music.wikisort.org - Composition

Tarkus is the second studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in June 1971 on Island Records. Following their 1970 European tour, the group returned to Advision Studios in London, in January 1971, to prepare material for a follow-up. Side one has the seven-part "Tarkus", with a collection of shorter tracks on side two.

Tarkus
Studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Released	14 June 1971
Recorded	January–February 1971
Studio	Advision, London
Genre	Progressive rock[1]
Length	39:05
Label	Island
Producer	Greg Lake
Emerson, Lake & Palmer chronology
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970) Tarkus (1971) Pictures at an Exhibition (1971)

Tarkus went to number one in the UK Albums Chart, peaked at number 9 in the US, and reached number 12 in Canada on two occasions totalling 4 weeks.

Recording

After their debut live gigs in August 1970, the band toured across the UK and Europe for the rest of the year, during which their debut album, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, was released. While on tour, Emerson found that he and Palmer were exploring more complex rhythmic ideas. He took patterns that Palmer was playing on his practise drum pads and found that they complemented runs that he had developed on the piano, and used this as a basis for material on Tarkus. The group approached the album by having a centrepiece track in order to establish a concept, but a definite story or idea for it had not been discussed at this stage.[2]

The group paused touring commitments in December 1970 and set the following month aside to record. As with their debut, the band recorded at Advision Studios in London with Lake handling the production duties and Eddy Offord returning as engineer.[3] Early into the sessions Emerson presented the basis of the title track to Lake and Palmer; Lake was less than enthusiastic with its direction and threatened to leave the group. A subsequent meeting amongst the band and their management convinced Lake to stay, and he went on to contribute to the track and most of the other songs on the album[4] including the lyrics, for which he used the artwork as inspiration.[2] The band could only work out "Tarkus" during the January 1971 studio sessions, so they booked further time at Adivsion in February to work on side two, for which they had no material prepared.[5]

Songs

Side one

Side one is taken up by "Tarkus", a 20-minute piece in seven parts written by Emerson, with Lake credited for the "Battlefield" section and contributions to "Stones of Years" and "Mass". It is a conceptual piece in which its narrative remains ambiguous and open to interpretation, but the artwork depicts the Tarkus character in the form of an armadillo-like tank who is born and loses a fight with a manticore, which concludes with the appearance of an aquatic version of Tarkus named Aquatarkus.[4] The track was written in six days and the band rehearsed it for another six, after which they put it to tape. Lake said the song is about "the futility of conflict, expressed in this context in terms of soldiers and war — but it's broader than that. The words are about revolution, the revolution that's gone, that has happened. Where has it got anybody? Nowhere."[5] He went on to describe the track, which opens "in frustration" with the "Eruption" section, an instrumental in a 5/4 time signature which he considered a "frustrating" meter. The lyrical songs that follow concern "the hypocrisy of it all" and noted the closing march at the end "a joke".[5] The group would not record a longer piece in the studio until 1973, with the 29-minute "Karn Evil 9".

Side two

Side two features a series of shorter numbers unrelated to the conceptual title track. "The Only Way (Hymn)" contains themes from "Toccata and Fugue in F major, BWV 540" and "Prelude and Fugue VI, BWV 851" by Bach. Although not credited, the music to "Are You Ready, Eddy?" was largely inspired by Bobby Troup's 1956 song "The Girl Can't Help It". Emerson refers to the track as "an impromptu jam" played in celebration of completing work on Tarkus.[6]

Artwork

William Neal made the artwork for the album's cover and gatefold. The cover image of a giant armadillo on tank treads has become an iconic image in progressive rock.[7] Emerson said, "To everyone, it represented what we were doing in that studio. The next day on my drive up from Sussex the imagery of the armadillo kept hitting me. It had to have a name. Something guttural. It had to begin with the letter 'T' and end with a flourish. Tarka the Otter may have come into it, but this armadillo needed a science fiction kind of name that represented Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in reverse. Some mutilation of the species caused by radiation ... 'Tarkus'!"[8]

The gatefold presents eleven panels that illustrate the events of "Tarkus". It begins with an erupting volcano, below which Tarkus emerges from an egg. Tarkus faces a number of cybernetic creatures, culminating in a battle against the manticore. The manticore stings Tarkus's eye, and Tarkus retreats bleeding into a river.[7]

Release

Tarkus was released on 14 June 1971 in the UK on Island Records, appearing two months later in the US by Atlantic Records' subsidiary label Cotillion Records.[9] It is one of only two ELP studio albums to reach the Top 10 in the United States, making it to No. 9 (Trilogy, the following year, got to No. 5), while in Britain it is their only number-one album.[9] Additionally, Tarkus spent a total of 17 weeks in the UK Albums Chart.[10] In Japan the album was released on Atlantic Records. Later vinyl reissues were on the Manticore label.

Tarkus was certified gold in the United States shortly after its release on 26 August 1971.[11]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Sound & Vision	[13]
Classic Rock Revisited	A[14]
The Daily Vault	A[15]
Sea of Tranquility	[16]
Classic Rock	[17]

Although it is now considered a quintessential progressive rock album,^{[citation needed]} Tarkus received generally unfavourable reviews from critics upon its release, such as David Lebin in Rolling Stone who wrote: "Tarkus records the failure of three performers to become creators. Regardless of how fast and how many styles they can play. Emerson, Lake and Palmer will continue turning out mediocrity like Tarkus until they discover what, if anything, it is that they must say on their own and for themselves."[18]

François Couture, in a retrospective review for AllMusic, said that Tarkus is "a very solid album, especially to the ears of prog rock fans – no Greg Lake acoustic ballads, no lengthy jazz interludes". Couture concluded, "More accomplished than the trio's first album, but not quite as polished as Brain Salad Surgery, Tarkus is nevertheless a must-have."[12] Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock praised the album's title track but criticized the "enervatingly portentous lyrics" and the traditional form of the solos (beginning and ending on downbeats, using blues voicings). He also said the two comedy songs ("Jeremy Bender" and "Are you Ready Eddie?") "have aged embarrassingly."[19]

Emerson said that Tarkus was one of his favourite albums, "not least because the title track has taken on a life of its own".[9]

In 2015, Sean Murphy of PopMatters ranked Tarkus the 21st best classic progressive rock album of all time.[20]

Reissues

In 1993, the album was digitally remastered by Joseph M. Palmaccio and released by Victory Music in Europe and Rhino Records in North America. This was followed by two remasters by the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in 1994[21] that are currently out of print.[22]

In August 2012, Tarkus was reissued by Sony Music and released in a 3 CD pack, containing a stereo mix from the Palmaccio master, a stereo mix in the form of an alternate version of the album, and a 5.1 surround sound mix by Steven Wilson. The set also contains previously unreleased tracks recorded during the sessions.[23]

Tarkus was reissued on record as a 12" picture disc by BMG as part of Record Store Day on 12 June 2021.[24]

Track listing

Original vinyl

2012 Edition

Personnel

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

• Keith Emerson – Hammond organ, pipe organ of St. Mark's Church, piano, celesta, Moog modular synthesizer, Minimoog
• Greg Lake – vocals, bass guitar, electric and acoustic guitar
• Carl Palmer – drums, assorted percussion[25]

Production

• Greg Lake – production for E. G. Records
• Eddy "Are You Ready" Offord – engineer
• William Neal – paintings (C.C.S. Assoc.)

Charts

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[37]	Gold	100,000^
United States (RIAA)[38]	Gold	500,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

Works cited

Further reading

• Ford, Peter T. (August 1994). The Compositional Style of Keith Emerson in Tarkus (1971) for the Rock Music Trio Emerson Lake and Palmer (M.A.). Indiana State University. OCLC 812040625. Retrieved 7 January 2015.

На других языках

---

[de] Tarkus

Tarkus ist das zweite Studioalbum der britischen Progressive-Rock-Band Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Es erschien 1971 und stellte ihren endgültigen Durchbruch zu einer der erfolgreichsten Gruppen der 70er-Jahre dar.[1][2] Der durch die Coverart illustrierte Titel Tarkus nimmt die gesamte A-Seite ein. Er gilt als „eine der frühesten und einflussreichsten Rocksuiten“[3] und verarbeitet teilweise Elemente und Einflüsse des Jazz sowie klassischer Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts. Die B-Seite enthält sechs kürzere, stilistisch eher uneinheitliche Einzeltitel.

---

- [en] Tarkus

---

[es] Tarkus (álbum de Emerson, Lake & Palmer)

Tarkus es el segundo álbum de la banda británica de rock progresivo Emerson, Lake & Palmer, publicado en el año 1971. Este trabajo solidificó la fama de la banda, tras el celebrado LP debut; las ilustraciones de la carpeta del álbum son del artista gráfico William Neal.

---

[ru] Tarkus

Tarkus — второй студийный альбом британской рок-группы Emerson, Lake & Palmer, выпущенный в 1971 году.

---

---