IN Memoriam : Keith Emerson. · 6:40am Mar 13th, 2016
Been a rough year for classic rock fans . Mere days after losing Beatles Producer George Martin, word that Keith Emerson is dead.
Now of course Emerson was not a titanic figure like Martin, to say nothing of the ubericonic David Bowie. Which is precisely why I am talking about Emerson while I did not talk about Bowie or Martin, simply put, the later two don't need my help.
So who was Keith Emerson anyways? He was a classically trained pianist who feverishly worked to bring in classical and jazz influences into rock . A virtuoso ( the media called him " the Hendrix of the keyboards" ) Emerson had lightning fast fingers and a gift for composition, writing songs that , thanks to their odd time signatures( and turn on a dime time signature changes!) and speed few if anyone else but him could play. He was a a flamboyant performer, and would often stab his keyboard with knives in order to hold down notes for minutes at a time.
Emerson ( along with Yes Keyboardist Rick Wakeman) really made the electornic keyboard/ synthesizer central in a way that it had not been before, and it is hard to imagine how electronic music , trance, and post rock ( to say nothing of course of Prog rock) would have developed without him.
So here is a bit of a homage if you will. Probably the best thing to play is Tarkus, the 20+ minute conceptual piece he did as part of Emerson Lake and Palmer that Emerson himself considered his best work. On a personal note , this is was a huge "study" song for me when I was in Law School, especially during the overwhelming days of 1L. Listening to this song I feel like I am back sitting in the reading room of my Law School's library. Perhaps not the most relaxing listen, but definitely a heady one.
And one more , fanfare for the common man, where you can actually see the guy, clad in stereotypically awful 70's fashions. ( those sunglasses.. they want to be aviators but fail so spectacularly) . Anyways the point is the guy's keyboard playing.
If you have further interests in this subject, here is a great write up of his career.
