So why do so many of you hate ELP?

Jim, Ivan and Garion's posts sum up my own thoughts well.

I love a lot of ELP's work, and certianly do not "hate" them. While some on the forum will inevitibly not enjoy any of their msuic, I think most prog fans will find something in their output to enjoy. The trouble is, the have also put out some very poor material. They are not alone in this, most of our favourites have let us down at some stage.

It seems though that the ELP devotees on this site not only refuse to acknowledge this, but have difficulties when others express such opinions. No other band on this site appears to be subject to the same level of obsession. To me, this tends to stifle healthy debate relating to ELP, and causes people to sl*g them off more than they would otherwise do.

Jim Garten wrote:

I can happily admit to being 100% in love with some of their recorded output - there is no doubt (in my mind, at least) that ELP produced some of the most spectacular moments of prog - take as an example, the live version of 'Tarkus' from 'Welcome back my friends....' - from Emerson's inspired beginning to the spectacular conclusion, pure class!

Karnevil9 wrote:

Hi Jim

Listerning to 'Welcome back my friends' & judging ELP as a live band through that is no good,I've never yet listerned to a band live on album which actually creates the true band live,these are manufactured albums for general salebeing what the record company whans the fan base to hear,You must must see the band live to realise what a fantastic trio they actually are...Even there Studo albums don't do the band justice...But it's all to late now boys...'BSS' was over 30 years ago..

It goes like this..You cannot actually say the band or good or bad if you did'nt actually see them play.

[/QUOTE]

How does any of this answer the question "why don't people like ELP?"

Look i'm following onto to the section quoted by myself above ok!

F**k the original question man were making progress arn't we?

I dismiss the presmise that you need to see a band live before you judge...we're talking about making music, not performing. I love seeing Gwar, but I don't own any of their albums. This is an album review site, after all, and I'm pretty sure that the majority of the reviews are written by folks who have never seen nor have any chance of ever seeing these bands. At least half of them are bands that no longer exist, and many of the ones that still do are no longer touring!

But as to the topic, I'm with the folks who don't hate ELP...but I go for long periods without wanting to listen to them, so you can't call me a fan either.

Only on a prog site would the main focus be Keith's technical skill.  Honestly, I don't know how talented he really is at the keys...it's the songs as a whole that make the difference to me. And ELP has a lot of material that simply does nothing for me (and some stuff, like "Are you ready Eddy", that really irritates me). And I'm generally not much of a fan of keyboard-heavy music anyway...but occasionally the elements do come together to make a song I like. Strangely enough, it's usually the songs that prog folks (and even ELP fans) tend to dismiss...Lucky Man, From the Beginning, etc.

Certif1ed wrote: One of the biggest problems I have is this "Virtuosic keyboards" thing - Keith may play as if he's a virtuoso, but I've heard real virtuosi - and Keith is not one. He's about Grade 6-7 - and I state that as someone who has done all the keyboard grade exams and the teaching diploma, then studied music with piano as my main instrument, but also played church and concert hall organs - so I'm familiar with technique. ...

Wow... that was actually quite an enlightening post, Certif1ed. It had never occured to me that Keith wasn't amongst the best pianists ever and his improvisations weren't all that good. For some reason he was always automatically a piano god to me because a) He was better than me and b) He played in a band where piano/keyboard was so central. Hmmm... I guess he's not so untouchable after all :)

Certif1ed wrote: Fragile wrote: Have to go to work.Working until 8 o'clock this evening.Perhaps this will allow me to speak to William Gilmour ex Enid and Dusk and Robert McGregor both superb pianists/keyboards players in their own right and both classically qualified via the Glasgow Academy of Music about this highly technical point from Certified; for once, you have my interest with your comments. I guess the Glasgow Academy outranks Nene College/University, but one man's opinion is still one man's opinion. I'm glad to have your interest for once

I still regard their eponymous 1st album as a great prog album.The 2nd and 3rd were both very very good.

There seems to be a theme in the thread about ELP fans on this site overwelming everyone with 'ELP propaganda'.I guess that's me, 3Fates and Karny then? Are three mad passionate fans that difficult to handle??

For the record I only regard one ELP album as a masterpeice and thats 'Brain Salad Surgery'.The rest have some great material but are far from perfect.I also hate the Emerson Lake and Powell album with a vengeance.

The fact is that I have grown up with them and their music.I love the bombast and the 'vulgarity' of the music.It's all upfront.I love music with ideas and different sounds which ELP's early stuff seems to have.However I admit that ELP never recorded a piece as great as Close To The Edge or Suppers Ready.However nowadays I listen to IQ and Magenta more than I listen to ELP (or Yes or Genesis for that matter).Modern prog had more melody,economy and control.There's nowt better than IQ's 'Further Away' in my book

I don't really like them because i dislike the sound. It seems so immature to me, so silly. And i don't know why Greg decided to change his style after ITCOTCK. I think his vocal performance on this one is one of the best i've heard so far, his voice really fits the slow, epic-like lyrics. Also I think that there's something missing if almost all of the sound is created by a keyboard. So there is a lack of beauty and good sound in their music IMO. I sometimes listen to them, but ranking them among the top5 prog bands is something i really cant understand.

ALL IMO.