Busting the myth of an Emerson, Lake and Palmer hit: “The Kray Twins at sea!”
While many people would argue that one of the most off-putting things about progressive rock is how seriously it takes itself, it’s evident from the sheer tongue-in-cheek extravagance of artists like Emerson, Lake and Palmer that the truth is, in fact, the opposite.
Often taking things to the extreme in how they approached their musical output, one of the most ludicrous things about their work was the lyrical content, which regularly explored humorous themes that were satirical in nature. This, of course, would fly over the heads of many listeners, who saw their work to be pompous in every regard and that it was pretentious to the point of effectively sneering at other bands who didn’t possess the same levels of musical aptitude.
No song exemplifies the fact that ELP were jokers more than their 1975 song, ‘Pirates’, which was taken from the album Works, Volume 1. However, a lot of the reason that people tend to mistakenly think of it as a humorous song is down to an urban legend surrounding the writing process, which many people have falsely attributed to Greg Lake, Keith Emerson and lyricist Peter Sinfield all having a jolly good time at the funfair.
According to the myth, the trio had spent the day out at Disneyland and were inspired to write the song after having a riotously fun experience on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but this has been debunked by Sinfield, who claims that the lyrical inspiration actually came from somewhere else.
Speaking to Record Collector, Sinfield explained that they hadn’t been out gallivanting their way around a theme park, but had instead been immersing themselves in plenty of Errol Flynn films, who was best known for his swashbuckling roles in films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood. However, once they realised the actual nature of piracy and the dark side to these buccaneering figures, the song began to take on a different tone altogether.
“The idea was pirates as an allegory for a rock band on tour,” Sinfield tried to explain. “When I read up on the subject, it soon became obvious that pirates weren’t at all romantic, they were reprehensible people – like the Kray Twins at sea!”
He went on to compare the music that Emerson had written for the song to be similar to a famed theatrical duo who wrote plenty of libretti about seafarers.
“Keith’s music was very Gilbert & Sullivan,” he continued. “It was extraordinarily difficult to get the true nature of piracy into it, and I wrote most of it in Montreux, perhaps the least piratical place on Earth. I had to write to music that was already fixed, and I only had 20 minutes to unfold this epic narrative. It should have been at least twice as long.”
While the song would end up becoming a fan favourite and a perfect example of how the band, along with Sinfield, were adept at creating songs of epic proportions, in reality, the song itself stems from a curious shared interest and a fantastical tale about marauders of the sea.
