Isle of Wright?

man, that was farking stupid. and i like prog rock.

RON PAUL!

er...

ELP!

In 1971, the drugs were spectacular, but even on acid, EL&P sucked.

Get off my lawn you technocolored hippies.

Aw come on, Karn Evil was a staple on the ol 8 track.

Noodly noodly noodly
Noodly noodly noodly
Noodly noodly noodly
Noodly noodly noodly
Noodly noodly noodly
Noodly noodly noodly reeeeeeeee

*yawn*

I've always liked "Lucky Man" and "Karn Evil #9" but overall I always found them crushingly pretentious. Friend of mine who is a drummer has said good things about Carl Palmer though

Show ELP some respect.

They were the Prodigy of their time.

/drums & bass for the win!

Hate if you want. But I like ELP. This isn't my favorite song but I enjoyed it. I look at it this way, it was music for musicians and that is their niche. They never had big hits, Lucky Man is the only one that made it real big. The sold enough records that the label thought it was worth it.

It depends how you are built. I like long songs with lots of jamming. If I listed my favorite songs, many would be 8 - 10+ minutes long.

6 minutes of Carl Palmer and one snare drum (new window)

I always found them crushingly pretentious



NAIL HIT ON HEAD


....they did sound really good though.


However,by far the worst crime of ELP is that they paved the way for crap like Mannheim Steamroller which then led to the wretched abomination that is Trans Siberian Orchestra.

At least ELP did the whole dopey classical-rock thing first.
ELP sound a lot better and less watered down than Steamroller and Trans Siberian.

One of the most horrifyingly grotesque ideas ever put to tape. It's a rock band, adapting a classical piece, by sticking in a blues jam, and doing the blues jam all wrong by making the most prominent instruments a Moog and a Hammond. It's one of the greatest assaults on good taste ever conceived.

I love it.

craigdamage: I always found them crushingly pretentious

NAIL HIT ON HEAD

"Pretentious" is such a meaningless term. What kind of criticism is that? It's like saying "how dare these good musicians play complicated music!"

At least ELP did the whole dopey classical-rock thing first.
ELP sound a lot better and less watered down than Steamroller and Trans Siberian.

Well... Yes, King Crimson, Deep Purple, and the Moody Blues were around before ELP. Switched on Bach was out a couple years earlier. Even ELO was formed the same year as ELP.

Sorry Torc---if you don't know what pretentious is then obviously you don't get it.


Let me attempt.

When someone tries way to goddamned hard to be profound....that is pretentious. Some things are auspicious by their originality and natural grandeur but when someone tries to achieve this without the correct sincere merit it appears as pretentious. Being technically proficient is NOT what made ELP pretentious. It was all in their execution.

Heavy-handed.
Contrived.
Labored.
Pompous.
Over indulgent.
.....etc.....

Shoving Copeland,Mussogorsky and Tchaikovsky down a rock audience's throat is pretentious.

The Persian rug Greg Lake always stood on is pretentious.

The lyrics to Karn Evil 9 is pretentious.

Any rock album that has "Fugue" on it is pretentious.

Keith Emerson rocking his organ back and forth during his obnoxious solo is pretentious.

Trying to be enigmatic is pretentious.
(trying and failing is just embarrassing)


(Ian Anderson once admitted that Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" album was deliberately made to be way over the top and pretentious as a parody lampooning the whole "progressive rock" thing.)

/every year at family gatherings my mother in law gives these pretentious speeches where she pretends to get real emotional and starts crying and makes a big dramatic scene. (very pretentious)

craigdamage: blah blah blah

Yeah, watch those old films of them playing something like Pictures at an Exhibition. It's not remotely insincere, artificial, or forced. It's just three guys having fun doing what they're doing. You might not like it, but that's not their fault, although it's kind of pretentious of you to expect that failing to cater to your tastes means there's something wrong with them.

Last I checked, nobody "shoved" anything down an audience's throat; if they didn't like the music, they didn't have to listen. Putting on a big overblown spectacle is "pretentious"? That means they're like every sporting event and most movies and concerts.

No, "pretentious" is just a code word for "people like something I don't, so I have to put it down so I don't feel stupid". It's the intellectual equivalent of farting and blaming it on the dog.

apparently so.

craigdamage: I always found them crushingly pretentious



NAIL HIT ON HEAD


....they did sound really good though.


However,by far the worst crime of ELP is that they paved the way for crap like Mannheim Steamroller which then led to the wretched abomination that is Trans Siberian Orchestra.

At least ELP did the whole dopey classical-rock thing first.
ELP sound a lot better and less watered down than Steamroller and Trans Siberian.

i'm not so sure they weere the first with classical rock. procul harum was much earlier with "whiter shade of pale" and the group renaissance too was very classically oriented.
el&p while never a really top 10 band asides from "lucky man, nutcracker , and possibly karn evil 9" were a *fantastic * live band.
the blues variation is a part of the larger pictures at an exhibition lp. i heard them in new have at the new haven area perform it "the first time live" they said. this venue was before the coleseum and was just an over size indoor hockey venue. perhaps 1000 seats. bloody hell, their sound system vibrated my seat set on concrete across the arena. emerson was a god with the hammond b3 and true moog combo and lake was great on drums, palmer did good on vocals.
pretentious? you bet...fun tho'.

blick: craigdamage: I always found them crushingly pretentious



NAIL HIT ON HEAD


....they did sound really good though.


However,by far the worst crime of ELP is that they paved the way for crap like Mannheim Steamroller which then led to the wretched abomination that is Trans Siberian Orchestra.

At least ELP did the whole dopey classical-rock thing first.
ELP sound a lot better and less watered down than Steamroller and Trans Siberian.

i'm not so sure they weere the first with classical rock. procul harum was much earlier with "whiter shade of pale" and the group renaissance too was very classically oriented.
el&p while never a really top 10 band asides from "lucky man, nutcracker , and possibly karn evil 9" were a *fantastic * live band.
the blues variation is a part of the larger pictures at an exhibition lp. i heard them in new have at the new haven area perform it "the first time live" they said. this venue was before the coleseum and was just an over size indoor hockey venue. perhaps 1000 seats. bloody hell, their sound system vibrated my seat set on concrete across the arena. emerson was a god with the hammond b3 and true moog combo and lake was great on drums, palmer did good on vocals.
pretentious? you bet...fun tho'.

bah...i meant *nutrocker"

.....btw--I never said ELP "sucked" or whatever.

I love pretentious heavy handed prog-rock.

Somebody had to do it.
They way OVER pushed the envelope.
Hell,I listened to Yes "Tales From Topographic Oceans" the other day and still enjoy it.

...and NO--ELP were not the first to dabble with Classical. I know that. The were the first to REALLY EMBRACE it and cover it.

Fanfare,Pictures,Nut-"rocker" etc.

Kinda like how Black Sabbath isn't really the first heavy metal band but yet they are.

Ramones weren't first punk........

BillCo: In 1971, the drugs were spectacular, but even on acid, EL&P sucked.

Get off my lawn you technocolored hippies.

Granted they were a second rate Return to Forever, ELP did have a few decent albums (Tarkus, self-titled etc.) and from what I've heard they were a decent live show too.

All I can say is in 1971 who would you rather see: ELP or the Bay City Rollers?

They played the Isle of Wight, the largest music festival in the world at that time, which has 2 performances that are absolutely classic in their own rights (Jimi Hendrix and especially Miles Davis). They certainly weren't near the best band in the world at that time, but comeon... you don't actually think they sucked do you?

And sorry to threadjack, but any Miles fan needs to own this:

http://www.amazon.com/Miles-Electric-Different-Kind-Blue/dp/B00069FKN2/ref=pd_bb s_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1213583328&sr=8-1

(sorry, I lack HTML skills).