In 1967 keyboardist Keith Emerson, guitarist Davy O’Record, bassist Lee Jackson and drummer Ian Hague got here collectively to kind the backing band for American soul singer PP Arnold, who’d determined to develop her solo profession within the UK. As a part of the deal, the group have been capable of carry out their very own set earlier than Arnold joined them, and their uncommon method to creating music meant they’d come to be seen as one of many earliest proponents of progressive rock.
Named The Good, and that includes Brian Davidson instead of Hague, they stepped out on their very own with 1968 album The Ideas Of Emerlist Davjack (the character’s identify a concoction of the members’ names). One in all its most notable tracks was a reinterpretation of jazz icon Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo a la Turk, retitled Rondo. Because the late Emerson instructed Prog in 2011, Brubeck favored what they’d achieved: “He gave me his autograph. He’d signed it: ‘Thanks, Keith, on your 4/4 model. Which I can not play.’”
The Good have been to grow to be notable and infamous for a special cowl – their 1968 model of Leonard Bernstein’s America, which tore out all of the positivity concerning the USA and have become one thing a lot, a lot darker. “We’d simply achieved a gig on the Isle Of Wight once we came upon that Senator Robert Kennedy had been shot useless,” Emerson mentioned.
“He was making an attempt to get the Democratic get together nomination to run for the presidency of the US. That obtained me pondering. Just a few years earlier John F Kennedy had been shot, then Martin Luther King. It appeared to me that American was dominated by the gun; so I made a decision to show it into the primary instrumental protest tune.”
He continued: “I took a line from a tune I’d written for the primary album referred to as Daybreak: ‘Daybreak is pregnant with guarantees and anticipation, however is murdered by the hand of the inevitable’. I modified ‘Daybreak’ to ‘America’ and we obtained singer PP Arnold’s three-year-old son to say the phrases.”
It was their efficiency at an anti-apartheid live performance in London’s Royal Albert Corridor that basically turned heads, when Emerson burned a US flag as a part of the present, within the presence of the American ambassador to Britain. The Good heard by way of radio on the way in which dwelling that they’d been banned from the venue for ever.
“The following day we did a gig in Norwich, and arrived to seek out the queue around the block,” Emerson mentioned. “They have been hoping to see me burn the flag. However to it once more would have misplaced the influence of the gesture.” Though he later instructed Traditional Rock he’d repeated the stunt throughout a tour of the States: “They’d us swear on a stack of Bibles that there can be no extra flags burnt. I did do it yet one more time, which horrified Lee.”
Bernstein was livid about what The Good had achieved, saying: “They’ve corrupted my work.” He and Emerson met 9 years later. “I’ve met composers of the music we coated and obtained on with all of them,” the ELP star mentioned. “After which there’s Bernstein. I’ll go away it that he favored my leathers, when you get my drift.” He added: “It was achieved to focus on what a corrupt society America was – and nonetheless is: when you don’t just like the President, shoot him.”
Davy had all the time been slightly bizarre, however lastly went over the sting when he had a drink spiked in Los Angeles
Lee Jackson
Guitarist O’Record upset his former colleagues in 2010 when Prog requested in regards to the creation of Emerlist Davjack and he took what they thought was an unreasonable quantity of credit score for the work. “After I wrote [title track] Ideas, I started getting Lee and Keith to jot down, after which utilized additional concepts to fundamental melodies and phrases,” O’Record mentioned.
“I used to be the one one capable of make them business sufficient for launch. Though I wasn’t credited sufficient on the duvet, I produced it and, in so doing, coined the format of classical rock.” He added that Mick Jagger had been lined as much as produce, however was too busy. “I had expertise as a producer… I’d invented the sound and understood it higher than anybody else,” he defined. “The ‘EmerList DavJak’ credit score was simply an commercial for the band: I produced it from scratch.”
Emerson and Jackson countered in a follow-up interview with Prog. The keyboardist mentioned the band had landed their cope with Andrew Loog Oldham’s Rapid label after Arnold’s visa ran out and she or he needed to return to the US. “I anticipated him to inform me we have been being fired,” Emerson recalled. “He needed us to enter Olympic Studios in London and do an album. However he insisted it needed to be a file of unique songs, though our set on the time was all covers.
“Andrew requested if we have been songwriters. So after all I mentioned we have been, after which I needed to go away and determine how the hell you wrote songs! I’d written some items after I was 10 years previous, however nothing since.” He highlighted his composition Azrial, saying: “I included a chunk from Rachmaninoff referred to as Prelude In C# Minor – and that was initially of classical music infiltrating into rock.”
Emerson and Jackson determined to fireside O’Record after his behaviour grew to become more and more erratic. “He’d all the time been slightly bizarre, however lastly went over the sting when he had a drink spiked whereas we have been in Los Angeles,” Jackson mentioned. “From then on he missed plenty of rehearsals and even some gigs.”
“He took it actually badly,” Emerson mentioned of the break up. “However we had no alternative. Moreover, he ought to take satisfaction from the truth that we by no means changed him. We did check out Steve Howe, however then he left for Sure. By that point, although, the band was working rather well as a trio, so we didn’t want one other guitarist.”
After they came upon I used to be gonna work with Greg Lake and Carl Palmer they mentioned, ‘Good luck. You’ll want it!’
Keith Emerson
The Good continued till 1970, when Emerson stop to kind ELP. “After they came upon who I used to be gonna be working with – Greg Lake and Carl Palmer – they each mentioned, ‘Good luck. You’ll want it!’” he recalled.
In 2015, O’Record – who went on work in music training and TV soundtracks – mirrored on his former colleagues’ dispute along with his model of occasions, telling Prog he hadn’t been stunned by their feedback. “However they’ve their causes, and I do know higher now than to get into all that historical past,” he mentioned. “It solely brings bother.
“I’ve meet Lee on the street previously, and it’s been very nice. Keith and I exchanged emails when my son was born, and mentioned fatherhood. He was pleasant. So, I feel so long as we keep away from the topic of The Good then I’m on good phrases with Keith and Lee.”
The guitarist additionally mirrored on his transient stints with Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd and Roxy Music, rejecting the suggestion that he was a ‘practically man’ of prog. “I do know why you say that, however it’s not the way in which I feel. To be sincere, I used to be too younger after I obtained these possibilities to take full benefit. I used to be 19 when was in The Good, and the remainder of them have been about 25, in order that brought about its personal issues.
I waited for Pink Floyd to return to me, and as a substitute they supplied the job to David Gilmour
Davy O’Record
“I did one gig with Floyd in Liverpool, standing in for Syd Barrett, and the blokes did come to see me play a number of occasions with The Good once they have been trying to usher in a everlasting second guitarist. I actually ought to have grasped the chance and pushed myself ahead, however, once more, my inexperience held me again. I waited for them to return to me, and as a substitute they supplied the job to David Gilmour.”
Confirming he’d have taken the Floyd place if he’d been supplied it, he went on: “As for Roxy, I had a verbal settlement after I was with them. I used to be naïve sufficient to assume that was nearly as good as a contract, which it wasn’t. So, I learnt that lesson from my time with them. If I’d been older, then I feel I’d have been higher positioned to make my mark. As it’s… properly, at the very least the ‘practically man’ now has a second life.”
