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“Tarkus” is the title track of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s second album. The progressive rock epic clocks in at 20:35. It was the longest studio song by the band until the three impressions of Karn Evil 9 and their concert performances. The name “Tarkus” refers to the armadillo-tank from the William Neal paintings on the album cover. The artist has explained that the name is an amalgamation between ‘Tartarus’ (a place of punishment mentioned in 1 Peter 2:4) and ‘carcass’ (hence the name being written in bones on the album cover). Consequently, the name refers to the “futility of war, a man made mess with symbols of mutated destruction.“ The song “Tarkus” itself supposedly follows the adventures of Tarkus from his birth, through a fight with a manticore, which he... Read on...