For decades I had a song stuck in my head from the 80's. Mind you, not the lyrics. Just the synthesizer riff. It ate me up inside every time I thought about it. I could hear it in my head, but despite years of searching, I never found out what it was.
I first heard the song in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at the age of eight or nine. I was sitting on the floor of my grandparent's house watching MTV, and it came on. From there, I heard it a few more times, but for some reason the name of the group and song never made its way into my head. Just that synthesizer hook.
As I began my task of putting together a CD collection, that song would occasionally haunt my brain, which would lead to unfruitful Google searches, and further disappointment. Had I imagined this song? Was I not remembering it correctly? Why couldn't I find it?
Enter mid-January 2022.
That synthesizer part would come into mind again on January 15, 2022, and I would once again try to find it through Google searches. I typed in a combination of searches, ultimately leading me to "80's songs with synthesizer intro." While I didn't find anything familiar, or better stated, what I knew wasn't the song in a very long Reddit thread, I did find something which intrigued me.
Someone in the thread recommended a Google feature on your cell phone where one could hum a part of the tune, and Google would conduct a search. With nothing to lose, I did just that. I hummed the synthesizer part as my mind remembered it from my youth, and hit the search button. It returned three possibilities, all of which were no more than a 17% possible match.
Feeling I had gone on another useless search, I clicked each track. The first was a definite no. The second, oh, that beautiful second. The synthesizer started up, and immediately my mind exploded with joy. Touch And Go by Emerson, Lake & Powell. This was the song that I heard all those decades ago as a boy. It was exactly as I had hummed it.
Then the usual happened.
The seller sent it via media mail, and the tracking never updated past the status that a tracking number had been generated. January 15 rolled into January 22, which rolled into February. I reached out to the guy I bought it from, and he was cool about it. He refunded me on February 1. Disappointed, but in the process of packing for a February 15 move date, I could no longer make getting this a priority. It would have to be something I worried about later.
A Christmas miracle occurred when the very next day I opened my mailbox to an all too familiar CD looking package. Having a couple items on order, I didn't really think about it. Instead, I just opened it to see what had arrived. There inside was Emerson, Lake & Powell's self titled release. It had finally arrived.
Now, before you think me a jerk, I did reach out to the seller, get his PayPal address, and make him whole for the sale. Fair is fair.
The group is a variant iteration of the highly successful progressive rock supergroup, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. To go into their history would take me just as long in this post as it's taken to get to this point, so I won't. Instead, I'll focus on this 1986 iteration who seem to have only released this one and only album.
While Emerson and Lake would have liked to record with Palmer, releasing an album around this time, the latter was unavailable due to contractual obligations with Asia. Rather than wait, they instead enlisted Cozy Powell. Though a coincidence that the group was able to retain their initials, ELP, the band would joke about asking other highly established drummers, replacing the first initial of their last name with a "P" as part of the gag. I.E. Phil Pollins, instead of Phil Collins.
The album didn't chart well, and in listening to it, I can understand why. It's not that good. It tries to be larger than it needs to be, adopting an almost rock opera feeling. Whereas, by 1986, a more straight forward, and perhaps even commercial approach would have garnered a better reception. The nine minute opening track, The Score, is a perfect example of this over the top approach.
With that said, it wasn't a total flop. Obviously, I grabbed Touch And Go for my shuffle, but I also enjoyed Love Blind. Considering the amount of time it took me to even find this album, to walk away with a bonus track is a win in my book.
Like I said above, Emerson, Lake & Powell only released one album together. Sadly, all three musicians have since passed away. Wow, what a downer to end a post on.
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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS January 24, 1981 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS January 24, 1987 |
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