Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Keith Emerson 1944 -2016 RIP - A Tribute

With great sadness I pass along the news that the legendary Keith Emerson has left this world.

I finally got to meet him in person last year, he has always been a hero of mine, he always will be.<br>
The world has lost a true giant! RIP Mr. Emerson! Thank you for what you have given the world.

From the ELP web site:
Keith Emerson (1944 - 2016)

We regret to announce that Keith Emerson died last night at his home in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, aged 71. We ask that the family’s privacy and grief be respected.

For any other enquires, please contact management@qedg.co.uk




Yours Truly finally meeting my hero in person

Keith was on facebook and he was one of my facebook friends.

Last April he pretty much left his page on auto pilot with this message...



I had hoped he would have eventually come back..

Ken Knapp

RIP Keith.

Emerson Lake & Palmer - Karn Evil 9 2nd Impression
https://youtu.be/XpkSnfBNzT0

So sad

Oooh What a Lucky Man he was.

I saw ELP once back in the 70's. Excellent!
Got into them my freshman year of college 1972=my roomie and I wore out a couple of their albums- ELP/ Trilogy.

Loved their stuff. sad news. Rest in peace Keith Emerson.

Can't reply to other "announcement"? Here it is

Very saddened to hear this. An inspiration to generations of keyboard players.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...d-palmer-keyboardist-dead-at-71-20160311

Ugh, so upsetting. I saw ELP about a dozen times and the Keith Emerson trio about 10 years ago. He was my idol growing up and an innovator. Sorely missed, RIP!

A sad day.

I offer my sincere condolences to Mr. Emerson's family and friends.

Emerson was a big influence and inspiration when I was a teenager and for many years after. It began when I heard that out-of-this-world sound on the radio in 1971, at the end of a hit ballad back then (Lucky Man, of course). Later, I bought their vinyls, went to see ELP in concert, bought Hammond organs, a few synths and even played in an anonymous Tribute to ELP band. I hope he can somehow read me here, as I want to sincerely thank him for inspiring me to discover a fascinating aspect of music and also electric/electronic keyboard instruments.

I will remember him as the best progressive keyboardist of all times. And besides his incredible talent as a keyboardist, he was also an innovative composer.

RIP

Death is but a sleep to Our Lord.

What sad news for me. On December 26, 1971 I heard "Tarkus" as a revelation to my ears and began to listen to Emerson, Lake & Palmer very much. I loved the music so much, even slowing down my record player to "16" so I could appreciate fast passages even better. I continued to listen to their music to the point where I just had to learn to play the piano even if it meant starting a beginning piano class at our college in 1973 and so it began for me to this day. I finally had a chance to see them in concert during their "Brain Salad Surgery" tour in 1974 and wow, what a delight to see those fingers fly.

I wish I could have thanked Keith in person. I wish I could have told him just how much his music meant to me. I loved it.

Shot himself I just heard. My teacher helped him with his piano injury problems. Still have albums somewhere.

Keith was my idol since I was a teenager! Keith was my motivation and inspiration to stay with piano/keyboards once I finished my parental-influenced classical training.

Keith had a lot of problems with his hands (nerve problem, carpal tunnel, etc). It got to the point that he could only play with 8 fingers. Imagine being one of the world's finest, yet only able to use 80% of your fingers.... downright depressing, and he was dealing with depression as a result. I'm sure this had a lot to do with taking his life. Very sad and very unfortunate.

I will always remember him as an instrumental part of my life, and someone I always look up to with the utmost respect and admiration.

I finally got to meet Keith 7 weeks ago at NAMM (even got a picture with him). He did look a bit down (I suppose any pianist/keyboardist would if you can't use your God-given talents at 100%).

I'm not ashamed to say that tears are literally dripping down my face. The only other musician I had this potent of a reaction to when he died was John Lennon.

Keith - RIP.

I went to a hairdressers in Manchester after being to one of his concerts wi ELP. It was George Bests boutique (!) And I came out with Keiths haircut.

Never washed it for months. . . the envy of some o my mates who were balding.. .

I always thought Id be able to sound like him if I practised enough. . . you do think foolish thoughts when youre young!

He was never a guy to end his days in an ole folks home, and he didnt.

A giant in the music world, he will be greatly missed. My condolences to his family and friends.

My little tribute was to hack my way through "The Great Gate of Kiev" after I read the news yesterday. Cheers Mr. E.

Although I became a Jazz saxophonist, I've returned to playing keyboards - my first instrument (Hammond Organ, at age 11; sax was at 15). Keith Emerson was thus one of my first musical heroes. ELP was one of the few rock groups that continued to interest me once I discovered Coltrane, et. al. I've been largely numb since hearing the awful news last night. As with Piano Man Chuck (see above), the only other musician whose death was this disturbing for me was tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker (57, from myelodyslastic syndrome).

I suffered a finger injury 3 years ago (f-ing pit bull bit my left index finger en route to killing another dog). I was scared s-less for four months and couldn't touch my horn. Thankfully, my injury healed - that stupid dog could have eaten my whole finger! For a while, I thought: what if I can't play anymore? I never got depressed since I continued to heal. But if there is no healing, and if you multiply what happened to me by enough zeros, you have a breaking point as with Keith. We all have to protect our "golden geese."

Sean Lennon posted that Keith may have been on anti-depressants, and that these items' side effects reared their ugly head. Hopefully, we'll find out.

Keith must have been truly tortured with his injury. I hope he finds peace, if there is such a thing as another dimension.

Thanks for the music and the inspiration; RIP Keith Emerson.

Last night i posted a youtube link to my fellow band members, we have a big tour coming up and the line up is new and we haven't been playing much together and don't know each other that good in person. I wanted to give players good vibe and feeling by introducing them Keith's playing as he was one of my most important musical heroes.

Video link was about Keith playing lucky man with his "new" band and him improvising stuff with his moog.

This morning only when i went to rehearsals a friend told me that Keith had died. I didn't want to believe it.
After coming home this evening i read the news. I was shocked to learn that police is investigating his death as a suicide by gunwound to the head... I feel like sobbing why? It's cruel world, this is the least honorable way my hero could had ended his day. Now it's only pain and questions of why? What drives man to do such desperate action at such old age.
I hope it was a due to a sickness and he chose not to die slowly from it, but i think he had years more.
Many years more.

Keith was a special kind of player. The kind of player world should need an awfully many more.
His talent, vision and how courageous he was was unparalled. Man wasn't afraid to hit wrong note,
he wasn't afraid to improvise on the spot, wasn't afraid to experiment and play exactly how he felt he should play.
All of those are qualities of a true artist. He was also a very talented composer.

I will drink a toast for you tonight, and what better way to do it than listening Pirates.

Rest in peace Keith Emerson, i will truly miss you.

Such sad news. When I turned on my computer last night and saw the announcement I just went limp. Keith was an incredible keyboardist whose energy on stage was nearly unfathomable. I was still in grade school when "lucky Man" hit the airwaves and I instantly became an ELP fan. As I went through high school myself and friends would listen to their albums over and over always mystified how any human could play so fast.

I was never able to see ELP in concert, (I lived in Montana!) but was able to see clips of them on the tv. I still have some VHS recordings somewhere in the basement.

I know I read somewhere in the last year or two that Keith had been having some pretty serious health problems along with nerve damage to his hands which resulted in him not really able to play anymore. Since I am still in denial I choose to believe that Keith was facing a slow debilitating death and chose to end his life while still standing.

My deepest condolences to his family and friends, you should know that Kieth's music helped soothe my teenage angst and was often the first music played whenever I got a new apartment.

Rest in Peace my friend.

Here's a link to a British article on Keith and what happened:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ot-no-longer-perform-perfectly-fans.html

"Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

I wish he'd been able to ascribe to that philosophy....

Now, every time my own finger injury presents issues (usually it doesn't, but sometimes it does), I'll think of Keith and that it's OK that my injury happened. I've largely overcome it. Hopefully, some good can come out of Keith's nightmare.

Some of the more esoteric pieces in my Keith Emerson / ELP collection.

Click images for larger versions

ELP Sheet Music (silly me to think it would help me play like Keith)


Keith's signature on my Piano World 2011 European Tour tote bag (captured at NAMM show two years ago).


Three 45 size records of ELP music . Two are promotional copies only (were not for sale) made in the UK. All are important to me not only because of how important Keith and ELP were to me, but also because these were all given to me as a gift from my best friend and guitarist extraordinaire Joe Doringer who I have since lost contact with.



Jacket to a Manticore Stereo promo record labeled Not For Sale (the record on the left in the image above)