‘Karn Evil 9’: Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s distillation of dystopia
The extensive piece ‘Karn Evil 9’ by prog rock masters Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) has long been deemed one of their most impressive offerings. A typical prog piece in the sense that it fuses rock and classical elements, the track was written by Keith Emerson and Greg Lake in tandem with Peter Sinfield, the former lyricist of prog pioneers King Crimson. The fifth and final number on 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery, it remains ELP’s longest studio recording.
Whilst the song is noted for its title being a pun on the word “carnival” and the dextrous musical ability displayed by each band member, its most glittering aspect is that it tells a fascinating story. This comes via three movements, with the first divided into two parts.
The story is a largely dystopian take on the history of civilisation. The ‘First Impression’ begins on a “cold and misty morning” where a warning is “borne on the air”. Here the seeds have withered, and man’s increasing dedication to money leads to constant war. After this destruction, the world becomes a strange carnival, and one in which various sects of society are now circus sideshows. The lines “a bomb inside a car” and “pull Jesus from a hat” represent humans’ growing indifference towards one another and their overall penchant for violence. Sharply, misery is portrayed as the “speciality” in these shows.
The second section of the ‘First Impression’ concentrates on the world becoming artificialised. Famously, it describes natural aspects such as “a real blade of grass” as yet another grotesque circus attraction. In another clever stroke of satire, despite the world gradually becoming enslaved by artificiality and computers, humans still maintain that they are the ones in control: “We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown were exclusively our own”.
The ‘Second Impression’ is noted for being largely instrumental, with a piano solo as the central feature. It is reported to have been composed to symbolise humanity’s blissful ignorance towards the increasing dominance of computers and machines. This sounds eerily familiar to the narrative of a certain James Cameron franchise. This results in the ‘Third Impression’. Now, computers and machines have resoundingly displayed their superiority over humanity and have started challenging their need to be the dominant ones. Musically, the machines are depicted with distorted vocals, while humanity’s voice is clean and unaffected.
Ultimately, things get so tense that the computers wage a violent conquest on planet Earth. The humans are astounded that their creations would fight back against them and are caught off guard: “Walls that no man thought would fall”. The ever-confident machines determine that they are sentient beings, and the new humans: “Load your program. I am yourself.” This attitude eventually sees their creators pushed into the subservient status the machines once had. After the war is won, they keep humanity alive, demean it and gloat about their excellence.
The final stanza, meanwhile, conveys that both the old and new masters of the Earth are arrogant, with humans still struggling to show their superiority and the computers asserting that they have won the battle. Lines such as “I am all there is”, “Negative! Primitive! Limited! I let you live!”, and “But I gave you life!” show this clearly.
