THE BEST OF EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER

I know this will make no sense to most of you, but I'll go ahead and admit it: I've whittled down my ELP collection to this compilation and the first album. I've been collecting progressive rock albums since the genre debuted in the late sixties, I sat in the front row for the Tarkus tour, and I now have hundreds and hundreds of progressive rock vinyl albums, compact discs, and even cassettes. So why do I feel that I need just those two ELP cd's? Well, as time goes by, I've grown weary of what I call "noodling", meaning endless soloing or showing off. Also, nowadays I like progressive rock that isn't overtly classical. I recently got that 3-cd Nice Immediate label collection, and I just can't get into anything beyond the early psychedelic stuff. No wonder I only own the first Rick Wakeman solo album. It's ironic, since 99 people out of 100 are going to assume that, as a progressive rock fan, I'm going to put ELP at the top of my list. Yeah, they're great, but they're way down on my list...