R.I.P. Keith Emerson
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...it's not "The Day the Music Died".....it's "The Days" anymore....
...it's not "The Day the Music Died".....it's "The Days" anymore....
Thanks for posting this.
I still love the hair from the seventies.
I don't know if some notable deaths are affecting me because I'm old and weak now, or if some people who have been really important to me have gone away in a group.
No celebrity death really affected me, and by that I mean personally and profoundly, until August of 2014. Robin Williams. He had made me laugh more than any other human on the planet. How can one not be affected by that?
And then last year. Leonard Nimoy. Star Trek, as cheesy as it now looks, had a big impact on me a a kid, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock had an effect that transcended the series itself. In that silly show, in that fantastical character, I saw an avenue for life improvement.
And now.
Keith Emerson has died. Yeah, just another rock musician. Sorry, but there's more to it than that.
Emerson was a transcendent keyboard player, classically trained, nontraditional, brilliantly creative. It was Emerson who broke me out of my top-40 rock-and-roll mindset and made me appreciate that other forms of music could be appreciated. It was through Emerson's work that I learned to appreciate such people as Mussorgsky and Copeland, and from there, yeah, the great classical composers.
And still, that wasn't all.
Watching Emerson in concert was an exercise in, "How does he do that?" A true savant. To watch him play different tunes on two keyboards, one with each hand, to see him strapped to the piano on an axis and playing madly while it goes end-over-end, or (amazingly enough) to climb around and play on the keyboard upside down/backwards - well, it just makes you scratch your head and realize some people come in with a genius-laden talent that is not to be equaled, only to be left in awe of.
It was the album "Tarkus" that first drew me to Keith Emerson and his supporting cast - because let's face it, as good as his supporting cast might be, they were always in his virtuosity shadow - and I'm happy to read that another keyboardist, the guy from Dream Theater, has many of the same thoughts I do, and he's a musician and I'm not.
As Robin made me laugh like no other, as Leonard's Spock character changed my life attitude like no other, so Keith changed my perception and appreciation of music for life. For that, I am entirely grateful.
Thank you, Keith Emerson. I don't know how quickly you may be forgotten by others, but as for me, never.
Dream Theater's Jordan Rudess on Keith Emerson: 'He Was My Idol' | Rolling Stone
No celebrity death really affected me, and by that I mean personally and profoundly, until August of 2014. Robin Williams. He had made me laugh more than any other human on the planet. How can one not be affected by that?
And then last year. Leonard Nimoy. Star Trek, as cheesy as it now looks, had a big impact on me a a kid, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock had an effect that transcended the series itself. In that silly show, in that fantastical character, I saw an avenue for life improvement.
And now.
Keith Emerson has died. Yeah, just another rock musician. Sorry, but there's more to it than that.
Emerson was a transcendent keyboard player, classically trained, nontraditional, brilliantly creative. It was Emerson who broke me out of my top-40 rock-and-roll mindset and made me appreciate that other forms of music could be appreciated. It was through Emerson's work that I learned to appreciate such people as Mussorgsky and Copeland, and from there, yeah, the great classical composers.
And still, that wasn't all.
Watching Emerson in concert was an exercise in, "How does he do that?" A true savant. To watch him play different tunes on two keyboards, one with each hand, to see him strapped to the piano on an axis and playing madly while it goes end-over-end, or (amazingly enough) to climb around and play on the keyboard upside down/backwards - well, it just makes you scratch your head and realize some people come in with a genius-laden talent that is not to be equaled, only to be left in awe of.
It was the album "Tarkus" that first drew me to Keith Emerson and his supporting cast - because let's face it, as good as his supporting cast might be, they were always in his virtuosity shadow - and I'm happy to read that another keyboardist, the guy from Dream Theater, has many of the same thoughts I do, and he's a musician and I'm not.
As Robin made me laugh like no other, as Leonard's Spock character changed my life attitude like no other, so Keith changed my perception and appreciation of music for life. For that, I am entirely grateful.
Thank you, Keith Emerson. I don't know how quickly you may be forgotten by others, but as for me, never.
Dream Theater's Jordan Rudess on Keith Emerson: 'He Was My Idol' | Rolling Stone
Grandpa you and I can cry in our pretzels together.
My boyfriend (now husband) introduced me to ELP. It was the first group we both really liked. The song I posted in the first post, yes, I do realize it's Greg's song not Keith's, but it's the group's song....the first I remember hearing. And it seemed appropriate.
My boyfriend (now husband) introduced me to ELP. It was the first group we both really liked. The song I posted in the first post, yes, I do realize it's Greg's song not Keith's, but it's the group's song....the first I remember hearing. And it seemed appropriate.
And on a more sentimental note, Grandma and I went on my motorcycle out of town to an ELP concert circuit 1972. I knew I liked the music, and Grandma did too, and the concert just blew us away. It was still early in the Prog Rock Spectacle years, and this one was Spectacle. We were blown away.
He pretty much made the Moog synthesizer. To try to make sense of it relating back to that time, it was like it had a rotary dial phone and a switchboard, and he made it perform like a smartphone. No, seriously, he was having to unplug and replug wires into the synthesizer and mixer while he played in order to wring those effects out.
Okay, I've got to stop this for the night. Here's a clip I found of him and Carl Palmer. Emerson starts out playing "America" by Leonard Bernstein in his mad manic style, morphs momentarily into "Flight of the Bumblebee," if the bumblebee was on acid and had warp engines, and goes into Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" - backwards. The main thing I missed out of this clip was when he did Copeland's "Hoedown" at a speed that scrambled middle ears.
As a bonus, if you like drums, you'll see that Carl Palmer is no slouch, seriously.
It's hard to think of that level of brilliance and influence (at least on me) being gone so suddenly. But in his own way, he changed the world. We should all have such a legacy.
He pretty much made the Moog synthesizer. To try to make sense of it relating back to that time, it was like it had a rotary dial phone and a switchboard, and he made it perform like a smartphone. No, seriously, he was having to unplug and replug wires into the synthesizer and mixer while he played in order to wring those effects out.
Okay, I've got to stop this for the night. Here's a clip I found of him and Carl Palmer. Emerson starts out playing "America" by Leonard Bernstein in his mad manic style, morphs momentarily into "Flight of the Bumblebee," if the bumblebee was on acid and had warp engines, and goes into Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" - backwards. The main thing I missed out of this clip was when he did Copeland's "Hoedown" at a speed that scrambled middle ears.
As a bonus, if you like drums, you'll see that Carl Palmer is no slouch, seriously.
It's hard to think of that level of brilliance and influence (at least on me) being gone so suddenly. But in his own way, he changed the world. We should all have such a legacy.
...of all the thoughtful and cogent posts you have brought us, this is a thing of beauty like none other ...thank you for this...
Absolutely devastated in our household. Emerson is Hubby's keyboard idol. 
...I understand, I read a bit more today-apparently the neurological condition was affecting both hands, and was irreversible.....he chose to exit the stage one last time, his own way.....
High praise indeed. Thank you, sir.
....sadly, the story has been updated.....he took his own life.....apparently due to depression from the fact that he had nerve trouble in his right hand which was making it nearly impossible for him to do what he loved and did best.....
I saw that and hesitated to bring it to the discussion, but I'm glad you did. It raises the question for us all about our purpose in life. Apparently, Keith Emerson felt his purpose in life was to play keyboard brilliantly, and without that capability, his purpose was gone.
There's a part of me that wishes that I, or someone like me, could've reached out and said, "You've given us so much. Come, we'll take care of you and give it back in return." But who am I to say how one is satisfied in life? Perhaps such an offer to a creative genius is akin to offering a jail sentence.
I'm idly musing, sorry. Whatever his manner of exit, it makes me sad, but grateful to have experienced what he had to give.