Tarkus

After their debut live gigs in August 1970, the band toured across the UK and Europe for the rest of the year, during which their debut album, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, was released. While on tour, Emerson found that he and Palmer were exploring more complex rhythmic ideas. He took patterns that Palmer was playing on his practise drum pads and found that they complemented runs that he had developed on the piano, and used this as a basis for material on Tarkus. The group approached the album by having a centrepiece track in order to establish a concept, but a definite story or idea for it had not been discussed at this stage.[2]

The group paused touring commitments in December 1970 and set the following month aside to record. As with their debut, the band recorded at Advision Studios in London with Lake handling the production duties and Eddy Offord returning as engineer.[3] Early into the sessions Emerson presented the basis of the title track to Lake and Palmer; Lake was less than enthusiastic with its direction and threatened to leave the group. A subsequent meeting amongst the band and their management convinced Lake to stay, and he went on to contribute to the track and most of the other songs on the album[4] including the lyrics, for which he used the artwork as inspiration.[2] Although Lake thought the opening was "too demonstrative" for the sake of being clever, he did not want to split the group over such an issue and got into the album as recording went on.[5] The band could only work out "Tarkus" during the January 1971 studio sessions, so they booked further time at Adivsion in February to work on side two, for which they had no material prepared.[6]

The front cover depicts a giant armadillo tank

The album was packaged in a gatefold sleeve and features artwork by Scottish artist William Neal, whose armadillo has since became an iconic image in progressive rock.[10] Neal was involved with the London-based CCS Associates which typically produced art for reggae albums but occasionally they were given other records to work on, which was the case with Tarkus. When the band rejected the designs already completed, Neal recalled: "On one of my drawings, there was a small doodle at the bottom of the page. This was of an armadillo with tank tracks on it but it was just an idea that wasn't really going anywhere."[11] It originated from one of Neal's initial designs of a machine gun with a belt of bullets replaced by a row of keyboard keys, which he inadvertently sketched on with a pencil during a phone conversation which produced the tank image.[5] Emerson liked it and suggested it be developed "into more of a cartoon story", as by which point he had written "Tarkus" and thought the music fit with the imagery.[11] Neal was given a copy of the album to listen to while he completed the final cover, which inspired the other drawings.[5] The gatefold presents eleven panels that illustrate the events of the title track, beginning with an erupting volcano, below which Tarkus emerges from an egg. Tarkus then faces a number of cybernetic creatures, culminating in the battle against the manticore which stings Tarkus's eye, and Tarkus retreats bleeding into a river.[10]

Emerson went away with Neal's designs and began to think of album titles. "To everyone, it represented what we were doing in that studio. The next day on my drive up from Sussex the imagery of the armadillo kept hitting me. It had to have a name. Something guttural. It had to begin with the letter 'T' and end with a flourish".[12] Emerson acknowledged that Tarka of Tarka the Otter may have been an inspiration, "but this armadillo needed a science fiction kind of name that represented Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in reverse. Some mutilation of the species caused by radiation", at which point he came up with "Tarkus".[12] The "Tarkus" on the front cover is made from whitened bones from the skeleton of a devoured lizard.[5]

Tarkus was released on 14 June 1971 in the UK on Island Records, appearing two months later in the US by Atlantic Records' subsidiary label Cotillion Records.[13] It is one of only two ELP studio albums to reach the Top 10 in the United States, making it to No. 9 (Trilogy, the following year, got to No. 5), while in Britain it is their only number-one album.[13] Additionally, Tarkus spent a total of 17 weeks in the UK Albums Chart.[14] In Japan the album was released on Atlantic Records. Later vinyl reissues were on the Manticore label.

Tarkus was certified gold in the United States shortly after its release on 26 August 1971.[15]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[16]
Sound & Vision	[17]
Classic Rock Revisited	A[18]
The Daily Vault	A[19]
Sea of Tranquility	[20]
Classic Rock	[21]

Although it is now considered a quintessential progressive rock album, Tarkus received generally unfavourable reviews from critics upon its release, such as David Lebin in Rolling Stone who wrote: "Tarkus records the failure of three performers to become creators. Regardless of how fast and how many styles they can play. Emerson, Lake and Palmer will continue turning out mediocrity like Tarkus until they discover what, if anything, it is that they must say on their own and for themselves."[22]

François Couture, in a retrospective review for AllMusic, said that Tarkus is "a very solid album, especially to the ears of prog rock fans – no Greg Lake acoustic ballads, no lengthy jazz interludes". Couture concluded, "More accomplished than the trio's first album, but not quite as polished as Brain Salad Surgery, Tarkus is nevertheless a must-have."[16] Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock praised the album's title track but criticized the "enervatingly portentous lyrics" and the traditional form of the solos (beginning and ending on downbeats, using blues voicings). He also said the two comedy songs ("Jeremy Bender" and "Are you Ready Eddie?") "have aged embarrassingly."[23]

Emerson said that Tarkus was one of his favourite albums, "not least because the title track has taken on a life of its own".[13]

In 2015, Sean Murphy of PopMatters ranked Tarkus the 21st best classic progressive rock album of all time.[24]

In 1993, the album was digitally remastered by Joseph M. Palmaccio and released by Victory Music in Europe and Rhino Records in North America. This was followed by two remasters by the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in 1994[25] that are currently out of print.[26]

In August 2012, Tarkus was reissued by Sony Music and released in a 3 CD pack, containing a stereo mix from the Palmaccio master, a stereo mix in the form of an alternate version of the album, and a 5.1 surround sound mix by Steven Wilson. The set also contains previously unreleased tracks recorded during the sessions.[27]

Tarkus was reissued on record as a 12" picture disc by BMG as part of Record Store Day on 12 June 2021.[28]

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

• Keith Emerson – Hammond organ, pipe organ at St. Mark's Church, piano, celesta, Moog modular synthesizer, Minimoog
• Greg Lake – vocals, bass guitar, electric and acoustic guitar
• Carl Palmer – drums, assorted percussion[29]

Production

• Greg Lake – production for E. G. Records
• Eddy "Are You Ready" Offord – engineer
• William Neal – paintings (C.C.S. Assoc.)

• Ford, Peter T. (August 1994). The Compositional Style of Keith Emerson in Tarkus (1971) for the Rock Music Trio Emerson Lake and Palmer (M.A.). Indiana State University. OCLC 812040625. Retrieved 7 January 2015.