Is ELP the Most Disliked Prog Band?

I think Warthur has the best angle on this of any of the posts so far.  They were extravagant, and seemed to revel in it.  Palmer had a stainless steel drum kit with dragons etched into it, that weighed 800 pounds and he toured with the monstrosity.  As was already mentioned, Emerson had the giant Moog, and Lake had to have a real Persian rug under his feet in order to perform.  They each had their own 18 wheeler for their gear, with their initial on the top (so if you flew over them as they went down the highway, you'd know it was ELP, I guess).  "Over the top" seems like an understatement.

On the other hand, they were my introduction to real prog rock (unless you count Rush, which I don't really, as they were late comers.........though I still consider them a prog band, just not one of the originators of the genre).  Brain Salad Surgery was my first exposure, and I had heard absolutely  nothing even remotely like it before.  I still have a fondness for their music, but like others have mentioned, the "comedy" songs wore rather thin after a couple of years of hearing them.  Still, their bombastic, over the top style of composing and playing is exactly what drew me to prog rock and is something I still love about the genre.

CCVP wrote: JJLehto wrote: Jim Garten wrote: ExittheLemming wrote: I'd say Dream Theater probably stir up more polarised opinion than ELP Dream Theater certainly polarise opinions, especially here (speaking as a forum moderator, believe me, I know), but again, their back catalogue contains some stunning music; all they need is a singer +++hides+++ EtL and Jim both make excellent points. And yeah, everyone threw up a fuss about MP but the weakest member of DT is still around singing! *hopes there is room for me* Being one huge DT fanboy, I can agree with the stated: LaBrie isn't the brightest of the pack.

Kashmir75 wrote:   I have to say, I'd be more disappointed if LaBrie left DT. I can't imagine the band without him. Portnoy was too controlling; and he was stifling the creativity of the music. I want to hear what they come up with next. Portnoy pushed them too far into the metallic sound on their recent albums. I like metal, but DT is not Opeth or Cannibal Corpse. Death metal vocals do not work in DT.

I don't mind vocals so much that it'd keep me off any band so my reaction would be neutral. But I'd be relieved that LaBrie won't be singing on those 'exclusive' CDs of tributes/covers and murdering rock/metal staples like Stargazer.  In all fairness to LaBrie, Portnoy's work as also Rudess's did as much to drag down that cover as his singing.  Only Petrucci came out unscathed and honour intact, as he usually does, and put up a nice new twist on the solo. 

Warthur wrote: Having given a quick listen to their debut album (their best one, at least in terms of consistency), I think another part of my problem with ELP is that their sound never *quite* managed to gel. In a way they made the right call in taking the Crosby, Stills and Nash route with their name - a lot of the time you're looking at three different musical personalities who all happen to be performing on the same stage/recording, not a cohesive unit. You'll have Keith's bit of showing off, then you'll have Greg's turn in the spotlight, then you'll have Carl doing his thing... it feels to me like the only song in which they all really come together and act as a unit is Tarkus. And, of course, that failure to find group cohesion was their undoing; Works was structured the way it was because everyone simply had to have a side to themselves, and Works was where the backlash began in earnest, and where the relations in the group really started to break down - Love Beach only creaked out because they wanted to knock off a quick contractual obligation album and then zoot off to their various post-ELP careers as soon as they possibly could.

There may have been in the 70s, yes, but revisionism has been kind to the Zeps and Purples and harsh on ELP.

ELP = the Lee Harvey Oswald of Prog

ghost_of_morphy wrote: ExittheLemming wrote: ELP = the Lee Harvey Oswald of Prog That's ridiculous.  If you don't like ELP, you don't like prog.  (Real prog, of course.  Not this revisionism of the genre where Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Herbie Hancock, etc. etc. etc. get thrown into the mix.)

Now there's something really ridiculous.

You need a sense of history, harmonium.ro.

Edited by ghost_of_morphy - June 25 2011 at 10:12

ghost_of_morphy wrote: You need a sense of history.

Actually if YOU had a sense of history, you'd protesting Dream Theater much more than Hancock because the latter at least has some stylistic convergence with what was going on in the prog rock scene of the 70s, irrespective of whether people called it prog.

Personally, I don't see how anyone watching a bombastic ELP concert in the early 70s could not enjoy it. The same could be said for over-the-top concert extravangas by Alice Cooper or Pink Floyd. For sheer entertainment value, they were absolutely enjoyable, and you certainly got your money's worth, ticket-wise.