ELP - Works Volume 1

now i dont really like saturating the board with ELP threads or any other popular prog bands, but...

this album is f**king amazing

I used to only listen to Fanfare and Pirates, just because that was the "ELP" side.  Finally, I decided to give the whole thing a spin, well four spins actually.  The weakest of all the spins is Greg Lakes side.  Sure he is my favourite singer, but his solo music sucks super monkey balls.  Emerson's is really fantastic, Palmer's is surprisingly great, and the "ELP" side is orgasmic.  What a great album, holy crap this is good, if it wasn't for Greg Lakes side, this would be my favourite ELP album.

as this site rates, 4/5 just because of the Lake crapolla

Aaron

It's a good job Three Fates has (temporarily?) left the forum otherwise you would be in big trouble .My view of it:

Keith Emerson Piano Concerto No1 - I love this to bits although classical music students will tell you it rips off Copeland(and no doubt various others).But I'm not a classical music student so I don't care! 5/5

Greg Lake - I love Closer To Believing with its beautifull romantic imagery ''We want to be together on Sundays in the rain'',...the other songs are ok.3/5

Carl Palmer - On a technical level awesome stuff,especially the version of Tank which is the best fusion of classical,jazz and rock music I've heard.5/5

Fanfare For The Common Man - Absolute Drivel! The single edit is ok but extending the peice to over 9 minutes is just pointless.Apparently though Copeland insisted that they change his music before giving consent for its release.The end result is a mess of keyboard improvs and slack unoriginal drumming (insert ''but isn't all ELP like that?'' type ignorant comments'').1/5

Pirates - By complete contrast to Fanfare this is glorious music IMO and one of Emerson's best compositions.The orchestra and band work together perfectly.5/5

Overall ,but for Fanfare, this would be a safe 4/5 but as it is probably deserves about 3.5.

I am a huge fan of ELP and bought this album when it first came out. I remember at first being a little disappointed as I expected something better.

But as I listened to all sides, I began to enjoy most of it. I really got into Keith's concerto for a while, and "Fanfare" really grew on me as I got used to the arrangement and the synth solo.

I was surprised by Palmer's side as the instrumentation was excellent. Even Lake's side wasn't too bad at the time: Cie la Vie, Father Christmas, I don't know, I just liked the melodies and musical arrangements (like Keith on accordian on Cie la vie).

But I just couldn't get into "Pirates." For one thing it seem to go on too long, and secondly, the concept of singing a romantic ode to pirates seems, well, sort of a weak choice for a prog artist. I'm rather surprised that this theme appealed to Sinfield (let alone Lake). Sinfield earlier lyrics with KC was much better stuff (I haven't heard his solo album "Still"). It just seemed like the beginning of the end for ELP to me. And for me, "Love Beach" seems like an extension of this lame romantic poetry turned into music.

They never recovered from this in my eyes, which is too bad. I believe they could have gone on to continue be an important band if they'd had a better vision and sense of musical direction.

But hey I thank them for everything from ELP to Works II. Groundbreaking prog rock!

I believe it's a good but uneven album.

I'm not a music studen't, but I can listen Copland, Rachmaninoff and even Gershwin ripoffs everywhere, of course it's technically well played, but seems Keith doesn't knows where he wants to go. 3/5

Greg Lake side is the weakest of all the album, absolutely boring, can't stand 20 seconds of tracks like Ces't La Vie, Lendy our Love to me Tonight or Closer to Believing. 1/5

Palmer's side is outstanding, his arrangements are amazing songs like The Enemy God Dances with the Black Spirits are simply amazing. 5/5

The band's side is not near the ELP level, Pirates seems to last forever, would have been better if lasted 50%, even though is a good track 3.5/5 and Fanfare is also too long, repetitive and lack of imagination, for another band would be a great achievement, but for ELP is mediocre, 2/5.

For the whole album 3/5 at the most.

Iván

Hey Bluetailfly: Father Christmas is in Works II.

I agree with you, not the best lyricist, but the main problem IMHO is the music, because he's got an extremely powerful voice, great skill as a bass player and I saw worst lyrics from other musicians work (Believe it or not ), but when he get's his acoustic guitar Oh my God!!!! prepare fore some bland love ballads.

And I say bland because other semi acoustic tracks as Lucky Man or Still You Turn Me On worked very well, but the ones on this album....

Iván

BTW: Welcome to the Forum, seems a lot of newbies today, which is good, we always need FRESH   BLOOD   

Jackal no Rob:

Iván

No, collaborators take your souls

Iván