"Tank" by Emerson Lake & Palmer. First, what a great song title. Sounds like somebody's dog. Second, considering how popular this song became and what a vehicle it became for Carl Palmer to display his drumming skills (he still uses it at clinics) over the years, it was basically "filler," a last-minute addition to their brilliant first album to give them enough material to fill up the record. Keith Emerson wrote the song but generously gave writing credit to Carl, which certainly didn't hurt the drummer's bottom line. Greg Lake, as usual, plays a beautiful bass part, and his intro is one of my favorite bass melodies of all time. It plays on my imaginary jukebox all the time, as does the drum rhythm. For those keeping score, it's in 4/4, but it breaks down into 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2; 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2. This song features a drum solo, and as per Carl's usual solos it's massive. It's heavy and powerful, but he plays a lot of Jazz figures that would make Buddy Rich proud. In fact he and Buddy were good friends, and Carl was one of the only, if not THE only Rock drummer to sit in with Buddy's band while Buddy was alive. Carl plays beautiful snare drum rolls, superhuman bass drum notes and melodies on cymbal bells among other things. There's only one Carl Palmer. Enjoy. Studio version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueGcV255NfM "Tank" solo from 1077 (check it out):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrfqVAaR2YQ
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