I still dig their cover of the Peter Gunn theme.
I’ve been a prog fan all my life, but even I have never been able to enjoy ELP all that much. It’s just too clunky, like the doofus brothers of an actually talented and intelligent musician decided that they want to be musicians, too, and hit it big, for some inexplicable reason.
As a kid my mom listened to a lot of ELP. In particular I remember Pictures at an Exhibition. I liked it then and I like it now (I also have Trilogy), but it’s basically the only prog I have any real familiarity with. I didn’t know they are so commonly derided even in the prog community. That makes me sad because now I feel like I was tricked into liking them. MOTHER!
It is interesting toread that ELP engaged in some showmanship and stunts. I saw them in concert during their first American tour, and it was memorable to me for the boringness of the whole thing.
The fact that their opening act was the J. Geils Band didn’t help. Most people in the audience didn’t know who they were, but they won over the crowd quickly. The J. Geils set was the most fun and exuberent show I had ever seen at the time. The only thing I have seen to rival it is the first time I saw Springsteen. The whole crowd was dancing.
Then came ELP. Ponderous, serious, boring. Some people actually shouted “Bring back J. Geils!” Lucky Man was popular on the radio at the time, and they didn’t play it. I guess Greg Lake would have had a hard time singing harmony with himself.
I liked their first album, but I never paid any attention to them after that concert.
I saw what you did there!
ELP has a bunch of awesome songs and a bunch of forgettable songs. Brain Salad Surgery is arguably their pinnacle.
I recently heard a radio bit about the Moog synthesizer. Forget who the “expert” was, but he referred to Emerson more than once as one of the most proficient early users. If so, (and I’d have to think he’d be near the top of any short list), that might warrant some recognition as to legacy re: electronic music.
Funny, that ELP and Rush were 2 of my fave bands, and I always thought drum solos boring.
I loved 'em back in the 70’s. But after a recent burst of nostalgic listening, a lot of it was pretty lame.
Still, some of the tunes turn me on.
C’est la vie, Pirates, Lucky man, Father Christmas, Abbadon’s Bolero, just to name a few right off the top of my head.
I saw them at Saratoga Performing Arts center in August of 1972. Great show. I remember them fondly.
I see what you did there.
There was an era when the British all sat down once a week for Top Of The Pops (TOTP.) A half hour window into what was going on in popular music. In 1977 the dirty end of glam rock was hanging around like a bad smell. Disco was gaining popularity despite being widely reviled as something to listen to - it was really only any good for dancing to. The growing excitement came from Punk Rock which was preparing for what would be its brief peak that summer.
Then ELP had their biggest UK hit with Fanfare For The Common Man. This was still before the ubiquitous use of promotional videos so it was relatively unusual that ELP ‘appeared’ on TOTP via a ‘documentary’ style promo showing (what was accepted as) three very rich, very musically talented rock GODS (and old men!) with more than a whiff of arrogance playing in an empty arena in the middle of a freezing winter. No fans, no crew, no attempt to even acknowledge the cameras. These ‘incredibly talented’ men were literally in a world of their own.
The musical talent, the apparent wealth, the sense of privilege, the global reach, the presumed upper middle class background and Public School educational background of ELP (and bands like them) were precisely what Punk Rock bands were opposed to. ELP came to define ‘the old era’ and were very much the enemy.
I always liked Fanfare and I also feel, to this day, I Believe In Father Christmas is the best Christmas song. I am also aware ELP didn’t write Fanfare and that I Believe was a Greg Lake solo effort.
TCMF-2L
I’m far too young to have been a fan of theirs at the time but, at least in my music circle, and I’m a big fan of some modern prog metal and prog rock, their name comes up often as an influence and I can hear it myself. Then again, it was a few years ago that several bands I’m a big fan of (Opeth, Dark Suns, Porcupine tree, Pain of Salvation) all did retro 70s prog albums. Inside of that circle, I’d never heard anything bad about any of those bands until after that little movement and a lot of other fans of at least some of those bands, notably Opeth, started lamenting about being too prog influenced and I’d hear some backlash toward old prog. I still generally hear good stuff about many of those bands, but I do probably notice the most bad things about ELP. It just seems to me that since they’re one of the more out-there bands in that movement, they’re going to be the ones getting that sort of negative attention, especially since it seems prog is about as unpopular as I’ve ever seen it. Nonetheless, I think their legacy is still strong amongst some nostalgic fans and some modern prog fans. After all, even people aren’t direct fans of them, many of those bands they’ve influenced are highly influential themselves.
Tarkus (the Mobile Fidelity remaster) is still what I play when I want to give the speakers a workout…
I love the version of Jerusalem they did on Brain Salad Surgery. It is one of my favorites songs.
ELP was very hit or miss IMO. Some of their stuff was awesome, some tedious.
As a kid I loved to lie with my head between the speakers and just blast their more awesome songs. Good times.
I still don’t know what their song “In The beginning” was all about.
I’m not going to let some nebulous “people” shape my music listening because “they” now hate prog rock. I like ELP. I also like The Sex Pistols and the Ramones. Just not every song by any of them.
Sometimes prog got too carried away with their own musical abilities, but on the other hand, actually learning how to play an instrument if you’re in a band is a good thing too!
Someone get me a ladder!
I always really liked “nutrocker”, it makes me feel happy.
Music was interesting, but a close listen to the lyrics makes you want to slap lake upside the head and procure a proper fourth grader to rewrite them.
Thing I liked most was that ELP introduced me to some classical music I’d never noticed before, Bach, Mussorgsky, &c. I think that’s maybe the best you can hope for in pop music
That’s the way I see them also. Some real nice stuff and some of the worst crap I’ve ever heard.
Never had an album of theirs.
As others have already noted, compared to some of their contemporaries from that era of progressive rock, they don’t seem to be as well-regarded these days.
At least on the classic rock stations I listen to, they still have a few songs which will get airplay – mostly the single version of “Karn Evil 9”, but also “Lucky Man”, “From the Beginning”, and occasionally “Still…You Turn Me On”.