ELP Welcome Back... HDtracks

[lak611]

you mean there's life outside of prog?

One night last week I woke up with "Paper Blood" in my head. Had not listened to ELP in a while so I'm kind of bingeing.

My doctor and financial advisor aren't prog aficionados, but they know who ELP were.

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[Onomatopoeic]

Has any enterprising fan ever done a home (partial) remix from the quad mix to stereo?

I've never heard the quad (actually any quad, now that I think of it).

I owned the Quad 8-track set of "Welcome Back My Friends..." back in the 70s.

The album's quadraphonic mix is essentially the live concert quadraphonic PA mix. The common 2-channel stereo mix is just a fold-down mix of the 4-channel quadraphonic mix.

The funny thing about the Quad 8-track issue of this album was its sleeve artwork, which showed the QuadraDisc vinyl LP artwork (QuadraDisc logo in upper left corner) -- except the album was unfortunately never issued in the CD-4 QuadaDisc format, in any territory on the planet. My guess was that Atlantic Records decided that the initial sales of the album weren't strong enough to justify producing an expensive 3-LP QuadraDisc set and just issued it on Quad 8-track. The QuadraDisc artwork existed, so they used that for the Quad 8-track set.

[JJ88]

Not really interested in any reissues of this unless they dump Jeremy Bender/The Sheriff (which isn't from the BSS tour, it's from the 1973 European tour in Germany) and added Benny the Bouncer and Pictures at an Exhibition from the same Anaheim show so it's the complete show. Too many great BSS tour bootlegs around to bother with it otherwise.

It's so frustrating, isn't it? This is really the only one of their albums which needs any kind of additions/revisions...and it never gets any. I wouldn't lose sleep over 'Benny...' beyond completism (I guess it would mean that all of BSS was represented) but 'Pictures...' is a huge omission. It made sense at the time to want to present it in optimum quality on three records but in the CD era? Not so much. The album isn't even two hours in total, so there's lots of room left on the CDs.

Presumably they had multi-tracks of that 1973 tour given the inclusion of the earlier medley. Don't think any of this has ever seen release on anything. But like Yessongs I kind of already look upon this album as definitive, so I don't see it as a major deal.

[miamiscot]

I love it just the way it is. Yes, the sound is a bit jinky at times but that only adds to its eternal charm.

The design was silly with that big "E", "L" and "P" trying to hold the records in place. But again: all part of the experience.

The live versions of Tarkus and Karn Evil 9 are spectacular here.

Not quite Yessongs...but close.

[lak611]

I love it just the way it is. Yes, the sound is a bit jinky at times but that only adds to its eternal charm.

The design was silly with that big "E", "L" and "P" trying to hold the records in place. But again: all part of the experience.

The live versions of Tarkus and Karn Evil 9 are spectacular here.

Not quite Yessongs...but close.

The "P" doesn't hold the record very well. That is the one that usually falls out.

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[musicislife]

The "P" doesn't hold the record very well. That is the one that usually falls out.

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Still a better alternative to not holding your "p" well.

[lak611]

Still a better alternative to not holding your "p" well.

Agreed! 😊

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[ytserush]

http://www.newsweek.com/interview-gr...mer-elp-507023

Long new ELP article/interview in Newsweek, which shows the popularity of the band outside of prog circles.

They were relatively mainstream back then. There seemed to be more of an appetite for that kind of thing before it all started to splinter.

Still surprised to see an article of that kind in Newsweek in 2016 though.

[Valen]

I picked up the 2016 reissues of Welcome Back and Pictures At At Exhibition this weekend, on cd format.

I did a back to back comparison with the previous 1996 version of both albums, and would say that the 2016 remasters are an improvement. Not significantly enough to warrant buying if you're happy with the previous editions, but I really enjoyed what I heard on these new editions.

Sound is a little clearer, Lake's bass has a bit more clout , esp on Welcome Back, and there's less distortion overall. Obviously neither album was ever going to win the sonic awards, but these new editions do offer up a reasonable improvement, without ramping up the volume and compressing it all.

Pictures has better bonus materials - the Pictures medley from the Mar-Y-Sol set in 1972, although audio quality dips a bit, and a pre-album recording from the Lyceum, presumably the audio lifted from the dvd, but I've yet to see the latter. Welcome has no bonus material.

[Doctor Flang]

I picked up the 2016 reissues of Welcome Back and Pictures At At Exhibition this weekend, on cd format.

I did a back to back comparison with the previous 1996 version of both albums, and would say that the 2016 remasters are an improvement. Not significantly enough to warrant buying if you're happy with the previous editions, but I really enjoyed what I heard on these new editions.

Sound is a little clearer, Lake's bass has a bit more clout , esp on Welcome Back, and there's less distortion overall. Obviously neither album was ever going to win the sonic awards, but these new editions do offer up a reasonable improvement, without ramping up the volume and compressing it all.

Pictures has better bonus materials - the Pictures medley from the Mar-Y-Sol set in 1972, although audio quality dips a bit, and a pre-album recording from the Lyceum, presumably the audio lifted from the dvd, but I've yet to see the latter. Welcome has no bonus material.

The audio of Lyceum is taken from the newer remix that was released previously on Sanctuary's Deluxe Edition. The whole Mar Y Sol show was originally released on From the Beginning box set, and on it's own a few years later.

[Reid]

I picked up the 2016 reissues of Welcome Back and Pictures At At Exhibition this weekend, on cd format.

I did a back to back comparison with the previous 1996 version of both albums, and would say that the 2016 remasters are an improvement. Not significantly enough to warrant buying if you're happy with the previous editions, but I really enjoyed what I heard on these new editions.

Sound is a little clearer, Lake's bass has a bit more clout , esp on Welcome Back, and there's less distortion overall. Obviously neither album was ever going to win the sonic awards, but these new editions do offer up a reasonable improvement, without ramping up the volume and compressing it all.

Pictures has better bonus materials - the Pictures medley from the Mar-Y-Sol set in 1972, although audio quality dips a bit, and a pre-album recording from the Lyceum, presumably the audio lifted from the dvd, but I've yet to see the latter. Welcome has no bonus material.

I bought several of the new editions including Welcome Back, which I never previously owned. The high end sounds pretty crappy, but good bass, and of course the performances are exciting. Pictures, and BSS are worth it for the bonus discs. And there's some nice stuff on the debut album as well. There's not much to recommend on Trilogy, but for an extra track of From The Beginning with an alternate synth solo. And no tape hiss on the remix. I didn't bother with Tarkus. The bonus tracks sounded rather lame, and my old CD sounds fine.

[Jefferson James]

http://www.newsweek.com/interview-gr...mer-elp-507023

Long new ELP article/interview in Newsweek, which shows the popularity of the band outside of prog circles.

Great read, thanks!

[ytserush]

I bought several of the new editions including Welcome Back, which I never previously owned. The high end sounds pretty crappy, but good bass, and of course the performances are exciting. Pictures, and BSS are worth it for the bonus discs. And there's some nice stuff on the debut album as well. There's not much to recommend on Trilogy, but for an extra track of From The Beginning with an alternate synth solo. And no tape hiss on the remix. I didn't bother with Tarkus. The bonus tracks sounded rather lame, and my old CD sounds fine.

I actually just pulled out the most recent Brain Salad Surgery now (Disc 1) for my first listen (Although I'm questioning why I got it as it sounds quite muffled fuzzy and not very dynamic. Should I have gotten the 2014 remaster instead? I skipped that one.) I'm pretty sure my previous six versions of this (there are even more versions that I don't have...trying to keep this somewhat manageable!) sound better than this, but this new package is the only one I have with all of the alternate versions.

[lak611]

I think it's a pity those Bootleg Series boxes went out of print. There doesn't seem to be an abundance of multi-track recordings of ELP at their peak given how little has been released, so these would have been better than nothing. I think there's only ever been this album from the 1973/4 tours.

I remember a thread where someone (JeffCarney or Jeremy Bender) YouTube-linked to the Buffalo '74 version of 'Pictures...' (the tour encore which has never been on any version of Welcome Back) and it was astonishing, Emerson especially was on fire that night. They must have been one of the best live acts in the world at the time.

Is this the one? https://youtu.be/NkYc3MOUyEs

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[Jeremy Bender]

That whole Buffalo show from 7/26/74 is incredible, the Tarkus in amazing too. That's on the Manticore Bootleg Box #2, which also included a great Trilogy show from the Hammersmith Odeon and a really good BSS show from West Virginia. Never bought the Bootleg boxes, I had everything already.

[lak611]

That whole Buffalo show from 7/26/74 is incredible, the Tarkus in amazing too. That's on the Manticore Bootleg Box #2, which also included a great Trilogy show from the Hammersmith Odeon and a really good BSS show from West Virginia. Never bought the Bootleg boxes, I had everything already.

Is that WV show from Wheeling?

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[lak611]

Such a shame there's not a full film of them during this period. I mean, the Manticore Special film (broadcast on the BBC on the Old Grey Whistle Test in Christmas 1973) and CalJam are better than nothing. However, the former is a documentary more than a concert film and the latter is brutally edited. Deep Purple's whole set was taped and kept, making it more galling ELP's apparently was not.

I agree. I'd be first in line to buy DVDs of any 70s shows.

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[ytserush]

That whole Buffalo show from 7/26/74 is incredible, the Tarkus in amazing too. That's on the Manticore Bootleg Box #2, which also included a great Trilogy show from the Hammersmith Odeon and a really good BSS show from West Virginia. Never bought the Bootleg boxes, I had everything already.

I have the first two boot boxes. While the performances were great, I didn't think the sound quality was really good. I'd have figured there should have been a least a board recording or two to draw from. They sounded like audience shows to me.