Album: Emerson, Lake, and Powell (1986)
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Songfacts®:

  • Clocking in at 9:10, this song was featured prominently on the only album and tour this lineup ever did. Originally titled "What's your game?" it was only changed to "The Score" at the very last minute.
  • The lyrics refer back to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's 1973 song "Karn Evil 9" from the Brain Salad Surgery album.
  • The throbbing single-note motif heard at the very beginning of the song was created with the help of programmer Paul "Wix" Wickens on a Yamaha QX1 keyboard. The choir sounds came from a synthesizer called the Oberheim Matrix. "Wix" would go on to perform as a session musician on many albums in the late 1980s.
  • After their only tour, this lineup broke up when Keith Emerson and Greg Lake heard a rumor that Cozy Powell was leaving them to replace John Bonham in a reformed Led Zeppelin. The rumor proved to be untrue. Emerson would eventually form a band in 1988 with Carl Palmer and Robert Berry called Three. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer would reunite in 1992. Cozy Powell went on to play in Black Sabbath, and died in a car accident in 1998. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Steve - Torrance, CA, for all above

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