Emerson Lake & Palmer s/t debut 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY: A Supergroup's The Most Honest Masterpiece.

My favourite of theirs as well; the Stevne Wilson 2012 remix on CD is how I listen to it now.

 

Love all their early albums through Brain Salad Surgery. Welcome Back could’ve been great, but the recording quality left a lot to be desired. Everything after that feels like a downhill slide to me.

ELP had been a visionary group, some might say pretentious, but musically profound. Pirates just seemed anticlimactic with much less of importance to say after BSS. With Love Beach it’s like they tried to adjust their look and style to fit into the short lived Disco era. This is just my take on a group with incredible potential when they arrived on the scene in 1970.


Cat

 

Brain is probably their best lp,but The first lp is great

 

From ELP to Brain Salad Surgery they could do no wrong.

 

The last note of "The Three Fates" tested many a woofer.

 

The Barbarian is my favorite song. Prog as its best. Love the moment when Palmer switched from drum sticks to jazz brushes.

 

I have always had a problem with ELP much as I've tried to like them. Absence of meaningful guitar, absence of backing vocals (Greg Lake had a great voice but it was always hanging there without support) over-fiddly keyboards.

 

Great debut, probably the best debut by a prog band.
BTW: Pirates was their last great song.

 

I think King Crimson’s debut was better and more influential to other bands.

 

Because it was recorded by the King Biscuit Flower Hour for FM radio. Compression deluxe.

 

Yeah. Good singer on that album.

First album and Trilogy stand the test of time, for me. At the time I enjoyed all the albums up to and including (as one review put it) the threateningly titled Works Volume 1.

King Crimson blew them away (artistically) in the 1973-1974 run of three albums and of course the first album which was/is a masterpiece.

 

I could never get past Moonchild. Spoils the album for me.
Greg made a great decision as KC never went premier league.

 

Comparing King Crimson to ELP is kind of pointless.
Other than the early Greg Lake connection they are not the same animal at all.

 

Uh-oh -- you said the triggering phrase, "50 Year Anniversary" ...!!

Cue yet another record company reissuing the entire ELP catalogue, with yet more barrel-scrapings for bonus tracks.

 

You do know that Pete Sinfield is also connected to both bands.

 

Yes, and point well taken.
Still musically they are unique.
I don't compare those two bands to each other.
As I wouldn't compare Gentle Giant to VDGG.

 

Never really thought of ELP as a supergroup, just really good prog band but that's neither here nor there. I like the debut especially "Take a Pebble". Great song! But I do like the three albums after this a bit better than the debut. Solid first album.

Agreed. I liked the first KC album but never got into anything they did beyond.

 

Just a lot of drummed up nonsense by the rock "journalists".

 

Trilogy is their apex for me, but that first record is a stunner. Nice to read some appreciation about it.

 

Couldn't agree more, both are most definitely unique. However one does tend to think of them as linked in some way. Even Jakko Jakszyk the current KC singer remixed Trilogy and BSS.

At the time Yes and ELP were the Oasis and Blur of prog rock. And it would difficult to compare them either.

Funnily enough John Wetton and Greg Lake had similar, but distinctive styles, and they both sang in the same two bands, KC and Asia (Lake 1983)

 

Not true. The echoey sound has nothing to do KBFH. In fact, their mix sounded pretty dry compared to the mix ELP made. In case you didn't know, the stereo mix was a fold-down of the quad mix. It was never properly mixed for stereo.

 

I stand corrected. Thanks.

 

The debut has such a great recorded sound. A favorite from that year along with the Yes Album.

 

I love the debut album, no weak tracks, all killa, no filla. Take A Pebble is Greg's best tune.