very excited for this always enjoyed the original album and particularly their live performances which were full of energy.
also a big fan of pilgrimage to a point.
for those interested in the Japanese bonus track I asked Robert what it was on facebook and he responded "it's a crazy instrumental that I didn't think was right for American and European audience but felt the Japanese audience would love. its a little over the top."
EDIT: I just checked my iTunes library. It is part of the debut album demos boot named 'Talkin 'Bout You', track #16. Max Bacon sings this version and as I metioned previously there is a ton of Howe noodling. There is a version of the Berry pop song Young Hearts sung by Bacon as well. Did I mention that there is a lot of Howe guitar noodling on it?
"Why is it when these great Prog guys get together, they always want to make a Journey album?"
- fiberman, 7/5/2015
this is a quite heartwarming turn of events. the original 3 album was, obviously, not without its faults but it had a certain charm in its twisted “richard marx does prog” way. berry’s “pilgrimage” had already proven that he can re-enact the traits of his eternal idols (emerson, howe) all by himself to a frightening degree – and i am still not convinced that it is not steve howe who plays all these great soaring guitar lines on “no one else to blame”.
i find myself returning to the available live recordings from the 1988 tour quite often. their mix of the album’s AOR-tunes interspersed with ELP instrumentals was highly entertaining, as was the looseness of their performance and the obvious cameraderie within the band. whereas ELPwl seemed preoccupied with serving the then outdated ELP legacy grandeur (and the megalomania baggage attached which soon fell back on their feet) 3 seemed natural and unforced while straddling the best of both worlds without quite achieving any of them. “hoedown“ kicked large amounts of gluteus max, emerson in top form and back on the moog and thus ditching the unwieldy GX1 (which had been dusted off for ELPwl), jaunty west coast style tunes, what's not to like? swallow your pride: nowt.
interesting. interested.
Say what you want about 3, but that was a great show. Having recently seen ELPowell from a million miles away at MSG, seeing 3 in a little club on LI (Sundance), from 20 feet away was a trip.
Check this December People track on which he becomes the entire Yes (not to mention many other spot-on soundalikes on those albums):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08N4L8GPCbU
Another song from this new album:
"In my life, I have played with many very famous musicians," Berry says. "Each one has had a son that is affected by that fame. They see a powerful man up in that stage. But all also had a great dad off of that stage. Sammy Hagar’s son Aaron, Steve Howe’s son Dylan, Greg Kihn’s son Ry and Keith Emerson’s son Aaron. They were all raised by loving, powerful dads. And now in Keith's family, his grandson is following in his footsteps. Ethan Emerson may be as good as his granddad someday. Now that was a powerful man. They are all the inspiration for the song 'Powerful Man.'"
I thought Locomotion was cool actually. Might have even gotten them more airplay if it was released as a single though it wasn't on the original release. Apparently it was quietly added later. I agree about the production. Worst aspect of that album but I always consider it a victory that an album like that even got released in 1986 and even enjoyed somewhat moderate success.
It was years - decades actually probably - before I heard Locomotion. A few years after the album came out (which I initially owned on cassette) I came across a used CD with EXTRA TRACKS! I purchased it. I excitedly brought it home, and found that the person who sold it to the record store had swapped out the original pressing - presumably keeping the CD with the bonus tracks. The back of the jewel case had the songs listed. They were not on the CD.
I had exactly the same experience. After wearing out my vinyl copy of ELPo, I was more than happy to stumble upon a CD version in the early 90s in a small record store (remember those were the pre-internet days). It was an official release by Polydor USA, sealed and with a sticker ("Great Sounds") on it. The two extra songs were listed on the back cover, were printed on the disk itself and were also credited in the booklet (without lyrics), only that when I played the CD, the music ended with 'Mars the Bringer of Wars'... It was a big disappointment, but to this day why the songs weren't there remains a mystery to me. A quick research in 'Discogs' was not of much help. It seems that these two tracks were only present in the US release, not even in the Japanese, but which version is really the definitive one?
I bought mine about 13/14 years ago and it was an import copy from the US or Canada (they always have those stickers on the plastic) and it does have the two bonus tracks. 'Vacant Possession' is OK but 'The Locomotion', I've said all there is to say!
I remember it ended with 'Mars', but as I hadn't played the CD for a long time, I checked it on a computer. It shows 8 tracks indeed (Mars being the last one) and a duration of 42 mins. Normally hidden tracks are not displayed on tray cards or back covers. One small detail: the year of production on the CD I own is 1986, which means that this is the initial pressing and that the two extra tracks were added later, as ytserush mentioned.
A new audio The Classic Metal Show LIVE interview with Berry:
https://player.fm/series/the-classic...interview-2018
A couple new reviews of the new album:
https://0dayroxx.blogspot.com/search/label/3.2 - which reviews the japanese edition with the bonus track 'Sailors Horn Pipe'.
http://www.realgonerocks.com/2018/07...-have-changed/
Great new 45-minute audio interview with Berry - he talks about his time with GTR and why it didn't work out (and teases the amazing version of "Talkin Bout" with Howe on guitar) and some great insight about the new album, including the original plan to bring in Simon Phillips on drums:
yea I'm kind of curious as well. between the success of Asia, Genesis and GTR, plus Yes scoring a #1 hit, you'd think labels would be chomping at the bit to try to get ELP back together
as time goes on the production on the Powell album bothers me less and less. I actually just wrote about it on my blog. In some ways "The Score" continues where KE9 3.3 left off. It's a pretty entertaining disc and probably their best since Brain Salad Surgery.
Critter Jams "album of the week" blog: http://critterjams.wordpress.com
^^ The production on ELPo never sounded bad to me because my intro to the album was the original vinyl, which sounds far better than the original CD. The reverb in particular, which was overabundant on most 80s recordings, sounds lighter and airier on the vinyl. The keyboards also don't sound nearly as cheesy on the vinyl, same with the 3 album.
Last edited by progmatist; 08-09-2018 at 01:53 PM.
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