Their debut album was quite good. And the side long suite of Tarkus was excellent too [the side 2 was a collection of shorter songs, I remember, some of which were decent as well]. 'Works Vol 1' had it's high points as well. What I found average was their adaptation of the Mudgorsky's [I am sure I am spelling his name wrong ] classical suite.

I found their adaptations of songs like 'Karn Evil 9' on the live LP to be superior than the equivalent album versions. However, come the 80s and the band deteriorated in quality. However, even if I judge personally on a per capita basis of "number of great songs that I liked vis a vis total output", they lie far ahead of Genesis, for me, whose Phil Collins era my ears can't tolerate for no reason. 'Jethro Tull' had the brilliant Aqualung and the decent 'Thick As a Brick' but their early albums don't gel well with me.

This is what I meant about ELP upsetting the purists - those songs provided some light relief from the heavier, lengthier stuff and showed off their versatility.  Poor ELP, not allowed to mess about.  Ham or cheese?

No such thing as 'short messy tracks' on Tarkus.   Blasphemer!  

My opinion is that the internet helped convince people that they were too overblown and not as good as other prog bands and people believed it. Before I got online I never really heard anything bad about ELP. Some of their songs were played quite a bit on rock radio probably up until the early 2000s or so. These days I don't think they even get played much on classic rock radio (or any radio). Yes had almost the same fate but at least they are still lauded by most prog fans.

What contemporary talents in particular do you have in mind?

However, I understand and agree with many of the previous post's proposed explanations . 

You are dead wrong about ELP. All their early LPs should be ranked in the Top 100.

Thank you.

Hi,

I find this sad, and perhaps not quite looked at ... AT THE TIME ... and what most bands were doing. ELP put together a PIANO CONCERTO (Tarkus), done in those early styles with loud and bombastic keyboards ... but the day that you sit and listen to Rachel Flower do this on the piano, or organ, you will find right away that this is incredible ... and the side 2 of the album being "filler" ... how you gonna follow up a masterpiece? You and I would probably mess that up too! Your soup is gonna pale in comparison! What's the sugar doing here?

If there is something unusual and clear about ELP was their take on classical music, but when you hear them on a cold night and an empty stadium in Montreal ... the first thing you can say is ... wow! 

I think a lot of folks, in those days, were kinda new to the FM radio band and its lack of "hits" and many of those stations put on a lot of stuff, and of course, sooner or later, the sheriff would be fun to play to lighten up the evening amidst overstuffed materials in rock music. 

I believe that part of the issue is that we dislike classical music, and on top of it, we want the hits ... not the album ... and as someone specified these days, no one buys the album, only the song they want, so in essence most folks don't know the band, and worse ... they don't care, because they want the hits,  (per Mike Rutherford, btw) and are not interested in the album at all! This is what the "commercial" status of the whole progressive and progrock thing has come to ... it has to have a number and be listed for most folks to even bother checking it out ... never mind the rest of the band! 

I kinda think that the record companies are laughing all the way to the bank, still collecting their nickels and dimes via the streaming services they own. It's still a sort of "singles" bar, isn't it? Who cares about the person when all you want is ... 

Good thing you are not a true musician with several albums ... you would have died a long time ago! 

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!