Brain Salad Surgery is the fourth studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on 7 December 1973 by their new record label, Manticore Records, and distributed by Atlantic Records.
Following the tour in support of their previous album, Trilogy (1972), the group acquired rehearsal facilities to work on new material, which would blend classical and rock themes. They launched their own record company, Manticore, in March 1973. The album was recorded from June to September at Olympic and Advision Studios and mixed in October 1973 at AIR Studios in London. As were all the group's previous works, it was produced by Greg Lake. The album includes a cover designed by H. R. Giger.
Released to a mixed critical response, it has received more favourable reviews since its release. Brain Salad Surgery continued the group's commercial success, reaching 2 in the United Kingdom and No.11 in the United States, and eventually gaining Gold certifications in both countries. In its support, the trio embarked on their largest world tour to date, including a headlining spot at the California Jam festival. The album has been remastered/remixed and reissued numerous times, including stereo and 5.1 surround sound remixes by Jakko Jakszyk.
Background After the release of their third album, Trilogy, in June 1972, the group toured across Europe and the United States, playing in sold-out venues. By the beginning of 1973, Emerson, Lake & Palmer had become commercially successful in both the UK and the US.
The group had become somewhat dissatisfied with their record label Atlantic Records for a lack of involvement. Around January 1973 Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer, and their manager Stewart Young decided to form their own record company. Together, they bought an abandoned ABC cinema in Fulham, West London and converted it into a rehearsal room and company headquarters, which would later be named Manticore Records. Lake said: "We set up Manticore to try and make the entire record process as good as it could be. We were also aware of a number of artists who we knew were having problems getting their music released and getting a record deal". Since the group knew that they would not have enough time to run their company, Atlantic promoter Mario Medious, who had worked with the group since their debut album, was brought in to serve as the president of Manticore in April 1973. Atlantic handled distribution duties.
Production Emerson, Lake & Palmer began working on new material at the end of 1972. As Lake explained in an interview, the group's previous record, Trilogy, was recorded with the use of 24-track machines and featured too many overdubs that made the music very difficult to recreate properly on stage. So the trio agreed to record an album that they could perform live. The rehearsal facilities equipped in the former cinema allowed the group to play live, then write, play live again, write again, etc., resulting in a feeling of addressing an audience, that would be alluded to in the well-known line "Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends...".
Writing During writing sessions around the end of 1972 and the beginning of 1973, the first two tracks began to take shape. One of them was the first movement of what would become the dominating composition of the forthcoming album, the epic "Karn Evil 9", and the other was an adaptation of the 4th Movement of Alberto Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto.
At nearly 30 minutes long, "Karn Evil 9" would consist of three movements (called "Impressions"). Due to time limitations, the first movement initially had to be split into two parts between sides one and two of the vinyl record. Although the original Atlantic CD retained the division of the suite, subsequent editions have presented it in an uninterrupted version. All music of the epic was written by Emerson and can be described as a futuristic fusion of classical and rock themes. Structurally, the first and third movements are separated by an extended instrumental passage in spite of the whole composition having initially been conceived as an instrumental. All lyrics in the first movement are credited to Lake. To assist in creating lyrics for the third movement, he brought in lyricist Pete Sinfield, with whom Lake had worked at the time he was in King Crimson. Sinfield had been planning to make a solo album and had asked Lake for help to release it on Manticore. Lake had agreed that the record label would support Sinfield's project and additionally suggested his contributing to lyrics for the group's next album. Sinfield recalled: "I was half way through making a solo album when Greg called me to say that Manticore wanted to release it. The catch was that he wanted me to collaborate on lyrics for a long piece that had begun to take shape". The main theme of the epic is the battle between artificial and natural intelligence, which would end with a man being taken over by the computer he had invented. It had initially been titled by Emerson as "Ganton 9" after a fictional planet to which all evil and decadence had been thrown out. However, Sinfield believed that the music Emerson had written sounded just like a carnival, and so he came up with the title "Karn Evil 9".
The most recognisable section of "Karn Evil 9" is the second part of the first movement, containing the famous line "Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends...", which was eventually taken as the title of the group's second live album. It is often used as a song dedicated to the opening of sports seasons. It is also a common radio staple.
Emerson had contemplated recording an adaptation of the 4th Movement ("Toccata concertata") of Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto as far back as the beginning of 1971. He had heard the toccata for the first time when he was a member of The Nice and had been "struck with the music immediately". Emerson had not considered a possibility of Emerson, Lake & Palmer playing the piece until Palmer proposed to incorporate a drum solo into the trio's repertoire, which would be a core part of the composition. When Emerson played the toccata to Palmer, the latter approved it, and then, the piece was rehearsed by the entire group, although it was quite difficult, since Lake did not read music and Palmer was unable to apply a score written for piano to the drums.
Both "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" and "Toccata" were included in the setlist for a series of concerts across Europe beginning at the end of March 1973. Around that time, a new semi-acoustic number, "Still....You Turn Me On", was introduced to the public. Written by Lake alone, the song has commonly been regarded as a necessary balance in the content, which is dominated by aggressive compositions. The next track intended for inclusion in the album was an adaptation of Hubert Parry's hymn "Jerusalem", with the lyrics from "And did those feet in ancient time", a short poem from the preface to William Blake's epic Milton. Finally, the last piece which would make the album was the honky-tonk piano-based song "Benny the Bouncer" composed by Emerson, with Lake and Sinfield writing the words.
After the album was almost completely recorded, three additional tracks, which would be put on the shelf for a while, were written: the instrumental "When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine", credited to the entire group, "Tiger in a Spotlight" and the title song, both composed by Emerson, with Lake and Sinfield providing lyrics. Brain Salad Surgery was the first album to have no songwriting contributions from Palmer (aside from the drum solo in "Toccata"), who, nevertheless, has regarded it as his favourite by far.
Recording The recording sessions began in June 1973 at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, with Lake, as he had done on the group's previous records, serving as the producer, and Chris Kimsey as the engineer. The only track committed to tape at Olympic was the first Impression of "Karn Evil 9". Following a period of further writing, the work on the upcoming album continued in August at Advision Studios in Fitzrovia, London, with engineer Geoff Young. The second and third Impressions of "Karn Evil 9" were completed in the first half of that month, with the third Impression being the first track to be recorded at Advision. The muse's sped-up and altered voice from the second Impression and the 'computer' voice from the third Impression were contributed by Emerson, his only vocal credit in the trio's repertoire. In order to achieve the "computer" voice, he ran his voice through the Moog's ring modulator.
Although an arrangement of Ginastera's toccata had been performed by the group on their European tour from March to April 1973, the composition had received additional instrumentation before its final version was recorded. Palmer had written a percussion movement with the use of eight specially developed drum synthesizers. This movement with an "atmospheric" electronic sound was inserted in the middle section of "Toccata". Soon after the adaptation was committed to tape in September, the group became aware that they did not have the rights to release this music. Emerson contacted Ginastera's publishers who responded that the composer would not allow any adaptation of his works, but they advised him to talk to him personally. So Emerson flew to Geneva to discuss the issue with Ginastera himself. Once Ginastera heard the new arrangement, he gave the authorization to use his piece. To quote Emerson: "He played our recording of "Toccata" on a tape recorder. After a few bars he stopped the tape ... and exclaimed 'Diabolic!' I thought he said 'diabolical' and expected him to show us the door. He had been listening to the tape in mono and our recording was in stereo. I jumped up and switched the machine to stereo hoping he would listen again. It transpired that he wasn't concerned about that at all. He listened again and declared 'Terrible!' which actually was a compliment. 'You've captured the essence of my music like no one else has before', the great maestro said."
The next songs recorded at Advision were "Still....You Turn Me On" and "Jerusalem". The adaptation of the hymn is notable for the debut of the first polyphonic synthesizer in history, the Moog Apollo, which was just a prototype of the Polymoog at that time. Together with the Lyra monophonic and the Taurus bass synthesizers, it formed the Moog Polyphonic Ensemble, also known as the Constellation. The Apollo synthesizer was also used by Emerson on "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression".
In addition to its considerable evolution of synthesizer technology, Brain Salad Surgery also contained a higher proportion of songs featuring acoustic and electric guitars than their earlier work. Whereas the first three studio albums contained only one or two tracks each with guitars, "Toccata", "Benny The Bouncer" and both parts of "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" all feature electric guitar texturing, with two lengthy guitar solos highlighting Karn Evil 9. "Still You Turn Me On" additionally features multiple acoustic guitars and wah-wah guitar accents in addition to Emerson on harpsichord and accordion. From this point onward, the guitar would become a more common addition to ELP albums although it would remain subordinate to Emerson's keyboard work.
Mixing The results of the four-month recording sessions were mixed in the first week of October 1973 at AIR Studios in London. The original mix was turned down by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and as a result, most of the material was remixed once more to their satisfaction. The first mixes of several tracks have been released on some more recent reissues of the album.
Artwork and packaging