TARKUS

'Tarkus' was premiered pre-release on ELP's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' concert tour, along with 'Jeremy Bender', which I will return to later. I attended one of these concerts, and still remember Lake's announcements of both pieces, probably due to their rather striking content. "This is a track from our next album, which is going to be called 'Tarkus'. Tarkus is a kind of armadillo with tank tracks..." It's fair to say I had not foreseen this image. Anyway, despite this nostaglia, and my long-held enthusiasm for ELP's other early music, not least 'Pictures', I never really fell in love with 'Tarkus'. It's interesting and gripping, for want of a better word, but the Hammond organ is over-exposed in such a long piece. This last opinion has been vindicated for me by the Keith Emerson Band's outstanding 'Moscow' (2010) live album, which includes an extended (35 mins) version of 'Tarkus' that is rendered much more digestible by Marc Bonilla's guitar and indeed the entire band - I highly recommend that album.

So that's 'Tarkus'. Lake's 1971 introduction of the ragtime spoof 'Jeremy Bender' was: "This is a song about a queer who decides to become a nun." Non-native English speakers may not pick up the rather shocking terminology to modern ears, but this is obsolete language, shall we say. There was no malice intended, I do stress, but I include this historical anecdote so that younger site members might understand better the society into which David Bowie launched 'Ziggy Stardust'. JB is not a homophobic piece, its target is clearly to poke fun at religious values, something Lake does in several tracks on the 'Tarkus' album. These include 'The Only Way' mock-hymn, which is actually one of Lake's most beautiful ever pieces of singing, but I was never happy playing this track as a teenager since my mother was very religious.

We should also mention 'Bitches Crystal', since this is performed by the post-ELP bands of both Emerson and Palmer, and therefore they seem to consider it a classic. It's quite an arresting track that belongs to the kind of manic dystopian thread evident in certain of Lake's songs from '21st Century Schizoid Man', through 'Knife Edge' to 'Karn Evil 9'.

Verdict: powerful music in every sense.