Keith Emerson RIP

[A Lark Ascending]

4 hours ago, 7/4 said:

Dave Stewart (Egg, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Bill Bruford) on Keith Emerson

A generous tribute from my favourite rock keyboard player of that era...all the more so given that it was written at a time when Emerson was about as unfashionable a musical figure as it was possible to be. 

[A Lark Ascending]

A punk's* view:

Keith Emerson's playing was in stark contrast to my troglodyte brutality

I like this bit:

"I’m not one of those who exalt rock’s native “simplicity”, who claim how much more authentic such efforts are and who regard efforts to intellectualise rock as misguided. I’m more intrigued by rock musicians who overreached, and by the uncomfortable intersections of intellectual intent and popular music they came up with. ELP are the quintessence of highfalutin artistic aspirations mixed with technical exuberance, propped up by every whim rock stardom can muster. They embody the dizzying heights, sublime accomplishments and abysmal pretensions of such an approach."

(* Not sure if punk is the right term...I'm not up on post-70s musical tribes) 

 

[clifford_thornton]

33 minutes ago, A Lark Ascending said:

 

(* Not sure if punk is the right term...I'm not up on post-70s musical tribes) 

 

no wave is probably more accurate (he was in Sonic Youth, 8-Eyed Spy, Teenage Jesus etc) but 'punk' works.

[Guy Berger]

I try to judge ELP fairly.  As a band making consistently good music, they were a failure relative to their main peers.  But a decent chunk of their music is exciting and/or fun.  They were clearly less afraid of embarrassing themselves than Yes, King Crimson or Genesis.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

 

once i asked this old lady visiting from england, """yr from england? wowowow, did you see all the rock concerts??""" 

"oh no, i used to go to the symphony.........."    [awkwardness......]  ..........

.........."""but there was this one time me and the girls snuck out of our dormitory and went down the road to the local boys school, and met up at the town hall, and saw Emerson, Lake & Palmer""""

me: 

Edited March 15, 2016 by chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez

[A Lark Ascending]

4 hours ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

 

once i asked this old lady visiting from england,

If she was sneaking out of school to see ELP 40 years back she is not an "old" lady!!!!!!!!!! I don't know, the youth of today! (one of those smiley things denoting comment not to be taken seriously..."old" people don't do smileys) 

Edited March 15, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[RogerF]

Not much of an ELP fan at all but I really liked The Nice. I thought their third eponymously titled album was brilliant. RIP Keith.

Nice

 

[ornette]

On 13 March 2016 at 1:54 AM, medjuck said:

I saw them do this at the Royal Albert Hall in '68.  They painted an American flag and then burned it. Supposedly all involved were banned from the RAH forever.  It was an anti-Vietnam concert.  I'd gone to see Hendricks and Ross who were singing together (no Lambert). The only other thing I remember is Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity singing This Wheel's On Fire. 

I saw the same tour at the Bristol Corn Exchange. Still a vivid memory, even though I've never heard them since.

[StarThrower]

Fun early show in good quality.

[Ken Dryden]

I remember ordering the debut ELP LP from a record club as a freebie and was astounded at the difference from typical rock. I wasn't familiar with Bartok or Janacek at the time, but also loved the use of the pipe organ. I saw them a couple of times in concert and did a phone interview with Emerson in the early 1990s for a planned radio special which never came to be. While Emerson could be bombastic, he got me interested in Meade Lux Lewis, Joe Sullivan and Alberto Ginastera. I was already very familiar with Ravel's orchestra scoring of Pictures at an Exhibition and laughed when a classical LP was reissued with Vladimir Horowitz's solo piano version backed by Alberto Toscanini with the NBC Symphony's recording, with the blurb on the jacket: "The piece that inspired Emerson, Lake & Palmer's hit." He will be missed.

[felser]

2 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

I remember ordering the debut ELP LP from a record club as a freebie.

Me too, Record Club of America, RCOA, who started off great, but ended as ripoff artists.  Got this one, "Who's Next", and "John Barleycorn" in one package if I remember correctly.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

On 3/15/2016 at 11:45 PM, A Lark Ascending said:

If she was sneaking out of school to see ELP 40 years back she is not an "old" lady!!!!!!!!!! I don't know, the youth of today! (one of those smiley things denoting comment not to be taken seriously..."old" people don't do smileys) 

i know what u mean but she was considerably aged

[Tom 1960]

Not certain what others think of this album, but I do enjoy this. A reunion album or sorts from '86 I believe?  Insert Cozy Powell subtract Carl Palmer.

[medjuck]

On 3/15/2016 at 5:39 AM, ornette said:

I saw the same tour at the Bristol Corn Exchange. Still a vivid memory, even though I've never heard them since.

Which "them"? And if it was The Nice, did they burn a flag? 

[7/4]

8 hours ago, Tom 1960 said:

Not certain what others think of this album, but I do enjoy this. A reunion album or sorts from '86 I believe?  Insert Cozy Powell subtract Carl Palmer.

 

I like that album. ELP sorta petered out in the late 70s, but this is one thing Emerson did post-ELP that I really liked. I saw this band!

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

the ELPowell tour was the last time they played PIRATES

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

the ELPowell tour was the last time they ever played PIRATES

[ornette]

On 18 March 2016 at 7:10 PM, medjuck said:

Which "them"? And if it was The Nice, did they burn a flag? 

Sorry, the Nice. Knives in the keyboard but can't remember a flag being burnt.

[rostasi]

Keith Emerson & Oscar Peterson - Honky Tonk Train Blues
("with a heavily disguised Carl Palmer on drums")
Oscar Peterson's Piano Party 1976

[sidewinder]

9 hours ago, rostasi said:

Keith Emerson & Oscar Peterson - Honky Tonk Train Blues
("with a heavily disguised Carl Palmer on drums")
Oscar Peterson's Piano Party 1976

I remember seeing that when it was first broadcast (BBC2?) so nice to see it again. A real dearth of jazz on TV during that era - although recall Clark Terry's Big Bad Band had a broadcast and that naff 'Jazz Ship' series was also on the Beeb.

[Ken Dryden]

The Nice burned a flag during a performance of Leonard Bernstein's "America" and royally pissed him off.

[medjuck]

2 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

The Nice burned a flag during a performance of Leonard Bernstein's "America" and royally pissed him off.

I was there. See above.  Though I suppose they may have done it more than once.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

jon anderson shared an amazing keith remembrance on his f'book last night