WELCOME BACK MY FRIENDS TO THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS

This was the first ELP album I ever bought - a triple set that cost me £4.99. Even in 1975 that was a bloody good bargain, I can tell you. Imagine my delight when I got it home and discovered that it opened out to form a gigantic ELP logo. (ok maybe not gigantic but. . .well, it opened out real swell) But my delight soon to turned to ecstasy when I heard the opening bars of 'Hoedown' - Ed Stewpot Stewart used to play the studio version on his Saturday morning show on radio 1 - but this live version was 10,000 times faster. I WAS IMPRESSED!

Then came 'Toccata', which sounded as though the Daleks had landed and were threatening to take over the world. Surely this album can't get any better, I thought, as I flipped the disc over to side two. WANNA BET? I'd always looked longingly at the cover art of 'Tarkus' in record shops and thought: "can there really be a band out there that plays music to go with this album sleeve? It's even better than Gigantor". Now I had the live version of 'Tarkus' in my hands. I put it on. . . a million notes, played really quickly. My god, that guy must have a 700-piece drum kit. I WANT ONE! Imagine how I felt when I heard that it was a 700-piece drum kit...and it revolved!!!! How good can it get, I thought. My state of ecstasy soon turned to awe when I realised there was a song called 'Karn Evil 9' and that it had a robot on it. WOW! A ROBOT! I soon came to understand that it wasn't a Robot, it was AN EVIL, TALKING COMPUTER !!! I knew there and then that I would love this album forever.

Thirty years have come and gone and I'm now about to put nostalgia aside and ask myself the sobering question: Just how good is this album really?

Hoedown: Emerson's arrangement of the last movement from Aaron Copeland's 'Rodeo' begins the proceedings, and guess what? It's far too fast and the whole thing sounds unbearably rushed. The 'Trilogy' version is better, even without the live version's flamboyant moog solo .

JERUSALEM Again this isn't nearly as good as the studio version but it's still a great arrangement of Perry's wonderfully fitting setting of William Blake's awe-inspiring rage against complacency and mental slavery/poverty that opens the first book of the truly epic 'Milton'. To veer off topic for a moment: it's a horrible travesty the way 'Jerusalem' is sung in Churches by congregations that have no idea what those words actually mean, and by flag waving zombies at the 'Last night of the proms' who think (or don't think at all) that the words are some kind of alternative to 'Land of hope and glory' . . .how wrong can people be? Greg lake said of Blake words: " The lyrics are very bland except for one line; 'bring me my bow of burning gold. Bring me my arrows of desire' the rest of the song was all waffle" How wrong can Greg Lake be? This coming from the man who wrote " A little sadder, a little madder. Someone get me a ladder" EH!?!?! But I digress.

Toccata: Emerson's highly inventive arrangement of the 4th movement of Ginastera's 1st piano concerto is maybe not as good as the 'Brain Salad Surgery' version but it's still pretty damn impressive. Full of raging Hammond organ and oscillating synths; this is why we all love ELP. As far as live performances go the track is quite exceptional. The whole thing is played with a classical recital-like precision, and Carl Palmer's percussion cadenza is completely enthralling, not to mention pioneering due to his use of triggered electronic sounds.

Tarkus: This is much better than the original studio version. The whole thing flows better, and this is one occasion where the faster tempos are preferable. Emerson's Hammond playing is spectacular, especially on the solo during 'Stones of years' The song ends with a brief snippet of King Crimson's 'Epitaph'.

Aquatarkus:This is Emerson's tour de force. A greatly extended version compared to the studio one, it features Emerson in full flight on his great modular synth, showing us just what inventive and pioneering a musician he could be.

Take a Pebble: On this cd 'Take a Pebble' is divided into two parts. (the conclusion is on disc two). Good version - great piano playing

Still You Turn Me On/Lucky Man: This is Greg Lake's acoustic spot. 'Turn Me On' is a nice and unusual ( for ELP) ballad that comes across much better on 'Brain Salad Surgery'. 'Lucky Man' is from the bands first album and is famous for having one of the first ever extensive moog solos. On this version it's just Mr Lake and an acoustic guitar I'm afraid.

Piano VariationsAnother Emerson tour de force only this time on piano. This is spectacular stuff: flamboyant; precise;aggressive and, well, superhuman. The latter part of this track sees the band turn into a rather splendid and wholly convincing jazz trio.

Take a Pebble (conclusion) Good version - great piano playing

Jeremy Bender/Sheriff (medley) I'm not sure what kind of keyboard Emerson plays on these two songs but I've never liked the sound of it; very jarring. Both songs sound much better on their respective studio albums, although the bar room piano at the end of 'The sheriff' is pretty good here.

Karn Evil 9 (1st, 2nd and 3rd impressions) Although I still prefer the studio version, it must be regarded as a miracle that the band was able to pull this one off live. Unfortunately it includes a drum solo, which drags things down a bit. Not that it's a bad drum solo, only that it's a tad too long.

In conclusion

At the end of the day it's a pretty good document of ELP in all their glory "before the fall" so to speak. The highlights are 'Toccata'; 'Tarkus/Aquatarkus' and 'Piano Variations' - all impeccably played. The sound isn't great, but I suppose most live albums from that era suffer from bad sound. Greg Lake's production is pretty awful, though, and one wonders if the album would have sounded better given a better production. Unfortunately the album no longer moves me to the extent that it did all those years ago when I was a mere boy, but very few things do with the passing of time. C'est la vie!

You have been reading the ramblings of ThE mEnTaLiSt.