Before reading that interview, I'd never heard of Keith's solo album, "Changing States," produced by Kevin Gilbert. I found it on Apple Music's streaming service and there's some great stuff on there! These two tracks (and another one that wasn't on YT) sound like classic Emerson to me. This is awesome, it's like finding buried treasure!
There's also an interesting orchestral version of "Abaddon's Bolero" on it.
Keith's solo stuff has tended to have sketchy availability on small labels, drifting in and out of print. I basically only have that 2-cd anthology Sanctuary put out called 'Hammer It Out', of which the 2nd disc is mostly solo. I seem to recall 'The Church' was on that. There was a rough recording of a rock arrangement of his Piano Concerto there, from around that same period.Originally Posted by No Pride
And there's also the Keith Emerson Band album. Need to dig that out again actually.
Nice to see him mention 'Close To Home' too, that's one of my favourite pieces of his.
I've posted some of these pics before…
Multi-track masters for Changing States:
Kevin's artwork he designed as a joke. Although, most of that write-up does appear in the CD, if I recall correctly:
Inside one of the multi-track boxes:
The re-release of Emerson's Changing States didn't include any outtakes, which would have been a cool treat for Emerson and Kevin Gilbert fans. From the amount I have heard, there is some great banter between Kevin, Emerson, and Marc Bonilla as well as some intense instrumental jams they did. One section I noted was when Emerson is playing piano during one take and Kevin stops him and attempts to cushion Emerson's foot as it is making too much noise when he hits the pedals.
The first song on the album is a real AOR clunker , but the rest of it is fantastic. I even like the quirky version of "summertime". Bolero is amazing, there is an instrumental tune right before that that is excellent too, but made me think that 1970s Palmer would've been perfect for it -- The rhythm section is a bit heavy and very basic on that tune, and Palmer would've been the perfect anecdote.
Overall, it's a damn fine record. I'm glad someone else appreciates it .
I haven't read Keith's book, but that's a nice interview. I do get tired of him ripping Greg Lake and not just because I'm an amateur bass player who likes to sing and play guitar.I'll gladly be corrected on any of the following stuff, but what bugs me is that Keith portrays himself as this mellow, cool guy who stuff just happens to and gosh, why was Greg such an a-hole all the time? I doubt that Lee Jackson and Brian Davison were all warm and fuzzy towards Keith when he announced he was breaking up The Nice and it turns out he just wanted The Nice Part 2 (i.e. with a better bass player/singer and drummer). From what I understand, Emerson had his manager, Tony Stratton-Smith send out feelers to Jack Bruce and Chris Squire, both of whom declined: Bruce because he wanted to have his material dominate and Squire because he wasn't ready to be a lead singer. So, he meets up with Lake in San Francisco in December 1969 for a quick jam and what does Lake do? Criticizes how he plays! But gosh, Emerson just *had* to form a band with this guy, didn't he?
I find this bit from the interview to be laughable:
Then why not keep Lee and Brian? Why not hire "a wigged-out" Mitch Mitchell? Why not convince Steve Howe to have stayed with The Nice for more than a cup of tea when they tried to replace Davey O'List? And so on and so forth. Bands come together or break apart for a number of reasons, but as the recent 25-page + Yes threads have shown, not everyone buys in to a band replacing members as if they were "any other unit". So, he forms a band with Lake, who fights him tooth and nail about management (Lake won, they used King Crimson's EG Management, it was a disaster) and then while recording the first ELP album, walks in on Lake working on Lucky Man in secret. The song becomes a radio hit, but what does Emerson do? He complains that it's not the sound for the band he had in mind. He sure didn't mind the money from album sales and concert tickets that it helped generate, oh no. There's the blowup about doing Tarkus, with Lake almost quitting and on and on and on. All throughout this, Keith portrays himself as only interested in the music, maaaaaaan, but he has bitched for over 30 years of how poorly he and Lake worked together. Again, ELP allowed him to buy his Tudor mansion in Surrey and fly planes and ride flash motorcycles and travel on the road in luxury but that stuff didn't happen solely because of him. Odd how his craven attempts at recreating the ELP formula in ELPowell (I like the album and loved the two shows I saw for what its worth), the ghastly 3 and the reformed ELPalmer and not having them come anywhere near the success of the period 1967-1979 (=The Nice's first album to the breakup of ELPalmer) are again blamed on external circumstances and Lake getting in to screaming matches with Cozy Powell and so forth.Quite honestly, I could have done what I did probably with any other unit
I love Emerson, Lake & Palmer from 1970-1974 + Pirates, but I'll quote Fish of Marillion here: "ELP died a death, didn't they? Emerson and Lake completely ran out of ideas". I think part of the problem is that Emerson thought he was going to be a big-time film composer and that simply didn't work out, as good as the Inferno soundtrack is. Then there was his cocaine addiction in the early 80's, his arm problems and so on. He seems like a very limited composer, he's a riff/idea thief on a level with Jimmy Page, the idea that he's a "serious classical composer" is laughable. It's one thing to learn enough of orchestration to make it playable by orchestras but John Mayer was a big part of whatever success the piano concerto has had but he's almost been written out of that narrative.
Um, I really do like ELP in their early 70's heyday, honest!
...or you could love
Gruno, can you please post a high res scan of Kevin's joke cover for cream of emerson soup? I think we'd all appreciate it.
Remember, Changing States was just reissued by Esoteric:
http://shop.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=4559
Great interview and I enjoyed the posts in this thread. I had no idea Keith did a track with Roger Daltrey. Does anyone know the story behind that?
> He seems like a very limited composer, he's a riff/idea thief on a level with Jimmy Page, the idea that he's a "serious classical composer" is laughable. <
My armhairs respectfully have a different opinion
Hahaha. To expand on those thoughts, listening to the musical clips on this page, it sounds like the same stuff he was doing in the early 70's, just a different keyboard sound and production. The fanfare-like lead lines, the chugging rhythms, the key & rhythm changes. As for his riff/idea "borrowings" what a depressingly long list this is:My armhairs respectfully have a different opinion
http://www.brain-salad.com/Emerson/quote-list.txt
In terms of being a "serious composer", I mean c'mon. His one attempt at a classical piece, the piano concerto was co-written with John Mayer. The story I've read is that Mayer would tell Keith what was needed and he would come up with something. I've played the concerto for friends of mine who have never heard of Keith Emerson or ELP and they all said the same thing: "Derivative, blatant steals from Prokofiev, Grieg and Bartok, not much of a piano part, pretty lightweight". He's talked of years of Piano Concerto No. 2, but that's never going to happen, is it?
...or you could love
Yes, the word the English use is "ma'am," but it's generally pronounced "mum," so it's easy to see where the confusion may come in...
Mike
Tabletop Genesis - A Genesis and solo career focused podcast, featuring the opinions of Tom Roche, Stacy Godfrey, Simon Godfrey, and Mike Lord - Listen on I-Tunes, or at http://tabletopgenesis.com/ Twitter: @genesistabletop Facebook: www.facebook.com/TabletopGenesis
I wish I could, but some things need to be in low-res if they are allowed to be posted at all. Unfortunately, a hi-res image might gain attention from those wanting to use it to sell bootlegs or unauthorized material. It's happened many, many times in the past with Kevin Gilbert material, so we keep a tight lock on things. For the 'Cream of Emerson Soup' artwork, I even had to blur out some portions for those who might attempt to recreate it.
Yes, I bought it and said this in my post:
But why would it be bootlegged? The album is rereleased and everywhere.
Of course it is available for purchase. Throw on a different cover and print up some silver discs and boom -- you have a bootleg that people WILL purchase. No thanks. I've researched this via Kevin Gilbert and many other bands/artists. This stuff does happen frequently.
That is a shame some of that wasn't released as bonus tracks. I'd already guessed that Bonilla was the guitar player, but do you know who was playing bass and drums, Gruno?
Well, he certainly has a style, but so do most great composers, from Bach to John Lennon. It's a matter of the style's content and scope that makes it great. Keith's music is far more than "riffs;" there's all sorts of brilliant melodies, harmony and rhythms contained within.
As far as all of that other personal drama, I don't think any of it is that unusual. As a musician/composer myself, I can't fault him for wanting "a better version of The Nice." We all want musicians that can do the most justice to our babies, the tunes. One of the most difficult things about putting a band together is having to choose between friendship and musical proficiency. If we're serious about our music, proficiency has to take top priority. And keeping a band together is even more difficult, because a band is very much like a marriage, except you're dealing with more than one partner. The hardest thing about making a marriage work is expecting two people to want the same things out of life. In the case of a marriage, some people stay together for the kids despite their differences; in a band, some stay together because the band is commercially successful. There are many bands where the members don't get along at all, but as a viable product, the union works. I can understand Keith's unhappiness with Lake's song writing style; it's not very congruous with his own. Of course, some might feel that dichotomy was what made ELP great (and Greg did come up with the hits), but personally, I would've been happier if it was all Keith's music, I tend to skip tunes like "From the Beginning." I'm not trying to say Keith was a saint, just that I understand some of his behaviors to some extent.
The same could be said for Jon Lord's "Concerto for Rock Band and Orchestra" or Tony Banks' orchestral pieces... or John Williams' film scores, for that matter. Derivative or not, I enjoy Keith's piano concerto very much, even if he can't (or shouldn't) take all of the credit; the bottom line is that (I think) it's a great piece of music!
Last edited by No Pride; 08-05-2015 at 02:52 PM.
Single biggest interview regret: Kevin Gilbert. Was offered one in March 1996. I said I was totally booked -- can we do it in a couple of months? :-(
"Another Frontier" was re-done by ELP as "Changing States" in Black Moon.
"Ma'am" to rhyme with "farm", not "ma'am" to rhyme with "ham" as Americans do. Least, that's how I was taught it.Yes, the word the English use is "ma'am," but it's generally pronounced "mum," so it's easy to see where the confusion may come in...
Lovely interview. Great questions from Anil, and great answers from Keith... some of which related to the question asked! The thing that struck me was how whenever Emerson would play some demos, the execs would say it would sell better with Greg and Carl on them. That manacle of past success happens over and over. We see the same with Ian Anderson and Tull, we see the same with Yes, with King Crimson. And we, the fans, contribute to it. A million page thread about who is Yes, but much less on the new Moraz album or something like Levin Torn White. Interest in A Scarcity of Miracles jumped as soon as it had the Crimson label applied.
Henry
Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/
Great interview. Thanks.
I have an original Changing States CD with Kevin Gilbert's initials on it.
Great read, thanks
Kids in a one-room schoolhouse out west were taught by the "school marm".
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks