What ever happened to E.L.P.?

Hi,

In the early days, and PAAE was from 1971, I think the whole "art rock" thing was based on a lot of classical music, and The Nice (previous Keith Emerson) had also done a lot of it. That it was "pompous" was not a surprise ... c'mon ... 2001 had brought out the pompous like nothing we had ever seen, and then, it got to the Cinerama Dome, which was even more pompous and crazy and far out for the stoned mind, at least. 

I always thought that many bands, and ELP was not the only one, were trying to let folks know that there was a lot of far out music out there that we did not listen to, because we were so attached to radio and its pop tendencies, even though FM radio being independent at the time, presented even more choices that we would not otherwise have heard or considered. When you think of the conventional band line up and all of a sudden you get ELP doing classical music, it was far out ... I mean FAR OUT ... and way out there, but it was special, and I, for one, appreciated since I loved classical music and had been into it for several years, since just before the Beatles and Rolling Stones appeared on the radio in Brazil. The interpretations, were excellent, and very faithful in general, and that was no different than 10 different conductors doing Stravinsky ... they all had their moments and different details ... and ELP had theirs.

Up until things blew apart by 1972 or so, classical music was still important and had a large sales base. It was by this time that things changed considerably and today, classical music is nearly dead, because there are no "hits" to listen to, and you can't needle and peck Mozart, or Beethoven like you can 99.9% of all rock and jazz music!

I like to say, and think, that the one thing missing in a lot of progressive and progrock fans, is a little more appreciation for music as a whole and its history ... but I'm not sure that most fans, can get away from the commercial elements that the majority of us (here specially) are attuned to ... it just about has to be numbered and have a hit, or not enough folks will give a darn!

It's about the music ... plain, simple and pure. And in my book we have to define that a lot better!