Jethro Tull - Thunderbird content!

[eb2]

a roundabout way.

HA!!!!

[uwe]

Look at Jim blowing the fanfare for the common man.

[Pilgrim]

I'm not going to argue with any label you want to put on ELP - I know they did some very innovative stuff that was still easy to connect with; in the process, they completely kicked ass.  IMO some of the best music of its era.  If you can take the Great Gate of Kiev and make it rock, you're doing something special.

[Stjofön Big]

"We used to play Locomotive Breath, but our then keyboard player, being a Jon Lord fan, insisted on turning the intro into his own personal classical overture, so by the time we got to the song the audience had lost the will to live." Ho-ho! Isn't that the typical keyboard player!

[uwe]

"but our then keyboard player, being a Jon Lord fan".

Wash him and bring him to my tent!!! I have been looking for him for more than three decades. I've never ever met a keyboard player who could play (or would want to play) like Jon Lord. Some people can play a classical melody, but not with the panache of the good Lord. He's not the Ritchie Blackmore of Hammond organ, he's the Keith Richards of it. He can make a band swing like hell. Blackmore has been looking for someone like Lord for decades too - he never found him.

Speaking of keyboard players: I saw Elton John solo (no band except Ray Cooper on percussion) last week and was amazed by how good a pianist he is, forceful, almost brutal, not at all simplistic and quite bluesy and very improvisational as well as rhythmically complex and precise. Jon Lord always rated Reg Dwight's piano playing highly (along with Leon Russel's and Tony Ashton's) and I thought he was just trying to be nice. Now I know why. Stubby little fingers can be artisitc too!

[gweimer]

Isn't that Elton on the keys for Long John Baldry's "Don't Try To Lay No Boogie-Woogie..."?  After all, Reg adopted the "John" in his name for LJB.  Elton and Rod also produced that album for the old man, as I recall.  I've always liked Elton's playing.  It only took one listen to 11-17-70 to convince me.  Nobody expected a trio with no guitar, and only a piano, to kick that kind of booty.  Murray/Olssen were always a better rhythm section than Lake/Palmer in my book.  And I did chuckle at Uwe's description of ELP, but some of the early songs, like "Knife Edge" were great songs.

[uwe]

 "Murray/Olssen were always a better rhythm section than Lake/Palmer in my book."


True. The occassional fast run aside, Greg Lake is very much a meat and potatoes player or should I say meat and progtatoes player? (Dee) Murray had a much better harmonic and melodic grasp of music. Lake has admitted that bass playing was for him always a matter of necessity as opposed to a labor of love, he confines - I meant to use exactly that word too! - himself to guitar playing these days. To be fair: between Palmer's commanding drumming and Emerson's onslaughtish keyboard and especially synth playing, there wasn't much Lake could do except turn up the treble and bass on his amp.

I have nothing against ELP - I like UK which to all intents and purposes were an ELP rehash and I even liked ELPowell and Three -, it's not like instrumental prowess doesn't sometimes appeal to me. And Palmer's drumming always brings a smile to my face. He doesn't swing much and he's not the most organic and earthy sticksman on earth, but he has humor in his playing and penchant for little intricacies/embellishment that sound playful and entertaining. I really like what he does in Asia where Wetton too gives him a lot of space.  

[Stjofön Big]

"Murray/Olssen were always a better rhythm section than Lake/Palmer in my book". Thank you Gweimer! Finally someone with a trace of taste! But on the other hand, you Uwe has provided me with a reason to a new listen to ELP (your opinion about Carl Palmer), something that I, as late as yesterday, never ever had a thought to do.
Great place, this!

[Denis]

Since I never warmed up to Elton John's music, I'll stick with Lake/Palmer!
Recently I read that Lake only played bass in King Crimson because they already had guitar players. That said, I think some of his basslines, in "Tank", for instance, are still some of the most terrific in rock.

And Palmer's drumming always brings a smile to my face. He doesn't swing much and he's not the most organic and earthy sticksman on earth, but he has humor in his playing and penchant for little intricacies/embellishment that sound playful and entertaining. I really like what he does in Asia where Wetton too gives him a lot of space. 

Agreed! It was obvious when I saw Asia a couple of months ago that Palmer a) enjoys the hell out of drumming and b) he's very much loved by those who went to see the show. Watching him was just plain FUN!

[patman]

11-17-70 Kicked ass...

I lost interest after "Yellow Brick Rd"

[uwe]

I'm a Honky Chateau guy myself. And the last three albums he did make you forget Nikita. Plus the new one with Leon Russell:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvXK1-b3YXY&feature=related (Spot the Canadian in there!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhtUUWOgAPI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMncry64Xl8&feature=related

[eb2]

Murray/Olssen were always a better rhythm section than Lake/Palmer in my book

Amen!

I'm a Tumbleweed Connection guy myself.  Hell, I even play Friends.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

And who could forget this classic bass intro?

YEAH! A real gem

[Basshappi]

Good points all, but I will proudly fly both my Prog and Fusion flags on high. I love the adventerousness, the complexity, I love how it is music for music's sake, music that one has to actually listen to and requires skill to write and play. Certainly there are more misses than hits, but that is true of every musical genre.

Sure, I enjoy simple, straight-forward, beer drinkin', head shakin' rock n' roll, I've played and continue to play my fair share of it. There is more than enough mainstream pop music pablum that "the girls will like and dance to" to last several lifetimes. Prog will never be a threat to that deluge.

But both Rock and Jazz can, and should, reach higher than that now and then.

Cheers!

[vates]

Amen!