We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago……
The trio of Emerson, Lake & Palmer had played their first live gigs in late summer of 1970 (a breakout at the Isle Of Wight Festival) and while touring for the rest of that year, were putting some concepts together for their second album. Greg Lake didn’t particularly like Keith Emerson’ idea for a long form concept for side one of the LP. He threatened to leave the group but finally was convinced to stay and write the lyrics which turned out to be a science-fiction themed 20 minute opus about a armadillio shaped tank and it’s battle with a manticore. Yeah, alot of pot smoked it would seem.
Emerson had worked up some impressive runs on his keyboards tied in to some drum rhythms Palmer had been practicing.
The thing that impresses me about this stuff is how intricate the melodies are and that these guys (Emerson especially) had to created it all organically and actually play the stuff. No computer or digital hocus-pocus available yet. Emerson used his skill on almost any keyboard invented and his training led to a melding of classical and rock themes throughout the band’s run.
Side two is a collection of shorter, stand-alone songs that ranges from the spacey to the parameters of hard rock and blues. ” A Time and A Place” particularly rocks hard. And you will certainly recognize the melody to “Are You Ready Eddy” a throwaway tune about their engineer Eddy Offord that they recorded when the album was finished.
The critics, of course, hated ELP. And mostly hated their fans as well. Robert Christgau said “these guys are as stupid as their most pretentious fans”and John Kelman said that band went from being exciting to an “an overbearing sense of masturbatory excess and self-aggrandizement in only a few short years” . But all of that bile was yet to come.
In 1971 ELP was still a new and exciting sound…especially if you just bought that new Marantz stereo with the floor speakers. Crank it up and enjoy….
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