Tarkus or Brain Salad Surgery

Sckxyss wrote: Has anyone else even heard side B of Tarkus? BSS by a mile.

Tarkus has a second side? Are you sure?

...

I jest, of course. In fact, some of the material on the second side, I actually PREFER to the epic suite (namely the fast 'n furious "Bitches Crystal" and the goofy fun "Jeremy Bender"). 

However, in terms of total package, I STILL stand behind the belief that Brain Salad is a perfect product (not a perfect album). The album cover absolutely fits the work (something that the cartoon rodent on Tarkus can't quite live up to), and the songs that span it cover just about everything that ELP ever was at first, was then, and turned out to be.

The second half of Tarkus sounds mostly like outtakes of the epic (well, barring "Jeremy" and "Eddie"), but on Brain Salad you got your Brit-deconstructionism in "Jerusalem," nutty experimentalism in "Toccata," sappy guitar pop in "Still," Western pianer in "Benny," and the epic covers the rest (symph crap, space crap, jazzy piano crap...hell, there's even a touch of synth pop crap in "Karn Evil 1: Part 2!"). 

Admittedly, "Tarkus" in full is a bit easier to listen to than "Karn Evil 9," but internally the latter wins out. Given the limited abilities of ANY mathematical ratings system, I would probably rate both the same, but Brain Salad wins out for me. 

Tarkus. The title track itself is enough for the(my) vote, though I do enjoy side B and BSS with the latter being the better overall package, imo. 

I like more songs on Brain Salad Surgery, but the song Tarkus trumps anything on BSS.

This is a win for BSS.

Dellinger wrote: b4usleep wrote: Trilogy Pictures at an Exhibition Tarkus Brain Salad Surgery Debut Black Moon And don't touch the rest Exactly the albums I have from them (plus the live albums Welcome back my friends and Then and Now). I was thinking about trying to get the rest later some time, should I really forget about it?

Well,
Works vol 1 includes mostly classical music by Keith Emerson, It's a 30 minute Piano concerto. Rest of the album is not important except Greg Lake's nice ballad "c'est la vie" and cover of  a classical piece "Fanfare for the common man"
Works Vol 2, Leftovers from Vol 1 but it contains still nice (but short) pieces. Not a bad album at all but not essential.
Love Beach is something different. No one could believe this album is belong to them and no one give a damn to this album. If you try hard you could still enjoy 1 or 2 songs. But believe me it is absolutely not necessary.
In the Hot seat i never listened and they say it is again unimportant album. But as a bonus track it contains studio version of "Pictures at an exhibition" for me it worth a try for only this reason.

b4usleep wrote: Trilogy Pictures at an Exhibition Tarkus Brain Salad Surgery Debut Black Moon And don't touch the rest

Exactly the albums I have from them (plus the live albums Welcome back my friends and Then and Now). I was thinking about trying to get the rest later some time, should I really forget about it?

Sckxyss wrote: Has anyone else even heard side B of Tarkus? BSS by a mile.

Absolutely spot on! It's really between Tarkus and Karn Evil 9, which for me makes BSS the outright winner (much as I love the track Tarkus).

BSS

Tarkus was my first ELP record, I do dig both, I just find Tarkus to be a stronger composition.

BSS. It has been written before, but anyone stating that Tarkus is better should listen side two of that album again.