The group achieved further notoriety in the press when they were banned from further appearances at the Royal Albert Hall after Emerson had burned a makeshift spray-painting of the American flag during a prestige gig at the venue in July.

[1] Structurally, side one of the album picked up where its predecessor left off, with shorter psych-pop numbers ("Daddy, Where Did I Come From", "Happy Freuds") sitting next to extended jams based on classical compositions (Sibelius' "Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite"), only this time without the participation of a guitarist.

"Daddy Where Did I Come From" contains a comedic spoken word break of a father trying (and failing) to inform his son about the facts of life, while "Happy Freuds" is a Zappa-influenced puncturing of self-assured people with heavy use of echo delay on the vocal.

The cover of "Karelia Suite" features a lengthy interlude with Jackson bowing his bass, followed by Emerson creating structured feedback with his Hammond L100 through a Marshall amplifier, supplemented by a Dallas Arbiter fuzz-face unit.

"Ars Longa Vita Brevis" was, along with Procol Harum's "In Held 'Twas In I" released around the same time, the first side-long progressive rock suite and served as a template for Emerson's later efforts on Five Bridges, Tarkus and "Karn Evil 9".

Released in November 1968, Ars Longa Vita Brevis failed to chart in either the UK or US, although it received a positive review from Record Mirror which stated it was "musically excellent, very original, and going in a good direction to boot.