Keith Emerson

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35787187

Dammit,yet another great figure from the rock pantheon departs.Self inflicted apparently,remember reading awhile back that Keith was suffering from a form of cancer,don't know if that had anything to do with his demise.Very sad, used to love ELP-Pictures at an Exhibition,Brain Salad Surgery etc.

RIP Keith

A very talented musician. A lot of the bands that were critically reviled in the 70s have had a renaissance (sabbath/Zeppelin in particular) however along with Jethro Tull, ELP have never ever been cool. Tulls first album was pretty ace though, real smokey blues rock. Sadly mICK Abrams left and in his absence Ian Anderson embarked on a career of writing weird prog folk songs about witches in strange time signatures.

Emerson was a bit of a wild card. Liked his stuff with the nice, but just felt ELP too heavy going.

I've never really delved into ELP that much probably because the first track of theirs I became aware of was Fanfare For The Common Man which has always bored me almost to tears. Very dull - which is strange as it must be their most famous track. It's obviously brilliant - I can see exactly why so many people like it - so it must just be me.

Along the way though I did pick up Brain Salad Surgery which, along with Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick, will always, I think sit in my top 10 fave ever LPs. Everything about it is magnificent from the Geiger artwork onwards and the second side has always seemed almost cinematic to me: it really ought to be an extended hide and seek soundtrack to the conclusion in some Godardesque film noir.

They really weren't as up themselves as you might expect coming to them cold. There's as much humour on Brain Salad Surgery as on pretty much any rock LP, Zappa apart, obvs but he was a law unto himself, ever made:

There behind the school
A sight to make you drool
7 virgins and a mule
Keep it cool keep it cool

And, Benny The Bouncer, of course.

And you'll get the best version of Jerusalem yet recorded too.

It really is all good.

I've never really listened to the rest of theor oeuvre. No idea why not. Probably because I had loads of punky mates who just poured scorn onto everything they represented. I'm certainly not instinctively anti. Far from it. Where should I start?

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

I've never really delved into ELP that much probably because the first track of theirs I became aware of was Fanfare For The Common Man which has always bored me almost to tears. Very dull - which is strange as it must be their most famous track. It's obviously brilliant - I can see exactly why so many people like it - so it must just be me.

Along the way though I did pick up Brain Salad Surgery which, along with Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick, will always, I think sit in my top 10 fave ever LPs. Everything about it is magnificent from the Geiger artwork onwards and the second side has always seemed almost cinematic to me: it really ought to be an extended hide and seek soundtrack to the conclusion in some Godardesque film noir.

They really weren't as up themselves as you might expect coming to them cold. There's as much humour on Brain Salad Surgery as on pretty much any rock LP, Zappa apart, obvs but he was a law unto himself, ever made:

There behind the school
A sight to make you drool
7 virgins and a mule
Keep it cool keep it cool

And, Benny The Bouncer, of course.

And you'll get the best version of Jerusalem yet recorded too.

It really is all good.

I've never really listened to the rest of theor oeuvre. No idea why not. Probably because I had loads of punky mates who just poured scorn onto everything they represented. I'm certainly not instinctively anti. Far from it. Where should I start?

I started to like them via Pictures at an Exhibition, which was a rocked up/synthesized up version of the work by Mussorgsky. I was only about 15 at the time and my mate was well into ELP, he lent me the album which TBH I wasn't really all that interested in but gave it a spin anyway and found that it was pretty damned good on first listening and even better on the second. Good live video version here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4igIQ2TOASg

And the original live album here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7NAGTq_IJQ

Not sure that there was ever a studio version.

There some brilliant tracks on Trilogy as well, notably Living Sin and Abaddons Bolero.Tarkus was pretty good too.Greg Lake was a superb singer, one of the most versatile and underrated of all time IMHO, Carl Palmer a brilliant drummer, essentially three great musicians producing some good stuff-didn't really understand why so many people were so anti, they weren't your everyday sort of rock band it's true but what the hell, i enjoyed listening to them.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the fact that they debuted in the Guildhall.

They played Plymouth a second time a year or two later in the ABC.

I remember Emerson running up and down the aisles playing his portable Moog synthesiser. What a showman.

He was also the lead member of The Nice which was one of the, if not the first, prog rock band(s).

They're version of Bernstein's 'America' and Brubeck's 'Rondo' are outstanding.

Fairly certain I saw him jammin with Family, or was it the other way round?, at the Van Dyke. Emerson all over his keyboards and Chapman rammin the mic stand into the ceiling.

Rollo Tomasi wrote:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the fact that they debuted in the Guildhall.

They played Plymouth a second time a year or two later in the ABC.

I remember Emerson running up and down the aisles playing his portable Moog synthesiser. What a showman.

He was also the lead member of The Nice which was one of the, if not the first, prog rock band(s).

They're version of Bernstein's 'America' and Brubeck's 'Rondo' are outstanding.

At last someone with some taste, I saw him a number of times and bought all the Nice and ELP albums, yes he could get a bit anal at times but put on a great show, a shame he decided to end it this way but I can see why you might if you were ill.