Music / Brain Salad Surgery

Come inside, the show's about the start.

Brain Salad Surgery is the fourth studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on December 7, 1973. The first half of the album consists of shorter and more straightforward songs (save for the seven-minute instrumental "Toccata") that are unrelated to each other. The second half is the nearly 30-minute "Karn Evil 9" suite that tells an After the End story depicting a futuristic carnival show and a Robot War.

Musicians:

• Keith Emerson: Keyboards, computer voice
• Greg Lake: Lead vocals: Lead vocals, bass, electric and acoustic guitars
• Carl Palmer: Drums, percussion

Track list:

Side One

1. "Jerusalem" (2:44)
2. "Toccata" (7:23)
3. "Still... You Turn Me On" (2:53)
4. "Benny the Bouncer" (2:24)
5. "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression - Part 1" (8:43)

Side Two - "Karn Evil 9" continued

1. "1st Impression - Part 2" (4:47)
2. "2nd Impression" (7:07)
3. "3rd Impression" (9:03)

Come and see the tropes:

• After the End: The setting of the "Karn Evil 9" suite is a bleak future in which humanity was largely wiped out, with the narrator holding out for someone to save what's left of it. Some surviving artifacts of humanity's past are preserved in a carnival exhibition.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: "Karn Evil 9: Third Impression" has this as a theme, as it describes a war between mankind and machines. It's not clear who wins, but the song ends with a computer (actually Keith Emerson's voice processed through his synthesizers, although it sounds more than a bit like a Dalek) saying it "let [humanity] live" and boasting, "I am perfect. What are you?".
• Black Comedy: "Benny the Bouncer" is about a bouncer named Benny who is cut into pieces and brutally killed by Savage Sid. In contrast, the piece is sung by Lake in a ridiculous, heavy accent, while accompanied by Emerson on a honky-tonk piano, giving an impression of being upbeat and silly.
• Breather Episode: Gentle acoustic song "Still... You Turn Me On" and Black Comedy song "Benny the Bouncer" are sandwiched between the epic and chaotic "Toccata" and the After the End "Karn Evil 9" suite.
• Computer Voice: Keith Emerson's only vocal contribution in the band's discography is his voice being processed through a synthesizer to be the voice of the computer in "Karn Evil 9: Third Impression".
• Cover Version: "Jerusalem" is an adaptation of William Blake's poem, which was made into a hymn by Hubert Parry.
• Creating Life Is Bad: Humans in "Karn Evil 9" gave the computer life. The computer used it to turn against humanity, declaring itself the superior being.
• Epic Rocking:
  • The nearly 30-minute "Karn Evil 9" suite was too long to fit on one side of the LP, so the first impression was split in two with the side break in between.
  • Toccata (7:23) counts as well.
• Instrumentals:
  • "Toccata", which is also by far the longest of the first four tracks.
  • "Karn Evil 9: Second Impression" divides the two halves of the story.
• The Freakshow: "Karn Evil 9: First Impression" is about a carnival exhibition displaying the disturbing remains of humanity from before the apocalypse.
• Fun with Homophones: "Karn Evil" sounds like "carnival".
• Humans Are Bastards: The carnival exhibition does not display the best of humanity.
  "Left behind the bars, rows of Bishops' heads in jars
  And a bomb inside a car
  Spectacular! Spectacular!"
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "Karn Evil 9: First Impression - Part 2" picks up where "Part 1" left off and is the first track on side two.
  "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends."
• Longest Song Goes Last: The third impression is the longest on both the "Karn Evil 9" suite (if only because the first was broken up) and the album.
• Noodle Implements: The second half of "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" features vague descriptions of the strange acts in "the show that never ends", including "supersonic fighting cocks", a display of "bishops' heads in jars", a "gypsy queen" performing "on the guillotine" while covered in Vaseline, a performance of Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band", and an act involving "seven virgins and a mule".
• Robot War: The war between the humans and the computer depicted in "Karn Evil 9: Third Impression".
• Rock Me, Amadeus!: "Toccata" is an adaptation of the fourth movement of Alberto Ginastera's first piano concerto.
• Turned Against Their Masters: The computer was created to help the humans win a war, only for the computer to turn against them in a war of its own.
• Wham Line: The final lines imply that the machines no longer need humans and the humans can only stand in horror as the computer defeats them.
  Human: But I gave you life
  Computer: What else can you do?
  Human: To do what is right
  Computer: I'm perfect. Are you?

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