Emerson, Lake and Palmer

I really like this band. Blender calls them the second worst band ever, but everyone knows that that magazine is full of :eyesore: .

Anywho, what do y'all think of ELP?

I had a friend in college who insisted we listen to ELP's BRAIN SALAD SURGERY every time we fired up the ol' hookah pipe. Ahhh, those were the days.

ELP was always one of those bands that I felt I "should" like because of the musicians involved. Greg Lake from King Crimson should have been enough by himself. But aside from a few songs here or there, they have always left me flat.

The debut album has a couple really good tracks, particularly Knife's Edge and of course Lucky Man.

Trilogy is the other album I really dig, especially the title track (which I think is the best thing they ever recorded) and From The Beginning.

There are a few others here and there, but for the most part Keith Emerson drives me insane, he's the "Yngwie" of keyboard players and the band just seemed much more pretentious than their output warranted.

One of those bands that you can pick up a greatest hits collection and be fine.

P.S. - I actually really like the Emerson, Lake & Powell (as in Cozy) from the early 80's, in some ways that's my favorite album they ever recorded, Touch And Go is a classic song.

They were generally to prog for me but they have several songs I really like.

They also have the classic lyric:

"Performing on a stool we've a sight to make you drool;
Seven virgins and a mule. Keep it cool, keep it cool."

Im in the same boat as detuned. Feel like I should like them, but I dont really like them much, outside of a few songs. I've had Brain Salad Surgery several times but just cant get into them that much

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer I have a few their albums but they bore the piss out of me most of the time. Music like this is why punk rock had to be created. They gave prog rock a bad name, making a song 9 minutes long does not make a song more interesting it just makes it 9 minutes long.

A song can be 45 minutes long if it's a good enough song, ELP just wasn't there. If you take all of Greg Lake's songs and put them together on a single disc...now that's a fine listen.

It's Keith Emerson that sinks this band like the proverbial rock.

One of my favorite Greg Lake songs is his cynical Christmas song "I Believe In Father Christmas".

Love ELP. "Trilogy" is a masterpiece!

tohostudios wrote:

One of my favorite Greg Lake songs is his cynical Christmas song "I Believe In Father Christmas".

I picked up an ELP best-of yesterday simply because it has this track on it. (Well, and also because it was cheap. Haha) I enjoy hearing that one during the holiday season.

I'm listening to the rest of the CD now and tho there are some semi-decent jams (I always did like "Lucky Man" and "From the Beginning") overall the majority of this stuff is wayyyyyy too self indulgent and wanky for me. These dudes are totally showin' off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we GET it, you guys are F'ing virtuosos. How'bout you play somethin' that doesn't have a 20 minute Moog synthesizer solo in it??"

The whole reason bands like the Ramones came about in the 1970s is that they were trying to kill stuff like this!!!

On the other hand, I do have to give them props for one thing... when ELP wanted to get back together in the early '80s, Carl Palmer wasn't available due to his obligations to Asia, so they hired Cozy Powell, thus enabling them to keep using the "ELP" acronym. I wonder if they only interviewed/auditioned drummers whose last names started with "P."

Like S.D. said 'Trilogy' is a decent album and Greg Lake's songs are usually pretty good, but unlike YES who could write a decent songs, these guys never knew when to quit!

Reading through my previous comments and I still basically feel the same way, however I might have mellowed my opinions a tad since then.

I still think the debut album and Trilogy are their most "complete" records, with some good stuff sprinkled throughout their other albums.

My summation of this band is the Greg Lake brought the "songs", Keith Emerson supplied the "pretension".

S.D. wrote:

Keith Emerson supplied the "pretension".

If memory serves, Keith Emerson had something to do with a mid '70s "rock opera" project about King Arthur which was performed on ice by figure skaters in medieval costumes (!) while the music was played live. So yeah, if that was him, I'd say that pretty much defines "pretentious!"

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Keith Emerson supplied the "pretension".

If memory serves, Keith Emerson had something to do with a mid '70s "rock opera" project about King Arthur which was performed on ice by figure skaters in medieval costumes (!) while the music was played live. So yeah, if that was him, I'd say that pretty much defines "pretentious!"

Not sure about that rock opera, that sounds like something Rick Wakeman would have done.

Keith Emerson also composed and performed the score to Dario Argento's "Inferno", the sequel to Suspiria.

S.D. wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Keith Emerson supplied the "pretension".

If memory serves, Keith Emerson had something to do with a mid '70s "rock opera" project about King Arthur which was performed on ice by figure skaters in medieval costumes (!) while the music was played live. So yeah, if that was him, I'd say that pretty much defines "pretentious!"

Not sure about that rock opera, that sounds like something Rick Wakeman would have done.

Keith Emerson also composed and performed the score to Dario Argento's "Inferno", the sequel to Suspiria.

That was Rick Wakemen and Wives of Henry the 8th, proving once again that cocaine is one helluva drug

S.D. wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Keith Emerson supplied the "pretension".

If memory serves, Keith Emerson had something to do with a mid '70s "rock opera" project about King Arthur which was performed on ice by figure skaters in medieval costumes (!) while the music was played live. So yeah, if that was him, I'd say that pretty much defines "pretentious!"

Not sure about that rock opera, that sounds like something Rick Wakeman would have done.

Keith Emerson also composed and performed the score to Dario Argento's "Inferno", the sequel to Suspiria.

Yeah, I think you're right, that might have been Rick Wakeman now that you mention it. I had seen something about that King Arthur rock opera on a VH1 countdown special ("Most Ridiculous Rock Moments" or something like that) but it was quite a few years ago and I may be getting my pretentious British prog-rock musicians confused. Ignore my previous comment then.

I've always enjoyed Tarkus album! That was one of the songs I decided to learn when I took up drums..... Still my favorite track! After Brain Salad Surgery it kinda seemed like they lost "the fire".......... imo.

I pretty much like the first thru Brain Salad.


S.D. if you like the ELPowel, you should check out the Black Moon album. It's more song oriented.... though it is steeped in 80s production(if that bothers you).

I had Black Moon when it first came out, haven't heard it for years. I remember it was an improvement, especially considering how godawful Love Beach was.

I also like the "Pictures At An Exhibition" album, need to get another copy of that one of these days.

Brain Salad Surgery has it's moments as well.

I dig ELP: pretensions, keyboard wankery, and everything that came with it. Mostly the early years from '71-'75 or so.

I have one album, well they only made one album where Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer replaced Greg Lake with Robert Berry, I guess they could not find anyone with the last name that began with L, the band was renamed 3 and the album was called 'By the Power of 3' which is ok album and had a minor hit on the disc.

S.D. wrote:

I had Black Moon when it first came out, haven't heard it for years. I remember it was an improvement, especially considering how godawful Love Beach was.

More like "Poop Beach" if you ask me!!

@ Manny, Robert Berry, another SF Bay Area artist!!!!!!

chewie wrote:

I pretty much like the first thru Brain Salad.

This.

I always enjoyed that little bit of pretentiousness that Emerson brought to the table. I always enjoyed the mix of classical, jazz influences, and good old rock and roll. There are times when I miss the warmth of the old analog Moog synthesizers. That is not always present in the digital age. The synthesizer solo in Lucky Man is one of my favorite moments in rock music.

QuothTheRaven wrote:

chewie wrote:

I pretty much like the first thru Brain Salad.

This.

I always enjoyed that little bit of pretentiousness that Emerson brought to the table. I always enjoyed the mix of classical, jazz influences, and good old rock and roll. There are times when I miss the warmth of the old analog Moog synthesizers. That is not always present in the digital age. The synthesizer solo in Lucky Man is one of my favorite moments in rock music.

Even more impressive is that Moog solo was improvised on the spot in one take. The inventor of the Moog synth brought it to the studio to demo it the day the song was recorded, Emerson played around with it for a little while and then cut the solo heard on the album.

The album jacket for Brain Salad Surgery was kick @$$ to this young pup. They were also at my very first concert, headliners. I recall Emerson doing something with his piano like what drummers do with risers ????? The stage was pretty far off and they didn't have large video screens in 74'

I just got the reissue of Brain Salad Surgery and on the disc they have pretty cool audio doc about the making of the album. The story of the original Giger cover art and how they decided to use it is pretty funny. In it's original form it would've been a tough sell. I like what they came up with to make it more acceptable.

When I'm in the mood for wankery, and what we used to call noodling/doodling, ELP is always my first choice. With time I've gotten more and more into them.