pompous, egocentric, ludicrous, flawed and excessive. But they make me laugh, so I quite like them for that. The only piece of music and film I enjoy by them is the clip of Fanfare For The Common Man in the snow-covered stadium, but that'll do...

I was a Yes and Genesis fan and didn't think much of ELP at the time. However, I grew to like them more as the years went by. When they were good (1st LP, most of Trilogy, Tarkus, most of Brain Salad Surgery) they were great and when they were bad (Benny The Bouncer, Jeremy Bender, Are You Ready Eddie, Howdown) they were horrid. Later albums: 1977 - Works, Vol. 2, 1978 - Love Beach , 1992 - Black Moon, 1994 - In the Hot Seat, really weren't much cop at all. Personally I didn't like Pictures much either, partly because the outer sleeve didn't have the pictures but the inner sleeve did, which seemd the wrong way round and needlessly unattractive.

There was a supergroup
Whose piano went loop the loop
And a drummer played right torrid;
And when Greg sang good,
He was very, very good
But when he was bad he was horrid.

Start at the beginning, work your way through and by the time you get to Works you will lose the will to live. Take it from someone who has the box set and all.

For those who are tut-tutting about ELP's role in the scheme of things just remember the period they appeared. Edward Heath was Prime Minister, miner's strikes, power cuts and 3-day weeks. Colour TV was fairly new and computers took up whole rooms and were manned by boffins. ELP frequently won best band, album and musician awards. Oh, and the NME give way a Brain Salad Surgery flexidisc.

They could also noodle away with the best of them and bore you to death with their intricate instrumentals. But crank up their version of Jerusalem on the old gramophone and you will be eternally grateful for learning the words at school so you can lustfully sing along with the Prog Pavarotti himself.

It WAS 35 years ago.

and a quick check-up. In Tarkus territory on the pod at the moment ( helps for diging out window frames, certainly ).
Intrigued, I eased in with the full length of Fanfare, grooved immediately. It's pretty good so far, but I'm worried that something quite horrible is lurking in there somewhere, just waiting.

What the Feck!! The radio's on in the kitchen, am I really hearing a Katie Melua style version of making Plans For Nigel ? God's teeth. Back to ELP. Phew. That's surely the horrible out of the way.

and I still have a soft spot for Welcome Back My Friends.

But, overall, looking back from a vantage point of 35 years distance, I don't think they've aged well.

Yes had the soaring melodies and the perfect ensemble arrangements, Genesis had Gabriel's warped genius, Crimso had the chops and the adventurousness.

What did ELP have? Fearsome chops but limited writing ability - patches of sheer insane brilliance but a good deal of 'by numbers'.

I still love 'em though :-)

on this one. Great band in their time, from debut up to Works vol 1, don't bother with the rest of their catalogue.Secretly quite relieved that this year's mooted reunion tour was called off due to Emerson's hand problems as fear it would all have ended in tears.
The Atlantic Years compilation double cd contains the vast majority of their essential material, and is well worth a listen for the uninitiated.

Those Johnny Depp movies could have been made 85% better simply by playing it over the end credits, but y'know, what are you gonna do?

I'm listening to at the moment is pretty good all in all and manages to avoid the dross previouly mentioned. I think all the comments so far are spot on really. The earlier stuff is better. The problem is that they are not nearly in the same league as Yes, Genesis or King Crimson. They seem to be devoid of any collective soul or rasion d'etre other than an emphasis on technical abilty in its most basic form, but there is very little feeling or expansion, thus making the overall experience curiously sterile. I'll play them now and again, but they're not in my prog pantheon, headed zoaraster style by Yes and Crimson.

Punk sent ELP running for the hills and looking for a commercial route out of trouble. The result was the atrocious Love Beach LP, easily one of the 10 worst records made by a major act. They should have stuck to their guns and carried on with what they were doing before, as time has shown that punk was a minor blip to the fortunes of most prog acts. However their confidence was a lot lower than it appears, in fact their music reeks of low self-esteem. It's all about trying to prove something.

That said, Love Beach is a prototype for the massive-selling AOR of ASIA, make of that what you will. I also think it might be the first record to feature a sampler. It still stinks though.

My favorite ELP by a mile is Brain Salad Surgery.

is bad

Some is not too bad

ELP are wholly bad

the sound he gets out of his Hammond still turns my knees to jelly. ELP - when they were good they were untouchable, when they were bad, unlistenable.

ELP - Emerson, Lake & Palmer
ELPP - Emerson, Lake, Palmer & Powell
ELPPP - Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Powell & Paice
ELPPPP - Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Powell, Paice & Peart
ELPPPPP - Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Powell, Paice, Peart & Porcaro
ELPPPPPP- Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Powell, Paice, Peart, Porcaro & Phillips
ELPPPPPPP - Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Powell, Paice, Peart, Porcaro, Phillips & Portnoy
ELPPPPPPPP - Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Powell, Paice, Peart, Porcaro, Phillips, Portnoy & Puente
ELPPPPPPPPP - Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Powell, Paice, Peart, Porcaro, Phillips, Portnoy, Puente & Purdie
HELPPPPPPPPP - Howe, Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Powell, Paice, Peart, Porcaro, Phillips, Portnoy, Puente & Purdie

In ELP's case, at any rate. They foisted some horrible twee little ditties ("Still You Turn Me On") and sub-Chas'n'Dave knees-ups ("Benny The Bouncer", "Are You Ready Eddie?") on their adoring public, but when they just went tits-out, classics-plundering, over-the-top overkill, they were magnificent. I'd pick:

- Pretty much the whole debut album
- The long title suite from "Tarkus", but ditch the rest of the album
- "Pictures At An Exhibition"
- "The Endless Enigma"
- "Hoedown"
- "Abaddon's Bolero"
- "Trilogy"
- "Karn Evil 9"
- "Toccata"
- "Fanfare For The Common Man"

...and ignore everything else. When bonkers, they were fab. When they did "songs" they were humdrum at best.

The prototype ELP album by The Nice. Possibly more pretentious and over-the-top than ELP ever where. I guess if you're going to do this stuff, it might as well be like this. Any other fans?

to a weakness for their version of the intermezzo from karelia! Top stuff!!

I know lots of people dismiss him as a showman, and he was, as he admitted in the title of his autobiography "Pictures of an Exhibitionist".

HOWEVER, as a piano player myself I was astounded and thrilled at his solos and his compositions. "Eruption" from TARKUS is his finest moment - an original theme that combines MCCOY TYNER and JIMMY SMITH with a bit of BARTOK. Lake wrote a great melody for "Stones of Years" but crap words - his songwriting method is as long as it rhymes it's OK. Having said that "From The Beginning" is truly beautiful, great guitar and arrangement and production.

There's my 2 bob's worth.

A couple of years ago I bought the CDs, having not listened to then for 30 years, and afraid that I would hate them or squirm at their bad bits - did the latter but still stand by Emerson's keyboard language and composition.

Nuff said for now.

Great thread/post whatever you call it!

Sadly, his days of playing music like this may be over, because of hand problems. The showmanship of daggers in the hammond and such were in the style of Pete Townshend's guitar smashing; guaranteed to excite adolescent males in the audience throughout the 1970's. Would be boring now but only because we are nearer to our pensions than puberty.

That's a Word T -shirt slogan if ever there was one!