Customer Reviews

Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Emerson, Lake and Palmer are, for many people, an acquired taste. These days they are almost universally bagged for being too eclectic and ego-driven: easy for a music critic to say when plugging a new big-ego, Pearl Jam-ripoff act churned from the sausage machine. They are not a band I play to most of my friends. Keith Emerson, synth pioneer, is probably the most talented keyboard player outside of the pure classics but anyone who has heard his studio stuff will know that he can do all that anyway. Carl Palmer, equally, is probably the most talented drummer of his generation. You will not hear more intricate rythmns than his. Greg Lake, as a bass player, kept up the pace and provided excellent vocals but his proficiency with the acoustic guitar is matchless. Probably their only unforgiveable sin, as far as the general public was concerned, was that you can't dance to their music.

So much for the band itself. The album is a recording from their world tour of 1974 when they were at their peak. Only The Who, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin could pull the same crowds. A combination of material mainly from "Brain Salad Surgery" and "Tarkus" with a small measure of their self-titled album and "Trilogy", this is probably their best overall album. Emerson insisted on carting a modular Moog synthesizer around on this tour, as in previous tours, in spite of dire warnings from Bob Moog that the instrument was unsuitable for live performances. When you listen to such tracks as "Aquatarkus", it is so hard to believe that there are only three of them on stage. There are times when you can really only hear Emerson's keyboards and Carl Palmer's incredible, almost-primal, drumming. It is even more amazing when you realise that the only polyphonic instrument Keith Emerson was playing on that track was a Hammond. That, for me, is the feature track of the album and that level of energy has only rarely been captured in a live perfomance.

Their renditions of really complicated tracks such as "Toccata" are quite stunning, especially when you consider the monumental difficulties associated with setting up the equipment required for the performance. The "Karn Evil 9" set lives up to expectations and though it is very long, it is a great representation of what the "Brain Salad Surgery" album was all about. Greg Lake's voice is as smooth as butter and at this time was still good. I don't know why but his voice deteriorated considerably soon after and whilst he sounded okay on some later recordings, he never completely recovered it. The only criticisms I have are Greg Lake's slightly irrellevant slip into King Crimson's "Epitaph", which he co-wrote but which is somewhat out of place, and the rather noisy, hissy, recording quality of the album.

Very few live recordings of any band can match this one in terms of performance. Albums such as "The Who Live at Leeds", "Deep Purple: Made in Japan" and Neil Young's "Live Rust" are the best examples I can think of but none of those albums had the sort of technical challenges which faced Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The sheer musical proficiency of these guys sets them apart from virtually all others barring perhaps Hendrix. Keith Emerson could do more with a MiniMoog and a Hammond than most others could do with a world of polyphonic instruments. These guys were walking a technical tightrope. The analogue synths of the day required things to be done properly or there was a fair chance of getting no sound at all. Held up these days as an embarrassing example of '70's overkill, they were among the best in the business and have no peer in contemporary music. Uncool as they may seem, they need apologise to nobody and neither do I. In my opinion; their best album.

Not much needs to be said about this. As a fan, this, along with "Pictures", "ELP", "Tarkus" and "Brain Salad Surgery" is the album I come back to most often.

It includes almost all of their best songs. Maybe they should have done "From the beginning" instead of "The Sherrif/Jeremy Bender" medley; otherwise only "Trilogy" is missing, and that's more of a late-night home-alone being-depressed song, and wouldn't work at a live concert - or not at a powerhouse concert like this.

(There's the occasional good song on the albums recorded after this live outing, but none of them are essential. This is the last of the great ELP albums. There's little warning here of the coming sharp decline into "Works Vols I and II" and the embarrassing "Love Beach". Every synthesizer squeak and fart on these disks is essential; very little after these disks is even good.)

This is also the last chance to hear Greg Lake's voice in good condition. (At least in ELP; he's still okay on his first solo album, and not too bad on the 1981 King Biscuit Flower Hour Greg Lake concert, with stunning guitar work from a young and then largely unknown Gary Moore.) Here you can just hear signs of wear and tear, but the voice is still mostly intact. Voice problems may be one reason why he drops the temperature on "Battlefield", from "Tarkus"; where the studio version ends literally on a hgh note, in a kind of passionate triumph, this live version ends in a more thoughtful, pessimistic mood. His voice is still excellent as ever in the ballads.

And there's quite a bit on these albums of something I never thought I'd hear: Greg Lake as guitar hero. I always admired his bass-playing, and his classically-influenced acoustic guitar playing. But I've started to realise that some of my favourite musical lines in the instrumental sections are not synthesizer, as I originally thought, but guitar riffs.

But the playing of all three is of course awesome. Keith Emerson's piano improvisations are also excellent, and even better when acoustic bass and drums join in. This band was often at its best in acoustic form: as piano-bass-and-drums.

But the mighty orchestral playing (I mean the three of them making intelligent use of the best technology of their day, not the real orchestra they teamed with later) is still sensational.

Fine album. Full of amazing stuff.

Laon

You can tell a phony critic a mile off. When they list their all time favourite albums, they usually come straight out of the Academy Of Phony Music Critics Handbook of "Cool Music". You know - Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, The Velvets' Banana Peel album, or for extra brownie points - maybe one of Big Star's albums. All good albums, but let's be honest, these are albums that one only plays occasionally, when the mood is right, and never in front of friends - unless you want to get rid of them quickly.

Ask a critic to list their most hated albums and the critics are obliged to name "prog rock" bands (they could never admit to actually liking a "prog" album - for fear of losing their credibility). ELP is usually top of their list. The critics say ELP represent the excess, pomposity and pretentiousness of the prog music scene. Maybe this is true, but one thing is for sure. ELP at their peak were the greatest live rock experience you could ever witness. None (and I mean none) of the present crop of popular rock bands could hold a candle to ELP live, and this triple live album catches ELP at their absolute peak. Buy it now, enjoy it, and stick it to those phony critics

I grew up on this stuff and wore out my Vinyl copy. This Live album has an energy and bigger sound you will NOT find on any of the studio records. Highlights for me include Karnevil 9 which includes Palmer's famous drum solo on his Stainless steel drum kit. Also "Aqua Tarkus" blows away the studio version by the same name. This is a trippy extended journey into the sound of early synth. music. I lose a bit of interest when Emerson goes off on his Honky Tonk and classical Piano numbers but if you like piano you may find this interesting. Also, some of the gimmicky things like sythesized percussion sounds a bit dated. But hey, they were breaking new ground in music.

Overall though, this is a great album. I can't beleive this is a trio. When you listen to it it sounds like about 10 people playing. This kind of music will not appeal to everyone but for those looking for something a little different from the 70's this is a great pick. Even today this music stands out as unique and may still be ahead of our time. For me, this album was THE height of ELP's success . Art Rock at it's Best. When they write the history books of Rock this album should surely be mentioned as one that stands out. I'll be taking this along with about 11 other albums when I go to that fabled "desert Island".

This is the definitive album for those who are die-hard ELP fans or wanting to hear what ELP could do in front of a live audience. This is circa 1974, so the recorded sound quality is not the greatest, but it displays their talents that put most bands to shame. Keith Emerson plays "Hoedown" much faster than on the studio version, Carl Palmer does a drum solo that is so long you wonder where he gets his stamina from, and Greg Lake's voice is much more haunting than in the studio, as well. I only wish I was old enough to have been there! This ranks as my favorite album of all time. Nothing else compares. ELP is probably the most talented group I have ever heard. Their raw energy on this album is spellbinding amidst the live setting. Buy it!

When you approach the discography of Emerson Lake and Palmer, you are sure to find a dozen or maybe more "Best of" albums trying to summarize the true essence of the band. The truth is that none of them accomplish that. If you want an album (double CD, originally released as a triple vinyl in 1973) that brings out the soul of the band, "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends" has to be your choice.

ELP was a trio of virtuoso musicians, each of which continues to be recognized as one of the best at his instrument of all times. Keith Emerson played the piano and keyboards as a true maestro, as can be heard in "Piano Improvisations" here. Greg Lake (who started with prog-rock school, King Crimson) was a magician with his voice, the bass guitar and the acoustic guitar: this album's renditions of "Take a Pebble (inc. Still... You Turn Me On" and "Lucky Man") and "Take a Pebble" prove his mastery by far. And Carl Palmer, who ended up in Asia after ELP, I consider to be one of the fastest and most precise drummers there is, along with Phil Collins and Rush's Neil Pert. Just listen to the super-fast version of Copeland's "Hoedown" and "Tocatta" and you'll see what I mean.

All in all, this is a true jewel for all ELP followers, an excellent place to go to if you haven't had a chance to sample their work, and a historical musical document of how trully brilliant they were in their natural medium: playing live.

If you like like ELP or Prog Rock in general, you'll love the music played on this album. Read some of the other reviewers for the details, but for sheer musicianship this album has few peers. How three performers can alone hit you with so many waves of sound, so well played, and sung is quite amazing. Part of that has to do with Keith Emerson's (at the time new) Moog Polyphonic synthesizer, which allowed him to change between sounds without considerable programming time. On music this CD is better than five stars.

Alas, in 1974, when this was recorded, the hot thing was "quadrophonic" sound, a precursor to today's surround sound. The tour was thus played with quadrophonic in mind, and thus the reason some parts sound like they were recorded from the back of the auditorium is that that's where the sound eminated. The quadrophonic flaws are especially noticable at the conclusion of the album (the end of Karn Evil 9).

So, starting with a base of 5.5 stars for the virtuosity, and deducting half a point for the recording quality, this nets a 5 star rating.

This is ELP in their hayday, this version of "Jerusalem" is the definitive one. The live atmosphere comes through, turn up the volume!

"Take a Pebble" and its conclusion (on disc 2) are stunning and "Piano Impovisations" are lent that extra touch by the live recording.

1974's "Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends" captures Emerson, Lake & Palmer live in all of their grandiose, progressive-rock glory, while the trio were on tour for their 1973 classic, "Brain Salad Surgery." Originally a *triple* live vinyl album upon it's original release, "Welcome Back" has got it all for the diehard ELP follower: Keith Emerson's show-offy keyboard & synthesizer workouts, Greg Lake's omnipresent bass, voice, and guitar, and Carl Palmer smacking up a storm upon his mighty drumkit. The trio are a powerful force live in concert, and the album is worth getting just for their amazing, complete performances of their epics "Tarkus" and "Karn Evil 9." But, of course, no ELP live recording would be complete without a solo spotlight for each band member: Emerson's "Piano Improvisations" are outstanding, Lake is terrific with his beautiful acoustic renderings of "Still...You Turn Me On" and "Lucky Man," and Palmer delivers a powerful, extended drum solo (complete with gong) on "Karn Evil 9: First Impression." "Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends" is an essential purchase---and a mindblowing live album---for the Emerson, Lake & Palmer faithful.

I hate to sound like most of the previous reviewers, but this may be their best cd ever. I remember back in the 70's, as a kid, paying $15.00(I think) for this 3-record set. I remember walking home thinking "this better be worth it!". The sound quality is definately a problem. It sounds as if you have balcony seats. Did the direct feed mics fail? Did someone in the audience unplug something? It was one of those things I wish Kieth Emerson talked about in his bio, rather than trash Greg Lake. That aside, the power and execution of the songs just trash any of the sound issues. The hyper-speed of Hoedown, Jersalem then into Tacotta...then Tarkus!...Name me one band from that era who could pull off that lineup of songs! Emerson? nothing digital, resetting moogs on the fly, amazing. A lesson for any would-be musicians today... Anyway, if you dont know about prog rock or ELP, this may be to big of a pill to take. If your an old ELP fan and dont own this-buy it!