The official ELP disscussion thread

I recently purchased the ELP DVD compilation called Beyond the Beginning.  It is really kind of funny ("funny strange" not "funny ha ha") to watch because the video coverage spans their entire careers.  I saw ELP a few times live during the 90's and I picture Greg Lake's voice as fitting the older Greg Lake of the 90's.  Watching the video and hearing that voice come from the young kid Greg Lake, it kind of looks funny.  I suppose that it is probably a matter of what you are used to, but this observation leads me to think that he had a very mature voice when he was younger, and that he grew into that voice as it seems to match his age now.  Any thoughts?

I also got it , although i would had liked a full version of "Tarkus". The 5 hour material is a must for any ELP fan.

To the original point of this thread, I would put ELP's debut or Trilogy in the top 10. I'm not a big fan of ELP's debut, but man! That's INNOVATION MANN!! Too much Court, but where's ELP's debut!!
And well Trilogy, yeah it's my fave ELP album, and I think it's their most consistent album. Brain Salad Surgery and Tarkus have the thundering epics, but also have some lower points IMO.

I can't understand why people bash their overblowing, etc, etc stuff, and like Prog. I mean Prog is unique for THOSE qualities and more, but those qualities are one of the main characteristics of Prog IMHO.

I think the key in ELP's music is that it's very uplifting. They always put me in a good mood even with their weaker stuff. I can't understand why they are labeled as a cold band. In my opinion I think ELP was the only prog band of the 70's ( outside of heavy prog) for which you could say : They Rock!!

crimson87 wrote: I also got it , although i would had liked a full version of "Tarkus". The 5 hour material is a must for any ELP fan.     I also have Pictures... and Masters from the Vaults which is a 40 minute powerful performance by the band at the very beginning of their career.   Startibastfast , one of the Tarkus versions is from Royal Albert Hall in 1992 , but it's cut  before Battlefield. Your DVD has the full version??

I'm honestly not sure and embarrassed to admit it.  I suspect it's even more abbreviated, 9:17 minutes.


Edited by Slartibartfast - December 20 2008 at 06:32

jammun wrote: One of ELP's great characteristics is that they had no guitarist (yeah, they let Lake play a little now and then).  One of the points of ELP was that a keyboard-driven rock band could be better than any guitar-driven band.  I'm no biographical historian, but I'd wager much of E's motivation was to prove that the guitar, as a primary instrument,  was unnecessary.  I'd say he succeeded.

I'm pretty sure Tomorrow had broken up by mid-1968 and Howe had formed Bodast, so I think he would have been with them when he auditioned for The Nice. Bodast did some great tracks anyway, especially Nether Street (the precursor of Wurm from Starship Trouper) which features some truly awesome Howe guitar work. Howe and Emerson (along with Jan Akkerman) are my favourite prog instrumentalists so I really would have loved to have heard  'em playing together. But we should of course be grateful for what we have, rather than wishing for what might have been....

Edited by Cactus Choir - December 20 2008 at 19:23

Roj M30 wrote:   Well, enough is enough.  Brain Salad Surgery is a classic.  How can this be averaging little over 4 stars?  It's a joke, this is every bit as good as Selling England and CTTE and a damn sight better than TAAB.  So, I will do my bit, and I will be providing a 5-star review for this masterpiece.  Whether this will make much difference I don't know as I'm non-collab, reviewer etc.    If this album doesn't warrant 5 stars, then what does?

I'm over ELP. The first 3 albums were cool without being brilliant. But I only like a few songs since then. Brain Salad surgery only seemed to have about 15 minutes of quality to my ears

crimson87 wrote: febus wrote:   big, loud, bombastic and overblown.     That's the way I like my prog.When you put these 4 words together magic happens.   What the heck is wrong with those people?? Seems they had too much prog metal exposure.

Hah! Have you heard Ayreon??? It's all four of those... and I don't really like it.