And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time - Popularisation - Emerson, Lake & Palmer Version

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Version

In 1973, for their Brain Salad Surgery album, British progressive rock band recorded a version of the song entitled "Jerusalem". The track features the debut of the prototype Moog Apollo, the first-ever polyphonic synthesizer. The subject matter of this song indicates a nod to ELP's unabashed Englishness and simultaneously lended an air of timeless tradition and ceremony to the music. But Jerusalem was banned in England on the radio when it was issued as a single. The BBC would not accept it as a serious piece of music. Drummer Carl Palmer was in fact sad about this. He later said "We wanted to put it out as a single. We figured it was worthy of a single. In England, they have this format where four or five people have to veto it in before it gets played on the airwaves; it's a very old-fashioned way of doing it, but that's the way it was being done at the time. I think there was some apprehension to whether or not we should be playing a hymn and bastardizing it, as they said, or whatever was being called at the time. I think it got rejected, I recall. We thought we'd done it spot-on, and I thought that was very sad because I've got a jukebox at home, and that's a piece of music that I've got on the jukebox, so I actually thought the recording and just the general performances from all of us were absolutely wonderful. I couldn't believe the small-mindedness of the English, sort of, whatever-they-are, committee to vote these things onto the radio or off the radio. They could even, really, they obviously didn't even listen to this. It got banned and there was sort of quite a big thing about it, these people just would not play it. They said no, it was a hymn, and we had taken it the wrong way." The single failed to chart and was not released in the US. Bassist, Guitarist & Vocalist Greg Lake said that it's a piece of music that will sound better the louder you hear it.