PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

ELP, playing live this famous Mussorgsky theme, made one of their most important live performances. Although necessarily much polarized on Keith's keyboards, neverthless Lake & Palmer do their nice partnership especially on Greg's acoustic side for the beautiful ballad "The sage", still today the best effort (vocally and instrumentally speaking) from one of the finest English musician ever. The classical Mussorsgky's themes are really arranged "to the bone" for what is concerning the various sections, however the sound results dark & charming, essential and complete at the same time. Reviewer Ian Gledhill, as I read, may not agree, but I think ELP rendered a good cover of the original work, intentionally free from every need to be faithful w.r.t. the original scorch of the Russian composer, inserting new vocal parts which really fit well. "Blues variation" features nice keys work and superb bass lines (Lake is a superb bassist, fast & creative) while the majestic "Great Gates of Kiev" still makes me cry. The only bad note is relevant to the "End nutrocker" , which is really nothing else than a joke. ELP confirmed on 1971 to be a great pop group, with a pleasant attitude to rock, differently from their pop scene colleagues, who were taking themselves too seriously to rock.