ELP: Tarkus
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=116361
Printed Date: June 04 2024 at 01:22
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Topic: ELP: Tarkus
Posted By: SteveG
Subject: ELP: Tarkus
Date Posted: September 24 2018 at 07:56
Tarkus is my favorite. (Until I play Trilogy.  ) What's your take on ELP's second studio album.
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Replies:
Posted By: AZF
Date 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! |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date 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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Posted By: Rednight
Date 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. ------------- "It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: September 24 2018 at 12:52
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As Jeffro said....Tarkus track great..the rest not so much. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: richardh
Date 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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Posted By: Squonk19
Date 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 ------------- Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea. |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date 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?" ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: September 24 2018 at 20:43
| 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. |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: September 24 2018 at 20:46
Yep. It's not horrible but it's maybe about on par with side two of 2112(maybe even slightly weaker).
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dr wu23 wrote:Posted By: Fischman
Date 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. |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: September 25 2018 at 04:47
Not a bad comparison at all.
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Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: September 25 2018 at 04:49
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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Posted By: ForestFriend
Date 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. ------------- https://borealkinship.bandcamp.com/releases" rel="nofollow - My prog band - Boreal Kinship |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date 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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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 25 2018 at 11:13
------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: Barbu
Date 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. ------------- |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: September 25 2018 at 13:01
^ That's a great approach.
No, I just hear it constantly around here, it gets tiring. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: verslibre
Date 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. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: September 25 2018 at 15:17
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. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Quinino
Date Posted: September 25 2018 at 15:40
So true !  (f*ck craptcha) |
)Posted By: micky
Date Posted: September 25 2018 at 15:44
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yeah... good old Trilogy.... I have such conflicted feelings about that album. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 26 2018 at 03:56
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Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: September 26 2018 at 07:06
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I normally don't like showing off of skills, but never has this been done in a more archetypical and iconic way than on the title track and I can't not love it for that. I can well do without the rest of the album. |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: September 26 2018 at 16:51
I think it is their best and most consistent album from start to finish, thus it is also my least favorite of their classic albums. I love ELP for the highs.. and for the lows.. that is a sign of band aiming high. Sometimes hitting .. sometimes not consistency to me stinks of mediocrity and lack of talent and creativity. ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: September 26 2018 at 17:40
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^ Interesting. I find flaws to be important too, imperfections add a humanity and realness, and is actually crucial in rock music. Zeppelin understood that, as did Hendrix. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: September 26 2018 at 18:46
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Good music can have flaws but bad music is just bad. |
Posted By: AZF
Date Posted: September 27 2018 at 02:17
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Is it in biographies of interviews about how Greg Lake came around to the magnificent title track? (PS I use Lenovo Tablet and get 0% Captcha!) |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 27 2018 at 03:57
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Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: September 27 2018 at 14:12
Not until you pay up what you owe me for the previous one........!!!!!!! -------------
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Posted By: YESESIS
Date Posted: September 27 2018 at 15:44
That's exactly how I'd feel about as well if it weren't for Brain Salad Surgery! For me they get better with each studio album through the first 4, and then kind of fall off a cliff after that. As far as 'craptcha' I ALWAYS copy my posts now before pressing the "Post Reply" button. And don't ever try to post on here with your phone(at least never works for me), only laptop. Also uncheck Enable BBcodes.
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: October 02 2018 at 00:45
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^ I'm prepared to stick up for Works Vol One as Pirates is one of my favourite ELP tracks and most of the album is top notch apart from maybe one or two tracks. It doesn't gel for sure but really the quality was still very much apparent. Love Beach was the cliff
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Posted By: Mortte
Date Posted: October 03 2018 at 00:16
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I donīt fully understand, why I didnīt get more into ELP in eighties, when I got into Floyd, Rush, Wigwam, Genesis, Yes & Jethro Tull. My brother got Pictures at cassette and I really liked it (until I released how much of the original great music they have left out). I remember to seen Tarkus in the same record shop where I bought my albums and I watched it. But I remeber also heard some of their studio song (maybe from first album or from Trilogy) from the radio and that didnīt sound me very great. So maybe I decided to put my very small money then into those other great bands, also I donīt remember anybody having ELP albums to borrow. Anyway I have listened those first 5 ELP album quite recently, I like first and Trilogy the most, maybe I have to listen them more. And have to say EMERSON SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN HAMMOND.
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Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: October 03 2018 at 12:34
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Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: October 03 2018 at 15:32
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If I am in a good mood, I'd round the rating of Tarkus up to 4 stars. The epic on side one is a masterpiece. On the other hand, side 2 averages a Meh+ level, varying from mediocre to decent. ------------- 
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Posted By: The.Crimson.King
Date Posted: October 03 2018 at 16:55
I bought "Welcome Back My Friends..." about a year before Tarkus so it was a real shock to hear the title track played so slowly. The studio version always sounds so tame in comparison...because of that, Tarkus is probably my least listened to of all the pre-Works albums. That said, Bitches Crystal & A Time and a Place are a couple of my fave early ELP tracks and I think Jeremy Bender & Are You Ready Eddy are good fun 
------------- https://wytchcrypt.wixsite.com/mutiny-in-jonestown" rel="nofollow - Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987 |
Posted By: miamiscot
Date Posted: October 04 2018 at 07:36
| I love Side Two and will never understand the hate. I know Side One is better but so what? |