Most Overrated Band of the 'Big Six'

I love ELP and think at his best, Emerson was a top notch composer of modern music. He inspired me to stick with piano, at a time when playing piano as a kid wasn't nearly as cool as sports or playing guitar. But a lot of folks are attracted to ELP based on imho their over-rating of Emerson as a technical player.
I read through some of the Emerson concerto tonight...then turned to practice Liszt Ballade 2, which is easier than it sounds, but not super easy. I then played through Rachmaninoff op. 39 no. 5 etude which is pretty hard. Emerson reminded me more of the Liszt - falls naturally in the hands, some harder sounding passages are really nicely patterned and not so difficult. Every time I play Rachmaninoff I marvel at what a pair of hands he must have possessed...the density of passages, the reach and power required.
So, I hate say, there are currently at least a couple thousand music students at conservatories and universities playing stuff Emerson probably would have struggled to play at his peak. Heck I'm just an advanced amateur playing this stuff.
However what most of those pianists (and I) haven't done is compose anywhere close to Emerson's level. It's the creativity not playing lots of notes fast I admire.

ProgMetaller2112 wrote: dr wu23 wrote: ProgMetaller2112 wrote: ^^ To be fair, Emerson, Lake and Palmer were never darlings of prog listeners and I don't think that they are that great either but they certainly are not as overrated as say King Crimson.I mean King Crimson are so overrated it's not funny. People here seem to slobber over In the Court of the Crimson King and Red. I mean those records aren't bad perse but they really pale in comparison to the best Yes, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator and Gentle Giant albums. Wow! It's not even a contest really Yes..and some other people 'slobber' over VDGG......isn't life weird? ;) Life is very weird indeed ;)

ProgMetaller2112 wrote: ^^ To be fair, Emerson, Lake and Palmer were never darlings of prog listeners and I don't think that they are that great either but they certainly are not as overrated as say King Crimson.I mean King Crimson are so overrated it's not funny. People here seem to slobber over In the Court of the Crimson King and Red. I mean those records aren't bad perse but they really pale in comparison to the best Yes, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator and Gentle Giant albums. Wow! It's not even a contest really

Most of those bands and artists are great but there are some really great bands who aren't on it one  of which is the Flower Kings. They even have their own thread on here for crying out loud. 

^^ To be fair, Emerson, Lake and Palmer were never darlings of prog listeners and I don't think that they are that great either but they certainly are not as overrated as say King Crimson.I mean King Crimson are so overrated it's not funny. People here seem to slobber over In the Court of the Crimson King and Red. I mean those records aren't bad perse but they really pale in comparison to the best Yes, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator and Gentle Giant albums. Wow! It's not even a contest really

I prophesy disaster wrote: Based on the PA rating of the artist's highest rated studio album, the current top 54 artists are:

The ranking depends on the metric that is used. For example, to qualify for inclusion in the following list, an artist must have 2 albums in the top 100. Then the list is based on the sum of the QWR of the artist's top 2 albums:

01: Genesis
02: Pink Floyd
03: King Crimson
04: Yes
05: Jethro Tull
06: Van Der Graaf Generator
07: Camel
08: Rush
09: Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM)
10: Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
11: Gentle Giant
12: Frank Zappa
13: Änglagård
14: Miles Davis
15: Steven Wilson
16: Dream Theater
17: Mahavishnu Orchestra
18: Opeth
19: Magma
20: Caravan
21: Porcupine Tree
22: Marillion
23: Pain Of Salvation
24: Santana

Similarly, to qualify for inclusion in the following list, an artist must have 3 albums in the top 100. Then the list is based on the sum of the QWR of the artist's top 3 albums:

01: Pink Floyd
02: Genesis
03: King Crimson
04: Yes
05: Van Der Graaf Generator
06: Rush
07: Camel
08: Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM)
09: Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
10: Gentle Giant
11: Frank Zappa
12: Miles Davis
13: Opeth
14: Steven Wilson

To qualify for inclusion in the following list, an artist must have 4 albums in the top 100. Then the list is based on the sum of the QWR of the artist's top 4 albums:

01: Pink Floyd
02: Genesis
03: Yes
04: Van Der Graaf Generator
05: Rush
06: Gentle Giant

To qualify for inclusion in the following list, an artist must have 5 albums in the top 100. Then the list is based on the sum of the QWR of the artist's top 5 albums:

01: Genesis
02: Gentle Giant

No artist has more than 5 albums in the top 100 list.

 

I prophesy disaster wrote: Based on the PA rating of the artist's highest rated studio album, the current top 54 artists are: 01: Yes 02: Genesis 03: Jethro Tull 04: Pink Floyd 05: King Crimson 06: Van Der Graaf Generator 07: Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) 08: Rush 09: Camel 10: Wobbler 11: Änglagård 12: Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso 13: Gentle Giant 14: Miles Davis 15: Harmonium 16: Frank Zappa 17: Mahavishnu Orchestra 18: Supertramp 19: Opeth 20: Mike Oldfield 21: Steven Wilson 22: Renaissance 23: Dream Theater 24: Magma 25: Bacamarte 26: Peter Hammill 27: Museo Rosenbach 28: Caravan 29: Robert Wyatt 30: Riverside 31: Porcupine Tree 32: Emerson Lake & Palmer 33: Hatfield And The North 34: Khan 35: Billy Cobham 36: Focus 37: Tangerine Dream 38: IQ 39: Area 40: Marillion 41: Return To Forever 42: Gong 43: Bubu 44: Steve Hackett 45: Queensrÿche 46: Pain Of Salvation 47: Le Orme 48: Tool 49: Henry Cow 50: Al Di Meola 51: Kansas 52: The Soft Machine 53: Santana 54: Birds And Buildings

IMO Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull are super overrated. ELP is slightly overrated, and Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson 100% deserve their spots.

dr wu23 wrote: Interesting...based on that criteria ELP ranks 34.    So again the question is exactly what criteria is being used to create a 'big 6' list...? Popularity with the music fans....sales....critics ratings...?

Based on the PA rating of the artist's highest rated studio album, the current top 54 artists are:

01: Yes
02: Genesis
03: Jethro Tull
04: Pink Floyd
05: King Crimson
06: Van Der Graaf Generator
07: Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM)
08: Rush
09: Camel
10: Wobbler
11: Änglagård
12: Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
13: Gentle Giant
14: Miles Davis
15: Harmonium
16: Frank Zappa
17: Mahavishnu Orchestra
18: Supertramp
19: Opeth
20: Mike Oldfield
21: Steven Wilson
22: Renaissance
23: Dream Theater
24: Magma
25: Bacamarte
26: Peter Hammill
27: Museo Rosenbach
28: Caravan
29: Robert Wyatt
30: Riverside
31: Porcupine Tree
32: Emerson Lake & Palmer
33: Hatfield And The North
34: Khan
35: Billy Cobham
36: Focus
37: Tangerine Dream
38: IQ
39: Area
40: Marillion
41: Return To Forever
42: Gong
43: Bubu
44: Steve Hackett
45: Queensrÿche
46: Pain Of Salvation
47: Le Orme
48: Tool
49: Henry Cow
50: Al Di Meola
51: Kansas
52: The Soft Machine
53: Santana
54: Birds And Buildings

 

 

Edited by I prophesy disaster - April 22 2018 at 14:35