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love beach (re-issue)
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grantman View Drop Down
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    Posted: September 12 2019 at 10:48
Most elp fans find love beach garbage in some ways i agree,but with the latest re-issue ,i find there is some buried treasure for example ALL I WANT IS YOU is very beatles like tune no where near as offensive as the song LOVE BEACH .Another example THE GAMBLER and FOR YOU not outstanding songs but none less passable .The true valid songs are CANARIO and the MEMOIRS OF AN OFFICER AND GENTLEMEN it,s not KARN EVIL 9 or TARKSUS but it is more listenable than PIRATES being a dyed in the wool elp fan not as good as works 2 but much better than IN THE HOT SEAT, Thank you for taking the time to read my opinion.
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Never been an ELP fan, but was Love Beach really that bad, or did fans just expect better? If it was produced by a different group, would Love Beach been better received?
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Originally posted by patrickq patrickq wrote:

Never been an ELP fan, but was Love Beach really that bad, or did fans just expect better? If it was produced by a different group, would Love Beach been better received?

Part of it was the year it was released. 1978 was just a bad year for most prog bands. Part of it was running out of good material, part of it was an identity crisis and part of it was pressure from record companies to make more marketable music. As for Love Beach itself yes it's pretty lame for the most part. Maybe it doesn't quite deserve it's poor reputation but it still isn't one of their better albums.
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patrickq View Drop Down
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Points: 508 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote patrickq Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 12 2019 at 20:15
^ yeah, that makes sense... funny, imho 1978 was a great year for pop/rock/R&B.
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I think the cover killed it tbh
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There are many worse years than '78, even for prog.

The year had some serious highlights.

Rush - Hemispheres
U.K. - U.K.
Dixie Dregs - What If
Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses

Also, killer rock albums from the Stones, Who, Kinks, Foghat, Molly Hatchet.....

Plenty of excellent jazz as well that year.

So I'd say Love Beach suffers, not because of it being a bad year, but rather because their peers were actually still putting out quality stuff, so ELP looked particularly bad by comparison.
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I've never even heard it. In fact i have never had a desire to check anything else past Brain Salad Surgery however i do have the Emerson, Lake and Powell album from the 80s and it has some great tracks on it although it also has some crap

https://rateyourmusic.com/~siLLy_puPPy
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What re-issue is this?

I have the extended version with the 'work in progress' versions of some of the tracks and those are really interesting. There was some real energy going for this project when it started but I think it just broke down. Apparently Keith Emerson was left 'holding the baby' ( as was the case with In Concert another massive disappointment) and the production was very watered down. 

You have to understand some of the context surrounding this album. It was as everyone knows a contractual obligation album and none of them were really up to do it. It came off the back of the Works tour where intially they were playing with an orchestra. That for Keith Emerson and probably the other 2 as well , was the highlight of ELP's career. Keith later admitted that he was frustrated with not being able to create this massive sound (MIDI tech later solved this problem with ELPowell) and the weak sounding synths are testament to this. Personally I miss the Hammond Organ too much to ever be able to enjoy this album that much.

So is any of it actually any good? Memoirs starts off well then fades badly around the 2/3 mark and 'The March' at the end is a token effort. For You is a very good song and I like that more than some other Lake offerings. Canario is just plain weak compared to Hoedown and the might of Toccata as far as ELP's instrumental efforts go. I quite like The Gambler thanks to the female backing vocals (the only time on a ELP track!) and the title track has some very nifty drumming from Carl. The rest is mostly half-baked stuff that needed a lot more work but sadly the band was in the throws of breaking up. Lake was itching to start a solo career and Palmer was fed up with getting caught in the middle. It was all going down faster than the Titanic!




Edited by richardh - September 13 2019 at 00:02
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patrickq View Drop Down
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^ thanks for this. Helps put things into context.
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It must have been a very frustrating period for the band, they were coming from the very top and in barely a couple of years they found themselves in bankruptcy after the orchestra tour, suddenly people start accusing you of being too pretentious and you realise that people are not eager for your music anymore.

You find yourself not knowing which way to go. What you would really want to do or what you should do to keep some degree of success. On top you have internal disputes as to what kind of music each member prefers.

Keith's long friendship with Dr. Bob Moog and his team vanished and he resorted to Yamaha and Korg synths, surely great instruments but I can imagine that the personal relationship with Japs must have been completely different, much more cold and distant than what it was with Moog where he felt as part of the development team. 

It must have been like having had a taste of heaven and suddenly being thrown into hell.

Easy ingredients to fall into a depression...
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2017 remaster including 1978 alternate mixes and 1978 rehearsal outtakes previously unreleased on the bmg label
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Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

I think the cover killed it tbh

The cover sure doesn't help. If I didn't know ELP and I looked at the cover and the album title, I might conclude that it was a disco album
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Originally posted by Fischman Fischman wrote:

There are many worse years than '78, even for prog.

The year had some serious highlights.

Rush - Hemispheres
U.K. - U.K.
Dixie Dregs - What If
Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses

Also, killer rock albums from the Stones, Who, Kinks, Foghat, Molly Hatchet.....

Plenty of excellent jazz as well that year.

So I'd say Love Beach suffers, not because of it being a bad year, but rather because their peers were actually still putting out quality stuff, so ELP looked particularly bad by comparison.

I'll add Renaissance "A Song for all Seasons" to the prog list.  Camel's "Breathless" was also pretty good as was Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds".  
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Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

I think the cover killed it tbh
Yeah, the cover really cracks me up. LOL  The other thing that comes to mind is Love Beach = Washed Up. Tongue



Edited by Slartibartfast - September 13 2019 at 10:36
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
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grantman View Drop Down
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Two things i remember one the band did do a promo at chumfm toronto played cuts from love beach ,i found even keith was not big on it the other is the gleeful or joyous sounding greg lake voice sounds on the record, rather than his usual performances of their music.

Edited by grantman - September 13 2019 at 11:22
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Too Soon!
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I kind of like Love Beach. Might even give it 3 stars on a good day.
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Fischman View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Slartibartfast Slartibartfast wrote:

Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

I think the cover killed it tbh
Yeah, the cover really cracks me up. LOL  The other thing that comes to mind is Love Beach = Washed Up. Tongue


Yeah--I mean is that ELP or Pablo Cruise?
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Fischman View Drop Down
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Originally posted by kenethlevine kenethlevine wrote:

Originally posted by Fischman Fischman wrote:

There are many worse years than '78, even for prog.

The year had some serious highlights.

Rush - Hemispheres
U.K. - U.K.
Dixie Dregs - What If
Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses

Also, killer rock albums from the Stones, Who, Kinks, Foghat, Molly Hatchet.....

Plenty of excellent jazz as well that year.

So I'd say Love Beach suffers, not because of it being a bad year, but rather because their peers were actually still putting out quality stuff, so ELP looked particularly bad by comparison.

I'll add Renaissance "A Song for all Seasons" to the prog list.  Camel's "Breathless" was also pretty good as was Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds".  

Agreed,  Really, I could go on and on...in both the prog and non prog realms.  Heck, I even love the Moodies' Octave from that year.  
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Fischman View Drop Down
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I once read that ELP was still under contract to deliver one more album and, yes, the record company was trying to get them to be more mainstream, but ELP just wanted out, and tried to get out, but the record company got the lawyers to hold their feet to the fire.  As a result, ELP simultaneously made an album that would satiate their corporate masters' desire for something catchy and current sounding, while deliberately making it as bad as they possibly could as a sort of veiled FU to the company and the music world in general. 

I wish I could remember the source.  Seemed legit at the time.  
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