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ELP: Tarkus |
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SteveG 
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Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20513 |
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 Topic: ELP: TarkusPosted: September 24 2018 at 07:56 |
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Tarkus is my favorite. (Until I play Trilogy.
 ) What's your take on ELP's second studio album.
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AZF
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Joined: January 17 2012 Location: Wirral Status: Offline Points: 1079 |
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 09:00 |
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The opening bit of Tarkus made me think of incidental music from the original Planet Of The Apes film. Don't mean that in a nasty way, it's a compliment. My only problem with Tarkus is the huge gong and then a smaller gong shot which makes me think the gong fell off the bars and crashed to the ground during recording and they thought it too funny and left it in.
On the other side it's only "The Only Way (Hymn)" which I make the effort to avoid! But yeah, for all the crap I heard about ELP Tarkus is actually a great album. EDIT: huge GONG! Edited by AZF - September 24 2018 at 12:23 |
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Jeffro
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 11:21 |
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Love Tarkus. Blew me away when I first heard it. Instant love.
The rest of the album, ehhhh, not so much
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Rednight
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 12:49 |
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Tarkus is probably ELP's signature suite. With that said, it's a jump ball between that album and Trilogy.
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"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno
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dr wu23
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Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20491 |
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 12:52 |
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As Jeffro said....Tarkus track great..the rest not so much.
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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richardh
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Joined: February 18 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 26225 |
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 15:48 |
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I'm sure people know that Greg lake hated the title piece and told Emerson he should go and form his own band if he wanted to do this. Greg was a very honest man bless him and was still very unsure of it even when he was playing at as a solo artist in 2004 (with Strictly Come Dancing's Dave Arch on keyboards btw) and said as such. For me its ELP's greatest track. Lake, despite his reservations , added some excellent lyrics to Emerson's amazing keyboard soundscapes , while there could not have been a more perfect piece for Carl Palmer. I saw him play this with own band at the New Day Festival in the summer and he described it as 'setting the benchmark' at the time. Indeed it did. Side Two? Well you have to remember that ELP were not sure what the reaction would be to the side long piece so they basically hedged their bets with an odd ball bunch of shorter tracks. A Time And A Place is the best of side 2 closely followed by Bitches Crystal. Both are decent. I quite like The Only Way just for the pipe organ and Lake's beautiful singing. Jeremy Bender is not good though while Are You Ready Eddy was apparently recorded after a drunken night out … and it shows. Overall a safe 4 star album and undoubtedly ELP's most important.
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Squonk19
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 16:15 |
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The Tarkus suite is so good, you tend to forget that side 2, whilst having its moments, is less impressive. I think Trilogy has the edge as a full album
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“Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.”
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Atavachron
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 17:06 |
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I get tired of people knocking side 2-- 'Jeremy Bender', 'Bitches Crystal' and 'A Time and a Place' are all very good cuts. The album is to be taken as a whole with each track, awesome or not, playing a part. In that context the whole album is a spectacular offering, and those tracks are no worse than any other band's less-than-stellar songs. I'm mean c'mon people, it's Tarkus. It's like complaining about the Beatles' 1968 release. In the words of Paul McCartney, "It's the Beatles White Album. What's your problem?" |
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 20:43 |
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I like the title track a lot(8 out of 10 for me). It's not quite on the level of "starless,""gates of delirium," "close to the edge", "supper's ready" and "echoes" but it's not too far way either. There's just one instrumental part that goes on too long that kind of takes it down a notch for me. It's still the best thing on the album by far. I don't care much for side two though(too much filler). For me this is ELP's weakest of their first four studio albums but still pretty good over all.
Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - September 24 2018 at 20:47 |
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 20:46 |
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Yep. It's not horrible but it's maybe about on par with side two of 2112(maybe even slightly weaker).
Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - September 24 2018 at 20:46 |
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Fischman
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Posted: September 24 2018 at 20:59 |
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I had ELP, Trilogy, BSS, and the Emerson Lake and Powell albums when I picked this one up.
It caught me a little off guard and was hard to digest at first, but now it quickly became my face and remains so to this day. |
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Jeffro
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 04:47 |
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Not a bad comparison at all.
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Jeffro
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 04:49 |
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I don't care for the songs on side two and think they pale severely in comparison to side one. What do you want me to say, that I like them when I don't?
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ForestFriend
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 07:02 |
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I'm going to join the defenders of side B - it's really not that bad! It's not as good as the title track, sure, but when you set that as your standard, you're really just setting yourself up for disappointment. I think the short tracks on this are better than the short tracks on Brain Salad Surgery (although I think Benny The Bouncer is more successful than Jeremy Bender), and Tarkus is a better epic than Karn Evil 9.
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Catcher10
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 11:07 |
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Side 2 is the best sounding side in my collection........because it has never been spun.
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SteveG
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 11:13 |
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Barbu
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 11:40 |
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I always start with side 2 these days...light and simple but nice hors d'oeuvres before the perfectly crafted Tarkus.
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Atavachron
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 13:01 |
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^ That's a great approach.
No, I just hear it constantly around here, it gets tiring. |
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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verslibre
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 14:42 |
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Side 2's awesome. But don't mind me, I feel the same way about ELP, Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery.
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micky
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Posted: September 25 2018 at 15:17 |
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hah.. f**k you captcha... and your little bitch M@X as well word.... it is all all about context man and color my friend. Granted I love albums like YS where you feel inspired to beat someone over the head with a 2x4 for 40 minutes or on the flip side Principie un Giorgio which make you want to f**k for 40 minutes.. but they were very monochromatic in nature....in general I like contrast and color in my albums. Tarkus was one of the great albums for side 2 NOT being side 1. Granted I still don't consider it their best album but side 2 is obviously unfairly maligned by 'prog fan'.. some great stuff.. some simply fun stuff from a band so many consider so pretentious and stuffy... but they did have a sense of humor that few to ANY prog bands, much less the big heavies had. Great post David. |
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The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
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dr wu23 wrote: