ELP 1st and Brain Salad Surgery Anniversaries

[Jaco]

This week we had 48th and 45 th anniversaries of the above albums. For me, sort of book ends of the peak period. 1st leaps out the traps, makes big statements, guttural, quite raw. BSS much more polished , multi layered , ambitious. Perhaps the peak. Have just listened to the 5.1 mix in the BSS boxed set and Lakes bass is incredible in KE9, reminds me at times of Chris Squire.

Emerson moves more towards multi synthesist on BSS, Palmer thunders on both.

The 3 Fates is a masterpiece which people rarely mention in the canon.

Just some thoughts.

[miamiscot]

Long live ELP.

I think people have forgotten how good they were.

ELP 9.5/10
Tarkus 10/10
Pictures At An Exhibition 9/10
Trilogy 10/10
Brain Salad Surgery 10/10

Works Vol. One 7.5/10
Works Vol. Two 6/10
Love Beach 5/10
Black Moon 4/10
In The Hot Seat 3/10

[dropforge]

Long live ELP.

I think people have forgotten how good they were.

ELP 9.5/10
Tarkus 10/10
Pictures At An Exhibition 9/10
Trilogy 10/10
Brain Salad Surgery 10/10

Works Vol. One 7.5/10
Works Vol. Two 6/10
Love Beach 5/10
Black Moon 4/10
In The Hot Seat 3/10

First one's 10/10, too! A freakin' CLASSIC, that.

[Zappathustra]

First one's 10/10, too! A freakin' CLASSIC, that.

The first is the best. And definitely one of the most influential discs of all time. Come on, it's 2018, and even in Far Corner's beautiful recent record you hear Emersonian hammond attacks out of nowhere.

[PixelDelirium]

The most remarkable thing about the BSS anniversary is that there was no special 45th anniversary edition released.

(Sorry, couldn't resist. This is easily the album I own the most copies of in various forms.)

[Fracktured]

What a Christmas 1973 was. My brother got BSS and I got Allman's Laid Back. Loved them both then and still love them today. S/T is fantastic also. I can't imagine it ending any other way but with Lucky Man and that great Emerson moog solo. BSS has always been a winter album for me.

[GuitarGeek]

I can't imagine it ending any other way but with Lucky Man and that great Emerson moog solo. e.

I keep wondering, though, what Keith was going to play, if Greg had let him do that second take he wanted to do.

[starless and bible black]

This week we had 48th and 45 th anniversaries of the above albums. For me, sort of book ends of the peak period. 1st leaps out the traps, makes big statements, guttural, quite raw. BSS much more polished , multi layered , ambitious. Perhaps the peak. Have just listened to the 5.1 mix in the BSS boxed set and Lakes bass is incredible in KE9, reminds me at times of Chris Squire.

Emerson moves more towards multi synthesist on BSS, Palmer thunders on both.

The 3 Fates is a masterpiece which people rarely mention in the canon.

Just some thoughts.

Yes! IMHO, ELP's "classic period" kicks off with their debut album and ends with Brain Salad Surgery.

[JJ88]

On the debut I've always been somewhat dubious about 'The Three Fates' and 'Tank'....you can tell that material was thin on the ground in their early days. These are too indulgent/solo-heavy for me. I like the almost Zappa-esque introductory part of 'Tank' though, and the last 'fate'- I prefer the ensemble playing to just one of them soloing.

With the obvious exception of 'Benny The Bouncer', BSS is their masterpiece, IMHO. Some are not keen on the production but I love it; I've never heard another album sound quite like it.

[lovecraft]

I'm the same about the debut. Take a Pebble seems like not much stretched to breaking point. Side 2 offers not much of interest bar the famed moog solo. Never been quite sure why it is lauded as much as it is.

[proggy_jazzer]

Two great albums IMO, neatly bookending the period when ELP stayed most true to their band concept: adaptations of classical pieces, Emerson's pyrotechnics, Lake's balladry, and Palmer's inventive support of all the above. I went through a period when these records and the ones between sounded too dated to me, but I've since come full circle and appreciate them for the audacious statements they were. I doubt we'll see the like again.

[stickman393]

Tarkus the Album can not be rated 10/10.
Yes, the title track is a monster and overshadows pretty much everything else they've done by a margin; but Side Two of the ALBUM arguably contains some of their most disposable filler material.

[Fracktured]

BSS is their masterpiece, IMHO. Some are not keen on the production but I love it; I've never heard another album sound quite like it.

No other album that sounds like it is a good way of looking at it. It is very unique.

[Sputnik]

On the debut I've always been somewhat dubious about 'The Three Fates' and 'Tank'....you can tell that material was thin on the ground in their early days. These are too indulgent/solo-heavy for me. I like the almost Zappa-esque introductory part of 'Tank' though, and the last 'fate'- I prefer the ensemble playing to just one of them soloing.

With the obvious exception of 'Benny The Bouncer', BSS is their masterpiece, IMHO. Some are not keen on the production but I love it; I've never heard another album sound quite like it.

I agree with all this, except about Benny, which I love.

Bill

[SunshipVoyager1976]

Tarkus the Album can not be rated 10/10.
Yes, the title track is a monster and overshadows pretty much everything else they've done by a margin; but Side Two of the ALBUM arguably contains some of their most disposable filler material.

I like "The Only Way", but otherwise I agree with this.

[JJ88]

I agree with all this, except about Benny, which I love.

Bill

The best I can say about it is that it's better than the two 'comedy' songs on Tarkus.

I think KE9 First Impression Part 2 is, alongside the live 'Aquatarkus' on Welcome Back..., their all-time peak. They were firing on all cylinders at this point.

Oh yes, I should also mention Emerson's synth excursion on that live version of 'Pictures...' from Buffalo, 1974. Amazing, full-on stuff, and sadly long out of print (only in one of those bootleg boxes, alas).

[Sputnik]

The best I can say about it is that it's better than the two 'comedy' songs on Tarkus.

No argument there, though I don't hate Jeremy Bender. I do basically hate Eddie, though.

I think KE9 First Impression Part 2 is, alongside the live 'Aquatarkus' on Welcome Back..., their all-time peak. They were firing on all cylinders at this point.

Love all of KE9, but my favorite parts are First Impression Part 1 and Second Impression. I also love Toccata; those are the peaks for me on an album basically full of peaks.

Bill

[aith01]

Brain Salad Surgery is truly unique in how it sounds. I will never forget putting that CD in my car for the first time when I was a teenager, and especially when it got to Karn Evil 9. That was mind expanding stuff.

I don’t care for Benny, but the rest is top notch. And I’m quite fond of that first album as well. Tarkus... not so much. But the title track is indeed impressive.


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[Scrotum Scissor]

I'm the same about the debut. Take a Pebble seems like not much stretched to breaking point. Side 2 offers not much of interest bar the famed moog solo. Never been quite sure why it is lauded as much as it is.

"Take a Pebble" was the very illustration of progressive approach at that exact point in rock music; "It's probably insane, but hell, let's try it!" When that bass E hits with a cymbal in the middle of the apparent improv, that's enough for me. Fantastic! I have a much harder time with the dubious songs on side 2 of Tarkus or the rock'n'boogie-classical of Exhibition. The debut and BSS were, to me, their finest albums. And "Benny" might not be much, but hey! It could have been a 23-minuter or a 5-hour boxset!

It would have been inkredipel.

[jkelman]

I'm the same about the debut. Take a Pebble seems like not much stretched to breaking point. Side 2 offers not much of interest bar the famed moog solo. Never been quite sure why it is lauded as much as it is.

Because when it was released nothing had ever sounded like it before. I disagree with you on Take a Pebble. I think side one is a solid 10/10. Side two, I give a 9 because Tank is, well, a drum solo with some ok music bookending it. I agree with the poster who said Three Fates is unjustly overlooked.

So, side 1 10/10, side 2 9/10, resulting in 9.5/10 for me.

[Zappathustra]

I am sorry to break the news but Tank does not make ELP's first a lesser album. The Hare does not destroy Passion Play. An album's worth is not measured by summing up its individual tracks worth divided by the number of tracks. It is measured by the taste that it leaves in your mouth, and by its overall effect on the development of rock music. You guys would have Exile On Main Street be just a little worse than Anekdoten's Vermod, but this could only happen in the autistic wanderings of the prog aficionado.
ELP's debut is a defining piece of progressive rock music, and that goes well beyond individual taste. Musicians who were nurtured on it - and they are so many - is proof enough for this.

[Jaco]

Tank is an astonishing tour de force to my ears, some of Lakes best on bass as well as the drumming. Tucked away too on Take a Pebble and 3 Fates is an early use of Carl's left handed single hand roll, sort of nicked from Buddy Rich.

Be interested to hear from keyboard players but did the Hammond go from guttural on the 1st to a more 'glassy' tone on BSS, they seemed quite different .

[señormoment]

Listening to ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Toccata’ back to back, I think the “gutteral” and “glassy” contrast of the hammond sound is mostly due to differences in recording/mix. However, on ‘Toccata,’ one also gets the effect of a leslie speaker.

[rminsk]

And the 50th anniversary of "Ars Longa Vita Brevis" by The Nice.

[grego]

I like "The Only Way", but otherwise I agree with this.

I like Bitches Crystal, A Time and A Place, The Only Way.