What ever happened to E.L.P.?

That was all based on either intertia or the ability of the bands to change and adapt at least a little. 1977 was still a good year for prog as the bands were still massive and selling out arenas, yep I know that. I mean these bands still sold loads in the 1980's making some real crap. I'm not sure what your point is? By 1980 it seemed everyone who was anyone was being interviewed in music magazines and were busy apoligising for the 'bad' albums they made with those long self indulgent suites and silly lyrics. That was the problem, the great prog revisionism had begun in 1977 and by the 1980's was stinking up the place to high heaven. I suppose with ELP and many bands it's only the legacy that really matters. Protect that at all cost or pay the price. I'm guessing that ELP sold a lot less later on. ELPowell barely cracked the top 40 in the UK but it was way better than Love Beach (not that that was hard to do) 

Emerson had force of personality though. That made him a bit different until Rick Wakeman came long then there was that 'fake' rivalry to keep things bubbling along. Remerber Wakeman saying 'Keith Who?' when he was asked his opinion? LMAO!!

richardh wrote: That was all based on either intertia or the ability of the bands to change and adapt at least a little. 1977 was still a good year for prog as the bands were still massive and selling out arenas, yep I know that. I mean these bands still sold loads in the 1980's making some real crap. I'm not sure what your point is? By 1980 it seemed everyone who was anyone was being interviewed in music magazines and were busy apoligising for the 'bad' albums they made with those long self indulgent suites and silly lyrics. That was the problem, the great prog revisionism had begun in 1977 and by the 1980's was stinking up the place to high heaven. I suppose with ELP and many bands it's only the legacy that really matters. Protect that at all cost or pay the price. I'm guessing that ELP sold a lot less later on. ELPowell barely cracked the top 40 in the UK but it was way better than Love Beach (not that that was hard to do)

At the end of the seventies/beginning of the eighties, the most famous 70s prog bands indeed started losing their muse. Regrettably, Keith Emerson's case is probably most illustrative because at one point in his career he thought he was not only a prominent prog-rock keyboardist and flamboyant showman but also an artistic genius akin to Rachmaninoff and hence experienced an artistic failure in 1977 with the megalomaniac album "Works Vol. 1"—that ridiculously serious title itself hinted at megalomania, and while it aimed for greatness, it ultimately fell short—and the summer of punk certainly has nothing to do with that. However, in the 80s there was a progressive rock revival with a movement of new bands that grew into a genre we call neo-prog and continues as such to this day. And those bands released albums that deservedly ranked higher than "Works Vol. 1" on the PA chart.