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SteveG View Drop Down
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Points: 20497 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Tarkus: ELP
    Posted: February 03 2015 at 14:03
I think that the second best album cover for an ELP album (BSS is the first!) nicely wrapped a prog classic. What's your opinion of Tarkus?
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Points: 12681 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 14:12
Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

I think that the second best album cover for an ELP album (BSS is the first!) nicely wrapped a prog classic. What's your opinion of Tarkus?
 
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Points: 10616 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 14:16
The best album cover!
I much prefer it to BSS myself.
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Points: 20497 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 14:17
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Points: 10616 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 14:23
^ Could have told you so.
And the track "Tarkus" is in my top 5 of favorite tracks of any artist anytime.
Side 2 also has a lot of great musical moments BTW.
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Points: 16130 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 14:49
Good album. 3 stars, but only really for the Tarkus suite. The rest is a bit weak imo.

The only way is toe curling.
Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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Points: 7003 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 14:53
Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

Good album. 3 stars, but only really for the Tarkus suite. The rest is a bit weak imo.

The only way is toe curling.


Couldn't have put it better myself. Bitches Crystal is OK, though.
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Points: 26140 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 14:58

Side One was something of a breakthrough at the time taking prog a further notch forward. Side Two is a bit of a mess though and represents the band's own uncertainties and divisions I believe. Jeremy Bender is a terrible track but I do have a soft spot for The Only Way and A Time and A Place. Are You Ready Eddy? is just a bit of fun while Bitches Crystal is an okay to middling ELP track. Overall it deserves its 4 star average rating on PA mainly for the suite.

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Points: 1607 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 16:22
The Only Way is a fabulous prog hymn! So glorious, rarely found with such passion in the prog world...
Tarkus so well unleashes ELP's dynamic energy in such a fantastic composition, and incredible how so deep and complex melodies are played in such a bombastic way!
No need to extend my impressions, this album is another ELP's gem.


"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." LvB
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Points: 6446 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 18:16
The first side is one of the defining moments of prog. The second side screams: "we don't have enough material for a second album!"
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Points: 46828 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 18:16
yeah the Tarkus suite is right there with Close to the Edge in terms of rightfully being considered THE definitive prog epic. Composition, classic prog lyrical lunacy, firery and challenging music played to perfection, bombast etc.

Brilliant and flawless.  Deserving itself a 5 star album based on it alone. Half the album is pure prog perfection.

However there is, and always has been.. Side 2.

There was some definite, and intentional lightening of the mood on the 2nd side.  I thought it worked.  Very few albums (like YS) can really succeed in brutally beating a listener over the head musicially over the course of an ENTIRE 40 odd minute long album.  It was a nice break, silly in some spots. but that was ELP. Far from being a completely overly serious, art is everything kind of band. They had a silly, humorous side and you really saw in on side 2. I liked them, more in the totality of the album.


Edited by micky - February 03 2015 at 18:17
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Points: 12608 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 03 2015 at 22:37
Of course I mainly like the epic title song, but there are a few song I do enjoy from side 2 too. Also, there are a few segments from the title suite that I rather dislike (mainly the Mass thing, which rather ruins the song as a whole for me).
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Points: 1399 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 03:49
This and 'Brain Salad Surgery' - the defining prog albums that pushed the boundaries.  As for side 2, much maligned I know but it's a wonderful contrast to 'Tarkus'  - for me 'Infinite Space' is one of my favourite ELP tracks and over too soon.
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Points: 16130 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 06:54
Originally posted by Rick Robson Rick Robson wrote:


The Only Way is a fabulous prog hymn! So glorious, rarely found with such passion in the prog world...
Tarkus so well unleashes ELP's dynamic energy in such a fantastic composition, and incredible how so deep and complex melodies are played in such a bombastic way!
No need to extend my impressions, this album is another ELP's gem.


The idea of an atheist hymn is an excellent one, but The Only Way is executed so badly imo. Lakes voice is unusually awful, with bum notes all over the place. It sounds like he's singing staggering home from the pub or in the shower...
Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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Points: 26140 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 15:22
Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

Originally posted by Rick Robson Rick Robson wrote:


The Only Way is a fabulous prog hymn! So glorious, rarely found with such passion in the prog world...
Tarkus so well unleashes ELP's dynamic energy in such a fantastic composition, and incredible how so deep and complex melodies are played in such a bombastic way!
No need to extend my impressions, this album is another ELP's gem.


The idea of an atheist hymn is an excellent one, but The Only Way is executed so badly imo. Lakes voice is unusually awful, with bum notes all over the place. It sounds like he's singing staggering home from the pub or in the shower...
 
Lake liked (or tended) to sing 'off key'. A truly bad example though would be Lay Down Your Guns. I must go and read your review of ELPowell again. Always make me laughLOL
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Points: 1281 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 04 2015 at 23:35
Originally posted by Flight123 Flight123 wrote:

This and 'Brain Salad Surgery' - the defining prog albums that pushed the boundaries.  As for side 2, much maligned I know but it's a wonderful contrast to 'Tarkus'  - for me 'Infinite Space' is one of my favourite ELP tracks and over too soon.

Oh, definitely. Even without "The Only Way", I think it holds up very well on it's own and could have lasted another three minutes.

BTW, I remember listening to "Bitches Crystal" for the first time and the first thing that popped in my head was "Stephanie Knows Who" by Arthur Lee & Love.
He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!
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Points: 20468 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 05 2015 at 14:57
I quite like the title track .....the rest is just mediocre imo.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Rick Robson View Drop Down
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Points: 1607 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 06 2015 at 08:43
Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

Originally posted by Rick Robson Rick Robson wrote:


The Only Way is a fabulous prog hymn! So glorious, rarely found with such passion in the prog world...
Tarkus so well unleashes ELP's dynamic energy in such a fantastic composition, and incredible how so deep and complex melodies are played in such a bombastic way!
No need to extend my impressions, this album is another ELP's gem.


The idea of an atheist hymn is an excellent one, but The Only Way is executed so badly imo. Lakes voice is unusually awful, with bum notes all over the place. It sounds like he's singing staggering home from the pub or in the shower...

 
Well, that's my point of view (how that music feels to me), obviously different than yours.
 


"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." LvB
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 26140 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 07 2015 at 03:11
For what its worth I also like Lake's singing on that track a lot.
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Rick Robson View Drop Down
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Points: 1607 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 07 2015 at 06:25
yeah me too, but I was refering mainly to the sublime instrumental part of it. Well, one of the fantastic points in music is the diverse ways of feeling it, isn't it? Since recently I'm always trying the most to avoid saying the words "right" or "wrong" in this forum.
 
EDIT: Of course voice is also a instrumental part of the music, but you know well what I'm talking about.


Edited by Rick Robson - February 07 2015 at 06:30


"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." LvB
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