Pure Genius - Rehearsing a Classic

Emerson, Lake and Palmer work on a progressive magnum opus. A behind the scenes taste of the blood, sweat and tears that went into making this iconic track

If you browse around YouTube, you will see people who put themselves out there, and they make it look so damn easy.

They pick up their instruments, and they just whip out a perfect take. But the reality is that there is a TON of editing to make it perfect.

Yet, that is not all of the story. There is a lot of practice that goes into making the music. The “sausage” so to speak. Things that aren’t perfect. You play flat, or you miss a note, or your timing is off, or …

You get the idea. By the time you get your shrink-wrapped LP, and place the platter on your turntable, there is countless hours of work to get it just right, the recording engineer has done his work to place the microphones, to set levels, and to lay down the tracks. Then the mastering engineer takes the 8/16/24/48 tracks and does their magic, to get you the aural nectar that you hear.

But, at the beginning, before all the recording for posterity, it is the artist or artists, putting in the work, writing the music, creating the arrangement, weaving the tapestry of sounds that will become the end result.

It is not often that us mere mortals are able to see this creative process.

Today, I bring you several minutes from the early 1970’s, video recorded of Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer working on the one track (in three parts) from their iconic album, Brain Salad Surgery. The song I am talking about is Karn Evil 9, and it is one of Prog Rock’s truly seminal works, cementing ELP in the all-time hall of fame.

In this track, you hear the boys tweaking it in real time, giving us a rare glimpse behind the magic. I thoroughly enjoyed this, as it reminds me that when I suck (and I do suck) it is not because my heroes are perfect. No, they too have (and had) to work at it. Never get discouraged.

An encore, Hoedown

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.

---