Lester Bangs Waxes on the ‘State of Rock’

Somebody ran this Lester Bangs tidbit on YouTube through my Facebook ‘Home’ the other day. Since then I`ve watched it twenty times or so, and am really getting` a BANG out of it! Lester casually CRUCIFIES Rock Stars with the greatest of ease. He hammers nails into Jethro Tull, Bryan Ferry and most of all, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Trying to find a date, but I would guess around 1973 or 1974, maybe later? It`s when he was working as an editor at CREEM.

Excellent paisley shirt, you can`t find em like that anymore. In the last segment he speculates about the condition of Rock, its health or lack of. This was a recurring theme with Lester. That is: exactly where were we (this would be in the mid-`70s, people) in the Rock Continuum? Why wasn`t a savior coming along at that time? As Lester says, “you had Sinatra in the `40s, Elvis in the `50s and The Beatles in the `60s.” What would the next Renaissance look like?

When you come to the 1970s, nada? Emptiness. It`s interesting to think on why this condition existed. Of course, you have to chew on every word of Lester Bangs that you can find, if you want the answers. Let`s see, what was so bad about Jethro Tull, Lester? Students, turn to page 128 in your Bangs Reader, Psychotic Reactions And Carburetor Dung. A piece called Jethro Tull in Vietnam…

Notes From My ‘Mostly Forgotten Rock Album Classics’ Series

“I am all there is. NEGATIVE! PRIMITIVE! LIMITED! I LET YOU LIVE! But I give you life. WHAT ELSE COULD YOU DO? To do what was right. I`M PERFECT! ARE YOU?” 3rd Impression-KARN EVIL 9-ELP

“Brain Salad Surgery” was released on November 19th, 1973 on Manticore, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer`s newly created label. Listening to it today, it comes off as an oddity. There is not any music around now that even resembles this classical/rock synthesis that it preserved in these tracks. This idiom of music is extinct now, period. As odd as this seems, this is why I like to listen to it; it resembles an archaeological dig, for me.  I scratch my head profusely, and try to assess what went wrong (right), or why things changed so drastically, after that time. “Karn Evil 9″ is easily the boldest example *(if not the only example) of Symphonic Rock ever produced.

“Karn Evil 9″ is broken up into three movements, 1st Impression-part 1, 1st Impression-part 2, 2nd Impression (an all instrumental section), and 3rd Impression. The music part of it is dominated by exotic, baroque synthesizer runs by Keith Emerson. The lyrics were provided by Greg Lake and Pete Sinfield, who has written some nice lyrics for King Crimson. The themes here are primitive man attempting to survive in a highly cold, technological culture. Further, it`s a fanfare for ELP`s gigantic electronic productions, as seen in their concerts. It would seem as if they embody both the Evil Empire (ala “Lord of the Rings”) and Stone Age Man. This is  just a theory.

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer are either the biggest geniuses that ever walked the planet, or the grandest buffoons that ever mounted the stage of your local arena. No middle ground can exist for these faded Superstars of the 1970s. Last night I listened to Tchaikovsky`s “Pathetique” and “Brain Salad Surgery” back to back. The weirdest, most dissonant sensation ever, but interesting. This record is a stuffed bird on a dusty shelf of P.T. Barnum`s burning museum. But in their defense, ELP predicted the ‘War of Man and Machine’ back in `73 nicely, don`t you think?

The Continuing Saga Of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer?

“It`s not just that all their albums are chart sensations. What really makes ELP a dinosaur potentate is the sheer scale of the noise they emit. With ELP we`re swatted into the new age of totally Technologized Rock. This is robot music mixmastered by human modules who deserve purple hearts for managing to keep the gadgets reined at all”. Lester Bangs-Creem-1974

How should we characterize Emerson, Lake, and Palmer in the grandiose scheme of things, that is, in ‘Rock History’ itself? And what exactly does the Classical/Rock synthesis mean? Did ELP help to lay the ground for the emergence of Punk Rock, around 1977 some time? Of course, we know that Disco certainly played a role in this. I have begun to study these questions, attempting to put aside some prejudices that I know I have retained from the past. After all, it`s a heavy bummer to accuse ELP of killing Rock single-handedly. As early as 1974, Lester Bangs was noticing that ELP was getting too big, and was burying the sound with electronic keyboard gadgets, like Moog synthesizers, Hammond organs, and celeste.

I picked up a vinyl copy of the 1971 concept record, “Tarkus,” in order to sort out a fraction of this mess. I promise you, I wasn`t able to make heads or tails of it, but Greg Lake has said that it`s about the military-industrial complex and expresses the futility of war. The Tarkus creature itself is half armadillo, half tank, and engages in random high tech battles, as he roams the countryside. The inner sleeve has some great illustrations of this machine warfare. Some of Keith Emerson`s rambling Moog solos might seem a trifle dated in this day and age, but I feel like Indiana Jones discovering the ‘Lost Temple of Moogs’ when I listen.

Alright, so Rock got a little frothy, a little off the tracks in the 1970s? ELP were putting themselves out on a limb and forging a new form, Classical/Rock. And I believe the album cover for Tarkus is one of funniest and most original ever conceived! Do not just write off ELP off without careful examination. Next week, “Brain Salad Surgery”…if you don`t give it the THUMBS DOWN?