Benny the Bouncer

I often get the question regarding the source of my email address, so this seems the appropriate time to dive headlong into what most of you will know as one of my biggest obsessions, Emerson Lake & Palmer, or ELP for short.  The ELP experience has provided both the primer and the pinnacle to my eclectic musical tastes since first being exposed to their music in 1974.

For as long as I can remember, I have been inspired by music.  I regularly spun records on a small, red, portable phonograph as a very small child.  Some records were for children, others were selections from my parents’ collection of 45s, 33s and even 78rpm discs.  I know this record player had to be pretty old as I have now seen it in pictures that were taken prior to my birth.  Not that the age of the player was of any particular relevance, it just seems so bizarre in terms of today’s rapid pace of technological obsolescence.  One particular day I had trouble plugging in the phonograph.  One of the prongs on the plug had been bent.  Not to be denied, I chose a kitchen knife to guide the plug into the outlet.  Of course it shocked the living hell out of me, but I was fortunate that the knife had a plastic handle.  I will never forget precisely how that felt!  On reading this, some might wonder whether this might explain a few things:).

Besides whatever ball I was shooting or slinging at the time, the radio was my most-loved inanimate companion.  This was especially true during the 3 years I delivered the Arizona Republic newspaper commencing at 4:00 each and every morning.  Not only would I carry the radio with me on my route, it routinely stayed on all night.  Kids, I don’t recommend this (do as I say, not as I did).  There is no wonder I stopped growing near that time.  The station I listened to was primarily top 40, but would sometimes play album oriented rock (AOR) during the wee hours.  The most incredible thing at the time was that you could hear a Motown song back-to-back with Deep Purple.  I thought nothing of that then, but everything has to have a genre these days and stations are strictly formatted to fit the demographic they’re targeting.  Who knows, I might be more amenable to rap music if such a concept still existed.  I doubt it, but I do have a very soft spot in my heart for soul music.

It wasn’t until about 1971 that I discovered that there was more to a band than what I was hearing on the radio.  My first favorite band was Three Dog Night which was hugely popular due to their penchant for top hits and radio friendly songs.  I eventually became disenchanted with this style even though I still love most of their songs.  I started listening to Steppenwolf primarily due to the presence of their titles being shown on the record sleeves of Three Dog Night albums (ABC Dunhill Label) and because my cousins had an 8-track tape that I loved (Steppenwolf, The Second).  Led Zeppelin IV was the album that took me to the next level.  Never before had I heard such power on a record.  The song Black Dog just exploded and jumped off the vinyl through the speakers and through my body.  I ran to turn it down because I thought my dad would be disturbed.  He saw me and just laughed.

This was also roughly the period that I started pushing music.  See I had been ridiculed a bit for listening to Three Dog Night because it was too poppy.  I was the first of my friends, however to discover the raw power of Zep and I immediately started sharing the tunes.  My records were now the ones being played at 8^th and 9^th grade parties:).

It was the summer following my freshman year that I first heard a song I couldn’t get out of my head.  It was on the way to an all-star baseball tournament in which I would coincidentally hit several home runs.  The song would turn out to be From the Beginning by Emerson Lake & Palmer.  Because I didn’t understand the DJ, it took several days to determine both the name of the song and the band.  I think I bought the album Trilogy at the local Safeway with my cousin Tim.  I put it on the stereo with great anticipation expecting to hear something similar to the song I'd heard.  What I heard was the strangest music I’d ever experienced.  I seem to recall making some unflattering remarks.  Tim encouraged me to give it a try and not to judge too quickly.  In retrospect, I would describe the music as hauntingly majestic.

The Endless Enigma starts out with a low level drumbeat that sounds like a heartbeat as eerie cries from a Mini Moog tease the listener.  Then the rapid onslaught of Hammond keys, drums and bass with interspersed whines of a zourka (a Tunisian instrument which sounds like bagpipes) explodes, then primes Greg Lake’s strong, pure initial query "Why do you stare, do you think that I care.  You've been misled by the thoughts in your head", etc.  Part 1 concludes and is followed by a piano fugue, something more foreign to me at the time than that already described.  Part 2 follows and closes with a full-fledged fury of arpeggios complete with Moog horns, bells and crescendos with Greg’s iconoclastic phrasing and resolution "Each part was played, though the play was not shown, Everyone came, but they all sat alone.  The dawn opens the play, breaking the day, causing a silent hooray, The dawn will break another day! Now that it's done, I've begun to see the
reason why I'm here", synth trail off as if there is still a question.

After the ten plus minutes of Enigma, I would finally get to From the Beginning and fell in love all over again. I am still hooked today.  It’s a jazzy ballad with subdued, but passionate wanting and sincere vocals.  Keith’s Moog solo at the end is reminiscent (but more interesting to me) of the famous Lucky Man bit that both propelled the band to international acclaim and brought the Moog into popular music view.  Another surprise was their arrangement of Aaron Copland’s Hoedown which I immediately recognized from my classical music memory days in grade school.  How did they make this work?  And how on earth did these same three guys play all these tunes?

The music described thus far is representative only in that is shows the depth and range of the band.  Keith Emerson would later describe ELP’s music as progressive rock with a lot of regard for the past.  The primary difference between ELP and other bands is their roots.  Most of rock music is based on American black blues.  ELP is primarily based on European classical and folk music.  They do incorporate many other elements such as improvisation, a cornerstone of jazz and a true American art form.

As I stated in the introductory paragraph, my musical “homepage” is ELP.  I have discovered more classical, jazz, folk and other related progressive music by listening to ELP.  I kid by calling myself a music snob because I think I have a broad view of musical styles, something I’ve gained with the ELP experience.

ELP have been vilified by the mainstream rock press because their music does not fit the mold.  They have also been called over-the-top, overblown and pretentious.  They were indeed showman and in their prime were arguably the best musicians ever to play rock music. Then, amidst their musical tempest, they'd stop and perform some of the most evocative ballads of our times. The encores were of legendary proportion.

Their influence on other bands is now well documented.  Keith’s sphere of influence goes far beyond rock and his Piano Concerto No. 1 has been performed worldwide.  The classical snobs chided ELPs attempts to blend these themes into their music while the rock and roll purists have shunned them because their music is not blue collar, for the common man.  Despite its raw power and blues mode, their arrangement of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man apparently did not resonate with the critics either.

As good as they were, between 1970 and 1977, they were singled-out by the Sex Pistols and other punk bands as being the epitome of arena rock dinosaurs and primary drivers of the punk movement.  Keith Emerson was regularly burned in effigy during Pistols' concerts.  Revolution against the elites is ubiquitous throughout history.

Another charge against ELP was that they took themselves too seriously.  Really?  Have you ever heard Jeremy Bender, The Sheriff, Are You Ready Eddy or Benny the Bouncer?  Like the Beatles’ Rocky Racoon and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, ELP would occasionally ham one up.  Greg sings Benny the Bouncer in an exaggerated surly cockney accent.

Benny was the bouncer at the Palais de dance

He'd slash your granny's face up given half a chance.

He'd sell you back the pieces, all for less than half a quid

He thought he was the meanest-

Until he met with savage Sid.

Now Sidney was a greaser with some nasty roots

He poured a pint of Guinness over Benny's boots

Benny looked at Sidney:

Sidney stared right back in his eye.

Sidney chose a switchblade

And Benny got a cold meat pie.

Oh! what a terrible sight,

Much to the people's delight.

One hell of a fight.

Sidney grabbed a hatchet, buried it .... in Benny's head.

The people gasped as he bled:

The end of a ted?

Well, they dragged him from the wreckage of the Palais in bits.

They tried to stick together all the bits that would fit.

But some of him was missing

And "part of him" arrived too late,

So now he works for Jesus

As the bouncer at St. Peter's Gate.

To be honest, I went through several ELP songs before finding something that had not been used as an email address.  I even had to smash the words together to make it unique.  Guess there are some more fans out there.