When Keith Emerson and The Nice covered a classic tune from ‘West Side Story’
Fans of progressive rock and musical theatre might not want to admit it, but the two seemingly distinct genres have a reasonable degree of overlap between them. There’s a certain theatricality to the long and winding song structures that many prog acts adhere to, with over-the-top performances both instrumentally and vocally being a signature of the genre’s sound.
Equally, they’re both styles of music that share a penchant for dramatic storytelling and often borrow influences from classical music. Keith Emerson knew all about this convergence but used his platform to alter the originally intended messages behind classical and musical numbers and turn them into more beastly offerings.
As a member of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Emerson would often help with rearranging symphonies or solo piano pieces to work in the band’s progressive rock style. It was Emerson who suggested that the band perform their own interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for a live recording, and he also assisted with bringing their version of Béla Bartók’s Allegro barbaro to life in the form of ‘The Barbarian’, the opening track on the band’s self-titled debut album.
His love of musical theatre was expressed a little earlier than this. His previous band, The Nice, had recorded an instrumental interpretation of the West Side Story song ‘America’, in which Emerson’s organ playing took on the role of the vocal melody from the original musical version.
The song, originally written by lyricist Stephen Sondheim and composer Leonard Bernstein, sees the central character, Anita, and her friends argue with her boyfriend Bernardo and the other boys about the benefits of living in America, having emigrated from Puerto Rico to Manhattan. While some of its elements are critical of American society, other parts are delivered in a celebratory fashion.
The Nice’s 1968 version of the song, however, despite being instrumental, was designed as a protest against the Vietnam War. The only voice heard on the record utters the lines, “America is pregnant with promise and anticipation but is murdered by the hand of the inevitable”, at the end of the song. The power behind this line is increased due to the fact that it was read by a three-year-old, who happened to be the son of singer PP Arnold – an artist for whom The Nice had previously performed as the backing band.
There’s always been an element of violence to the way Keith Emerson plays his instrument, often having abused his organ with whips and knives during live performances, but also through the aggression with which he used to hammer down on the keys in the more frenetic moments of songs.
This unruliness, applied to The Nice’s version of ‘America’, upset Bernstein, but his ire at the band was only exacerbated when Emerson chose to burn the American flag at one of the band’s shows as a protest. As a result, the controversy this stunt conjured up meant that the single never received an official release in the States.
The blending of one of musical theatre’s most famous and beloved songs with a chaotic prog rock sound (as well as excerpts from Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony) still remains one of the boldest adaptations ever attempted in the prog world and one that caused a great deal of commotion due to its political angle.
