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Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 28029
Posted: July 23 2011 at 09:26
dr prog wrote:
BSS is mainly rubbish
jerusalem is ok
taccota is good but its not even an elp song
still you turn me on is boring
benny the bouncer is crap
karnevil is half great and half daggy
This was the beginning of the end for elp
Were you drunk when you posted that?
Karn Evil 9 is virtually the whole album at 29 minutes long so any overall view of the album depends on whether you like this or not. Some do ,some don't. Personally I think its very strong up to the last 5 minutes when it goes off the rails a bit. Toccata is not an ELP song but then neither is Barbarian, Hoedown,Pictures (all of it) and various other things they did.
Joined: September 25 2010
Location: Melbourne
Status: Offline
Points: 2494
Posted: July 23 2011 at 17:53
richardh wrote:
dr prog wrote:
BSS is mainly rubbish
jerusalem is ok
taccota is good but its not even an elp song
still you turn me on is boring
benny the bouncer is crap
karnevil is half great and half daggy
This was the beginning of the end for elp
Were you drunk when you posted that?
Karn Evil 9 is virtually the whole album at 29 minutes long so any overall view of the album depends on whether you like this or not. Some do ,some don't. Personally I think its very strong up to the last 5 minutes when it goes off the rails a bit. Toccata is not an ELP song but then neither is Barbarian, Hoedown,Pictures (all of it) and various other things they did.
Well I only like half of Karnevil and not much of the first 4 songs which make up 15 minutes. So I only enjoy 1/3 of the album
Joined: July 14 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3449
Posted: July 23 2011 at 18:17
My friends, the first time I heard Abaddon's Bolero was a live performance, and it was spectacular. I couldn't wait for Trilogy to be released, just to hear it at will. I should set up a shrine for that live version in my garage. The album version, not so much, though it hints at what I heard that night. Oh, Emerson's synths were growling, Lake's bass full in the mix, Palmer doing, well, that bolero beat. For those of you who never heard it live, the punch of that big ass Moog was something special. We wuz in awe of the power of that band. At the time, they had an essentially stereo/quad sound system, i.e., a huge bank fo speakers in all four corners of the venue, that were just howling out the goodness of ELP. That Bolero grew, little by little, piece by piece, a phrase added here, a phrase added there, until it was a screaming howling demon, sort of orgasmic I suppose, in that it grew from a whisper into an all-out eruption.
On a good night, ELP were a force to be reckoned with.
Can you tell me where we're headin'?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon.
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 28029
Posted: July 24 2011 at 03:12
dr prog wrote:
richardh wrote:
dr prog wrote:
BSS is mainly rubbish
jerusalem is ok
taccota is good but its not even an elp song
still you turn me on is boring
benny the bouncer is crap
karnevil is half great and half daggy
This was the beginning of the end for elp
Were you drunk when you posted that?
Karn Evil 9 is virtually the whole album at 29 minutes long so any overall view of the album depends on whether you like this or not. Some do ,some don't. Personally I think its very strong up to the last 5 minutes when it goes off the rails a bit. Toccata is not an ELP song but then neither is Barbarian, Hoedown,Pictures (all of it) and various other things they did.
Well I only like half of Karnevil and not much of the first 4 songs which make up 15 minutes. So I only enjoy 1/3 of the album
Karn Evil 9 is actually 3 peices of music. So you like one of those and half of another?
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 28029
Posted: July 24 2011 at 03:15
jammun wrote:
My friends, the first time I heard Abaddon's Bolero was a live performance, and it was spectacular. I couldn't wait for Trilogy to be released, just to hear it at will. I should set up a shrine for that live version in my garage. The album version, not so much, though it hints at what I heard that night. Oh, Emerson's synths were growling, Lake's bass full in the mix, Palmer doing, well, that bolero beat. For those of you who never heard it live, the punch of that big ass Moog was something special. We wuz in awe of the power of that band. At the time, they had an essentially stereo/quad sound system, i.e., a huge bank fo speakers in all four corners of the venue, that were just howling out the goodness of ELP. That Bolero grew, little by little, piece by piece, a phrase added here, a phrase added there, until it was a screaming howling demon, sort of orgasmic I suppose, in that it grew from a whisper into an all-out eruption.
On a good night, ELP were a force to be reckoned with.
I am very envious. I only saw ELP on the Black Moon tour and High Voltage last year. Would have loved to have seen them in their pomp but will just have to make do with the DVD's which unfortunately are not very good quality.
Joined: September 25 2010
Location: Melbourne
Status: Offline
Points: 2494
Posted: July 24 2011 at 05:58
richardh wrote:
dr prog wrote:
richardh wrote:
dr prog wrote:
BSS is mainly rubbish
jerusalem is ok
taccota is good but its not even an elp song
still you turn me on is boring
benny the bouncer is crap
karnevil is half great and half daggy
This was the beginning of the end for elp
Were you drunk when you posted that?
Karn Evil 9 is virtually the whole album at 29 minutes long so any overall view of the album depends on whether you like this or not. Some do ,some don't. Personally I think its very strong up to the last 5 minutes when it goes off the rails a bit. Toccata is not an ELP song but then neither is Barbarian, Hoedown,Pictures (all of it) and various other things they did.
Well I only like half of Karnevil and not much of the first 4 songs which make up 15 minutes. So I only enjoy 1/3 of the album
Karn Evil 9 is actually 3 peices of music. So you like one of those and half of another?
The first 7 minutes and the jazzy bit in the middle. The rest is a bit cheesy lol
Joined: July 14 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3449
Posted: July 24 2011 at 08:28
Regarding BSS, for me anyway after Jerusalem (which is fine) and Toccata (which is really fine) it sort of goes downhill. Karn Evil is okay. I was probably impressed back then, but to these ears it has not held up all that well. It's sad, really, and my reviews reflect this, that one of the absolute finest prog bands of the era never made a great album.
Can you tell me where we're headin'?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon.
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 28029
Posted: July 24 2011 at 13:33
dr prog wrote:
richardh wrote:
dr prog wrote:
richardh wrote:
dr prog wrote:
BSS is mainly rubbish
jerusalem is ok
taccota is good but its not even an elp song
still you turn me on is boring
benny the bouncer is crap
karnevil is half great and half daggy
This was the beginning of the end for elp
Were you drunk when you posted that?
Karn Evil 9 is virtually the whole album at 29 minutes long so any overall view of the album depends on whether you like this or not. Some do ,some don't. Personally I think its very strong up to the last 5 minutes when it goes off the rails a bit. Toccata is not an ELP song but then neither is Barbarian, Hoedown,Pictures (all of it) and various other things they did.
Well I only like half of Karnevil and not much of the first 4 songs which make up 15 minutes. So I only enjoy 1/3 of the album
Karn Evil 9 is actually 3 peices of music. So you like one of those and half of another?
The first 7 minutes and the jazzy bit in the middle. The rest is a bit cheesy lol
That makes a bit more sense. So you like Jersualem,Toccata, Karn Evil 1st Impression (pt1) and KE9 2nd Impression. Still a reasonable chunk of music to be fair
Joined: December 03 2009
Status: Offline
Points: 638
Posted: August 02 2011 at 01:21
I started with BSS, and I didn't get it. It was after Tarkus that made me start listening to ELP's classic years. Karn Evil 9 is classic! Love part 2! Trilogy is pretty good. Their "western" stuff is funny, and enjoyable to me.
Joined: March 12 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Status: Offline
Points: 643
Posted: August 04 2011 at 09:46
Slaughternalia wrote:
Actually come to think of it f**k the studio albums. Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends is all you'll need by ELP. they play WAY better on that then any studio album IMO. Plus it has pretty much all their best stuff
"WAY" better? How childish sounding. In fact, your whole argument is simplisticly childish. To answer the original question, go with Tarkus. It turned prog on its ears at the time it was released, astutely defined the ELP sound, and really got people listening after a somewhat soft debut.
Joined: January 20 2008
Location: Seattle, WA
Status: Offline
Points: 887
Posted: August 04 2011 at 10:43
ELP will just never get the respect they deserve from the "majority."
I think that is because of their classical heritage, and most smarter people, although they want to claim some ownership of being into classical, really haven't scratched the surface of classical music.
Seems to me, I could be wrong, but BSS was considered the apex of ELP by many fans. It was also well loved by the mainstream, as evidenced by it being played outside of prog contexts (sports events, mainstream fm radio, etc.).
It may even be the most popular "big four" real prog album of all time. I say real prog meaning I have problems seeing Tull and Pink Floyd as prog, even though they are great, they just don't seem to fall off the deep end as much with song structure.
That said, I am not an ELP fan boy, as I am somewhat embarrassed I spend as much time here as I do! I think being overly "fanistic" is detrimental to being into one's own art.
--
Robert Pearson
Regenerative Music http://www.regenerativemusic.net
Telical Books http://www.telicalbooks.com
ParaMind Brainstorming Software http://www.paramind.net
Joined: March 08 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2755
Posted: August 04 2011 at 10:56
jammun wrote:
My friends, the first time I heard Abaddon's Bolero was a live performance, and it was spectacular. I couldn't wait for Trilogy to be released, just to hear it at will. I should set up a shrine for that live version in my garage. The album version, not so much, though it hints at what I heard that night. Oh, Emerson's synths were growling, Lake's bass full in the mix, Palmer doing, well, that bolero beat. For those of you who never heard it live, the punch of that big ass Moog was something special. We wuz in awe of the power of that band. At the time, they had an essentially stereo/quad sound system, i.e., a huge bank fo speakers in all four corners of the venue, that were just howling out the goodness of ELP. That Bolero grew, little by little, piece by piece, a phrase added here, a phrase added there, until it was a screaming howling demon, sort of orgasmic I suppose, in that it grew from a whisper into an all-out eruption.
On a good night, ELP were a force to be reckoned with.
I wish I'd been lucky enough to hear Abbadon's Bolero live the few times they played it with an orchestra.
Joined: February 10 2010
Location: Barcelona Spain
Status: Offline
Points: 5154
Posted: August 07 2011 at 02:42
This is the fact with ELP's best albums, they all have weaker parts and you have to live with that if you want to enjoy some of the best music ever made.
Having said that, even most of the "weaker parts" are not as bad as many people say, with a few really weak exceptions. It's just that they pale in comparison with the best parts, but if songs like Bitches Crystal, A Time And A Place, Living Sin or Knife Edge would have been released by other bands in other albums together with similar quality material I'm sure most people would not talk so bad about them.
In my opinion any of the "famous four" ELP debut, Tarkus, Trilogy and BSS are must-haves and you can start with any of them, but if I should select I would say go for Tarkus and Trilogy first.
Joined: September 26 2010
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1281
Posted: December 17 2011 at 23:03
My first listen was Brain Salad Surgery. Unfortunately, this was during a time when I was looking at articles from guys like Lester Bangs for "musical guidance" and dismissed the album as average at best and self-indulgent at worst. Had I not picked up Ed Macan's ELP bio Endless Enigma, I would not have explored this group's work further, let alone the works of the Nice, Arthur Brown or Atomic Rooster.
Back on topic, Brain Salad Surgery rules, at least until the Third Impression Of "Karn Evil 9", then things just get silly. IMO, their self-titled debut and Trilogy are slightly better places to start. If you like those, then pick up BSS, then Tarkus and Pictures At An Exhibition.
He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!
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