“Fanfare for the Common Man” by Emerson Lake and Palmer
From the 1977 album Works, Vol. 1

I’ve never been a huge ELP fan. They’ve always tended a little too much towards the easily mockable, cartoonish bombast for which prog rock has earned the somewhat-deserved bad reputation it has never been able to shake. Unfortunately for my own personal reputation, I like just enough of their music that I just can’t bring myself to reject them completely.

I have, however, completely rejected Works, Vol. 1 to the extent that I have never owned it. ELP as a band are scarcely a band, but rather three colossally over-inflated egos that only manage to share a stage by virtue of lacking a fourth member. (And by “member” I mean… well… you get it.)

Anyway… I have drawn a line in the sand regarding this album from late in the band’s original era, a time when the only thing that could bring them together to record even one side of a double LP as a group (as opposed to their three individual sides that comprise the rest of the album) was the extra revenue all three names appearing on the gatefold sleeve would bring in. (Well, that and the fact that apparently none of them could be bothered to record an entire solo album, either.) Yet despite myself, I kind of like their rollicking shuffle version of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”

Why do I like it, exactly? Perhaps only by association. It is probably the first prog rock recording I was ever directly exposed to as a child, via its frequent use to accompany the lesser televised sports in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the kinds of sports Howard Cosell would introduce to the American audience every Saturday afternoon on ABC.

I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t heard this song in at least 25 years. That is, until yesterday. I was watching the opening ceremonies for Target Field, the new Minnesota Twins stadium, which hosted its first regular season game yesterday. At one point several Twins legends were trotted out into the left field bleachers to help raise flags honoring each of the team’s most successful seasons (division, league and world championships spanning 1965 to 2009). And what better music to accompany this festive moment than ELP’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”?

It had been so long since I’d last heard it, I wasn’t even entirely sure it was ELP (and, given the liberties the band took with it, I also wasn’t entirely sure it was “Fanfare for the Common Man”). But once it got to the synthesizer mayhem that occurs later in the recording, I knew there was only one man who could be responsible for such sounds, and I also knew royalty checks would soon be cut and delivered to the residences of Messrs. Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

“Rondo” by Emerson Lake and Palmer
Live at Royal Albert Hall, 1971

So… um… yeah. Anyone who thinks prog rockers are either nerds in lab coats or delusional anachronists in sequined capes needs to watch this video from 1971 of Keith Emerson going balls-out crazy-ass rock-n-roller on his beat-up Hammond organ with a set of throwing knives and… uh… himself.

I saw ELP live in 1993, and in addition to the knife routine (possibly on the same beat-up but incredibly resilient Hammond), he brought in a little then-contemporary technology, in the form of a large metal phallic MIDI controller, which he played by… well… you can guess. And at the… erm… climax… flames shot out of the end of it.

Klassy.

“Karn Evil 9 (Second Impression) by Emerson Lake and Palmer
From the 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery

In honor of Father’s Day, I wanted to post a “father”-themed song. My first thought was “Dear Father,” a single B-side by Yes from 1970, but I couldn’t find any video of it. Next I came up with “Father Cannot Yell” by Can, and I did find an interesting use of it, but again, no actual video of the band. And of course there’s “Honor Thy Father” by Dream Theater, but that just didn’t do it for me, so I didn’t even bother looking it up.

In desperation I just searched on “prog rock father” and the best thing I could come up with was… *shudder* …Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas. I was all set to go with it, but then I decided, since I haven’t actually featured ELP at all yet (mainly because I think they’re probably the one band that deserves prog rock’s bad reputation for being self-indulgent, bombastic wankery), I should probably introduce them with something halfway decent. (No, I don’t mean “Love Beach.”)

I really wanted to feature my personal favorite ELP song, “From the Beginning,” but all I could find were live clips from the late ’90s. So, failing that, I at least wanted something that captured the band at its (self-indulgent, bombastic, wanky) peak.

I’m settling for this rousing, vintage performance of what is probably their signature track (unless you count “Nutrocker,” but please, for the love of God, don’t). “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends…” and with 30-minute Carl Palmer drum solos (sorry, make that 30-minute gong solos), that’s truth in advertising.

Incidentally, there’s an intersection of Emerson Ave. and Lake St. here in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, that’s not where Palmer’s Bar is located.