Rd 1 Portland Bracket: ELP v. The Strawbs

From the Witchwood is a pretty decent album so Strawbs obviously 

ELP especially for Tarkus.

Lear'sFool wrote: The spinning keyboardist, the killer bassist, and the crazed leaping drummer. From Strawbs only the beautiful Hero and Heroine engenders love, but Keith, Greg, and Carl had a string of five great albums that helped me get into prog.

Edited by Rick Robson - November 30 2014 at 14:29

From the Witchwood, Grave New World and Hero and Heroine are so much better than even ELP's best (Trilogy) that it's an easy pick - Strawbs.

Rick Robson wrote: Lear'sFool wrote: The spinning keyboardist, the killer bassist, and the crazed leaping drummer. From Strawbs only the beautiful Hero and Heroine engenders love, but Keith, Greg, and Carl had a string of five great albums that helped me get into prog.   I do enjoy 'Hero and Heroine', btw an actually beautiful brief organ passage in the title track and in Sad Young Man, is RW playing there too? The other one that I know is 'Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curios' but didn't get to like it, maybe for being even more in the folk music. Which were the bands influenced by Strawbs?

Polymorphia wrote: For micky, as I promised: I like to extend an olive branch to ELP fans and give ELP albums an extra star for its place in music history on top of its intrinsic value. For Tarkus, that makes two stars total. But really I applaud ELP fans for their iron stomachs. I was an ELP fan once. Then I listened to them. How is Carl Palmer like woman's pants? His pocket is too shallow to hold anything of worth and everybody wants to him out of the picture. Thus, I vote for the lesser of the two evils, the bland but occasionally delightful Strawbs.

  let me get the clappie out of the way.  Love the picture.  Is  that supposed to be someone. If so I don't recoginize them.

Now.  Arguing personal tastes is as pointless as is stupid. However if I can be honest, anyone giving Tarkus 2 stars in a review is a blaring red light that one has ZERO objectivity in their reviewing skill set and is a reviewer to be ignored with extreme prejudice.  One thing I've noticed is good reviewers can differentiate between their tastes and the subject being reviewed.  One does not have to like the art... however if one really wants to be taken seriously you have to at least appreciate the attempt.  Tarkus is hailed as a landmark album in prog and the side one epic is consistently tagged as one of the greatest expression of the side long epic ever in prog.  One doesn't have to like it, however one has to realize there is something there, even if one does not see it themselves.  A great warning sign that .. hey.. perhaps I am missing something. Not to toot my own horn, but I absolutely DETESTED a modern classic prog album but still rated it highly. I just made it clear I didn't like it but there was no ignoring its import or influence and WAS an album that any well rounded prog fan should have and know.  My review and the venom in it was just a warning that listeners of simiilar tastes to me might find it as revolting and sickening to the senses as I did hahah.

Oh.. what is the deal with Carl Palmer. You completely lost me there.

ELP

Strawbs

ELP. BSS  trumps everything I've heard from Strawbs.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - November 30 2014 at 23:35