2006SILENT FEATURE FILMS
This reel is part of one of our Specialty Collections. Online viewing or downloads of low-res versions for offline viewing will be available for only more day, though. Online viewing or downloads of low-res versions for offline viewing has now expired, though, and cannot be viewed online. "Pro" account holders can download a low-res version for offline viewing.
Sign up for a "Pro" account to download this footage.
This reel is currently not available for online viewing.
Sorry, this video is temporarily unavailable for online viewing or download. Please try again later.
Restricted Material
Access to this reel with audio is restricted. It will be available for only more day.
Access to this reel with audio has expired.
| 16:06:16 0 |
PART 2 OF MURRAY LERNER'S INTERVIEW WITH KEITHER EMERSON
|
| 16:06:18 1.99 |
INTERVIEW BEGINS:
Murray Lerner Oh, can he have your water. Now to get back to basics about your music How did you get to this position of defining your musical niche that is first of all electric the electrification of music When did you get interested in that Keith Emerson I got interested in it because it was a way of being heard I think I did my first gig on an upright piano and then I joined various rock bands and blues bands and nobody could hear an acoustic piano so it was really a question of being heard that I purchased a Hammond organ and then you could crank it up then it progressed from using the Hammond organ in ways that the Hammond Organ Company didn't really enjoy and then i Excuse me, was the seat and then it came I was introduced to the Moog synthesizer by hearing Walter Carlos is switched on back and suddenly there was a whole lot of things that you could do you know like I've seen a portamento and you mess about with it that you received just while this is going on, we evacuate the area this is gonna blow up any seconds still going, it's still going right step after the cannons cannon? Bang. Murray Lerner Very good. What is the principal? Way? Let me ask several questions about electric music because it interests me. A lot of people say volume is what got them into it was what what is volume is what got them into electrification. Yeah, but then something else happens. I think I think that it leads to a kind of penetration of the body and you know, of the audience, that electric electrification, the music leads to more physical involvement with the music. I think on the part of the audience, I don't know if you've felt that I'm just that's a person viewpoint is that was that your viewpoint at all? Did it have more than volume to it? Keith Emerson I had more to do with orchestration. The fact that we were only three people one would have thought that would have given us certain limitations but what was good was that each of ELP could hold their own on stage. And as we did with Greg not only being a very great bass player and a very good Acoustic Guitarist and Electric Guitarist, but had a very has very good voice which you know, alternated between baritone and sometimes alto and for Carl Palmer, who is in a, I've never seen a drummer that can hold a 15 minute drum solo on his own and get a standing ovation. So we were all very good in our individual ways when you put all that together you'd kind of made a very small orchestra. So my arsenal of keyboards were there in order to endorse all that and then fill it all up you know make it as big a sound as possible. You know, the moog is is is where it's monophonic which means of course, if I tried to play a chord let's take a C chord you only get one note. So you have to arpeggiate it. So, actually what they do make polyphonic since now and this is right one of them here. So you can play chords on that so but I I still I still use this as part of my keyboard rig. Because nothing else makes a sound like it really when you crank it up in a stadium it can it can hurt Murray Lerner you heard it Keith Emerson well that's nothing like you got that's quiet Murray Lerner what what was it about the what does the move do? And I know you got involved with the movie at the very beginning. So then you were very excited about it What was unique about that versus an electric organ for instance Keith Emerson mainly because she couldn't bend notes on it. That was the first attraction which I liked. Like a guitarist couldn't bend the strings on a guitar Murray Lerner better cut. Keith. |
| 16:13:46 450.49 |
CUT TO A NEW TAKE. INTERVIEW CONTINUES:
Murray Lerner now I was starting to ask you what attracted you to the moog versus the Hammond and he was trying to point up and maybe demonstrate something so I was curious to know what is it about the moog that led you to use that and get involved with Moog himself Keith Emerson mainly because it enabled me to do things which I couldn't do on the Hammond organ I mean if you try and bend a note on Hammond organ where you you can't really but you can cheat and go but then you got to kind of fire it up again you know, so loses everything but with the moog. Give me a secong now I'm going to fire it up I'm gonna have to tune this up. |
| 16:15:34 558.83 |
EMERSON SPENDS A FEW MINUTES TUNING UP HIS MOOG SYNTHESIZER
|
| 16:16:55 639.54 |
EMERSON SITS BACK DOWN AND ITERVIEW CONTINUES:
Murray Lerner Very good. And did you feel you or why did you feel why did you use Mussorgsky and other classical composers coupled with this technique? Rather than composing? Or in a sense it was composing your own music, but you were building on existing compositions. What was that all about? Keith Emerson It all started with using bits of pieces of Bach in in improvisations, kind of the same coming back to Brubeck where he and Paul Desmond use counterpoint. In their improvisation they decided to go back to CounterPoint and the true master as I always said, with Johann Sebastian Bach and incorporating that in improvisations, but after his people will say to me though, that's great, but does that piece you stuck in the middle of there? You know, can you not play more of that? So that's that's how I got around to doing it. It's not it's not original, because there was the Jacques Loussier Trio who were doing play Bach they were jazzing up Bach and the Swingle singers. It goes way back to even the 40s were the big bands, you know, they were doing a lot of jazzing up the classics that along of course with B. Bumble and the Stingers you know that within that rocker which is that one. Anyway Murray Lerner Did you feel that the I went I was about to say was I don't think anybody did it for pieces Pictures at an Exhibition did they? Keith Emerson No, no. But it is it has been the most recorded piece of classical music. There's an acoustic guitar version. Obviously, the piano version was the first an orchestration that's probably a mariachi band somewhere in Mexico playing it. Murray Lerner When do you feel that your audiences really appreciate the musical quality? Are they just hypnotized by the showmanship? Keith Emerson Well, it's got back to me that a lot of people were introduced to classical music as a consequence of ELPs adaptations and arrangements and it's really good to know that we're, you know, we're most of the well with all the composers which I have arranged and adapted for ELP and other issues. Going back to Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland. Alberto Ginastera. All of them have what when they, when they were alive, said that, how much they appreciated? You know, my adaptation. Murray Lerner That must have been really satisfying. Keith Emerson Yes. Yes it was Murray Lerner You were probably worried about that if they if you've met them. Keith Emerson Yeah. Well, I won't tell you the Leonard Bernstein story, because that's in my book. You read that one. Did you Murray Lerner Was the Bartok family a little upset. Keith Emerson Well, you that was very early in the beginning that Mrs. Bartok came by and said that so we changed everything so that they all get their fair credit on that. But Murray Lerner It was just a question of credit. Keith Emerson Yeah, yes. Murray Lerner Because I'm hoping to get that and even have to go to visit the family to get the rights. You want. You do get the rights to use it in the film. I'm hoping to get that even if I have to go to Hungary. Keith Emerson Oh. That's right. Because the Lego barbero the barbarian. No, I think I think that's, that's cool. Now, Murray Lerner what was the difference in what they objected to it first, and what you changed was, was it just the credit that you changed? Or was it the music? Keith Emerson No, they weren't worried about that. They just, you know, wanted the you know, the right. Credit really? Murray Lerner Well, did you feel that you were, maybe this is pretentious that you were part of revolutionising music by what you were doing. I mean, there was a whole group of you, you know, Hendrix, the way the who that was both, you know, showmanship and music, not necessarily classical music. And that was reaching an audience in a different way. And you were bringing a whole new element into into it with the Moog and synthesizers that hadn't been done before. Did you feel consciously that you needed to revolutionize or change music? Or was it just what you happen to feel at the time. Keith Emerson I just like to play music, which I enjoyed listening to and I enjoyed playing. And apart from that, you know, I mean, I don't want to put too much attention on the amount of adaptations which I've done in my musical career. Because I, I like to think, and I like to hope others think as well that my own compositions are my own compositions. This, there's no form of plagiarism in there at all, it's completely mine inspiration. But you know, all all musicians are inspired by somebody, you know, which, and they, they go on and they do their own thing after that. I think I chose classical music as a starting point. Mainly because that was my heritage. Coming from Europe. I would have loved to have been, why and I've played jazz but you know, I'm not on Oscar Peterson and I'm, I don't regard myself as being an Oscar Horowitz on the piano. But what I do do is a combination of all of that now out of all that comes my own style of music. Murray Lerner I like it very much. I have a funny question to throw at you. What is music? Keith Emerson Okay, you're asking some good ones anything which delights the soul. But mind you poetry can do the same thing. Poetry can be music, having written a book you know, I found that the writing different paragraphs, one has to lead into the other and it's almost like a segue, a musical segue and says there's a strong similarity between writing words and writing music. That it all has to make sense as to tie together and it has to be appealing and memorable. Whether you make it memorable through repetition there is another thing I think there's too much repetition in today's music you can just take like a you know a short motif and just keep repeating him. People seem perfectly happy but Murray Lerner well, but music doesn't use words. Keith Emerson I think my nose is going it's getting better. very hot here. Murray Lerner Oh, we can stop a minute but maybe just this one question then we'll stop using doesn't use words and has a great power of a great number of people. Did you feel that power over people when you were performing? For instance, the who filled Pete Townsend feels that quite strongly, and he wonders what it's all about. Did you wonder yourself why there was so many devotees that loved? To hear your big crowds? Like like the Isle of Wight? That was fantastic, wasn't it? Doesn't it? Isn't it? A weird phenomenon? Keith Emerson Yeah, well, for me, there was no, that didn't come into it. It wasn't a question of like power over the audience how many it was then that supplied you with the general inner Jen generated type of atmosphere? Sometimes if it didn't work, and you didn't have the right audience, then you would have you'd have to work hard. So you know, No, I never, never looked at it that way. It was, it was very satisfying when things went well. Murray Lerner Let's stop for a minute and see if I have any more questions. Keith Emerson Yeah, okay. |
| 16:27:41 1285.29 |
CU OF EMERSON PLAYING KEYBOARD. ZOOM OUT
|
| 16:27:56 1300.08 |
INTERVIEW CONTINUES:
Keith Emerson I love this chair Murray Lerner I want to ask you what again, I want to get back to that question. Are you ready? Of what the question is, what is music which I think does go beyond even in your mind what you were saying Keith Emerson I don't know a while music is when you look at a keyboard and it's kind of linear, you know. And you can come up with all sorts of ideas with that's a chord there. It presents, you know, to all sorts of different ideas, you know, you know, whereas in Tarkus that you've got to you know, particularly like ostinato figures on piano I mean, that basically the first one was which I learned was a honky tonk train blues, which you've got this sort of shuffle with them in the left hand so you've got that you've got the that figure there and what's what is difficult to do is putting the pipe crotchet triplets against that so you end up with this and then when you like for instance, with Tarkus, you've got this basically put anything After that really Murray Lerner what the satisfaction that you feel Keith Emerson You can get hoe down as far hoedown chakras play at the same time Yes, okay. See this is going down very well, isn't it? Murray Lerner Oh, it is. But I'm curious to know what you feel when you play. What satisfaction Do you feel? I mean, have you ever thought about that as to why music is so powerful Keith Emerson when it when it just gives you that emotion, you know, like, for instance, like, one of the pieces just starts off with an octave. But when you add but then Didn't you think about oh, maybe I can go? Don't I don't know. I think if I was to question it too much. I'd stopped doing it. Murray Lerner Well, do you care about your music? Do you care whether you have an audience? I asked you that before? But I'm curious. Keith Emerson Yes. Murray Lerner Why? Keith Emerson It's nice to write a piece of music and play it to somebody and they go Yeah, that's nice. That's, that's really good. I mean, the for instance, in this particular piece here. And then what I did here was make a go to a seven it still changes like that, which, really, sometimes there are accidents, you know, rather than going you know, there are lots of alternatives but you just have to find the right one. And as I said, it's bit like writing words, musical words. or writing a book or writing poetry. It's, it has to scan properly. Murray Lerner Did you did you care about the glamour and fame of being a star? Keith Emerson No that scared the hell out of me. The last thing I wanted to be I still ignore all that stuff. And it did freak me out in the after we played the Isle of Wight and we went on we played huge huge stadiums like 14,000 seaters. And three hour shows. It was I wasn't quite sure how to get through it all. You know Murray Lerner how did you get through it? Keith Emerson Oh boy, how did they get through it or just coming to terms with things like stage fright and stuff like that, which I've since got to know is is quite an advantage. Really, you know? If you if you're not nervous before you do a show, then it's gonna be pretty bad. Energy. Murray Lerner It's really interesting because different artists have different. For instance, I did an interview with Townsend where he says at the because of his thing at the Isle of Wight, they knew what was happening backstage. And they were worried. But he wasn't frightened. He's never had stage fright. He said whereas Keith Moon almost fainted. He had really charged himself up to go on and off and faint after he got off because he was so charged up. I guess it varies. No, it's also the I guess, drugs. What about drugs in relation to all of this, if you can talk about it was that an important element and the kind of music you have? Playing around the time of the Isle of Wight. Keith Emerson Well there was a lot of it around Murray Lerner I don't think I'm asking you that question. Keith Emerson Oh yeah. I know there is no asking if I indulged or Murray Lerner did you feel it was important to Keith Emerson No I mean certainly the the intricate stuff that we were playing was you couldn't do it I think I tried playing a very complicated piece after drinking a bottle of sake and it was hard enough to play sober let alone drunk and I didn't do that any again. Yeah, like most musicians, I tried a lot of other things and but they just didn't work for me at all, you know? I don't I don't touch drugs. I like the occasional Chardonnay though. That Murray Lerner I have neither and I feel somehow maybe I've missed something. I've been involved with a lot of musical circles I did. But I didn't Well, I think now if you would be willing to play a few of the Pete parts of a few of the pieces that we're at the Isle of Wight. If you have any explanatory thoughts about composition I mean you play barbarian you played Pictures at an Exhibition you play from the Lord take you play take a pebble and you played not cropped Keith Emerson I think I'll feel happy, Murray to leave it at that. Yeah, because as I said I the repertoire from the Isle of Wight Festival I don't quite recall Murray Lerner even a little bit of it all right. I guess you want to stop yeah all right. I think we have enough playing I won. we just want some tighter shots of your head playing I guess Can you few minutes Keith Emerson Um, yeah. which keyboard Oh yeah. Okay all right Murray Lerner Wait Wait just a second and if it could be pieces that you might remember Pictures at an Exhibition of course you remember pretty well Keith Emerson it's gonna be a bit difficult to do that |
| 16:39:16 1980.67 |
KIETH EMERSON PLAYS KEYBOARD
|
| 16:39:44 2008 |
Keith Emerson
Let's start it again (more keyboard/Moog playing) Keith Emerson etc etc Murray Lerner very good we would like one favor not have to play but they'll let the flashing little like a closer oh yeah yeah closer shot yeah sure yeah that first piece again hoedown this whole patient it wasn't too bad to do that the reason that I asked him to turn the organ up and get the first piece of oil the second piece was just the second piece of law I think we'll have to live with |
| 16:40:24 2048.05 |
TIGHT SHOT OF EMERSON PLAYING MOOG SYNTHESIZER/KEYBOARD)
|
| 16:42:31 2175.03 |
MURRAY LERNER'S CREW NEAR EMERSON FILMING CLOSE UP. MAN'S BACK TOWARDS CAMERA. EMERSON PLAYS KEYBOARD/MOOG
|
| 16:46:17 2401.09 |
CU OF MOOG SYNTHESIZER
|
| 16:46:48 2432.82 |
Keith Emerson
bang. Thank you , folks. Good night. Murray Lerner Thank you. Very nice. |
| 16:47:03 2447.87 |
CU OF MOOG SYNTHESIZER COLORFUL WIRES
|
| 16:48:17 2521.74 |
BLANK SCREEN
|
| 17:00:06 3230.28 |
END REEL
|
Jump to this point
