Bracket: Trilogy vs Brain Salad Surgery

[strawberrybrick]

Or should have it been Tarkus? Anyway, for me, it's Trilogy.

[popeyebonaparte]

Trilogy!!!

[TCC]

. BSS
. Trilogy.
. Tarkus.

[flytomars]

Easy. Trilogy.

[chalkpie]

Trilogy.

[adewolf]

For me:
Pictures At An Exhibition
Tarkus
BSS
Trilogy

[Socrates]

BSS

[Kcrimso]

Brain Salad Surgery. Their ultimate peak.

[mx20]

Toughie.

To me, these are the two very best that ELP ever recorded. I perceive them as back-to-back masterpieces: Trilogy is more organic & joyous, while BSS is stark & futuristic. A great pairing, IMO.

In a pinch, I'd have to go with Trilogy.

[Zeuhlmate]

Trilogy

[lak611]

Trilogy

[Jubal]

Trilogy. Both are great albums, though.

[aplodon]

Trilogy

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[Mister Triscuits]

BSS

[Jefferson James]

Brain Surgeon's Salary, hands down. The Karn Evil suite is the premier progressive rock epic, setting the standard for all that followed (and there weren't many). Some of this shit is just very difficult to play as well as being fantastic music. Karn Evil 9 Second Impression transcends rock music. It's legit. Toccata? Come on, nothing sounds like that. Jerusalem is mind-blowing (learn it).

Trilogy's a great album but, come on, it comes nowhere near the sheer musical brilliance of BSS. The proof is in the musicianship, learn both albums on the instrument of your choice and tell me what sounds better and which is more challenging to learn.

BSS is a cornerstone of my musical identity. I thought if The Beatles had stayed together, living in one house as a family, they eventually would have written music on the scope of BSS. BSS seemed, and seems, to me like the logical result of the development of rock music. It stands alone. There's Brain Salad Surgery and then there's everything else.

I'm gonna take off my longjohns and play the 3rd Impression now; John Williams might have written this for Star Wars. Fantastic music.

Load your programs...

[A. Scherze]

Both excellent albums and at first blush a tough call. But, with a closer look it can only be:

BSS.

[Jefferson James]

I just realized it's impossible for me to be objective about BSS; it's too deep inside of me. It's the musical molecular chain that keeps me vertical. I'm like a narcissist in the sense that I use BSS to mirror myself. Fuck, I love that album. It's "the one", you know? Everything revolves around this album, anything else sounds negative, primitive, limited.

[Paulrus]

Very tough. Both albums are desert island disks for me so it's hard to make a wrong choice. I probably enjoy listening to Trilogy more, but give the nod to BSS in terms of sheer brilliance. Trilogy is a much better sounding album, but "KE9" (I'm talking about the entire 3-part suite) is a better composition than both "Trilogy" and "The Endless Enigma" combined. And I think those are both pretty insanely great, which tells you how I feel about "KE9." Yeah, I'll give the nod to "The Sherriff" over "Benny the Bouncer", but the rest sort of levels out. But Lake didn't sound much better than he does on "Jerusalem", and to me "Toccatta" is like Yes' "The Ancient" in terms of pushing the envelope.

Anyways, yeah... no wrong choice here.

[selfextraction]

BSS

[mogrooves]

Trilogy

[Conti]

Trilogy

[aith01]

Trilogy.

But this is a tough call nonetheless. Hearing BSS for the very first time as a teenager was an experience I'll never forget.

In terms of sheer listenability, Trilogy wins for me.

And Kerry, I love your posts. Actually laughed out loud at more than one point.

[Jmac]

Trilogy for me. My fav ELP.

[zravkapt]

Trilogy

[Garden Dreamer]

Trilogy by a nose, but these are ranked 1-2 and are the only ELP I really need. Yeah, I never was much for Tarkus...