry's music through his coronation anthem i was glad i have sung that one before with some choirs in these big cathedrals with these big organs and it is a monster piece and so i am looking forward to getting to know this one a little bit better i know that this hymn has uh become a cultural treasure in britain it is sung every year on the last night of the proms and it was even sung at prince william and princess catherine's wedding um as i think about it uh i'm drawing a similarity here in the united states between our national anthem and a song like god bless america right those are nationalistic songs patriotic songs one is our national anthem one is just a treasured you know a song about america and so i think that's similar with god save the queen and with jerusalem um i'm gonna dive in y'all let's just see what what this is all about this is keith emerson and greg lake and carl palmer with their rendition of the classic the classic hymn jerusalem off we go [Music] huh [Music] love greg's voice too [Music] he scoops a bit though doesn't he yeah i don't mind it though tubular bells in the background there he's got timpani [Music] and those sound like gongs [Music] satanic mills dark satanic mills interesting line isn't it i think that refers to um the industrial revolution back in the day when william blake wrote these these lyrics or this text [Music] bring me my arrows [Music] lovely little counter melody up there in that synthetic trumpet [Music] sleep in mind [Music] that's an f five [Music] i i don't know if i've ever heard a hymn like that uh given that kind of treatment that's amazing um the the thing that that i find interesting jerusalem right the the name jerusalem churches christian churches for uh gosh forever have used it as a metaphor for heaven itself and so i think the story is talking about you know uh did uh jesus come and walk among uh you know the the grounds here in um in britain and make it like a new jerusalem amidst all of these satanic mills that's fascinating the other thing that i found quite interesting about this particular performance is that this adaptation is special in the history of musical technological advance it has the debut of the first polyphonic synthesizer uh called the moog apollo which was a prototype of what would become the polymoog which was available in the latter part of the 70s keith used this along with uh good lord a a lira monophonic synthesizer and a taurus base synthesizer which when everything is put together it forms the moog polyphonic ensemble which was also called the constellation and uh it gave keith access to a whole bunch of toys didn't it uh that was fun off we go right uh so the second song on the album is called takata y'all this is an adaptation another adaptation uh and this is from um or the piece that it's based on is hinastera's first piano concerto the fourth movement now uh alberto hinestera was an argentinian composer living in the the 1900s more one of the more influential composers of the 20th century especially in the americas this particular piece this piano concerto was written in 1961. now emerson had considered apparently here adapting this movement for a few years and as i read it was carl palmer who expressed interest and proposed incorporating uh this extended drum solo into the middle of this adaptation as he had been experimenting with these drum synthesizers and apparently the group played it for a time in their live sets before going to record it and it was only after they got done with doing the adaptation with practicing it on the road and then actually recording the thing and getting it on tape that keith emerson thought uh oh do we do we have the rights to release this and because hinostero was still alive i don't think he died until the 80s um and um the piece was still under copyright right so uh he wrote to the publishers the publishers said um no so keith personally got on a plane and flew to meet with hinastera personally and he got the composer's blessing um hinastera said you have captured the essence of my music like no one else has before so i can't wait to get to this but i have been sent a short video of carl palmer uh the showing off his drums in october of 1973. so i want to start with that one this is relatively short i got to see his setup here and see what we're dealing with so this is carl palmer from 1973. here we go and that is a drum setup if i've ever seen one y'all two temporary drums in the background some guns [Music] switches to a hammer minor third [Music] so he's playing like a real uh orchestral uh percussionist who would be asked to play a whole bunch of different uh percussion equipment in the course of a particular composition [Music] he hit a drum head and it sparks that electronic sound did you see that [Music] it's got that match grip i i've never been taught how to play the drum so i don't know how to hold them like [Music] he that and built one of the very earliest kits to feature electronic drums i had no idea this existed especially in 1973 y'all [Music] and it rotates [Music] this is amazing [Applause] it could be a one-man show looks like they're projecting what is that a dragon under those gongs [Applause] just pulling [Applause] that he's playing that with his mouth did you see that the bell i thought it was a hammer and anvil for a second absolutely incredible okay so now now i'm my interest is really peaked y'all because uh apparently what i was told is that some of those electronic sounds i was going to think uh were coming from keith but no they come from carl so that's going to be helpful for us here as we dive into takada so the thing that was interesting about that is that the the video says that was from october of 1973. the album was recorded from june to september of that year and it was released in the uk in november so uh he's um getting people ready to experience what they're about to play and so i think it's time for us to dive into takada from elp i am using the 2014 remastered studio version off we go [Music] [Laughter] [Music] sounds like my family's lawn mower in the 1980s [Music] [Applause] [Music] such an aggressive chip to it doesn't it [Music] it's a crunchy cord [Music] tritone action in there [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] has a little bit of the sorcerer's apprentice [Music] do i can understand why keith was drawn to this i know the original piece the piano concerto a little bit [Music] [Music] [Applause] that's i think when the aliens invade [Music] so this reminds me what we were just watching from carl this middle section yeah that's what he was playing before right this solo that makes sense [Music] [Music] timpani are so much fun they're so cool those tune drums [Music] [Music] huh i think that's an a and a c [Music] the spatial nature of the way that it's put together just remarkable [Music] [Music] oh [Music] i can't imagine the pitch for this is like yes this is what we want to do with our next rock and roll record can't imagine and there's those synthesizers from the drums [Music] yeah i would have completely thought that was keith and not would have and i couldn't have figured out how he was possibly playing it that fast but there you go [Applause] i think this is when the aliens leave with whatever they want damn y'all [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] amazing it's so weird [Music] liftoff [Music] crunchy crunchy [Laughter] absolutely incredible uh that's that's one that i need to put on the list to listen to again in my own time so that i can see if i can figure out any more of that i think i only got like those little minor thirds in the beginning the the voicings in the organ especially in that are so tight and the sound is so aggressive that it's sometimes hard to figure out what sounds are actually being um involved in that in that sonority and maybe uh it was keith going i don't want you to know what's in all of that stuff you're just going to hear this sound right that was fun uh on we go though y'all uh we got to get to a couple more the next track uh track three is called still you turn me on and this one is written by greg lake uh carl palmer does not play on this track and apparently it is a ballad and uh gives us a a much different overall texture than what we have heard in the first two pieces so let's check out still dot dot dot you you turn me on here we go [Music] right into it without any introduction right [Music] let me tell you something it just don't mean a thing to see it really [Music] it doesn't matter what you look like what you've been through or what's going on with you still you turn me off flat two to one [Music] it's like major one to minor five that progression so much like a ancient folk song [Music] my experience [Music] motive [Music] for two measures it's so interesting maybe that's greg lake's little you turn me on motive there and it ends in d a short tune i uh i read that um they uh that decided not to make this a a single release um even though it was a short song that could uh have done i think well on the radio and as a release but uh since carl didn't play on it and it wasn't as truly representative of the band's overall sound at the time they decided not to make it a single uh lovely little tune uh and wow great great uh singing from from greg as usual the last one i want to look at y'all is track four on this album it is called benny the bouncer uh the lyrics are by greg lake and uh peter sinfield sinfield also co-wrote the lyrics for carne evil 9 on uh with greg lake on this album they had previously worked together on lyrics when greg was in king crimson so as i read into this one this one is described as a honky talk piano based song and i'm like well we've had everything else in the kitchen uh thrown in here let's do a honky tonk as well so excuse me let's let's dive in y'all this is the the last track that was recorded for the album it is called vinnie the bouncer and again i am uh using the 2014 uh remastered uh version of this off we gotta [Music] [Applause] [Music] he thought he was the meanest until he met with savage [Music] [Music] [Music] march [Music] [Music] piano solo i've never been in a saloon where they had such a good piano player [Music] i loved the sound of the drums too the sound of the snare on this [Music] edge [Music] so now he works with jesus [Music] [Laughter] keith giving us a little four measure tag there at the end uh just just to reiterate yep that's what we meant to do and then it goes into carne evil 9. i'll be damned that's that's that's something y'all this piece have you have you looked at the lyrics of this the they're not long this is some dark humor uh y'all benny was the bouncer at the palais de dance he'd slash your granny's face up given half a chance he'd sell you back the pieces all for less than half a quid he thought he was the meanest until he met with savage sid now sydney was a greaser with some nasty roots he poured a pint of guinness over benny's boots benny looked at sydney sydney stared right back in his eye and sydney chose a switchblade and benny got a cold meat pie shit's going down oh what a terrible sight much to the people's delight one hell of a fight so the people did not like benny the bouncer and uh is sid um a um a hero or or um or a bad guy uh the next line sydney grabbed uh an atchet i think a hatchet is what they meant uh or is what that's referring to buried it in benny's head the people gasped as he bled the end of a ted uh it's like dr seuss but but weird uh then uh they they dragged him from the wreckage of the play in bits they tried to stick together all the bits that would fit but some of him was missing and part of him a right arrived too late so now he works for jesus as the bouncer at saint peter's gate it's just what i needed on a friday a bit of whimsy can you imagine this y'all so here they are at the at the height of their powers uh you know after trilogy and uh the they're going into their next album and they think you know we've got a really good idea for this album we're going to start it with an adaptation of a hymn and then we're going to do an adaptation of a 20th century piano concerto by an argentinian composer and then we're gonna do a romantic ballad uh and then we're gonna do a honky tonk doc dark uh humor uh um you know story song and then we're gonna cap it all off with this uh 30 minute futuristic rock sci-fi adventure um what could go wrong right i don't know if that could be made in 2022 much less be successful commercially but holy i am sure glad that they made it because that's fun y'all can you i can't imagine uh well i guess i can now going through the entire uh album and having the highs and the lows and all these different sounds what a uh really fascinating uh collection of songs and music for us well that um that completes the uh the cycle y'all brain salad surgery we've now had a chance to hear all of it from emerson lake and palmer it was released in 1973 and uh i had a good time thanks all for hanging out with me on this friday we'll be back soon with more episodes we'll see you next time on another edition of the daily dog

Channel: Doug Helvering

Views: 66,014

Keywords: The Daily Doug, Daily Doug, R. Douglas Helvering, Doug Helvering, reaction, reaction vid, reaction video, music analysis, analysis, commentary, composer, composer reacts, classical composer reacts, ELP, ELP reaction, ELP analysis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer, ELP Brain Salad Surgery, Brain Salad Surgery, album, Jerusalem, Hubert Parry, ELP Jerusalem, Jerusalem reaction, Toccata, ELP Toccata, Still...You Turn Me On, Benny the Bouncer

Id: 1iJWBribOJo

Length: 32min 13sec (1933 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 03 2022