In defense of Works

Hi,

That concerto is not the only one ... TARKUS, is, a concerto, and you only need to hear it in Rachel Flower's hands to get it. We forget that if you were 20 years old and showed a professor your "composition" (at the time) things like Tarkus would get slapped raw and that pretty much shows why some great keyboard players gave up graduate school to play in a band ... they could not do what they really wanted to do. By the time of WORKS, I think that there was much more appreciation for what a Concerto was, and Keith creating that piece is a testament, about what he thought was unfair in the educational system, and TARKUS had to be presented in a style that highlighted the keyboards, instead of the concerto it was. That was not an "accident" ... it was how things were appreciated in those days ... you kinda had to blow it all out with all the incendiary elements at your disposal. And pretty much all major keyboard players did it, and did it well ... with RW being the only one, to my knowledge, that has not quite gone back and done his works on solo piano, so he could show his work, which in my book is almost the same riffs on different keyboards!

WORKS is magnificent ... and stands out ... and it is a shame, that folks don't take a look at history and see what was available at the time in all kinds of lists ... and the appreciation for their work would be much more open and appreciated. Instead some folks think it is over rated stuff ... like the majority of the top 50 of last year were not overblown and not even close to the adventurous work by ELP in the series WORKS. 

Please take a look at the history at the time, before making the comments ... it makes quite a difference.