An Interview with Keith Emerson
Liv met up with Keith for the second time in London in March 1997 to interview
him for Issue 4 and, as always, he was very chatty and friendly. This is
an excerpt from that interview:
Impressions -
How did you get the idea of playing BACH on the keyboard
back to front and how long did it take you to learn it?
Keith -
"Well, I was always playing the Hammond Organ back to front even
during the days of the Nice, going back to 1968. Really what I was doing
there, was choosing notes at random and trying to make some sense of them,
improvising back to front. But I thought that it would be much more
effective if I learnt a set piece. And I set myself the target of learning
the Bach "Toccata & Fugue" back to front, because I'd used that one anyway
in previous organ destruction routines. But I thought, to play it really,
really accurately would be much more effective. And the way I did it,
actually, was I'd sit with a very small keyboard on my lap, one that you
can easily sit on your lap and turn around the other way. And I just sat there
on the sofa, watching the TV and learning one part at the time, looking at
the various notes and then turning the keyboard around on my lap and then
learning that bit and turning it back again. I started doing this with the
band Three and this is a funny story:- Robert Berry was there at my
Mother's house and Robert was looking at me spinning the keyboard and the
next minute the keyboard was turned the other way around. I was still
playing it, spinning it around. Robert said to my Mum: "Don't you find
this unusual with your son?!?" And my Mother said: "No, not if you're
Keith Emerson's Mother, you don't!" (laughs!) Which I thought was rather
sweet of her! But it took about 2 weeks to learn, I suppose."
Impressions -
Who came up with the idea of the creatures and storyline
for Tarkus?
Keith -
"William Neal was an art student and he actually popped by Advision
Studios when we were recording Tarkus and before we had a name for the
music
that I'd written. He came by with a set of artwork and I arrived there,
took one look at it and thought it was amazing. It fully complimented the
music. William had painted this mechanical creature and there were a lot
of
other extraordinary mythical creatures like the Manticore Lion's head with
the Scorpion's tail, all incorporated into mad imaginary, really, and I
think we pieced it together. It was almost like the painting was made to
fit the music and the music was made to fit the painting, we could see some
sort of surreal storyline. Although it wasn't really portrayed in the
lyrics, it was enough for the imagination to take over. I don't know if
you
or your readers read Terry Pratchett, but it had something of that element
in
it, or rather, there's a lot of what Terry Pratchett writes in his works,
in
Tarkus! But without the humour in it! (laughs!)"
Impressions -
What do you remember of the Rod Stewart session back in
1969?
Keith -
He paid me £50!! (smiles!)
Impressions -
Well, that was a lot of money in those days!
Keith -
Yes, it was! It paid for about three weeks rent! Well, he didn't
really have a lot to say, he turned up very late and we just jammed ideas
in
the studio because he wasn't there and when he finally turned up, he wasn't
in the control room, he stood outside the door and listened , said "Thank
you very much", I got a cheque and thought "Wow!" He obviously went in
after that and wrote some lyrics. I don't know how he went about it, but I
wasn't there when he did it. Earlier on, before he got there, we just
jammed and stared at each other blankly. "What are we going to play? Have
you got an idea?" So somebody came up with something and we just filled
in,
they recorded it, I got paid and went home! (laughs!)"
You can read the whole of this very interesting interview in Issue 4 of
Impressions.
: current issue
/ news / interviews / gallery / quotes / back issues / links / home :