A high rating IMO, top 100 ends with a rating of 4.25 (around that), so close enough. 

Well respected and beloved album usually around here, I've rarely seen anyone dismiss this album. 

  Tjah, but I guess, many of us are not suprised by now. 

If I had a nickel every time someone mentions Love Beach around here, I could retire a few years earlier...

I only bought Brain Salad Surgery because it was on sale for £1 at a charity shop and I've only listened to it once. Still You Turn Me On is a nice song though, which includes the immortal lyrics, "Every day a little sadder, A little madder, Someone get me a ladder." 

BSS is not one of my most favourite ELP albums, but I find it to be quite an achievement, even vocals could be better.

Possibly though was this a missed opportunity for ELP to nail down a prog album that was prog and nothing but prog. A more consistent and satisfying listen for me can be found by skipping a couple of tracks. Then you have:

Jerusalem

Toccata

Karn Evil 9

this is maybe 36-37 minutes just on it's own and you can find a whole plethora of albums in PA's top 100 that have this running time.

The dark sci-fi narrative is perfectly kicked off by the opening track with Blake's lyrics about dark satanic mills that were destroying England's green and pleasant land. Fast forward to the far future and you have a master computer handing humanity it's collective backside on a platter.

This version of the album could have been released with the other BSS session tracks Brain Salad Surgery and When The Apple Blossom Blooms right at the end. Nowadays this is pretty much how I listen to it although I don't feel the need skip Still You Turn Me On or BTB. They are part of ELP and their personality but I don't believe they fuel the sci-fi narrative I love.

In recent times Carl Palmer has been suggesting that ELP were not (just) a prog band but were in fact eclectic. He has a point. Light and Dark is something they did well.

I find BSS to be a bit over-the-top, like Thick as a Brick from the same year, just not as much as The Brick. 

ELP were over the top 

No doubt it's over the top, that's why it's amazing

I always thought it was such a shame that the title track was dropped (probably because of space limitations on the original vinyl release) and actually released on a flexi-disc given away with the NME which I remember buying back in the day, however my digital track listing for BSS with a playing time of 48mins is:

As you surely know, one of my absolutely favourite bands - if I should have some. 

I don't find the earlier albums to be over-the-top. 

I think everything up to BSS is quality stuff (both the studio and live releases)... the jury is still out on Works vol.1 for me... and as for the rest of their output, the less said the better.

To be exact, it's only "Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression, Part 1" I think of as over-the-top, while "Toccata" to me is really superb.

Let's see...1973. I was a 15 year old long haired grade 11 ELP fanboy. I got this one for Christmas that year. I know my mom was deeply concerned with the cover art. Skulls and such. But my dad was always a little more open to my music.

At the time I thought it was the greatest thing ever recorded. Today, I'd put it 3rd behind Trilogy and their debut, Emerson Lake & Palmer.

Just about to put my OG NM copy on now. 

I stand corrected. My copy is a Mint Condition, Pristine from beginning to end, copy. And it's brilliant !

I would go as far as to say it's a lighter (production) album than most. With the debut being their darkest followed closely by Pictures At An Exhibition.

Now onto Tales From Topographic Oceans. That one will take most of the rest of my listening time tonight.

Well, Paul, you're not quite a full-blown progger yet, but maybe later on. 

Now I listened again to "1st Impression, Part I" alone, and it seemed fine to me - maybe finally after 10 years and listening to a lot of Metal as well. 

On a separate note, Happy Hanukkah!

ELP previewed Karn Evil 9 1st Impression on their 1973 Italian tour that was the subject of the Return Of The Manticore documentary that was aired on the BBC. You can find a performance from Milan on the 3 disc Transmission Possible set. One thing that I notice that stands out is how heavy (weighty) Carl Palmer's bass drum is on the sound mix. That may just have been the venue or more likely the preference of the sound mixer at the time as it was broadcast on Italian radio.

I would recommend checking out the deluxe version of the album that has a couple of alternative instrumental versions of Karn Evil 9 3rd Impression. One is close to the version you can see them working on in the Return Of The Manticore documentary. I've always thought that Palmer struggled with that track a little and it took the world tour to iron out the kinks. The versions from Anaheim and Cal Jam 1974 are better than on the album imo.

But to be fair, I think, you'd already qualify to be a full-blown proto-progger and Neo-progger. 

By the way, actually, I find the first five ELP albums as the most archetypal Progressive Rock.

       Believe me, I have tried, many a time, to appreciate it, and I always find for me that it falls short of what came before it by the band, and I love every bit of the previous ELP albums, whether live or studio.

               

I know you like the Organ to be front and centre stage. By this time Emerson was exploiting the synthesiser for all it was worth. Other than that it's the same band.

Sound wise it's quite different to the first four especially as Eddie Offord is no longer involved (the guy was a production engineering genius for ELP and Yes) and Lake's voice was beginnning to show a bit of wear and tear. The 'English Choirboy' purity was no longer apparent although BSS as an album didn't really need that!

Anyway, I would definitely prefer Karn Evil 9 with less rush and 1st Impresion with better vocals - I guess, Lake should be the man.