ELP : Emerson, Lake, & Palmer (Official Thread)

[Big Ears]

Live in Poland is not as good as the complete Royal Albert Hall performance because Pictures is shorter as part of a medley and Pirates is missing. The material as performed is mostly dynamic and inventive nevertheless, although Greg Lake's voice lacks the yearning quality of the early nineties.

Live in Poland does contain a live version of Knife Edge, which works very well, and Learning to Fly - more ELP-like with Palmer on drums. Fanfare for the Common Man is also fantastic, but is merged with Rondo as part of another Medley. Rondo contains an extract from Carmine Burana o Fortuna! The perfomances possibly lack the spark of the much earlier Mar Y Sol album (their second best live album) and the tendency for medleys is a distraction.

Greg Lake's 'solo' spots, with contributions from Emerson and Palmer, are superb. His bass guitar is quite prominent throughout the album. Keith Emerson's keyboard playing sparkles throughout. For some reason, opener Karn Evil 9 First Impression always compares unfavourably to the studio version and this is no exception, although thankfully it stands alone.

Overall, by ELP standards, Live in Poland is a middling album. They are my favourite band and cannot do any wrong for me, so it was essential for my collection.

 

[Big Ears]

Actually its good to see a band be honest and admit they may not be able to keep up to the standards they set in the past. No thanks to a studio album if the band doesn't think they could have done a good one.

You are right, honesty is usually the best policy. However, some groups are not always the best judges of their own material and ELP had an unmatched musical chemistry, despite personal differences. I cannot help feeling that whatever occurred in the early seventies to create Brain Salad Surgery and twenty years later in strong live performances could be recreated after another lengthy gap.

In any case, I miss them, for better or worse. I would take a below par ELP album in favour of any modern progressive rock release.

 

[LG]

I've only listened to one Live ELP album, the one they did in Montreal with full orchestra ages ago, which also almost bankrupted the band and if I remember they ended up cutting the tour short and sending the orchestra home.

I am looking for a mint copy of BSS right now, and maybe Trilogy as well, I've got their debut and Tarkus on new vinyl, both sound fabulous.

 

[Big Ears]

I know you won't agree Bruce, but my original vinyl BSS sounds inferior to the CD. It's too bass-y and grunge-y. I love the Montreal show with orchestra. The video with the band playing in the snow is very atmospheric.

 

[LG]

I know you won't agree Bruce, but my original vinyl BSS sounds inferior to the CD. It's too bass-y and grunge-y. I love the Montreal show with orchestra. The video with the band playing in the snow is very atmospheric.

Hard for me to make a comparison Martin, until I get a vinyl copy.

There are a few instances where they have got the CD just right when they've converted the analog to digital format, but few and far between when it comes to our old bands from the 60's - 80's.

I can say with some confidence that I do have the absolute best CD versions of ELP's first 4 albums, the German pressings on the Manticore label, blew the ones I already had out of the water for sound quality.

But no CD I've ever listened to can rival the sound of the drum kit on Tank or the synthesizer drop at the end of Lucky Man off the debut, in that case the vinyl rules supreme.

 

[Big Ears]

I'm sure you're right, vinyl has a resonance you just don't get on a CD. It's just that BSS was, like Quadrophenia, badly recorded. My pressing of BSS had surface noise too. Digital versions have elliminated these problems, especially as BSS and Quadrophenia have been improved each time they have been remastered for CD.

I never owned ELP, Tarkus, Pictures or Trilogy on vinyl, although I came close. Some I had on cassette and they were among the first CDs I bought when I got my first CD separate in the early nineties, along with a Mountain compilation and Genesis's Nursery Cryme. You can hear the analogue tape hiss on old CDs, but remasters are an added expense.

 

[METALPRIEST]

35 Years Ago

Love Beach



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[METALPRIEST]

40 Years Ago

Brain Salad Surgery



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[Hurdy Gurdy Man]

Though they may be only for a very certain brand of taste,if one does possess coinsiderable passion for experimental rock,ELP should more than aptly fit the bill.They are among those artists that in their processes managed to create their own universes,a trait shared by such creative giants as Velvet Underground,Frank Zappa and maybe even the Moody Blues from their psych-prog period ,1967-72.Much other worldly fascination purveys throught at least everything I've ever heard from them.....

 

[LG]

The cover of BSS looks so foreboding but the music inside is very accessible. This is Sox's fave ELP album I think, the debut would be my pick but all their early recordings are worth having.

Keith Emerson will always be one of the all time great keyboard players in rock music history, back in the days of analog gear his keyboard/synthesizer setup on stage was massive and impressive.