|
Brain Salad Surgery is the fourth studio album by progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1973 and the first under their Manticore Records imprint. It features cover art by controversial artist H. R. Giger. According to the 1996 re-release notes, Manticore Records president Mario Medious "nicked the title from a slang lyric in Dr. John's 1973 hit, "Right Place, Wrong Time" (released January 26 1973)": Just need a little brain salad surgery/Got to cure this insecurity to replace the working title, Whip Some Skull on Yer. The most well-known track is "Karn Evil 9 - 1st Impression, Part 2" (Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends...). "Karn Evil 9" was so long it originally had to be split between sides 1 and 2 of the album. The original U.S. CD release also divided the piece, but subsequent releases have presented it in an uninterrupted version. The lyrics were co-written by Greg Lake with fellow ex-King Crimson member Peter Sinfield. On the instrumental "Toccata", based on Alberto Ginastera's 1st piano Concerto, special synthesized effects were produced not by Keith Emerson but by Carl Palmer using newly-developed drum synthesizers. Ginastera's agent apparently did not care for ELP's rendition and wasn't going to clear the publishing rights; however, Ginastera himself liked it a lot and arranged for clearance. "Toccata" also gained fame as the theme to the New England cult TV show Creature Double Feature. "Karn Evil 9" includes vocal credit for Keith Emerson, and is Emerson's only official vocal credit on an ELP record. The album has also been released on DVD-Audio, remixed into Dolby 5.1 and in many cases using alternative vocal tracks.
Track listing Personnel Additional recordings Two further songs were recorded at the Brain Salad Surgery sessions but were not included on the album: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| |