Originally Posted by
Jeremy Bender
They only did Abaddon's Bolero a few times (3? 4?) on the 1973 European "Get Me A Ladder" tour, it just didn't work. They were using tapes and as The Who found out when they tried to do Quadrophenia in 1973 using a bunch of backing tapes, they are fickle, break down, are hard to play along with etc. One of the few bright spots for me of having the orchestra in 1977 (besides Pirates, of course) was they could finally do Abbadon's Bolero justice.
I'm glad ELP never used Mellotron as part of their sound, it set them apart sonically a bit from King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Gentle Giant.
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