Karn Evil 9
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| "Karn Evil 9" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Song by Emerson, Lake & Palmer | ||
| from the album Brain Salad Surgery | ||
| Released | 19 November 1973 | |
| Recorded | 1973 | |
| Genre | Progressive Rock | |
| Length | 29:54 | |
| Label | Manticore | |
| Producer(s) | Greg Lake | |
| Brain Salad Surgery track listing | ||
| "Benny the Bouncer" (4) |
"Karn Evil 9" (5) |
End of album |
Karn Evil 9 is a work by progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), appearing on the album, Brain Salad Surgery. It is regarded by many fans to be among their best works, and at nearly half an hour long, it is also their longest studio recording. To some critics, Karn Evil 9 embodies what was wrong with 1970s progressive rock: it is lengthy, and at times difficult to digest. However, most musicians would agree that this is ELP's magnum opus.
Of all ELP's works, this recording best demonstrates Keith Emerson's classical/jazz inspired compositional skills. Emerson is an eclectic composer and the influences of many of the composers he obviously admires show in this work. The majestic second theme of the 3rd Impression is surely inspired by the works of the great English composers such as Vaughan Williams.
Contents |
[edit] Interpretation
The song itself is most commonly interpreted as ELP's take a shortened history of the world into a futuristic tale. The First Impression begins on the "cold and misty morning" of the Earth's birth, through the ice age ("Where the seeds have withered, silent children shivered in the cold"), and to man's growing lust for money ("Now their faces captured in the lenses of the jackals for gold"), which leads to various wars. Afterwards, the world is described as a carnival, wherein various elements of humanity are reduced to circus sideshows ("A bomb inside a car", "Pull Jesus from a hat"), representing the human race's growing selfishness and indifference towards others. Even human misery is described as a "specialty" in the "show." The second part of the First Impression focuses on the growing artificialization of the world, describing something natural simply as "a real blade of grass" as some bizarre circus attraction. Despite the fact that the world is becoming more and more consumed by artificiality and given control to computers (see Third Impression), the human race insists that it is still in control, as it created all that the "carnival" encompasses ("We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown were exclusively our own."). The Second Impression is an instrumental piece (mostly a piano solo), symbolizing the blissful ignorance of humanity towards the impending danger of the conquest of the computers, which culminates in the Third Impression. At this point, the "machines" have concluded their superiority to humanity and begin to take on mankind's necessity to prove their own superiority. The computers are represented by heavily distorted vocals, while the voice of the all-representative "man" is clean and without effect. The computers finally wage a violent conquest of the Earth. Mankind is shocked that its own creation is fighting back against him ("Walls that no man thought would fall") and is unprepared for the conflict. Finally the machines determine that they are sentient beings and the new "humans", or rather the new dominant species ("Load your program. I am yourself."), pushing humanity to the subservient status that they had once occupied. After their victory ("Rejoice! Glory is ours!"), they make sure not to wipe out the human race, but preserve it to demean humanity and gloat about their superiority. The last stanza of the suite epitomizes the conquest and the arrogance of both the old and new masters of the earth, wherein man struggles to maintain his presence as the dominant species on earth and the computers assert that they have surpassed their creators:
- "I am all there is."
- "Negative! Primitive! Limited! I let you live!"
- "But I gave you life!"
- "What else could you do?"
- "To do what is right."
- "I'm perfect! Are you?"
[edit] General information
The phrase "Karn Evil" may indeed be a slight alteration of the word "carnival", which the lyrics in "First Impression, part 2" seem to suggest. The title also suggests Robert Schumann's Carnaval, Op. 9, a work with which the members of ELP were doubtless familiar. A further pun is the presence of the word "Evil" in the title, suggesting that the carnival (the epitome of human selfishness and indifference) is evil. In that sense, the song may be interpreted as a warning that humanity's lack of sympathy and glorification of selfishness will lead to its downfall.
The song has a running length of 29 minutes and 37 seconds. It is the fifth and final track on Brain Salad Surgery, though the initial release in both the U.S. and the UK saw Karn Evil 9 split between the two sides of the album, due to its length. Subsequent releases have Karn Evil 9 as a single track. There used to be a fade out/fade in between First Impression parts 1 and 2 due to the restrictions of the original vinyl transcription. This is not present on later CD versions.
[edit] Impressions
Karn Evil 9 consists of three movements, or "Impressions", with the First Impression divided into two parts:
- First Impression, part 1 (0:00 to 8:41)
- First Impression, part 2 (8:42 to 13:22)
- Second Impression (13:23 to 20:30)
- Third Impression (20:31 to 29:37)
The work's most recognizable portion to many is First Impression, Part 2, and its introduction: Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends..., which eventually became the title of their first live album and is often used as a song dedicated to the opening of sports seasons.
First Impression, Part 2 is also a common radio staple, though the fact that the song opens with the "Welcome back" line can leave casual radio listeners a bit surprised, not necessarily knowing what led up to that point from Part 1 (the common problem being that combined, First Impression lasts over 13 minutes and hence, would not be well accessible on radio played with Parts 1 and 2 together due to its length, so the shorter Part 2 is just played by itself instead).
[edit] Writing credits and vocals
- First Impression: Music by Keith Emerson, vocals and lyrics written by Greg Lake.
- Second Impression: Music by Emerson.
- Third Impression: Music by Emerson, lyrics by Lake and Peter Sinfield. All vocals are sung by Lake, except the computerised vocals, which are Emerson's.
