ELP Digest Monday, 11 Jul 1994 Volume 4 : Issue 10 The "Beat the Frenchman" Edition Today's Topics: In The Hot Seat In The Hot Seat (more) Meeting the Boys in Japan IN THE HOT SEAT (A REVIEW) ELP Tour Plans? In The Hot Seat - A Preview In The Hot Seat - A Further Look California Jam available anywhere? Mark Mancina and "Speed" Re: ELP Digest V4 #9 (Peter Gunn) Re: CD Europe (ELP Digest V4 #9) ELP videos? and Emerson solo stuff Re: Re: ELP Digest V4 #8 (ELP literary tastes, etc.) The Lion King & ELP Connection? Prelude ======= As you see above, a few readers have had a chance to preview "In the Hot Seat", the new album expected from ELP in the near future. I look forward being able to make up my own mind about this latest direction from ELP. - John - Digest, mailing address, and administrative stuff to: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com ==\ => the same for now ELP-related info that you / want to put in the digest to: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com =/ Back issues available via anonymous ftp: ftp site: ftp.uwp.edu user name: anonymous password: provide a full email address path: /pub/music/lists/elp/digests/1991/elp-digest-1.* /pub/music/lists/elp/digests/1992/elp-digest-2.* /pub/music/lists/elp/digests/1993/elp-digest-3.* /pub/music/lists/elp/digests/1994/elp-digest-4.* 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. Unless otherwise noted, the individual authors of each entry in the Digest are the copyright holders of that entry. Please respect that copyright and act accordingly. I especially ask that you not redistribute the ELP Digest in whole or in part without acknowledging the original source of the digest and each author. Thanks! ------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Jul 1994 08:51:12 +0200 From: bjorn-are.davidsen@s.televerket.tele.no To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com Subject: In The Hot Seat I guess I am not the only one who have received news about this, but in case I'm sending some information on the new record. It has ten tracks, in order: 1: We Have The Power 5:22 2: Daddy 4:42 3: One By One 5:07 4: Heart On Ice 4:19 5: Thin Line 4:45 6: Man With The Long Black Coat 4:12 7: Change 4:44 8: Reason To Stay 4:14 9: Gone Too Soon 4:11 10: Street War 4:23 I have so far not had the opportunity to listen to any of it. However, according to those who have, Greg Lake is singing on every track and the music is rather heavy (as in heavy rock). Let's hope this means quite another musical direction than Love Beach! I may get a demo copy tonight, and if so I'll report my impressions. Bjorn-Are Davidsen, Oslo, Norway. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Jul 1994 09:54:26 +0200 From: bjorn-are.davidsen@s.televerket.tele.no To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com Subject: In The Hot Seat After having listened to the first two tracks of In The Hot Seat (through a telephone...) I can say that this is no Love Beach! The style is a bit more like Asia, and one can clearly hear the keyboard! Emerson had several rather fancy and strong solos on the first tracks, and I am really looking forward to hear more! Bjorn-Are Davidsen, Oslo, Norway ------------------------------ From: Maureen@eworld.com To: j.arnold@ma30.bull.com Date: Mon, 04 Jul 94 14:05:04 PDT Subject: Meeting the Boys in Japan [ Editor's note: this was forwarded from a non-Internet connection. Contact Maureen for follow-ups. She knows how to get in touch with the person who wrote this. - John - ] To: ELP Digest Subject: Meeting Keith, Greg and Carl in Japan. In March of '92, I was in Nagoya, Japan waiting for the doors to the Public Auditorium to open and the Yes "Union" concert to begin. While waiting, I began talking with a Japanese boy about progressive music. Thinking back, I guess "talking" is a bit of an exaggeration since he spoke no English and I very little Japanese. However, we did have a common interest and that was "Pro-gre" (the Japanese contraction for 'progressive music'). I mentioned that my all-time favorite band, since their first album, was ELP and he informed me that a new release was due the next month. I was ecstatic since I had heard nothing of the reunion. Sure enough, "Black Moon" hit the record shops in April of the same year and by September, ELP was performing in the major cities of Japan. About 3:00pm outside the Nagoya Public Auditorium (same as the Yes concert), I was walking around and spotted a small group of Japanese guys standing by a small door as if waiting. I joined them to discover they were discussing ELP music and humming along to the sound check inside, which was Keith running through a passage of Eruption at lightning speed. We all knew every note, of course. Twenty or so minutes later, the door opened and out came Carl accompanied by the Assistant Tour Manager, Chris Risner. I was immediately singled out as being the only "gaijin" (foreigner) in the group and Carl struck up a conversation with me while signing autographs. He asked me where I was from, what I was doing here, what was it like to teach English in Japan and so on while I tried my best to be cool and keep my composure. At one point he jokingly asked, "Do they need any good drum teachers over here?" I replied: "Yeah, they do but you have a good job." I'm not usually one to follow bands around like a common groupie but in ELP's case..... I was talking to a journalist from a British newspaper who had been commissioned by ELP to chronicle their tour of Japan and I mentioned that I would sure like a chance to speak with Keith. He said they were very accessible and he told me they where they were staying so I decided to take a chance. I hung around the lobby for about 40 minutes and sure enough, Keith came down and was heading out to spend some Paper Blood. I caught up with him, stuck out my hand and just said, "Thanks man, for twenty plus years of wonderful music." He asked me many of the same questions as Carl and then was off. I was completely satisfied. Two days later, I saw their show in Osaka and again went to their hotel afterward. This time all three came down, though at slightly different times, and signed autographs for a group of about fifteen Japanese and me. I again asked for Keith's autograph twice on the Works I CD jacket. Once under his picture and once on Pirates. Since there weren't many people, he stayed and chatted a bit after signing. It was great! Me again being the only other fluent English speaker in the house, many of the Japanese fans were channeling their q's through me. I asked him about "Creole Dance", a part of his solo section of the show, and he seemed genuinly pleased that someone should hit on that one instead of one of the standards; Tarkus or Lucky Man pehaps. Then it was over. I have been in Japan for seven years. It's ironic that the highlight of my stay here was this event which has very little to do with Japan itself. Andrew Deal 6/94 Toyohashi, Japan Sla/n, Mo! ------------------------------ From: dave.bentley@ps.com (Dave Bentley) Subject: IN THE HOT SEAT (A REVIEW) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 15:55:00 GMT To: j.arnold@ma30.bull.com I have just received a copy of the new album, and my first impressions (I've only listened to it once) are that my fears voiced in the last digest have come to fruition. This is not classic ELP. None of the tracks are much longer than 5 minutes. Greg's voice sounds good, but the material is very bland and both Keyboards and especially the drumming are very uninspired. There is one track (track 4 I think) which reminded me a bit of Procol Harem, which could have been saved if different instrumentation (i.e. Hammond) was used. Obviously my opinions may change after further listenings but I'm affraid that not one track really stood out as being great. It does sound as though my fears that the keyboard parts would be laid back padding for Greg's vocals were correct. I suppose we couldn't except virtuoso keyboards after Keith's operation, but what there is NO excuse for , in my opinion, is the absolutely uninspired basic beat drumming on nearly every track....come on Carl what are you playing at? The tracks could possibly have been saved by some interesting drumming. To sum up...I will buy the album, when it's released, but it has come as a major disapointment after the slight promise on the Black Moon album. It is hard to believe that this album was recorded by the same people who did such great works as Tarkus, Take a Pebble, Endless Enigma, Karn Evil 9, Pictures, The Barbarian, etc etc. I will send a more complete review when I have heard it a few more times. David Bentley ------------------------------ From: Richard Eckman Subject: ELP Tour Plans? To: j.arnold@bull.com Date: Wed, 6 Jul 1994 12:55:46 -0400 (EDT) I received a note from Dave Terralavoro, publisher of the ELP fanzine, "Fanzine for the Common Man", which mentions that the latest news he has is that ELP plans a tour of Japan in September and the USA in October. I presume this would be in support of the new album release in late August. Has anyone heard anything more on any of this? The last I read on the net, the planned summer tour had definitely been cancelled and this is the first I've heard of any new tour plans. Dave has sources at Victory records, but it appears that other net people have been in contact with Victory as well in the recent past. Richard Eckman NASA Langley eckman@eos1.larc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 12:01:23 +0200 From: bjorn-are.davidsen@s.televerket.tele.no To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com (Non Receipt Notification Requested) Subject: In The Hot Seat - A Preview John! AT last, I am sending my impressions of ItHS and at the same time some words/comments/advertisements from the man with the greatest ELP collection in the world (I think), Massimo Cavallucci. Here it goes Re: IN THE HOT SEAT After having heard a "secondhand copy" of the promotional tape two times my verdict is that this is not as good as one could have hoped, but then again far from as bad as some has feared. ItHS is a kind of mixture of side one of ELPowell and the heavier songs on Black Moon. It is not very much like their interpretations of old songs on RoTM. Even if it is very song-oriented, there are some good keyboard intros and solos! The music grows on each hearing (so far two, some songs three times). However, I think they could have done better, if they had had an Emo in top shape! Some comments on the songs (based on my memory and some notes, as I write this on my job far from any cassette player. There may also be some clever parts I missed due to the not too good tape copy): 1: We Have The Power 5:22 Good keyboard intro, with very rhytmic piano. A fast song with an almost gospel feeling in parts. I liked this one! 2: Daddy 4:42 A slow, sad song ("Daddy come and bring me home") with electric guitar and a bluesy feeling. One may perhaps get a little bored after having heard it some times. 3: One By One 5:07 Sympho feeling, fast beat, dramatic keyboard. Very good instrumental parts, the "song parts" not as good. 4: Heart On Ice 4:19 Slow, piano based ballad. Not very good in my opinion. Boring. 5: Thin Line 4:45 Heavy, kind of groovy thing with a backing choir. Occasional some disco licks and hammond! Good live possibilities! 6: Man With The Long Black Coat 4:12 I guess this is the Dylan song? Kind of slow and heavy, very dramatic. Perhaps a bit "over the top" or melodramatic (e.g. like Meat Loaf). 7: Change 4:44 May be the best one, at least in my opinion after two hearings! Very drum oriented with heavy (bass?) drum in the refrain, which is very catchy with the title whispered in the background to Greg's singing. Good keyboard, even if somewhat restrained. 8: Reason To Stay 4:14 Slow ballad, however, with a dark bluesy feeling. I did not like it particulary much. El guitar, just a few traces of keyboard. 9: Gone Too Soon 4:11 Quick and poppy with a synth solo. Not too good. 10: Street War 4:23 Fast and heavy, good hammond, some inspired solos! Lake varies (intentionally) between a very deep and a rather high singing. Good. The rest is Pictures from RoTM, which means that the "mass market" (let's hope for one) get this without having to invest in a CD Box. All in all I would rate this as below the first five and ELPowell, but defintely better than Works Vol 2 and Love Beach! It is difficult to compare it to Black Moon, as ELP once again moves in a new musical direction. Has there ever been a band that varies so much in the TYPE of music they play? Unfortunately I do not think they have made a CD with all the potential that still is in the band! The project may have been changed due to Keith's arm (puzzling lot of guitar on the songs), even if they for commercial reasons will never admit it, in at least three years or until a new CD is on it's way... However, I really look forward to get the CD and listen to it with better sound than my tape! I do think it is worth getting, even if it is not so good as it should have been! Bjorn-Are Davidsen, Oslo, Norway. Re: Some comments from CAVALLUCCI Massimo Via Rapisardi, 15 05100 TERNI ITALY Terni, July 1 To: FAB 60, Subject: 3. If you are interested, I can obtain for you THREE's CD "3 to the power of three". Please send me your adress (sorry, but I haven't internet access). To: MIKEL BIKO, Subject: audio/video Dear Mikel, if you are interested in audio/video trade of ELP and related and progressive, please send your audio/video list against mine (I'm interested ONLY in ELP & related items, but I have a section of Progressive and others asmong my 3000 titles, incl. live-boot-demos). To: Stephen BKR, Subject: ELP CD w/Shylimbs and the Shame Greg Lake started his musical career with two local bands called UNIT FOUR and THE TIME CHECKS (no 7" LP released), after that in a band called THE SHAME which released a 7" "Don't go away little girl/Dreams don't bother me" (Poppy re. UK 1967): very hard to find!! After that he was in a band called SHY LIMBS. They released a 7" titled "Love/Reputation" (Deram rec. UK 1968). I have the Italian release on CBS label from 1969. This track is also available on a compilation VV.AA. titled "Circus day vol. 3. Regarding ELP's CD retrospective, the exact title of this item is "Rarities" (Dynamic Sound DS 93FO 48 numbered Limited edition, my copy is # 0002) a Japanese release containing the SHY LIMBS and THE SHAME sigle tracks, plus other ELP demos and rarities tracks. If you are interested, please contact me! To: Dave Bentley, Subject: Brian Newman Dear Dave! Many thanks for your articles on this personage! You have opened our eyes! I hope that the words of Brian Emerson aren't true. To: All ELP digest fans/collectors I would like to trade info/audio/video of ELP and related. Your list against mine. To: Liv & Sue A great cheers to my great English friends! To: Bjorn Hope on your help and patience! Thanks in advance, cheers. MASSIMO. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 09:09:28 +0200 From: bjorn-are.davidsen@s.televerket.tele.no To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com (Non Receipt Notification Requested) Subject: In The Hot Seat - A Further Look Seing that there has been no Digest out as yet I can give more of my impressions on ITHS, after having heard it some more times. My critical facilities may be weakening (after all it is a very hot summer in Norway and it has been many late nights with the Soccer World Championship, not speaking of trying to raise a couple of kids) or the music is better that I reported first. I am really beginning to like it, even the songs I thought I would be a bit fed up with. I can't get this "Daddy" song out of my head, and I am a bit intrigued by it's lyrics on a little girl that goes missing and end up in heaven, thinking of my own two little girls (4 and 1 years). Of course things like marketing efforts, need of a success video, clever promotional touring - and luck - will decide a lot, however, I think ELP has done that rare thing of combining rather catchy songs with good music, and may even get one or two "hits" (Daddy being the obvious one). At least I can for once buy the CD as present to my "normal" friends (the ones not being kind of ELP fanatics), without blushing or fearing they'll just hate it! And the Pictures part may even get some to like longer pieces of music... The CD will not be out til late August in Norway, however, I think it will be well worth the wait! By the way, this may already be reported on, but the latest Keyboard (June 94), report the results of their reader's poll. Guess who is the Overall Best Keyboardist, as well as best Rock Keyboardist! "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" came a close second to Chick Corea's "Paint the World" as Best Keyboard Album. And the letter section contained a lot of letters in support of Emerson, after the article on his arm surgery. And Keyboard maintain that he seems to be on the road to recovery. Bjorn-Are ------------------------------ To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com Subject: California Jam available anywhere? Date: Fri, 08 Jul 94 13:52:52 -0400 From: arnold@cyclades.ma30.bull.com Hi! I know this has been discussed before but... Someone recently asked me if there are any sources (audio and/or video) for the ELP segment from the California Jam concert that happened back in '73 or so. I know I have a bad audio (taped from TV) and a bad video (super 8mm film off TV; remember these were pre-VCR days) somewhere in my boxes of junk from high school but these aren't very good. Since a snippet of ELP's CalJam was shown on "In Concert" when Black Moon was released, I'm wondering where to turn to get a copy of the concert. Any ideas? - John - ------------------------------ To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com Subject: Mark Mancina and "Speed" Date: Fri, 08 Jul 94 13:55:10 -0400 From: arnold@cyclades.ma30.bull.com My brother noticed that the new movie that has been released in the USA called "Speed" (about a bus that's been rigged to blow up if its speed drops below 50mph or something like that) has credited "Music by Mark Mancina". Mark, of course, was the produced for Black Moon. So, though not a mainstream ELP question... has anyone seen this movie and ayn comments on how much the music is produced like Black Moon or similar to "Burning Bridges" (which Mark co-wrote). Just wondering? - John - ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 14:22:12 -0400 From: Daniel Barrett To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com Subject: Re: ELP Digest V4 #9 References: <9407081817.AA03988@cyclades.ma30.bull.com> >[ Dan and Randy: Thanks for noticing and correcting. I'm pretty sure I saw > sheet music for Peter Gunn at one point and it had the G# but I'd believe > it if it were a G natural. You are right that Mancini's piece uses the G#, but ELP used a G natural. That's what I meant by: >> ELP played it with a final "G" instead of "G#" tho'. :-) Nuff said. :-) Dan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 14:35:54 -0400 From: Daniel Barrett To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com Subject: Re: CD Europe (ELP Digest V4 #9) References: <9407081817.AA03988@cyclades.ma30.bull.com> "Peter C.S. Adams 7-5263" writes: >cdeurope.com has a much better selection of progressive music [than] >cdconnection... >They also had Skinny Puppy's Bites and Remission (not available here) and >Anglagard's Hybris (also, as far as I can tell, not available). Anglagard's "Hybris" is readily available from many of the progressive CD mailorder houses in the USA. A really great list of these mailorder sources is found by ftp at ortega.cs.ucdavis.edu in the file /pub/MSB/A.M.P/faq2.mailorder. I highly recommend Ranjit Padmanabhan, Doug Larson, and Syn-Phonic. Ranjit's catalog is available by ftp from ftp.netcom.com in /pub/ranjit/full-list. The ftp site ortega.cs.ucdavis.edu is an outstanding source of prog rock information. From what I have seen, CD Europe has a ton of stuff in their catalog but keeps nothing in stock. In other words, just because it is in the catalog doesn't mean that they can get it. Also, some of their prices are ridiculously high: sometimes *double* the price of the mailorder folks I recommended above (e.g., $40 instead of $20). Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett -- Computer Science Dept, University of MA, Amherst, MA 01003 | | http://zoo.cs.umass.edu/~barrett/public.html -- barrett@cs.umass.edu | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////////////////// ------------------------------ From: ian@engserv.can.cdc.com (Ian Sewell) Subject: ELP videos? To: J.Arnold@ma30.bull.com Date: Sat, 9 Jul 1994 01:54:21 -0500 (EDT) Hi.. what ELP videos are available? I recently ordered "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends" on video, and instead got "Welcome Back", a documentary-retrospective of the Black Moon tour and some old footage. I was a bit disappointed with this video, with it's concentration on the newer stuff, rather then the earlier ELP material. Is the Montreal '77 concert available on video anywhere? The outtakes of that concert on the Welcome Back.. vid looked very impressive. I also was considering getting "Live at Royal Albert Hall" but I guess that's got quite a bit of newer stuff or just outtakes of older songs. I want to see Tarkus or Pictures on video in it's entirety! Is this available officially anywhere, or must I try to get a video bootleg of such a concert? Is there a video "Welcome back my friends..." that is different to the "Welcome back" video I got? My second question concerns Emerson's solo stuff. What recommendations would people make? I gather there's only 3 or 4 solo albums, which are mostly movie soundtracks? What is best? I am most interested in the classical-side of his music. Thanks Ian Sewell ------------------------------ From: Maureen@eworld.com To: j.arnold@ma30.bull.com Date: Sat, 09 Jul 94 20:38:44 PDT Subject: Re: Re: ELP Digest V4 #8 >From Digest 4/9: T> I'm interested in this side of them: does anyone know about T> their literary tastes, philosophical beliefs? I know of course about T> Fripp and Jon Anderson, but nothing seems to rise about T> Emerson, Lake and Palmer except perhaps Emerson's flirtations :) >From various lyrics, one could draw the conclusion that Greg hasn't much use for Christianity, for instance. Now whether this is actually the case, or just a "pose," would be interesting to find out. Sla/n, Mo! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jul 94 09:19:31 EDT From: Brian=Podesta%IRD%UMASS@BANYAN.UMMED.EDU Subject: The Lion King & ELP Connection? To: j.arnold@bull.com Inquiring minds want to know: I recently purchased the Soundtrack to Disney's "The Lion King" and noticed that Mark Mancina has produced a few tracks. Could this be the same Mr. Mancina that produced Black Moon? BPodesta UMass Medical 508-856-5634 [ Editor's note: see my mention of Mark Mancina and the movie "Speed" above. I can't imagine it's anyone else. - John - ] ------------------------------ End of ELP Digest [Volume 4 Issue 10] *************************************