Interpretation
The story of "Karn Evil 9" is told in 3 parts, with the second part being an instrumental interlude. First Impression, beginning with the beginning of the world "Cold and misty morning..." and eventually gets to the future, tells the story of a futuristic world from which "all manner of evil and decadence had been banished." The decadence of the old world is preserved through exhibits that are part of a futuristic carnival show, which exhibits depravities like "seven virgins and a mule," along with things that are rare in the future, such as a "real blade of grass."
The Second Impression is an instrumental and unlike the rest of Karn Evil, is just three instruments: piano, bass and drums. The steel drum part was played on a Moog synthesizer. There is supposedly a vocal around 2 minutes (15 minutes as a whole song) that sounds like a small child's voice saying, "Daddy, let's go see the carnival!" as reference to the first part. It's actually Emerson's voice, sped up and altered. This Impression changes from an upbeat out-of-control tune to a creepy slow interval and then picks up the pace again with a structure similar to that of a sonata. It is allegedly about computers scheming against the humans, and the humans completely unsuspecting this. This Impression is often overlooked and is less popular than the others, though it is a rather complex piece, showing the three musicians' virtuosity.
The Third Impression continues the story begun in the second, describing a war between humans and computers, which can be interpreted in three different ways. One interpretation allows the victory to the humans, who reimpose their domain over the computers. The second interpretation allows victory to the computers, claiming that the computers were successful in dominating the humans and let them live only for the sake of gloating. The third interpretation, consistent with Peter Sinfield's original interpretation that "what invented ironically takes him over" has humans winning a war with the help of computers, only to find the computers taking over in the moment of victory.
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