Song of the Day 11/12: Emerson, Lake & Palmer, “Lucky Man”

Before ELP released this track in 1970, the Moog synthesizer was a wall-sized curiosity used mainly for sound effects. Keith Emerson changed all that in about 32 bars, starting during the final chorus with a low, portentous note that suddenly soars two octaves into Emerson’s iconic solo.

The song only appeared on the super-group’s first album because the newly formed band didn’t have enough material to fulfill their 21 minutes-per-side contractual obligation. “Everybody looked round the studio,” Greg Lake said in an interview with SongFacts, “you know, ‘Has anybody got any more material?’ And there was deadly silence. So I said, ‘Well, look, you know, I’ve got this little thing I wrote when I was a kid. And if there’s nothing else, maybe that would do.’ You know.”

It was actually the first song Lake had written when he got his first guitar as a 12-year-old. “So Keith said, ‘Well, you play it, then, let’s have a listen.’ So I played it, and nobody liked it. So I said, ‘Yeah, but you know, the thing is we’ve got nothing else.’ Keith said, ‘Well, you record it on your own and I’m going to go down the pub.’ So off he went down the pub.

“So Carl Palmer and I, we recorded the first part together, just drums and acoustic guitar. And it sounded pretty dreadful. But then I put a bass on it and it sounded a bit better. And then I went and put some more guitars on it, and an electric guitar solo. Then I put these harmonies on, these block harmonies. And in the end it sounded pretty good, it sounded like a record.”

In fact, it sounded like this, though Palmer’s drums have been stripped out:

“Keith came back from the pub and he heard it and was shocked,” said Lake. “You know, it had gone from this silly little folk song to this quite big production. And so he said, ‘Wow, I suppose I’d better play on that.’ And so I said, ‘The thing is, I’ve already put the guitar solo on.’ He said, ‘Look, I could play something at the end.’ He said, ‘I’ve just had this gadget delivered next door. It’s called a Moog synthesizer. I haven’t tried it before, but maybe there’s a sound on there that would work on this.’ So I said, ‘Okay. Why don’t we give it a try.’

“And so Keith went out into the next room. And he said, ‘Run the track, then, for an experiment.’ So I flipped it in record and pressed play. And because he was experimenting, we didn’t really listen. In fact, we put the speakers on dim. The track went through and Keith experimented, and when it got to the end I turned to the engineer, Eddie Offord. I said, ‘Was that me or did that sound good?’ And Eddie said, ‘I think it did sound good.’ And we played it back. And that is the solo that’s on the record.”

Emerson wasn’t thrilled, though, when he learned that this first take, when he was “just jamming around,” would be the one used on the LP. When he resurrected the tune with his Keith Emerson Band, he greatly expanded his solo, even adding a theremin to the proceedings.