Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ at 50
The rock interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky’s 1874 work of the same name was a surprise hit when released and remains powerful today
By Marc Myers
Nov. 3, 2021 5:14 pm ET
Emerson, Lake & Palmer performing in 1971
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
If you were a teenager shopping for albums in late 1971, all you needed to know about Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”—a rock interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky’s 1874 work of the same name—was that Keith Emerson played five different keyboards. With the steady ascent of progressive rock in the early 1970s, the electronic keyboard came into its own and, for a brief time, rivaled the electric guitar for audio and visual coolness.
“Pictures” was released 50 years ago this month in the U.K.; Atlantic Records initially held off issuing the live album here for fear that a classical adaptation would tank. But after “Pictures” topped the import chart a month later, Atlantic rushed out the album in early January 1972. Peaking at No. 10 on Billboard’s album chart, “Pictures” sold 500,000 copies by April, and today remains a feverish study in rock wailing. The ferocity of Emerson’s keyboards still dazzles, confirming why Jimmy Page and others have called him the Jimi Hendrix of the organ.
For ELP, back in the early 1970s, their timing was perfect. Arena concerts and stereo FM radio were just catching on. And ELP’s fusion of classical and rock had already struck a chord with the post-Woodstock youth culture. ELP’s first, self-titled album in 1970 had peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard chart, while its second, “Tarkus,” released in mid-1971, had reached No. 9.
Momentum for “Pictures”—the band’s third album—was aided by rising national piano sales and formal lessons for teens. Many households also owned Wendy Carlos’s baroque Moog synthesizer albums “Switched-On Bach” (1968) and “The Well-Tempered Synthesizer” (1969).
ELP’s Emerson wasn’t the first musician to play multiple electronic keyboards in a rock band, but he did take the instruments to a new level on “Pictures.” His commanding attack on the pipe organ, Hammond C3 and L-100 organs, Moog synthesizer and Clavinet is still flamboyant and engaging, with a jazz flair.
Mussorgsky composed the original “Pictures” as a piano suite in tribute to a late artist friend’s exhibition. Following the composer’s death, the work was arranged for orchestra multiple times. Emerson’s idea to adapt the suite came after he and his wife attended a performance of the Maurice Ravel orchestration in April 1970 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The next day, he purchased a copy of the score and suggested to bassist-guitarist Greg Lake and drummer Carl Palmer that the trio revamp the work as a rock performance piece.
Only four of Mussorgsky’s 10 movements plus his signature “Promenade” were used, along with original pieces by ELP. Emerson and Mr. Palmer arranged the movements, with Lake adding lyrics on three. Many of Mussorgsky’s song titles, based on Slavic folklore, were tweaked.
In December 1970, ELP performed “Pictures” in London with plans to release the result as an album. They even had the show filmed. But the music, which surfaced on a 2016 “Pictures” reissue, is unsteady and lacks cohesion or explosive energy. Lake in his memoir, “Lucky Man,” referred to the result as “shockingly bad.”
ELP decided to try again. Their second attempt was on March 26, 1971, at the Newcastle City Hall. A mobile unit recorded the concert. ELP had a strong following in the region and, more important, the venue had a pipe organ. Emerson promised not to jab hunting daggers into the console, a theatrical stunt he performed years earlier while a member of the Nice.
The album’s opening “Promenade,” with its familiar echoing theme, is played on the pipe organ. The album then advances like a kettle heading for a boil. Among the high points is a funk-classical “Blues Variation.” Its second arrives in three movements—“The Hut of Baba Yaga,” “The Curse of Baba Yaga” and part 2 of “The Hut.” Emerson’s keyboards whip up a whirlwind of textures. The album’s wind-down, “The Great Gates of Kiev,” foreshadows Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” of 1975 and features Lake singing elegiacally.
While ELP has been derided over the years for prog pretentiousness, a “Pictures” relisten counters that ridicule.
And a comeback of sorts may be in the works. Though two of the three band members died in 2016—Emerson and Lake—a tour is being mulled for late next year, with Mr. Palmer drumming to film footage and audio of his former bandmates.
In 1999, “Pictures at an Exhibition” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Not ELP’s version, but pianist Vladimir Horowitz’s 1951 album for RCA. As a turning point in the history of the rock keyboard, ELP’s “Pictures” should be given consideration.
—Mr. Myers is the author of “Rock Concert: An Oral History as Told by the Artists, Backstage Insiders and Fans Who Were There” (Grove Press), out Nov. 9.