Lucky Man or From The Beginning?

[Kcrimso]

I don't dislike Lucky Man but From The Beginning is overall much more interesting song.

[perpetual strange]

Of the acoustic guitar Lake ballads, "From The Beginning" is my favorite, followed by "Still You Turn Me On". "The Sage" would be #3. Of course for Lake compositions, "Battlefield" is the one for me, partly because of Keith Emerson's big keyboard melody, along with "Take A Pebble" (minus the meandering middle section)

[BravadoNJ]

From The Beginning........ especially live!

[Sean]

From The Beginning- easily.

[A. Scherze]

From The Beginning is much more fun to play on guitar, and Lucky Man has that annoying synth outro.

That wonder-filled synth outro is the only interesting part of LM.

[Jubal]

That wonder-filled synth outro is the only interesting part of LM.

Thanks for sharing. I needed a laugh with the nasty cold I am currently dealing with.

[Conti]

LOL. Really FUN! Thanks for sharing.

I'd pick From the Beggining, but my favourite acoustic guitar song performed by Lake is "The Sage".

[StevegSr]

Lucky Man. Simply because it put ELP on the map, and was quite radical for it's time.

[Vic2012]

Lucky Man

He had ladies by the score........

[Lopez]

Lucky Man for me. Reminds me a lot of the Paul Simon song Richard Corey. Both about proud, smug guys who have it all, then loose it all and are shown to be no better than anyone else.

[ProgArtist]

Lucky Man for me. Reminds me a lot of the Paul Simon song Richard Corey. Both about proud, smug guys who have it all, then loose it all and are shown to be no better than anyone else.

Funny you said this as "Richard Corey" came up randomly in iTunes yesterday and it made me think of "Lucky Man". I guess the big difference in the lyrics is that Richard Corey takes his own life rather than being killed at war.

[Man In The Mountain]

From The Beginning is a much better song, though I prefer Lucky Man just so I can hear the Weeeee Boing woooooo Bizzzzzz of the modular at the end. No question.

[Bucka001]

Interesting that I just saw this thread as I recently thought of FTB (which is easily my pick of the two) after not hearing it for several decades. I remember hearing that song quite a bit when it came out, I was about 8 (that would be 72/73? Ain't that about when it came out?). ELP may be criticized for being bombastic, but (to me, my humble opinion) this song is brilliant and dripping with atmosphere. This is one of the rare occasions where that otherwise dated synth sound really works, and it's a brilliant solo over some haunting chords (great guitar solo too). I remember laying in bed and hearing this late at night on a tiny transistor radio with one little earphone in the early 70s (seemed enough back then). Just a really haunting tune and one of their finer moments (this band has a lot of embarrassing moments, no doubt, but I recently listened to Trilogy and BSS again after 30 years or more and there's an equal amount of good stuff there; brought back lots of memories!)

[HeadingSouth]

From The Beginning. I like both, but FTB is the more musically interesting.

[JKL2000]

I go with Lucky Man, because I think that synth solo is the very origin of widdly. I'm sure I can be proven wrong but whatever.

[grego]

From the Beginning, love the latin rhythm, and both solos, guitar and synth. It could be inspired by the Beatles ' And I Love Her'.

[ytserush]

From The Beginning. Burnt out on Lucky Man...

[notallwhowander]

From The Beginning- easily.

Yup.

[JJ88]

'From The Beginning' is undoubtedly the more mature, sophisticated performance.

But then again 'Lucky Man' has that iconic Moog solo- I know Emerson wasn't/isn't that happy with it, and I can indeed hear the wobbly bits, but it must have been a big deal at the time it came out, for someone to use the Moog in that kind of bravura way. So I'm leaning towards that.

[llanwydd]

FTB by a mile. Seems to be the consensus.

[Rufus]

Lucky Man

[Vic2012]

Lucky Mang

[arabicadabra]

"after 30 years or more"? Wow. I can't go more than a month or two without hearing those two albums.

Interesting that I just saw this thread as I recently thought of FTB (which is easily my pick of the two) after not hearing it for several decades. I remember hearing that song quite a bit when it came out, I was about 8 (that would be 72/73? Ain't that about when it came out?). ELP may be criticized for being bombastic, but (to me, my humble opinion) this song is brilliant and dripping with atmosphere. This is one of the rare occasions where that otherwise dated synth sound really works, and it's a brilliant solo over some haunting chords (great guitar solo too). I remember laying in bed and hearing this late at night on a tiny transistor radio with one little earphone in the early 70s (seemed enough back then). Just a really haunting tune and one of their finer moments (this band has a lot of embarrassing moments, no doubt, but I recently listened to Trilogy and BSS again after 30 years or more and there's an equal amount of good stuff there; brought back lots of memories!)

[onward]

From the Beginning. More stuff going on, more fun to play.

[progeezer]

Though both have beautiful melodies (at least the first 100 times you hear them), FTB has so much more interesting musical meat than LM that for me it's no contest.