ELP's importance not fully recognised

ELP were cool from 1971-1973. After that they lost the plot. Emerson was too much of a show pony too. They wouldn't make my top 10 prog bands of the 70s because they only have 3 studio albums I really enjoy

When they were good, they were very very good; when they were bad... Love Beach.

Without disrespecting one of Prog's most revered and influential groups (and I do count myself as a fan), my thoughts are this...

Some of the greatest bands in Prog (Pink Floyd, Yes, Camel, and especially Genesis) were much greater than the sum of their parts. With ELP, I never got that feeling. ELP was never ELP > E + L + P, but always ELP = E + L + P.

Leftoverture wrote: all I know is that if the rumors of Jimi wanting to be the 4th member of ELP back in the day before he died (thus HELP), then I dont see why people dont give them their due. I got into ELP because of the fact I heard that rumor when I was in my teenage Hendrix phase back in '93

Regardless of the ruse concocted by the press re the Hendrix lie I am glad you took the opportunity to explore the music of what is for me, the finest prog rock band of all time. period.stop.amen.

Just for the record, before Carl Palmer supplemented EL, Keith and Greg auditioned Mitch Mitchell (from the Experience) but he arrived with a couple of gun-toting bodyguards in tow. As you would expect Messrs Lake and Emerson thought this could be a 'bit heavy' and hurriedly bid fond adieu to the drummer who departed with a comment to the effect that "Jimi would love to jam with you guys'

That's all it was, a throwaway remark that the British press blew up into HELP. (the mooted jam session never even materialised)


Edited by ExittheLemming - January 23 2010 at 10:33

hahhaha...  you got that right   

hell yeah... ELP should be... and probably is somewhere... listed in the dictionary as..


Prog - see ELP

for all the good points...and the bad.  They sort are prog in a nutshell....  brilliant when focused on their game... a disaster and open season for critics when egos, talents, and the music are unrestrained by good taste.

ELP's importance  is fully recognized....   every joke ever made about prog was probably made with ELP in mind haha. 


Edited by micky - January 21 2010 at 21:58

ExittheLemming wrote: 4 - The music press habitually called them 'po-faced, cold and pretentious' while one of the most recurrent reservations contained in many withering reviews on PA is that their shorter and light hearted humorous tracks are deemed 'unworthy' of a serious band (Go figure)

Being pretentious isn't a band thing.... it is one of the characteristics that make prog amazing.... + ELP is not cold just listen to Lake's ballads and it is obvious that they where having fun (and playing with their hearts) while playing pictures... and there is allot of emotions throughout Tarkus and they enjoyed themselves with the humorous songs...

And I think that nobody should take himself to seriously.... after dense music pieces such as Tarkus, Karn Evil 9, The Endless Enigma, Trilogy, Pictures at an Exhibition, etc. humorous tracks like Benny the Bouncer, Are you Ready Eddie?, The Sheriff, Nutrocker, etc. help to make the atmosphere of the album easy to "digest" + what about Zappa (and most of the Canterbury scene)I don't think he ever wrote something serious but he is still a very serious musician....

PS: I you don't like ELP because of the absence of guitar please listen to The Nice's 2002 version of Tarkus, Hoedown and Fanfare for the common man + Boy's Club version of Tarkus(please neglect the lyrics....) and Hoedown

Even in their prime (first five albums) ELP was, at least for the people I hung out with, fairly controversial.  Most of my friends liked the first two albums, even while not caring a rat's ass about Pictures.  Fair enough.

Oh well, internet did something weird and posted my text thrice.

Edited by Dellinger - January 18 2010 at 22:18

Generally, the rock music press has always disrespected prog. I think it's because they feel rock and roll should be basic, which for some reason has meant that complexity and virtuousity was somehow anti R&R (for some reason guitarists were OK though). Such "belongs" in the jazz or classical realms, which they couldn't support because that was music for the previous generations to when rock ascended to the top. ELP had the audacity to mix rock in with jazz and classical, and be comprised of virtuosos.

The press have always been unkind to prog. Even now. Look in any music mag (except Classic Rock and its Prog spinoff, who champion the genre) these days, and you will probably see at least one article dissing Yes or ELP, etc. All of the music press seem to think punk was the second coming, and prog was just a bunch of pretentious, boys school musos twiddling guitars on stage.