When was the last time you heard Tarkus? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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CCVP

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Topic: When was the last time you heard Tarkus?
Posted: June 23 2012 at 17:35

Last week.

Eria Tarka View Drop Down

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Posted: June 23 2012 at 17:16

March 4th, 2012... besides right now

richardh

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Posted: June 18 2012 at 11:00

Glucose wrote:

It was on our night trip from Macedonia (the tiny caounty next to Greece), the driver decided to listen to Tarkus to not fall asleep. What magical maments! :)

and how did you survive after the bus crashed?

Glucose

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Posted: June 16 2012 at 10:37

It was on our night trip from Macedonia (the tiny caounty next to Greece), the driver decided to listen to Tarkus to not fall asleep. What magical maments! :)

Edited by Glucose - June 16 2012 at 10:38

Moogtron III View Drop Down

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Posted: June 15 2012 at 13:35

richardh wrote:

Moogtron III wrote:

There's some good stuff on side 2. Not to keen on the lyrics of Hymn, but musically it's great and Bitches Crystal and A Time And A Place are very good too. Jeremy Bender is wonderful as well. I could miss Are You Ready Eddie but I don't mind it.
ELP was an enormously versatile band.

True and they certainly didn't want to be stuck playing the same stuff all the time. Ironically though this appears to be a reason why they aren't taken as seriously as say Yes. Seems a bit unfair really.

I agree: they just took a different route than Yes.
Any of the old albums is a microcosm in itself, which is a big effort.

Gerinski

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Posted: June 15 2012 at 13:21

dennismoore wrote:

As far as side 2 of Tarkus, for all the side 2 naysayers here, a closer review might prove helpful.

1. Jeremy Bender - People accuse Keith of being "bombastic"(pretentious) but when he lightens it up with a nice little ragtime ditty on Jeremy Bender, people criticize that as being trivial. fact is most of Keith's hero musicians were old ragtime piano players, so JB is about as "Keith Emerson" as you can get!

2. Bitches Crystal - A pure rocker showcasing Greg Lake's awesome tenor and his vocal forcefullness. Wicked piano all throughout the song. ELP is a keyboard band, some of the best piano playing is found right here in this song.

3. The Only Way (Hymn) - ELP trying to mix classical (Bach) with modern early 70's pop culture. Independence from
the old ways. Any keyboard player can only drool over how Keith masters the pipe organ and then the piano. Greg is able to keep up vocally to the piano which is no small feat. The words are about religious independence so
traditional conservatives will probably be put off by this... Very nice off meter groove/jam to end out the piece.

4. A Time and a Place - A straightforward rocker which may perhaps be one of the most powerful vocal exhibitions ever. Greg Lake goes from clarion clear rich tenor to full rage shouting while keeping a singing voice. Future generations have prided themselves with their generation's screamers or "rough" vocal stylings. Well go no further than this song to see how it is done with aplomb. Oh, bad ass-fat moog synth and polyphonic horns all over this
keyboard rich rock-attack.

end of album

Yes... Are You Ready Eddie... That was made up last minute after recording Tarkus when the engineer told the band they still needed a few more minutes to round out the two sides, but ELP had no more material to record. So it was a spur of the moment throw in which happens to have some truly unreal rock piano bangin/playin. Named after the engineer: Eddie Offord.

Cheers!

DM

Spot on, so many people despise side 2, possibly because of the contrast with side 1, yet it's so much better than a lot of other praised music around. They were brilliant at that time.

silverpot

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Posted: June 15 2012 at 12:53

dennismoore wrote:

infandous wrote:

You know, I'm always stunned when prog fans suggest that "bombastic" and "pretentious" are somehow negative in music. Prog is nothing, if not bombastic and pretentious. I mean really, that was the whole point!!! To move rock music beyond the blues framework it was born out of.

Frankly, I've always loved ELP for those traits. I don't listen to them regularly anymore (did plenty of that in the 90's), but I still pull out an album or two ever couple years and marvel at how excellent it all still sounds. Tarkus was always my favorite, and I love the "B" side.......though not as much as the title suite, to be sure.

Wassup Skippy????

Your 1st paragraph is spot on, IMHO. There is a syndrome when a musician is SO over the top brilliant and then the band becomes very big, people just find fault for fault's sake or to take a shot at "the giant". I am not sayin Laz did that, (I think he just got his words all jumbled for a wee bit...)

As far as side 2 of Tarkus, for all the side 2 naysayers here, a closer review might prove helpful.

1. Jeremy Bender - People accuse Keith of being "bombastic"(pretentious) but when he lightens it up with a nice little ragtime ditty on Jeremy Bender, people criticize that as being trivial. fact is most of Keith's hero musicians were old ragtime piano players, so JB is about as "Keith Emerson" as you can get!

2. Bitches Crystal - A pure rocker showcasing Greg Lake's awesome tenor and his vocal forcefullness. Wicked piano all throughout the song. ELP is a keyboard band, some of the best piano playing is found right here in this song.

3. The Only Way (Hymn) - ELP trying to mix classical (Bach) with modern early 70's pop culture. Independence from
the old ways. Any keyboard player can only drool over how Keith masters the pipe organ and then the piano. Greg is able to keep up vocally to the piano which is no small feat. The words are about religious independence so
traditional conservatives will probably be put off by this... Very nice off meter groove/jam to end out the piece.

4. A Time and a Place - A straightforward rocker which may perhaps be one of the most powerful vocal exhibitions ever. Greg Lake goes from clarion clear rich tenor to full rage shouting while keeping a singing voice. Future generations have prided themselves with their generation's screamers or "rough" vocal stylings. Well go no further than this song to see how it is done with aplomb. Oh, bad ass-fat moog synth and polyphonic horns all over this
keyboard rich rock-attack.

end of album

Yes... Are You Ready Eddie... That was made up last minute after recording Tarkus when the engineer told the band they still needed a few more minutes to round out the two sides, but ELP had no more material to record. So it was a spur of the moment throw in which happens to have some truly unreal rock piano bangin/playin. Named after the engineer: Eddie Offord.

Cheers!

DM

Exactly.

Saperlipopette! View Drop Down

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Posted: June 15 2012 at 03:35

The last time I heard it was also the first time. Probably nine or ten years ago. Polite as I used to be, I sat there with my enthusiastic flatmate for the hour or two it lasts, while secretly begging for the torture to end.

Dayvenkirq View Drop Down

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Posted: June 15 2012 at 02:36

In its entirety? Four years ago. Bits of it - a month or two ago.

darkshade

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Posted: June 15 2012 at 01:14

I think the debut is the best too, though I too haven't really listened to ELP much in a long time. Of the first 4 albums, I never gave Trilogy enough listens. Brain Salad Surgery is mostly good. I never went further than that (I've never even heard Love Beach, just to see what all the fuss was about Wink

My Last.fm

Horizons

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Posted: June 15 2012 at 00:44

richardh wrote:

Horizons wrote:

darkshade wrote:

Gave it a listen the other day. The title track is amazing, one of the best prog epics ever made. The rest of the album is very weak. The songs seem like they're just there.

That's why their debut is the best album they made, all strong.

Trilogy has the same consistency

With Brain Salad Surgery ,Karn Evil 9 is 29 minutes long (35 minutes live) and is virtually an album on its own. That is the most coherent complete work they ever acheived imo. The debut album and Works Volume One could be seen as a pair of albums where ELP explore solo ideas as well as group ideas (Carl Palmer saw it that way). The debut lacks real excitement for me although it does have stunning moments of grandiosity such as Three Fates that I like very much.

Another reason i like their debut is it doesn't seem pompous or overblown is soo many parts. I haven't listen to ELP in a while, including the debut i own - but all i remember about the albums i heard was just annoying keyboards and the musical embodiment of spaghetti without any sauce.

Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.

richardh

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Posted: June 15 2012 at 00:39

Horizons wrote:

darkshade wrote:

Gave it a listen the other day. The title track is amazing, one of the best prog epics ever made. The rest of the album is very weak. The songs seem like they're just there.

That's why their debut is the best album they made, all strong.

Trilogy has the same consistency

Horizons

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Posted: June 14 2012 at 19:35

darkshade wrote:

Gave it a listen the other day. The title track is amazing, one of the best prog epics ever made. The rest of the album is very weak. The songs seem like they're just there.

That's why their debut is the best album they made, all strong.

Crushed like a rose in the riverflow.

darkshade

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Posted: June 14 2012 at 19:16

Gave it a listen the other day. The title track is amazing, one of the best prog epics ever made. The rest of the album is very weak. The songs seem like they're just there.

My Last.fm

stacyj

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Posted: June 14 2012 at 19:14

...in like, 4 ever!

ScorchedFirth View Drop Down

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Posted: June 14 2012 at 11:48

It was today! Though it's probably a few weeks since the time before. I'm not much of an ELP fan, I actually mostly just listen to that one song, I find it to be easily their best.

Edited by ScorchedFirth - June 14 2012 at 11:49

breathing, eating, defecating, screwing, drinking, spewing, sleeping...

Snow Dog

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Posted: June 14 2012 at 04:48

JS19 wrote:

Understood - no hard feelings eh? Maybe I'll enjoy Tarkus more with a few more listenings?

If you don't, you don't. I love it but I don't expect everyone to feel the same way. It may not sound great to you, but had you been alive when it was released you could have a different perspective.

Edited by Snow Dog - June 14 2012 at 04:49

JS19

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Posted: June 14 2012 at 04:45

Understood - no hard feelings eh? Maybe I'll enjoy Tarkus more with a few more listenings?

ExittheLemming View Drop Down

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Posted: June 14 2012 at 04:26

^ no offence was intended but reading my post back it sounds a tad patronising (that wasn't the intention so apologies for that)

JS19

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Posted: June 14 2012 at 04:23

ExittheLemming wrote:

^ 41 years ago it got to Number 1 in the UK album charts which reinforced the fleeting hope that there was a time in history where a discerning demographic might actually have a say in what is popular. Imagine a hierarchical system of merit that correlates to your own value judgements i.e. the content of PA - ain't that exciting? We'll soon get you up to speed laddie Wink

Woah there - I just meant I thought it was ok but I've heard better. No need for that! I was trying to be as amiable as possible Smile