Who likes ELP

Sometimes I like ELP. Other times I don't enjoy them at all. I know that I am listening to virtuosos playing complex music, which seems interesting and I want to like it, but instead makes me feel uncomfortable and agitated. Same dynamic for me with King Crimson, but more so. It's always been this way for me. I've seen both bands live and listened to albums. But I am not opposed to prog rock or weird, complex edgy shit. I like 80% of the Zappa I hear. Yes (classic 1970s lineups) is one of my favorite all time bands, and listening to Yes does not give the negative side effects that ELP and KC do. 

I saw two shows with the orchestra at MSG.  I also saw them a couple of times without.

The sound in MSG with the orchestra was just incredible. 

There's a good FB page ELP one last show that has tons of good shows on it.

Cheers!

Coda to Lucky Man:

Musical Genius or Criminal Electrosplooge?

Thanks Bluestnote for bringing that up.  I had to relisten.

To this 15 year old experimenting with pot for the first time, this music was totally whack and beyond the pale.

I read or saw somehting where Keith was talking about this and he had left the studio while Greg worked up Lucky Man which he had written when he was 16.

If i'm remembering this right and its this song, Keith came back into the studio listened to what they had done and got inspired.  He one offed the solo thinking he would rework it later but everyone liked it and they kept it.

Cheers!

Count me in... around 1980ish a buddy lent me Trilogy, and I fell in love with it. From there I got Welcome Back My Friends and became totally hooked. Got the other albums and that opened me up to King Crimson, Yes, UK and a bunch of other prog music. They were a huge stepping stone for me. Didn't get to see them live until EL & Powell came around in 86, and then saw the reunited ELP about 10 times after that over the years. 
 

Musical Genius or Criminal Electrosplooge? I would say musical genius, for 1970 it was cutting edge stuff. Nobody had heard of the Moog Synthesizer until Lucky Man came out. You have to listen to it with good headphones to really appreciate it. I don't think they ever played it live like that, it was a solo Greg Lake song when played live. 
 

Lastly, The Live at Nassau Coliseum '78 was a great official release: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eWBT7xORZPI

Not Bad. Saw them on the Tarkus tour back in the day. 

doolittle, thanks for the elp archive link, I  have long forgotten the dates of the shows I was at. 

I saw two of the MSG shows not sure which two :

7/7/1977 New York, NY USA Madison Square Garden (w/orchestra)

7/8/1977 New York, NY USA Madison Square Garden (w/orchestra)

7/9/1977 New York, NY USA Madison Square Garden (w/orchestra)

and I saw one without the orchestra in New Haven:

3/6/1978 New Haven, CT USA New Haven Coliseum

My concert going buddies went to the Nassau show. For some reason, probably getting grounded for smoking weed, I didn't make that one.

>>>Lastly, The Live at Nassau Coliseum '78 was a great official release: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eWBT7xORZPI

Haha, totally forgot about the close encounters jam in Tarkus, good stuff, nice to revisit stuff you haven't heard in ages, 

Ha! I think theres a Star Wars riff in there somewhere too!

I was a huge fan in the late '70s. Before I stumbled into the Grateful Dead, ELP & Yes were my two favorite groups by far, and I loved just about everything they did.

I saw them once, on their final tour which must have been late '77? Journey opened, who I had never heard of, and after their first three songs my friend & I thought they were GREAT! Then they asked us to welcome their brand new singer and the human dentist drill came out and did Wheel in the Sky & Lights, and we both immediately were like, "What the hell do they need THIS guy for? Blech!" 

I guess being able to buy cars, houses, yachts, etc. is what they needed that guy for, but it's still too bad what happened to that band.

I loved ELP in those days, but unlike Yes and some of the other prog stuff I was into back then, ELP's music hasn't aged as well for me. When I listen to it now most of it sounds laborious & seriously self-indulgent, while at the time I just thought they ROCKED.

I do feel very nostalgic when I hear something from them now, as hearing those songs takes me right back to when I was 17, smoking out with my buddies and blasting Brain Salad Surgery while driving around, air-drumming the whole time.

My buddy who was my main ELP friend was also a drummer, and that same era of the late '70s was when we were seeing the Buddy Rich Big Band a lot. There were some close similarities to Carl Palmer & Buddy and we thought Palmer was amazing, and yes, at the time I did very much enjoy his solos.

> 3/6/1978 New Haven

I was at this show, and, like Lance, I was a big fan back when, but then the bus came by, etc, etc.

ELP was a heavy rotation band for me back then. I agree those orchestra shows were amazing. I also saw 2 shows at MSG. Received floor seats for one night and was a little disappointed that I ended up with seats in the back of a 100's section, got to the show and I was in the last row of that section but the only thing in front of me was the FOH soundboard. Every instrument on stage had it's own channel in the mix and there was a team of mixers who oversaw what appeared to be at least 4 full sized mixing consoles that took up the whole section except the last row. Just to see the team mixing the show live was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen at a concert. 

Of course that orchestra tour was the perfect example of the excess of progressive music. Each of the band members were all multi-millionaires at the start of the tour and before the tour was 1/4 way done, they were all bankrupt. Besides the equipment and personnel needed to tour like that,   they hired local UNION orchestra musicians in each city. Those union contracts something that doesn't fit into a rock tour without huge cost overruns. Contract says they get paid for rehearsal, sound check, full pay starts 1 hour before scheduled show time and finishes 2 hours after. Late start, they get paid as if it started on time. Overtime starts exactly 2 hours after scheduled start time. Go past 10pm, triple overtime. Go past 11 and it's 5X overtime. Times that by 100+ musicians and the money is flying out of their pockets. 

Doolittle inspired me to listen to Works again after all these years. I enjoyed it a lot. It was really great listen! All good. Nothing objectionable like I commented on earlier.

Goes to show how magical music can be in the moment. Another time I may listen to the same album and not be into it. Like the way some GD shows seemed meh at the time, but excellent when listening to a recording later, and visa versa, a show I thought was super great at the time sounded just ok on tape (especially if LSD was involved).

Thanks for the ELP nudge!

78 New Haven Fuckin A Buddy

Between that and the YES Relayer tour, a good portion of my brain was splattered all over them Coliseum walls.  Makes the dead attempts at doing the same appear pretty meh

the best elp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN6Jw9z-c1A

good ' in the studio' special for Brain Salad

https://www.inthestudio.net/online-on-demand/emersonlakepalmer-brain-sal...

First concert. My older brother took me for my 11th birthday. 4/24/73 Munich https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA7LaZ4jcQQ

Might have a lot to do with how my life turned out.

A friend turned me on to Welcome Back My Friends during my freshman year in college.

I'm going to have to spin some ELP soon.

Please ELP me!

Never saw ELP, but i did see Keith Emerson on keys with Wilco on NYE (mother hips opened) at the Fillmore.

ELP's catalog (cept Love Beach) will always be on my playlist.

ymmv