Brain Salad Surgery

After the overdubs of Trilogy, the band wrote and rehearsed in their Fulham cinema so that everything could be played live. Karn Evil 9's 1st Impression was taped at Olympic with Chris Kimsey, the rest at Advision with Geoff Young, since Eddy Offord was working with Yes; a first mix was rejected and the album was mixed again at AIR in October 1973. Emerson flew to Geneva to win Alberto Ginastera's approval for Toccata, and Jerusalem was the first outing for the Apollo, a polyphonic Moog prototype. Pete Sinfield joined as lyricist while Manticore was releasing his own solo album.

The working title was a piece of slang, and the final one probably comes from Dr. John's Right Place, Wrong Time. The cover is Giger's Work 217: ELP I, whose originals were lost or stolen after a Prague exhibition in 2005. Jerusalem was released as a single, banned by the BBC, and did not chart. The album reached two in the UK, where it went gold in March 1974, and 11 in the US. Sounds found it their most uncluttered and melodic record, Rolling Stone in 1974 thought it uneven, and AllMusic's Bruce Eder later judged it their most fully realised.