ELP Digest Monday, 27 Jul 1992 Volume 2 : Issue 16 The "Tonight and forever, be watching over you" edition... Today's Topics: What I'll do with tour set lists, ELP Covers, Lake lyrics, etc. My life as an ELP fan, etc. ELP BSS Trivia Question comments on BLACK MOON review Black Moon: A Personal Opinion Atomic Rooster Repeat of special mailing: re: Tickets for Concord Pav. (Cal.) ELP COMING UP ON "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" ELP at Great Woods (Mansfield, MA) and Hartford, CT... Submission: ELP article in Boston Globe Reply to Barrett & Comments on complexity . . . My ELP Concert Review [ Editor's note: Beginning in this issue, I'll label concert reviews as SPOILER so people who want to be surprised by the concert set list, etc. will know NOT to read further. See message #1 in this digest for details. Also, I'd like to indulge myself for a moment and say that how could one choose a better way to start an ELP tour than with the birth of a baby? That's right, my wife and I had a baby boy on Friday, July 24th to help kick-off the ELP tour! We resisted the temptation to name him Keith Gregory Carl Arnold (just kidding!) and settled for Kenneth Charles Arnold. The whole family is doing well, thank you. = John = ] Digest, mailing address, and administrative stuff to: J.Arnold@bull.com\ = for now, these are the same ELP-related info that you / want to put in the digest to: J.Arnold@bull.com Note: The opinions, information, etc. contained in this digest are those of the original message sender listed in each message below. They are not necessarily those of the mailing list/digest administrator or those of any institution through whose computers/networks this mail flows. ------------------------------------------------------------ To: arnold Subject: What I'll do with tour set lists, ELP Covers, Lake lyrics, etc. Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 10:44:32 -0400 From: arnold A few items have come to mind based on re-reading some of the recent ELP Digests: 1) What I'll do with tour set lists... I don't know exactly how much of a "surprise factor" everyone wants at the ELP shows this summer. I suspect that some people may want to go without knowing exactly what will be played. However, others (especially our friends in Europe, Asia, and beyond) may not live close enough to a tour stop to see ELP and they'd like to get details about the concerts. To balance these competing points of view, here's what I'm going to do about concert reviews, set lists, etc. that get sent in to the ELP Digest... I will try to put the concert detail messages at the END of each ELP Digest. That way, people can read the regular ELP stuff without fear of "contamination". Then, I'll put a separator labelled "SPOILER" before the articles that talk about the tour. If you don't want to know what the concerts are like, save these and don't read them until after you've seen the show. I'll try to keep these rules in effect for the duration of the 1992 tour. (But I'll also apologize in advance if a concert article accidentally sneaks through without the warning.) If you can think if any other ways to improve the ELP Digest, as always, please let me know. I really enjoy sharing the ELP information and am open to ideas about what would make it more interesting/readable to you. 2) ELP Covers. Not exactly what you were looking for, but... I think "The Fools" (A Boston-based band that specializes in humorous rock songs) did a cover of "Lucky Man" about 5 years ago. Knowing The Fools' repertiore, I'll bet they changed the words to something quite unlike the ELP version. I saw this on an extended play single way back when and, like a fool, didn't buy it. Has anyone else heard of this? Also, there's a Massachusetts-based duo that has included a great rendition of "Footprints in the Snow" in their set list. The duo, called "Back Pages" appears in places like the Mattapoisett Inn (in Mattapoisett, Mass.) and Tom Foolery's (in my home town: Westborough, Mass.) 3) Lake lyrics. Regarding the use of metaphor, etc. in Lake's lyrics. I can honestly say that, until I read this note, I hadn't noticed the frequent use of these writing styles. So, I guess it didn't (and doesn't) bother me. I think the lyrics on Black Moon are quite a bit stronger than those on ELPowell. Pete Sinfield certainly has crafted some great lyrics but Lake has scored some pretty big wins, too. Admittedly, there are some really trite words on parts of Love Beach (side 1) but even Sinfield's story line on Love Beach's "Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman" was a bit subtle and rife with references that require a pretty good understanding of 20th century Britain to fully understand. Applying at this same criticism to some of the songs I've written, I'd have to say that some of my own songs fall prey to excessive analogy. Others are more like a story being told. I guess one needs to strike a balance. I find the "Black Moon" album has an OK balance for me. Actually, I found the "like a guillotine" line in "Footprints of the Snow" to be remarkably effective. The song goes along like a typical Greg Lake love song and then, out of the blue, there's this stark image of love getting cut down unexpectedly. In context, this may be my favorite line of the album. Till next time, = John = ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Jul 92 08:54:35 CDT From: doug@tellabs.com My Life As An ELP Fan... Well, I finally decided to post to this digest. I have been a fan of ELP for about 20 years (I'm 31). Back in 1971 our music teacher at school came into class one day all excited about this new band he had heard of. He played the first ELP album for us in class that day. From that day on I was hooked. I soon began taking organ lessons and within a couple of years was able to figure out some of Keith Emerson's licks. I got to see ELP on their last tour in January of 1979 in Chicago. It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen to this day. The sound system was incredible. The concert lasted for 3 hours and 45 minutes, with a 15 minute intermission in the middle. I was extremely impressed with how great Pirates sounded without the orchestra. Halfway through the concert, at the end of Karn Evil 9, the big modular Moog was ripping through its sequence and turning to face the crowd when it exploded and disappeared behind the smoke through an opening in the stage. I thought the concert was over, but that was only an appetizer. I also got to see Emerson Lake and Powell when they toured. This was also a good concert. But the soundman must have been deaf. All you could hear was the drums and bass. If I wouldn't have been familiar with the music, I probably wouldn't have recognized it. When 3 toured I went to see them. About all I can say about this concert was that I got to see a Keith Emerson keyboard solo, a Carl Palmer drum solo, and a female backup singer with huge hooters. Desda La Vida was pretty good live. Still can't figure how they got the name 3, there were 5 people on stage, hmmmmmmm. Upcoming Black Moon Tour.... A couple of weeks ago I went to get tickets for the upcoming Black Moon performance in Chicago (August 16, World Music Theater) I was second in line and got 15th row almost dead center. I CAN"T WAIT!!!! Review of Black Moon.... I waited till I had thoroughly listened to this CD before I made any comments on it. I bought the CD the day it was released and have listened to it almost every day since. I can now say that I like it alot. Sure, it's no Tarkus or Brain Salad Surgery. But, Keith Emerson seems to have returned to the sounds that made ELP what they are. From his use of the dirty Hammond B3 sound on Paper Blood, to the almost Lucky Mannish synth solo at the end of Farewell To Arms, the music echoes back to the old ELP sound, but with a new feel and texture that makes it a little smoother. Greg Lake's voice is a little different (could be the massive weight he has put on), Carl Palmer's playing seems a little laid back, and Keith Emerson also seems to hold back on a couple of songs, but all in all, a good album. Tarkus (Eruption transcription in Keyboard Mag)..... Has anyone out there been playing around with this music? I started messing with it the other night and was able to play the left and right hand parts separately, but when I tried to play them together, I broke several fingers. Its going take me a little while, but I'll master it. Does anybody out there have the Tarkus music book that was published??? I was wondering how faithful the book is to the recording. Later, ( ) __ ( ) ( ) ) ) ) (( (( / / )) (( )) (( (( ( (( )) ____/ / _____ __ __ _____)) ) (( )) ( (/ ___ / /___ / / / / / /___ /( (( )) (( ) ) )/ /__// //__// / /_/ / //__//)) ))( (_) )(( Doug David (( /_____/ /____/ /_____/ /___ /(( (( ) (_)) doug@tellabs.com ))__________________________// )) ))( ( ( /__________________________/ ( ( ( ) ------------------------------ From: Burch Seymour Subject: ELP BSS Trivia Question Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 9:59:11 EDT I was just sitting here listening to Karn Evil 9, Second Impression, and was thinking that I've never been able to figure out if the little voice in the background (at about 1:50 into the track) is actually saying anything. Has anyone ever figured this out? Or is it just voice-like noise? Just call me curious... - -Burch Seymour- bseymour@encore.com [ Editor's note: Me, too. I've always wondered about this. Knowing Emerson's occasional silly voices on old Nice tracks, it certainly sounds like it could be Keith's voice that's been processed. Ideas, anyone? = John = ] ===================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 14:59:33 EDT From: pgr@ramandu.ext.vt.edu (Patrick Robinson) Subject: comments on BLACK MOON review I'd like to make a few comments on Dan Barrett's review of BLACK MOON. First off, let me say that for the most part, I wholeheartedly agree with his criticisms and ratings of the tunes (including those of old ELP tunes). > (1) Black Moon > > This song has a creative and driving beginning, but the relentless > BOOM BOOM BAP of the drums gets tiring halfway through the song. ^^^^^^^ Before that, for me. I couldn't believe this was ELP. The beginning *is* good; when I first put it on, and heard the beginning of "Black Moon" (up to the point where the BOOM BOOM BAP starts), I was thinking, "Great! They DID it!"... I had heard _about_ the "We will rock you" beat, so I was kind of expecting it (with a bit of apprehension, I must say), but when it just kept on and on and on ... bleach. Like that Energizer Bunny. > I found > the drums very distracting, since they are prominent in the mix and never > vary -- they sound like a machine. Like a machine programmed by a novice without much imagination. > To summarize: the song consists of little keyboard "fiddlybits" > played over an unceasing BOOM BOOM BAP. It reminds me a bit of ELPowell's > "Touch and Go", with the same boring synth-horn played over an eternal tonic. It seems brain-dead to me... they're not composing like they used to. They're just taking a riff and repeating it over and over. Very disappointing. The "fiddlybits" toward the end (when the BOOM BOOM BAP drops out for a bit) start out interesting, but it doesn't GO anywhere... then the drums come back. > (2) Paper Blood > > Should have been called "Black Moon Part 2" -- again, we have a > merciless drumthud (BOOM BAP BOOM BAP, this time) played over a simple, > 6-note bass motive and a 5-note chorus. Again, the bass line is repeated ad nauseam, without going anywhere. There *are* a couple of nice organ solo lines, but you're so sick of the 6 note bass line by that point that you Just Don't Care. > (3) Affairs of the Heart > > grade-school poetry. This sums up my opinion. > ... the vocal melody is just plain boring. I tried to > identify exactly why the vocal melody is so dull, and I figured it out: > no jumps! Well, I think the melody line *could* have been ok... for a while. But, once again, whatever they're doing (in this case, the simplistic vocal line), they just repeat over and over without GOING anywhere. You summed this up below where you say you've heard the whole piece after the 1st minute. > (4) Romeo and Juliet > > This adaptation of Prokofiev's piece is so bad it is laughable. Agreed. Just ridiculous. > They should have titled it "March of the Pregnant Elephants." Hah! That's great... > THIS is the same band that gave us the remarkable adaptations of > "Hoedown", "Fanfare", "Jerusalem", and "Toccata"?!? It's hard to believe. *Much* about this album is hard to believe. On the other hand, so was Love Beach, so maybe we shouldn't be surprised. > (5) Farewell to Arms > > Greg's singing is particularly pretty on the chorus, especially > at the end when he uses his upper register. Nice!! Agreed. It seems to me that little things like this are so striking because I keep expecting *everything* to be bad. And I'm just surprised when they do something nice. Bad attitude, huh? > ...Keith's synth solo at the end, except for 1 > measure that is "trademarked Keith", could have been played by anybody. Measure 17 of the solo. Good stuff... but it made me sad that he saw fit to "cut loose" like this for a single measure. C'mon, Keith. Oh... I like the "Whiter Shade of Pale" reference in the organ part. :-) Did that pop into anyone else's head? > (6) Changing States > > noble-sounding horn synth solo (shades of "Touch and Go" again) It just keeps going, and going, and going, and going... > Criticisms include ... > ... the fact that the band never really "lets > loose" during the tune. My criticism of the entire album. > (7) Burning Bridges > > This song was written by Mark Mancina, the producer. It is typical > pop, but sufficiently different from previous tunes that it's almost like > a breath of fresh air. Sick, isn't it? > The vocal melody is markedly different from Greg's > previous ballads (and better). The choral-sounding backup vocals in the chorus are nice, too. > ...The keyboard solo is not bad, but the harmony is so dead at that > point that the overall effect is uninspiring. Not bad, but not good, either. Some of the organ work is nice. Then the Noble Synth Horn (tm) rears its head... > (8) Close to Home > > Keith's solo piano piece. It sounded to me like a digitally sampled > piano rather than an acoustic one, but Keith says it's a Yamaha grand. > The piece has a slow, somewhat pretty theme, as well as some interesting > dissonances. Still, it's not an Emerson tune that I'd be interested in > learning to play myself (in contrast with, say, "Take a Pebble", "KE9 > second impression", "Trilogy", and "Infinite Space"). It struck me as a collage of Keith Jarrett (some of the dissonance and chord progressions here and there), George Winston (the melody and sparseness), with a little Emerson thrown in. It gets a little better (more Emerson-like) when he gets away from the melody and improvises over it. I wasn't too impressed with the sound of the piano, either... I think it could have been a bit more "present". It sounds like it got mis-EQ'd. Overall, I like the tune, though. There are a couple of riffs (where he's doing fast chords with both hands. I don't know how else to describe it) which I think sound out of place. I have to say, I *like* Keith Jarrett. And the Emerson-y bits make a nice icing on the cake. > (9) Better Days > > This is the best rock song on the album. The beat, for once, is > very appropriate and quite catchy. It is similar to Pink Floyd's "Run Like > Hell" from THE WALL. I don't think it has quite the drive of "Run Like Hell". Also, there's not enough going on during the verses. I think what I mean by this is that there's too much repetition, where *all* the instruments just keep doing the same thing. It doesn't hold my interest. The chorus seems to have a little more energy. Oh... I wanted the Clav sound to be a bit nastier. It sounds too "preset". And the clav playing doesn't have enough "soul", if you know what I mean. It sounds too... uh, "white". > The organ playing at times reminds me of "Knife > Edge", and the ending organ solo is well done (and played over non-boring > chordal harmony... yay....) The actual sound of the organ is nice, too... it's clean when it needs to be, but gets dirty to good effect during its solo lines. > (10) Footprints in the Snow > > The best Lake ballad on the album. Yup. > It sounds like a "real" Lake > ballad (like "Lucky Man" and "Still You Turn Me On") rather than the > throwaway sap from Lake's side of WORKS VOLUME 1. Don't even get me started. That disc(s) cost me $20. I'd have rather paid $10 and gotten only sides 1 and 4. :-) > OVERALL IMPRESSIONS > o I am *sick* of ELP (and ELPowell and "3") tunes that are > nothing but "noble-sounding horn solos played over static, > tonic chords". They are a hollow substitute for the > progressive rock style. Hell, I can write better > music than that. Ditto. It's just too easy. It makes me think he's (Keith, that is) just really, really bored. And now... so are we. > o The pounding, gated-reverb-soaked, boring drum parts. > Come on, Carl! If you're going to play like that, just > buy a drum machine and save yourself some work. BOOM BOOM BAP! "We will, we will ROCK YOU!" I think he *could* even have kept the basic beat, but done some different things with it. Carl's bored, too. > o Some lyrics are very corny. Bring back Pete Sinfield! ^^^^ I'd say *most* lyrics. > o There are too many "bloom" effects; enough to make them a > cliche. In case you don't know the term, a "bloom" is a > sound that rises in volume and comes to an abrupt halt, > like "wwwwwWWWWWWTT!!!" It appears in at least 3 or 4 songs. That's interesting... I didn't notice it at first, but after listening again, you're right. One of those subtle things that contributes to the boredom factor. > Overall, I was very disappointed with BLACK MOON. I recommend that > fans buy it, but it's not going to get much play on my stereo. ...except for that one measure in "Farewell to Arms" :-) After listening to all the junk up to that point (i.e. 1st 4 tracks and most of the 5th) this measure was a real shocker. I wasn't expecting it at all! :-) - -Patrick Robinson pgr@ramandu.ext.vt.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jul 92 09:00:38 EDT From: Brian=Podesta%COMPUTER%UMASS@BANYAN.UMMED.EDU Subject: Black Moon: A Personal Opinion Now that I've had a chance to absorb Black_Moon, Here are my observations: Quality ELP Song Synopsis ----------------- -------- 1. BLACK MOON Scaled down ELP accomplishes commercial success. 2. FOOTPRINTS... Solid Greg. (Isn't there a hint of Bobby Goldsboro in there?#!@). 3. CLOSE TO HOME Keith in fine form as usual. 4. FAREWELL TO ARMS A 'Lucky_Man' duplicate. (I can see someone at NBC using this as promo music for the Olympics) 5. CHANGING STATES Old connotations of ELP, somewhat falls apart eith ELPowell doldrums, and ends abruptly) 6. PAPER BLOOD Carl doin' a little Rap Beat? 7. AFFAIRS OF THE HEART A bit too wordy, melody fine, it ought to get much airplay on soft rock stations. 8. ROMEO AND JULIET "Preganant Elephant March" a great opinion from Dan. They coulda done better. 9. BETTER DAYS Belongs on an Asia album. 10. BURNING BRIDGES Absolutly horrid. Belongs in the trash. Looks like an ELP favor to producer Macina. Ouch! Overall, I do like the newness to ELP. It is 10x better than ELPowell, but is still made for commercial purposes. I suppose if I was in ELP's shoes, I be composing the same material for a little xtra cash. The upcoming tour should provide a good insight to the albums instrumental songs, and I hope they do Romeo_and_Juliet with more energy. I think Black_Moon is by far the best song on the album, and it ranks as one of ELP's top ten songs. Top Ten songs you ask? In my opinion: 1. AQUA-TARKUS, Live Version. 2. HOEDOWN 3. STILL YOU TURN ME ON 4. PICTURES, The Hut of Babba-Yabba 5. TOCCATA 6. KARN EVIL 9 1ST IMPRESSION 7. TRILOGY 8. BLACK MOON 9. PIRATES 10. FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN Isn't it great to criticize? Thanks, have a nice day. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1992 15:38:29 EDT From: mcintyre@msupa.pa.msu.edu Subject: Atomic Rooster >From: barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett) > What Atomic Rooster albums are the best? I saw a few in a >store recently, but didn't know which ones would be most representative. There is an excellent CD anthology entitled _Home To Roost_ that covers nearly all the albums, including a few cuts from the first album, the one with Carl Palmer. This might be hard to find. I got it as an import and do not know if it was ever released in America. Of the individual albums, IMHO the best by far is the second album _Death Walks Behind You_, which was the first US release. (Yeah, it gets confusing. _Atomic Rooster IV_ is two different albums depending on which country they were released in, sigh.) This was a different band than on the first album with Vincent Crane on keyboards being the only carry-over. _Death Walks Behind You_ added a guitarist which added much to the music IMHO. The next album _In Hearing Of_ is much the same band and is pretty good, but after it was recorded, the guitarist was fired and the band went back and mixed out most of the guitar work. For the later albums, Chris Farlow did the vocals, but I feel he was better suited for Coloseum than Atomic Rooster. The final, almost posthumous album, _Headline News_ is severely lacking in energy, although Dave Gilmour does put in an appearance. So my suggestion is get _Home To Roost_. That may well satisfy your needs. At the least it will allow you to decide which period Atomic Rooster most interests you. If you can find the vinyl (or if they have come out on CD and just escaped my notic) start collecting the individual albums with _Death Walks Behind You_ (much better cover on the English album than on the American) and _In Hearing Of_. John McIntyre Physics - Astronomy Dept Michigan State University ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 09:24:25 PDT From: Mark.McCarron-Fraser@Corp.Sun.COM (Mark McCarron-Fraser) Subject: Re: ELP Digest V2 #15 [ This is a repeat of a special mailing I did in case anyone missed it. = John = ] An EMERGENCY note. ELP tickets for the Concord Pavillion (CA) go on sale SUNDAY, July 12. Not August 2 as reported in the last issue of the Digest. Tickets are $22.50, plus $3.00 service charge at BASS. (I hate BASS.) Tickets for Cal Expo are not on sale yet. Keep calling for info. 408/998-2277. ;-) - Mark ------------------------------ Date: 15 Jul 92 23:28:52 EDT From: Damien DeSimone <71221.2364@CompuServe.COM> Subject: ELP COMING UP ON "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" Hello everyone: I just wanted to let everybody know that ELP will be on Good Morning America sometime during the week of August 3! For those who don't know, GMA airs on ABC weekday mornings from 7 to 9. Get those VCRs ready! Thanks to Dan Barrett for the detailed review of BLACK MOON in the last issue. All right, so it isn't ELP's greatest work, but it AIN'T THAT BAD! Actually, I think it is a very good album, but I don't know if it will win over any new fans. Dan, I thought some of your comments were quite funny, especially what you said regarding ROMEO AND JULIET: "This adaptation of Prokofiev's piece is so bad it is laughable. The combination of BOOM BAP BOOM BAP with the fat Moog solo makes the whole piece sound ponderous and (yes) pretentious. They should have titled it 'March Of The Pregnant Elephants.'" That was pretty funny. Oh, I must agree with you about the boring drum parts! What the hell was wrong with Carl! I will be seeing ELP next Friday night (July 24) in Philly, which is the first date of the tour, July 26 in Holmdel, NJ, July 31 in Stanhope, NJ, August 4 in Hartford, CT, and August 15 in St. Louis, MO. I have *never* seen ELP live (or ELPowell or Asia or 3), so I am really looking forward to these shows. There really is no escape from this band! See ya on the road... BOOM BOOM BAP, Damien DeSimone 71221.2364@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Subject: ELP at Great Woods (Mansfield, MA) and Hartford, CT... Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 12:49:13 -0400 From: arnold In case anyone else is attending either of the 2 New England ELP appearances, I just wanted to let people know that I expect to be at both shows. I don't know if there will be time for any of us to meet each other and put faces to names, but in case there's a chance to meet before or after the show, here is where my tickets are: Great Woods: Section 1, Row G, seats 3-6 Hartford (Bushnell Aud.): Mezz C, Row K, seats 215-217 Maybe I'll get to meet some of you in person! = John = ------------------------------ From: marshall@emavp04.webo.dg.com (Marshall Wood) Subject: Submission: ELP article in Boston Globe Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 11:01:14 EDT I saw this in the Boston Globe today. Nothing really new in this, but at least it's a little more publicity! - --------------------------------------------------------------- [ Reproduced without permission from page 6 of the Calendar section of the July 23, 1992 edition of the _Boston Globe_: ] ELP's joyful reunion Emerson Lake & Palmer set standards that few bands could match. The classical rock trio not only helped pioneer stadium shows back in the '70s, but they were a relentless touring machine. In 10 years, they played an average of 180 cities a year - all over the world. "You do that for 10 years and you're a vegetable," singer Greg Lake said recently from New York. ELP, who had such megahits as "From the Beginning" and "Lucky Man," climaxed in a 1979 show at Montreal's Olympic Stadium before 70,000 fans. "By that time, we just wanted to get away from it. Enough was enough," drummer Carl Palmer said. But ELP fully expected to reunite one day. After 13 years, that time has come with a fresh-sounding new album, "Black Moon," and a tour that starts this weekend in Philadelphia and hits Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday. "I think we understand ourselves a lot more now," said Palmer. "I think everybody has learned an awful lot about life, about music, about the industry in general. And we appreciate each other more." Unlike many reunions, this wasn't a commercially conceived project. ELP were summoned by a Los Angeles friend, Phil Carson, who suggested they would be the ideal soundtrack band for a film he was hoping to produce. The film never happened, but ELP got together and jelled immediately. "We never even saw a script," said Palmer. "But we were all free and said, 'Well, let's go have a play.' So we checked into a room at a rehearsal complex and, before you knew it, we were there for three weeks and had a bundle of ideas." "There's a special chemistry about ELP that just wasn't the same with other musicians," said Lake, who, like Palmer, served a later stint in the group Asia. "There was the feeling of this being the right combination again." The new album is more socially conscious than past ELP discs. The title track, "Black Moon", was written by Lake after seeing oil wells being set on fire during the Persian Gulf War. And "Paper Blood" has the line: "The measure of success is how much you can charge it on American Express." But the group's new tour will include songs from every album during their career, which started in 1970. "We're back," said Lake, "and we're ready to take things to the limit again." - --------------------------------------------------------------- The article was written by Steve Morse (no, not _that_ Steve Morse!), the same guy who wrote the (surprisingly) positive review of the album that I posted a few weeks ago. I wonder if the first sentence in the last paragraph is really accurate. Are we really gonna hear "Taste of My Love" from _Love Beach_ ? :-O --MWood ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 10:17:58 PDT From: Mark.McCarron-Fraser@Corp.Sun.COM (Mark McCarron-Fraser) Subject: Reply to Barrett & Comments on complexity . . . ELP Commrades - I feel compelled to respond to Daniel Barrett's "review" of Black Moon. (BTW I sent Daniel a longer personal, more polite note.) Complexity does not necessarily equal goodness. Let's recall that the critics panned "Tales From Topographic Oceans", "Relayer", and "Brain Salad Surgery"; while they loved "90125". Oh and in case you (you-all, not just Daniel) haven't noticed it is now 1992. These are not the halcyon days of 1973 - "Lark's Tongues in Aspic", "Brain Salad Surgery", "Tales From Topographic Oceans", Camel's 1st, "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" WoW! So, with all due respect to Daniel - who obviously is an accomplished musician - a leaner cleaner sound is not heresy. One of the things I have alway loved about ELP was a lack of distortion and a minimum number of instruments that made the mix easier to listen to. (OK, so I'm a minimalist.) Today's improved technology - instruments and production techniques - means that musicians can make more precise recordings. Sometimes this is for the good, sometimes for the bad. Personally, I'm disgusted with the lack of creativity on the radio waves. I thought that heavy metal was played out in the middle seventies, maybe early eighties, and now it's the rage. So let's not bash musicians who are trying to do something a little different in the current climate. Be realistic. Brain Salad Surgery part 2 would be uncreative, and likely a financial disaster for our heros. Of course we all love Tarkus, but they did it already, in 1971 remember? Time to move on. You may not like Black Moon, or not all of it, but it is a modern sounding ELP. At least they didn't just retire. Thanks for listening. - Mark ------------------------------ SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 17:20:52 EDT From: William Berger Subject: My ELP Concert Review First off, thanks John for taking the time to run the ELP digest, I have found out a lot of information about one of my favorite bands due to your efforts. Well I saw ELP Sunday night 7/26 at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. It was raining for those fans who had lawn seats, but I had managed to get first row center section C, not bad seats at all. I had never seen them play before, too young for the Works Tour, they opened with a partial of Karn Evil 9 Pt. 2, went into Knife Edge, did Paper Blood and Black Moon. Sound was excellent and they have added two big screen t.v.'s for better viewing. This is from memory but then Emerson played two piano solos, I don't remember the names, (he got a standing ovation!) then Lake played >From The Begining, and Lucky Man. They did Pirates, and then Pictures at an Exhibition, Palmer did a fantastic solo during one of these songs, I don't know exactly the name. They played for about and hour and forty. Came out for one encore and did Fanfare for the Common Man and I think America is what the other song is called, Emerson fights a organ and plays some Bach from the opposite side laying under the keyboard. I just remembered they also did Affairs of the Heart and the Romeo and Juliet instrumental. So the show lasted about 2 hours. The GSAC was rocking the whole time the crowd was really into it and the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves. So go out and get tickets for the tour near you. ------------------------------ End of ELP Digest [Volume 2 Issue 16] *************************************