"Emerson, Lake" & Palmer

Hi,

I have mixed feelings about all this ... especially since I have heard at least 4 or 5 versions of The Rite of Spring, or Beethoven's 5th or 9th, and Mahler's 3rd and so on ... they are all not quite the same and the ideas/visuals you get are a wee bit different, and for me they give the story of the music another level of interest that otherwise we might not have seen.

The same thing happened with Stokowski way back when as he discovered that recording could allow him to do something different with a piece of music and create moments that showed up in the piece a lot stronger than before by being somewhat buried in the regular orchestra setup. And right after this, Bernard Herrman did similarly, and made sure that the odd stuff was way up front for his Science Fiction soundtracks (all far out and must haves btw) ... and added a sense of action and excitement that does not happen if you turn the sound off and just watch the picture ... you get those two weirdos on the front talking over the picture and it looks stupid and bad, and worse ... the "audience" doesn't give a sh*t!

I have no issues with Carl doing this, and think he will know what he can do and not do much better than we give him credit for ... I don't think he would do this just for the money, when a retrospective with 6 or 7 or 8 folks wanting to be a part of it in various shows would love to do and try! It won't be the same, but 50 years later a "new audience" has a chance to experience something, with at least one third of the original, who must know what was right or wrong with the pieces he chose, and what worked or not! 

I would imagine that he can take any of Keith's solos apart, and create new drumming for it, and we end up with a completely different, and new piece of music ... that would be exciting to see, but rock audiences are not fans of the solo, unless it is a screaming and loud over the top thing that blows your ears to the next week ... and a piano or organ piece would not likely do that for us at all!

Again, I hope it all goes well ... I think Carl means the best and well for it, and I will feel really sad if folks trash it because it is nowhere near the original and sounds so different!

Hi,

Honestly, I think this is unfair. We don't go around saying these kinds of things about Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, or even the Beatles done by some many others and sometimes ... better! Likewise, hearing other folks do Bob Dylan, many things have sounded fantastic, especially Sandy Denny, for example!

Time passes and things change, people come and go, and "interpretations" change, since the original is long gone. But many times, the originals end up not sounding as good, or as up to date with the new audience and sound compared to how you and I think.

Senselessly, there was one band's material that was redone, and it had a f**king drum machine in it, and it really ruined the music, even if it was meant to show to a new audience that thinks that the hard/loud drumbeat is the music, and it isn't. The most we can ask from some of the rap stuff is ... where is the music?

Honestly, I hope it comes off really well ... I kinda think that it would be a nice send off for a man that was a part of a band that gave us so much ... that we still do not understand or appreciate.