I was deep into my Genesis phase as a kid when my mom came in one day and gave me a copy of Keyboard Magazine. I can’t remember the year of the edition, maybe 1990, but the cover story was about a keyboardist named Keith Emerson. Keith Emerson? The name did not ring a bell in my 14 year-old head, but I went ahead and read the article. I remember it being a very in depth article about this man and how he approached writing music, in particular a song called Eruption, the first of seven parts in his 20-minute opus Tarkus. Let’s just say that this piece of music, which was transcribed in the magazine, for someone my age who only had a couple of years of playing under his belt, it was a very challenging piece. But it was also very different from anything I had heard before. So I actually had a copy of the album in my vinyl drawer, and I played it. It was mesmerizing!
I would say that a very fair analogy would be that what Jimi Hendrix was to the electric guitar, Keith Emerson was to the electric keyboard. He helped lay the foundation for what would become a synthesizer revolution that can be felt very much today with the current EDM scene. Keith was able to make sounds and atmospheres that no one before had achieved, and he pushed the boundaries of what was progressive rock and live performance. Whether it was using a touch-pad stick that made crazy synth sounds while it was exploding fire-crackers at the end, or playing an 11-foot Steinway grand piano at the California Jam with it spinning horizontally in mid-air as he was playing, Keith influenced tons of keyboard players and musicians alike with his music, stage performance, and live antics.
Keith’s main project was Emerson Lake & Palmer (ELP). The group was started by Keith, guitarist/bassist Greg Lake (King Crimson) and Carl Palmer. The band had a variety of hits but they were mostly known for two specific things. The first was the song Lucky Man. A simple acoustic and catchy folk song written by Greg Lake, the track became legendary because of the song’s climatic solo at the end featuring a never-before heard Moog synthesizer. Synthesizer gurus would likely trace back to this tune as having been a huge influence for all the synthesizers that would come later. It might seem pedestrian when you first hear it, but back then, it blew people’s minds!
The second was their ability to take classical/jazz pieces and turn them into rock songs. You never heard classical pieces like Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare For The Common Man and Hoedown from Rodeo, Gustav Holst’s Mars the Bringer of War, or Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet transformed into full-fledged rock anthems the way that ELP did. Their most popular re-interpretation, also a full-length album, was Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition. ELP made classical music even more fun for me and enjoyable to study. Without them, I might not have dived as deep as I did in the classical realm.
Through Emerson Lake & Palmer, Keith wowed audiences with his synthesizer play as well as his incredible ability to make some of the most beautiful and downright evil sounds on the Hammond organ. The stories of him sticking knives into the B3 while spinning it around on its leg are incredibly true. I remember the 1993 Royal Albert Hall ELP Reunion performance where we jumped over the organ, bringing it down on its back while falling into the crowd. While in the crowd, he played the Fugue of Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in Dm minor on the organ while it was still upside down!
Needless to say, Keith was an incredible early influence on me as a keyboard player, which makes his death today that much more sad for me. What the man did for keyboard players and rock organists around the world can not be understated. There are many bands and musicians out there who have no clue as to who ELP was much less Keith Emerson, but if you listen to any album from the 70s-on that had a hint of synthesizer or blues/rock/classical organ, you would be able to trace it back to something that Keith Emerson did either on an album or live in concert. He was a true pioneer of his craft and his instruments. He also was fighter, who managed to fight back in the mid-90s from devastating nerve surgery on his right hand that almost killed his ability to play the keys.
I have attached 3 separate videos that I think can best describe the kind of player he was up until his last days. I know I will be going through quite a few more this weekend as I look back on a man who really made a huge impact on me as a player and musician. This is such a weird time, where so many of our idols and legends we always thought would be there are now all of a sudden passing on to the next life, all at relatively young ages of late-60s to early-70s. At 71, Keith Emerson is the latest to join that trip, and for me, his passing ranks up there if not more than David Bowie’s passing.
RIP Keith Emerson!
Keith Emerson the Piano Man
Keith Emerson the crazy organist (and I mean CRAZY!)
Keith Emerson the synth god