Song Lyric Sunday — The Moog Synthesizer

Fandango

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to find a song that features a keyboard. This is speculation on my part, but aside from guitars and drums, I’d guess that pianos and electronic keyboards are the most prominent instruments in classic and progressive rock music. I decided to focus my keyboard search on electronic keyboards rather than pianos. And that led me to Keith Emerson and the Moog synthesizer (pictured below).

The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. It was the first commercial synthesizer and established the analog synthesizer concept. Moog’s synthesizer was the first that could be played in real time via a keyboard, making it attractive to musicians.

In the late 1960s, it was adopted by rock and pop acts including the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles. At its height of popularity, it was a staple of 1970s progressive rock, used by acts including Yes, Tangerine Dream, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

The Emerson, Lake & Palmer song, “Lucky Man,” is probably the group’s best known song. Released as a single in 1970, the song contains one of rock music’s earliest instances of a Moog synthesizer solo. “Lucky Man” reached the top 20 in the Netherlands. The song also charted in the United States and Canada. The single was re-released in 1973 and charted again in the U.S. and Canada.

“Lucky Man” was written by Greg Lake and was the first song he wrote when he was 12. The song was used on Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s debut album when they needed one more song. Lake played the version he had written from childhood, but the rest of the band did not like it, feeling it would not fit with the other album tracks. Lake then worked on it in the studio with Carl Palmer. Lake added numerous overdubs of bass, triple-tracked acoustic guitars, electric guitar, and harmony vocals until it “sounded like a record.” This version of the song — with a second electric guitar solo in place of where Emerson would later overdub his Moog solo — is featured on the album.

“Lucky Man” is an acoustic ballad. The lyrics tell the story of a man who had everything, went to war, and died. A Moog synthesizer solo, recorded in one take, is performed by Keith Emerson at the end of song. Emerson had just recently gotten the device, and only decided to play on this song after hearing the track Lake and Palmer came up with and realizing it was a legitimate song.

Interesting factoid: we have SiriusXM’s Classic Rock channel 26 streaming on our TV for “background” music most of the day when we’re not actually watching a show or movie on TV. Whenever the song “Lucky Man” comes on, as soon as Keith Emerson’s Moog solo comes on, our dog starts howling like a wolf does at a full moon.

Here are the lyrics to “Lucky Man.”

He had white horses
And ladies by the score
All dressed in satin
And waiting by the door

Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooh, what a lucky man he was

White lace and feathers
They made up his bed
A gold covered mattress
On which he was laid

Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooh, what a lucky man he was

He went to fight wars
For his country and his king
Of his honor and his glory
The people would sing

Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooh, what a lucky man he was

A bullet had found him
His blood ran as he cried
No money could save him
So he laid down and he died

Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooh, what a lucky man he was

20 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday — The Moog Synthesizer”

  2. willowdot21 June 30, 2024 / 3:49 am

    l love song with the Moog it’s such a great invention. This is a great track E.L.P. such great talent 💜💜

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  4. newepicauthor June 30, 2024 / 7:28 am

    I don’t remember the Grateful Dead using a Moog synthesizer, but I just read that they did have one on stage, so I guess it must have been played in some of their songs, but I was unable to find out which ones. Great choice and a lovely post, Fandango.

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      • newepicauthor June 30, 2024 / 9:20 am

        The Grateful Dead wrote this totally weird song when they were high on nitrous oxide thinking they could impress Jimi Hendrix with it, and they used a Moog synthesizer on ‘What’s Become of the Baby’.

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  5. Marleen June 30, 2024 / 7:31 am

    It sounds like fun, what your dog does. We will, this summer, be going to a show of whoever is left live in that group along with recorded parts; Jon Anderson with a younger group of people, too.

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  6. Carol anne June 30, 2024 / 9:01 am

    I like the sound of this song Fandango! I didn’t know it, I’m too young to remember, but I am glad you chose it! xo

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  7. suze hartline June 30, 2024 / 10:14 am

    I LOVE ELP and this is one of my favorites of theirs…thanks for posting it. Such rich memories came back as I listened to it.

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