Carnival Promises

One of the albums I've been listening to every week is Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery.  The whole second half of the album is the Karn Evil 9 impressions.  Listening to it to-day, I revisited an old idea I had:  Karn Evil 9 does the whole carnival/circus bit much better than the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" or even "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"

But it wasn't until now that I really thought about why.  "Magical Mystery Tour" makes all of these promises about how great the magical mystery tour is and invites you to "roll up for the mystery tour."  But before it actually shows anything from the Magical Mystery Tour, the song ends.  "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" has a similar problem in that it advertises what will happen but never actually shows it.  "For the benefit of Mr. Kite / there will be a show to-night."  The first line indicates that the show is happening later, not now.

The Karn Evil 9 impressions fulfill that promise.  You actually get to see the attractions (in a figurative sense of course) in the present.  The show is happening right now.  While ELP also make promises not unlike a carnival barker attracting an audience ("Roll up!  See the show!"), at least they deliver on their promises in the present tense:

There behind a glass is a real blade of grass
Be careful as you pass
Move along!  Move along!

And then near the end, it's clear that something has actually happened:

We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown
Were exclusively our own.
All our own.  All our own.

Unlike "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" which both remain in future tense, the Karn Evil 9 songs have past, present, and future.  Both groups of songs deliver initial promises, but only the Karn Evil 9 impressions fulfill that promise, reflected in the verbs' changing tense.  That's why the Karn Evil 9 impressions are better; instead of merely promising something, they actually show it.

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