someonecompletelyrandom

It's amazing how much good stuff Love Beach undid. When I talk to people about ELP nobody mentions Brain Salad Surgery... just that stupid album.

boo boo

Yeah, I dunno why people always site that as an example of them sucking, it's not like it was a sacred cow or anything.

Writing off ELP solely for Love Beach is like writing off everything Lou Reed ever did because of Metal Machine Music or everything Grace Slick ever did because of Knee Deep in the Hoopla.

Love Beach was just a product of it's time. Prog was out in the late 70s and early 80s so a lot of these bands had to reinvent themselves to stay fresh in the eyes of the populice.

Bands like Yes, KC and Genesis pulled it off.

Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull and ELP however, they were not as lucky.

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someonecompletelyrandom

I heard they only recorded the album to fulfill contractual obligations anyway.

boo boo

Yeah, which is also the case for Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.

I refuse to believe ELP put any real effort into that record. I still can't get my head around the fact that the lyrics were done by Peter Sinfield.

"Ohhh, you look so hungry woman
how come you strayed in here with your eyes so bright
on this long hot night.
Could it be for a taste of my love
Down on your knees with your face to the wall
Saying please please please."

That's quite a drop down from In The Court of the Crimson King I would say.

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snacklover

Woah I never knew they were some sort of supergroup, but I guess this isn’t surprising considering their professional talents. I’m not sure which kind of shows you were referring to, but I saw their California Jam performance and thought it was great. Watching Palmer and his possessed self nailing a 10-minute solo is really something.

And to hell with this ad hominem business! Arrogance never killed anyone before, and besides I don’t see how ELP is any more pretentious than Yes or King Crimson, although they sometimes have exaggerated the elements of prog but that’s a minor detail, and personally I find it adds to their “zesty” style. I find their music much easier to listen to than stuff like Moonchild (don’t get me wrong, I like KC, but that particular track was way too much for me)

I've actually never listened to Love Beach. Should I give it a listen, or is it really that bad?

LOL

Guybrush

Hehe, fans seem to really argue this one. I agree with you. I think if you don't fill an album with compositional music, at least you can do a proper improv jam. The vague noodlings which never really come into focus on the moonchild track seems like a waste of vinyl and time to me.

I have a friend who claims it's the most genius thing on the album.

I checked it out actually to see if it's as bad as they say. I ended up only giving it that one spin and while I can't remember exactly how the songs go, I wasn't impressed. I don't think the album is quite as atrocious as you'd think from the cover, but for listening to, it's mostly interesting as a curiosity I think.

Most if not all tracks are love songs and most are quite short aside from the "epic" track on it, the 20 minutes long "Memoirs of an officer and a gentleman". The whole album is a bit mushy I guess, which I don't think really works for ELP.

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boo boo

Yeah.

Emerson used to play for The Nice who were one of the earliest prog bands and one of the first to have considerable influence and some mainstream success.

Lake was one of the founding members of King Crimson of course, as was Peter Sinfield who became ELP's lyricist starting with Brain Salad Surgery.

And Palmer served briefly as the drummer for Arthur Brown's band and along with other members of that group went on to form Atomic Rooster. A pretty obscure band these days but their records sold quite well back in the day.

So yeah, these guys were pretty well known before forming ELP.

Do you mean you watched it on Youtube or you were actually there?

Because that would make you a lot older than the rest of us, no offense.

I consider Yes and KC to be way superior bands but I agree that ELP didn't take themselves as seriously. In fact, I think one of the reasons they became such a target among the prog community is because they DIDN'T take it very seriously.

Back then prog was taken very seriously as a revolutionary artistic movement and ELP were considered sellouts because their live shows had an almost Las Vegas vibe to it, the KISS of prog rock if you will. They were looked upon more as vaudeville performers than as serious artists.

Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd had very elaborate stage shows too but there was still emphasis on the musical aspect of it, people didn't feel that way with ELP's live shows.

As in they were considered more of a band to watch than a band to listen to.

It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

But you could use a good laugh.

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gunnels

Love Beach is pretty bad, but the album cover is ****ing terrifying.

That camel hump will haunt me forever.

But if we're talking about bad prog albums, Big Generator tops my list. But that's for the Yes thread.

(Back on topic: I liked Brain Salad Surgery. >.>)

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boo boo

That's nothing to be ashamed of, it's a superb album. And Karn Evil 9 is still one of my top top prog performances.

I think the song is about a futuristic circus, that's certainly what the actual music sounds like.

As for Big Generator, yeah it's terrible, but I wouldn't call it worse than Love Beach, if only because I think Final Eyes is actually a pretty good song. The only redeeming factor in Love Beach is that it's hilarious.

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snacklover

I just don't understand how anyone could just sit back and listen to a 10 minute long tirade of aimless rattle AND enjoy it.

Yeah I do admit I'm a little curious. I'll probably end up listening to it eventually. Thanks!

Hahaha, yeah I meant I watched it on youtube, sorry about the confusion, I kind of assumed it was taken for granted. I'm 17! >.>

They were so good it at it, though


lol Now I'll definitely have to check it out.