Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus (1971)

Whilst prog-rock may today be a dirty word and the kiss of death to any hopes of commercial success, back in the early 1970s it was one of the most popular musical forms and no-one exemplified all that is both good and bad about the genre than Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Tarkus was the second studio album from ELP who, at the time where phenomenally popular with the album going to number 1 in the UK charts and catapulting the group into the super league.

For my money, Tarkus was a particularly strong album from the group with all three band members giving 100% throughout – something that can’t be said of some of their later efforts. As a drummer, after hearing this album Carl Palmer became my ‘hero’ – and I was fortunate enough to be taught by his brother who was a very gifted player too – and the breadth of his rhythms, fills and syncopations on Tarkus still thrill me to this day.

The album opens with a rather eerie sound effect that builds into the opening Eruption which has an odd time structure and heads off at a ferocious pace with Emerson wringing all he can from the Hammond. From then-on in the tracks blend seamlessly together on what was side 1 of the vinyl release with Gregg Lake providing the odd vocal passage and plenty of complex musical interludes, mostly played very uptempo.

Whilst side 1 provides a ‘concept’ (another dirty word), side 2 contains a varied collection of standalone tracks, the standout for me being the rapid Bitches Sin in 3/4 time with Carl Palmer providing a very jazzy pattern to carry the piece along at break-neck speed.

There are even a couple of ‘comic’ tracks with Jeremy Bender and Are You Ready Eddie? – the latter being a tribute to their sound engineer and is the musical low-point of the album, although I’m sure it seemed like a fun idea at the time!

Whilst ELP would go on to make some really poor albums later in their career and their name become synonymous with overblown self-indulgence, Tarkus was ELP at their greatest and I’d urge anyone to put their preconceptions and anti-prog prejudices to one side temporarily and give this album a listen and I’m sure the undoubted abilities of the musicians involved, if not the music itself, will provide for a rewarding experience!

• Keith Emerson – Keyboards
• Greg Lake – Bass/Vocal
• Carl Palmer – Drums