Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Feedback Series) [Paperback] Review

Edward Macan, a musician, musicologist, and teacher, wrote an earlier assessment of progressive rock called "Rocking the Classics," which looked at the culture surrounding the genre in the United States. Now Macan presents prog rock readers with a comprehensive book that looks at the work of the proggiest rock band of the 1970's, Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Simply put, this book is a must for anyone truly interested in ELP or prog rock. A step forward from his first book, Macan's ideas are explored, backed up, and explained in a clear way, giving those interested a total view of the musical activities of Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer.

Endless Enigma begins an introduction that addresses all other books on prog: Bill Martin's and Kevin Holmes-Hudson's work especially, but also Paul Stumps' books as well. Macan answers these authors and other critics with passion and solid arguments, even if I am about 165 degrees politically from his stance.Readers new to this discourse might want to skip ahead the discussion of the band and their work.

You should be aware that Macan doesn't just give the usual "ideas" or wonky uniformed analyses one usually gets in books or discussions about rock music (i.e, the Inside Rock video series), he actually discusses the music itself.If the terms bitonality, ritornello, organum, and fugue are unfamiliar to you, you might want to have a music dictionary on hand. I would not say that you shouldn't read this book if you don't understand musical terminology, but if you do know some musicology, the text is a revelation.

I always loved ELP, and always knew their music was complex, challenging, and compelling, but I never understood why until now.Macan gives us the ELP method, or rightly, the Keith Emerson method that stood him well until he and the band deserted themselves after 1975.Fueled in part by boogie-woogie, Bach, Mussorgsky, Bartok, Bernstein, and other modernist composers, Keith Emerson carved out a unique sound from modified stride piano, percussive rythyms and conflicting keys, all the while using new sounds to do it.In the company of a great drummer, and an occasionally great bassist/guitarist, Emerson created a body of work that still moves people, at least people like Macan and Me, the former who writes a tome of this epic length, and me who practically sat down and read it from end to end, neglecting my familial duties to do so.I came away enlighted, even awed by Emerson's accomplishments.

Macan also takes on the "blues-orthodox" critics who never gave ELP a chance, a Quixotic battle, but a noble one.I don't know if it's worthwhile to give space to such proghaters as Lester Bangs, Dave Marsh, and Robert Christagau, but Macan, all too fairly perhaps, does.

Macan reviews all the pre-ELP albums of each member in detail, and then all ELP albums in exhaustive detail, giving an honest critical appraisal at all times.Listening to the tracks he discussed was a great experience.This isn't some rock critic here, this a musician. The difference is some amateur telling about how great a movie is, and a director showing you how the effects and pacing were acheived. Really good stuff, and long overdue, if you want my opinion. An imporant aspect of The Endless Engima is that Macan doesn't lessen the music by dissecting it, but makes you appreciation for Emerson grow. Is it any wonder that rock critics who knew nothing about music hated ELP?The awesome thing to consider is that music this harmonically complex sold so many copies.

Macan makes some claims that are worth exploring, such as that ELP went into decline when Emerson began emulating Copland instead of Bartok; I think that Leonard Bernstein is more of a culprit than Copland here, but that's splitting hairs. I agree, on the whole, however. Macan also, in my view, rightly shows how ELP made a terrible mistake during the Works era (1977-78) and gives an alternative ELP album that would've saved the band.I put this album together, and he is right. You'll have to read the book to get the tracks and their order.

Macan also spends some time looking at rock Organ trios like Egg, Refugee, Ars Nova, and Le Orme, picking out representative albums of each band to analyze.

Get this book. Jump in. Prepare for a ride.Maybe it's my total immersion in this book, maybe it's because I love ELP, maybe its because I'm in middle-age and look back in nostalgia to a young love, but this book has emotional and philsophical force.

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Product Description:
Throughout the 1970s, no style of pop music was more controversial than progressive rock, and no progressive rock band was more controversial than Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The group's imaginative fusion of rock, jazz, and classical motifs with cutting-edge technology, breathtaking virtuosity, and monumental stage shows made them hugely popular on both sides of the Atlantic - and gave rise to a host of detractors. In Endless Enigma, Edward Macan argues that ELP was an important contributor not only to progressive rock, but to 1970s rock in general. Besides a magisterial band biography, Macan provides a comprehensive critical examination of the band's music and, in particular, its best albums, such as Brain Salad Surgery, which addressed technology's role in fostering societal alienation and totalitarianism.His analyses are so perceptive, precise, and detailed, that listening to the recordings in conjunction with his comments opens new avenues of thought about the band and its music.

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