10 Greatest Keyboardists In Hard Rock
5. Keith Emerson - Emerson Lake and Palmer
As the prog rock movement started to gain some attraction, the keyboard seemed to finally have a proper role in the mix. Instead of just playing off the guitar line or hanging in the background and filling out the sound, the outlandish sonic landscapes of prog gave keyboardists free reign to flex their chops. Sometimes it got so big that you didn't even need the other sides of rock and roll to kick ass.
Once Emerson Lake and Palmer got the ball rolling, Keith Emerson's lines were some of the most well-thought out musical pieces in rock and roll. Though there were some more downtempo stuff like Lucky Man, tracks like Karn Evil 9 were some of the most complex moments of the entire '70s. Hell, this is one of the few prog acts who actually got away with incorporating actual classical movements into their songs, as they recontextualized Aaron Copeland's Movement for the Common Man for their own use.
In fact, the barrage of sounds can get so unnervy that people often forget that this is a band that has NO SET GUITAR PLAYER! You really have to be on another level when people are so taken by the piano that you don't even notice that one of the biggest parts of a rock band is actually missing. Then again, when you have chops like this, you really don't too much musical set dressing.