The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack

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The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack
The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack cover
Studio album by The Nice
Released 1967
Recorded 1967
Genre Progressive rock
Length 37:50
Label Immediate Records IMSP 016
Essential (reissue)
Producer Emerlist Davjack
Professional reviews
The Nice chronology
The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack
(1967)		 Ars Longa Vita Brevis
(1968)

The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack is the 1967 debut album by the English progressive rock group The Nice. It is considered one of the first albums in the genre.

The name Emerlist Davjack is a pseudonym created by combining the last names of the four members of the group; Keith Emerson, David O'List, Brian Davison, and Lee Jackson.

The album was promoted by a sampler[1] featuring a commentary by John Peel, which included the following comments:

1967 was a strange year for pop music with groups experimenting with new sounds and bouncing on and off bandwagons with dizzying speed and agility. They were calling themselves ridiculous names and regretting it shortly. The Nice came together in a void and will be here when the others are in pantomime in Wolverhampton[2].

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Flower King of Flies"[3][4] (Keith Emerson, Lee Jackson[5]) – 3:19
  2. "Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack"[6] (Emerson, David O'List) – 2:49
  3. "Bonnie K" (Jackson, O'List) – 3:24
  4. "Rondo"[7] [Instrumental] (Dave Brubeck, Emerson, O'List, Brian Davison, Jackson) – 8:22
  5. "War And Peace" [instrumental] (Emerson, O'List Davison, Jackson) – 5:13
  6. "Tantalising Maggie" (Emerson, Jackson) – 4:35
  7. "Dawn" (Davison, Emerson, Jackson) – 5:17
  8. "The Cry of Eugene"[8][9] (Emerson, Jackson, O'List) – 4:36

The following have been added on reissues of the album:

  1. "Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack" [Single Version] (Emerson, O'List) – 2:48
  2. "Azrial (Angel of Death)" (Emerson, Jackson) – 3:44
  3. "Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon"[10](Davison, Jackson) – 2:47
  4. "America" [instrumental] (Leonard Bernstein, Davison, Jackson, Stephen Sondheim[11]) – 6:18
  5. "America" (Bernstein, Davison, Jackson, Sondheim) – 3:55

[edit] Personnel

[edit] References

  1. ^ Featured on the Castle Communications 2000 box set "Here Come The Nice" (CMETD 055-1)
  2. ^ An industrial City in the UK Midlands unfairly criticised for comedic effect for its alleged lack of cultural significance
  3. ^ A reference to Beelzebub
  4. ^ Sample lyric: Saffron Land, the Flower King of Flies, children dancing to a song of love and in time to a gong and bells sublime
  5. ^ The original disc credits all compositions to "Emerlist Davjack"
  6. ^ This track was used as incidental music for a children's television drama at the time, but it has not yet been identified
  7. ^ Includes a short excerpt from Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor
  8. ^ Later re-recorded by Jackson's group Jackson Heights
  9. ^ Refers to "Harlequin & Columbine"
  10. ^ Possibly a reference to The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury
  11. ^ Although none of The Nice's versions feature his lyrics