Karn Evil 9

"Karn Evil 9" is an extended work by progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, appearing on the album Brain Salad Surgery. A futuristic fusion of rock and classical themes, it was written by band members Keith Emerson and Greg Lake with former King Crimson lyricist Peter Sinfield. It is the fifth and final track on Brain Salad Surgery and, with a running length of 29 minutes and 37 seconds, is Emerson, Lake & Palmer's longest studio recording. The initial release of the album on vinyl split "Karn Evil 9" between the two sides due to its length, with a fade out/fade in between First Impression Parts 1 and 2. Part or all of the song is included on many of the group's live albums and on all of the group's compilation albums and box sets.

The phrase "Karn Evil" is sound alike (homophonous) with the word "carnival". The story of "Karn Evil 9" is told in three parts, with the second part being an instrumental interlude. First Impression, Part 1 begins with a tale of a bleak world (although timeframe is not specified): "Cold and misty morning I heard a warning borne on the air " and where humanity is either being destroyed or has fallen into decay and helplessness. First Impression, Part 2 tells how the decadence of the old world is preserved through exhibits that are part of a futuristic carnival show, which exhibits depravities like "seven virgins and a mule", along with things that are rare in the future, such as a "real blade of grass". Unlike the rest of "Karn Evil", the Second Impression's instrumentation is primarily piano, bass, and drums with a solo by Emerson on a Minimoog set to imitate a steelpan. (Part of the solo very briefly quotes the main melody from Sonny Rollins's "St. Thomas".) This impression changes from an upbeat out of control tune to a slow interval and then picks up the pace with a structure similar to that of a sonata. It is allegedly about computers scheming against the humans, and the humans completely not suspecting this. The Third Impression continues the story begun in the first, describing a war between humans and computers, which can be interpreted in three different ways. One interpretation gives the victory to the humans, who reimpose their dominion over the computers. The second interpretation allows victory to the computers, claiming that the computers were successful in dominating the humans and let them live only for the sake of gloating. The third interpretation, consistent with Peter Sinfield's original interpretation that "what [Man had] invented ironically takes him over"

In his History of Progressive Rock, Paul Stump bemoaned that "Karn Evil 9" spends most of its length "ping ponging frustratingly between the inspired and the intolerable", citing the subdued yet menacing Hammond organ introduction and the group workout during the Third Impression ("full of vigorous and fertile riff development and fierce, diamond hard textures") as examples of the former and the bipartite structure of the First Impression, the over indulgence of Emerson's solo, and the trite science fiction theatrics of the Third Impression as examples of the latter. In 2005 Music Week listed the song on their "Top 10 Prog Tracks".