Last Updated on 25 February 2026 by Massimo M.
If Tarkus is the best track composed by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, their best album is Brain salad surgery.
ELP’s fourth album, Brain salad surgery, reached stores in November 1973, almost a year and a half after Trilogy
.
The unusual large publication distance between the two works is mainly due to two reasons.
The first is that, after the dissolution of the contract the band had with Island records, ELP created their own record label, Manticore. The name of the new record company is taken from that of the mythological creature spoken of in the album Tarkus.
The second reason is that the three musicians concentrated fully during the recording sessions, not only from a compositional point of view but also by purchasing a vast range of electronic instruments and making full use of the technological resources available in the recording studio.
For the recording of Jerusalem alone, a song lasting 2.45 minutes in which a patriotic hymn written by William Blake is reinterpreted in a rock style, it took a fifty-four hours of studio work. Jerusalem was also released as a single from Brain salad surgery and limited to the European market with catalog number K13503 (UK).
Brain salad surgery was then released by the new label with catalog number MC 66669, in both the European and US markets. In Japan, however, the catalog number was P-8395M.
Brain salad surgery also contains a real suite lasting about 30 minutes entitled Karn evil 9.
The suite is divided into three movements which are called Impressions. The first movement is in turn divided into two parts. This composition was written by Emerson and Lake with the fundamental collaboration of Peter Sinfield, co-founder of King Crimson. The title Karn evil is a play on words derived from the term carnival.
Brain Salad Surgery was a notable commercial success. In fact, in the UK it reached number 2 in the album sales chart, blocked by Yes who had just released Tales From Topographic Oceans. At the time, the specialized press made much of an alleged rivalry between the two bands who, in reality, were on excellent terms with each other.
In any case, it was Elp who won this “battle” in the US market where they reached number 11 in the charts and remained in the charts for eleven months, compared to seven for the Yes album.
For an important album an equally important cover was needed and here too Emerson, Lake & Palmer struck gold by commissioning a great artist, H.R.Giger, to create the images for the cover artwork.
The band, during the tour in support of Trilogy, found themselves visiting the Swiss artist’s house and were particularly impressed by Giger’s production. The painter created two panels to overlap. In the first table you can see an industrial mechanism that has been integrated into a skull, just below which an empty circular space opens up from which part of a woman’s face shines through. Lifting the first panel, her face appears in her entirety, showing deep scars. This is what you see in the version published on the market. In reality the original image was much “stronger”.
Giger, inspired by the provisional title of the new ELP album which was Whip Some Skull on You, which was a not too veiled metaphor for fellatio, had depicted, just under the woman’s chin, a very recognizable phallus. This element, however, was not considered acceptable by those who had to deal with the printing of the record and, reluctantly, it was decided to modify the image making it the one we can still see today.
In 2005 the two original plates were probably stolen during an exhibition dedicated to the artist who made available a bounty of $5000</ a> for every table that had been returned or for anyone who had provided useful information for their discovery.
Track list
Side A
Jerusalem – 2.44 – (William Blake, Hubert Parry, arr. Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
Toccata – 7.22 – (Alberto Ginastera, arr. Keith Emerson; movimento per percussioni arr. Carl Palmer)
Still….You Turn Me On – 2.53 – (Greg Lake)
Benny the Bouncer – 2.21 (Emerson, Lake, Peter Sinfield)
Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 1 – 8.37 – (Emerson, Lake)
Side B
Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2 – 4.46 (Emerson, Lake)
Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression – 7.07 – (Emerson, Lake)
Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression – 9.13 – (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield)
Discography Emerson, Lake & Palmer
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