Saturday 10 May 2014

From The Beginning (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, 1972)

Yes, I'm one of those weird guys that love better ELP's ballads than their longest epics. "From The Beginning", for example, taken from the "Trilogy" album, is what I call a perfect song. Greg Palmer provides his voice, an acoustic guitar and an electric slide solo, but please don't forget Keith Emerson's final embroidery, with a scent of outer space.

"Trilogy" is probably my favourite ELP's album ever.

The lyrics are beautiful, making up a love song, but a never trivial or too sentimental one. I specially love the chorus:

You see, it's all clear
You were meant to be here from the beginning.

Sort of a matter-of-fact declaration of love, a statement that's worth a two page love letter. And if ever anyone should say this is a simple ballad, well, let him take a look at the chord progression of the chorus: Dm7 / Dm6 / C#m6 / G / Am9 / Em7-11. Usual, isn't it?

No comments:

Post a Comment