Classic Rock: Keith Emerson, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
What is certain is that Keith Emerson He took his own life on March 11, 2016 at the age of 71 with a gunshot wound to the head at his home in Santa Monica, California.
What is less certain is the reason why the British musician took his own life. The Los Angeles County coroner’s report lists depression and a history of heart disease exacerbated by habitual alcohol consumption as the main causes. His partner, far from thinking that he could make such a drastic and definitive decision, said that in the last time they spent together Keith was constantly worried about problems with the nerve endings in his right arm which, despite having been operated on, only seemed to be getting worse. Emerson just couldn’t find peace, he couldn’t accept the fact, perfectionist as he was, that he would no longer be able to play offering 100% of his talent and artistic ability. A perhaps simplistic, perhaps romantic thesis, however crude, maintains that music and the piano have represented for .Keith Emerson the very meaning of life; therefore, he must have thought, if I can’t be a complete musician, I might as well end it all. In support of this thesis comes to the aid Greg Lakehis companion in the Emerson, Lake & Palmerwho, upon learning of his passing, said he was very sorry but certainly not surprised by what had happened. For Lake Emerson he had always had a rather tormented soul, he had a dark part inside him that was dominated by ghosts. The only moments in which he was truly happy were those in which he played.
But let’s start from the beginning. Because of the war, the Second World War, Keith Noel Emerson was born on November 2, 1944, in the town of Todmorden, in the interior and towards the north of England, where the family had been evacuated from Worthing, located on the coast, facing continental Europe, to avoid the bombings by the German air force. At the end of the war the Emerson family returned to Worthing and it was there that the boy, growing up, developed a great passion for the piano. The credit for having introduced Keith to the study of that instrument must be attributed to his father. Of course, Mr. Emerson certainly could not have imagined that his son would have carved out a space for himself in the history of rock, distinguishing himself as one of the most important keyboard players of his time, bringing to the forefront the role of the keyboard which until his appearance on the scene had been, except for a few isolated cases, a mere complementary instrument. Furthermore, he tried to combine rock and classical music and in doing so gave birth to a musical genre defined as progressive rock.
The opportunity that allowed Keith Emerson to show off her virtues appeared in the guise of the black American singer Patricia Ann Cole, known as PP Arnold. The then 21-year-old PP flew high in the charts in Britain in the spring of 1967 with the song “The First Cut Is the Deepest”song written for her by Cat Stevens (who later included it in his December 1967 album “New Masters”).
Arnold was without a band to support her live, someone mentioned Emerson to her and, in no time, she put together a band called .Nice (a name suggested by Arnold herself). Keith had the foresight (and perhaps even the nerve) to ask that the group be allowed to have a part of the show, about twenty minutes, all to themselves. This ploy proved to be a winning one. They were noticed by the producer of the first Rolling Stones, Andrew Loog Oldhamwho asked him to write an album. I Nice they didn’t have their own songs but Keith Emerson he did not intend to miss the opportunity that fate and talent had presented him. “The first thing I wrote was a song called ‘Azrial’… I incorporated a piece by Rachmaninoff called ‘Prelude In C Minor’, it was the beginning of the contamination of classical music with rock.” To get an idea of what the Nicewho are now hailed as the pioneers of prog rock, perform in the film below “America”cover of the song by Leonard Bernstein written for the musical ‘West Side Story’ and their greatest success at 45 rpm. Keith Emerson he jumps from one side of the keyboard to the other and goes to insert two knives between the organ keys so as to generate continuous sounds, a theatrical expedient that he will use often throughout his career.
He explained about this spectacular stunt: “I had seen this crazy guy called Don Shinn playing the organ at the Marquee and using a screwdriver. I thought I could get further with knives, both to hold down notes and to make the sound of an air raid siren. At first I bought a curved Turkish knife. But Lemmy (at the time roadie for Nice bassist Lee Jackson, ed.) said in his big voice, ‘What you want are Hitler Youth knives. If you’re going to use a knife, use a proper one!’” In 1968 the Nice They released two albums, another followed in 1969, and in 1970 the group disbanded.
In an interview with Classic Rock years later, Emerson, who effectively caused the breakup of the .Nicehe said: “I was impulsive. I felt that we should all move on and explore other musical dimensions. When I broke the news to Lee, he took it well. But Brian[Davison, the drummer, ed.]was very upset. When they found out who I was going to be working with – Greg Lake and Carl Palmer – they both said, ‘Good luck. You’re going to need it!’” Nice were among the pioneers of progressive music. Of the success of that revolutionary experience, Keith said: “I think our legacy is lasting because we showed that you can play interesting and challenging music, without having to compromise.” In 1970 came, as mentioned, the time of the Emerson, Lake & Palmerperhaps rock’s first great supergroup. But that’s another story.
