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43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sheer talent..., October 24, 2002
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.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant. Virtually a best-of, with ELP at their peak, August 23, 1999
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
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kings Of Prog, February 22, 2005
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
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