Emerson Lake & Palmer Electronic Pioneers????

but everyone from the who to billy joel was mucking about with wigged out synths in the early '70s. that was the hot new thing.

Also, Taking Sides: Keith in ELP vs Keith in The Nice. I reckon he was better when he was young and hungry.

The majority of Human League - basically everyone but Oakey,I think - were acknowledged big Prog heads (King Crimson in particular) so I don't think their use of synths was without that Prog taint, influencewise. Anyway, isn't the whole myth of the PostPunk/Punk acts hating Prog Rock pretty much discounted by now? There have been so many interviews in recent years where the likes of Human League and others i'm too tired to recall have stated that they listened to loads of Prog in their day and LIKED it. Not to mention a bunch of House pioneers in the States. And just listen to Italo. It's not all about Moroder/Kraftwerk. There's plenty of clues pointing to Prog there, also. egads!

The "electronic pioneer" bit of ELP isn't so much the fact that Emerson used a Moog modular, more that he foregrounded it, put it up on stage for the audience to look at - plenty of acts had used Moog instruments on record before - Byrds, Beatles, Monkees, Spirit & more before, but I don't think anyone had even considered taking one on stage. I don't think anyone realised what a great stage prop a large-format modular is either. In that respect, I guess, yes, they were "electronic pioneers". Perhaps one could also say they were popularisers of an instrument, and to some extent a sound that had 'till recently been part of academia, omg, electronic music ruined by the imposition of the keyboard etc etc etc, but that ignores Wendy Carlos, and all those novelty Moog record copyists w/1/11th of her skill. I saw a picture of Radiohead recently, W/Jonny G's Analogue Solutions modular, and the first thing I tought of was ELP.

In that piece in the Guardian, Phil Oakey said he didn't like ELP. Yes, Genesis and VDGG were the bands he mentioned. My favourites, heh.

When I listen to ELP now, they sound dated in a way other progressive bands don't. Our singer has a bunch of live boots, and there's a lot of it that's really just blues jamming, played on a GX-1 instead of a giutar, and that's pretty terrible. The best progressive music moved away from blues, not that I've anything against blues, but it's not all there is.

I agree that The Nice were better.

The prog fans I know say exactly the same thing - i.e. punk/post punk guys who first started buying records pre-punk or were a bit hippyish when they were 14. Genesis, in particular, are amazingly popular.

And since everyone's shilling for their own pieces on ELP, here's mine on the great Love Beach...

you have to hear "Taste of My Love", if you have not already. Trust me, the lyrics alone do not do the song full justice. :)

Also, re: influence. Get one Silver Apples.

... but not recording with synthesizers of course

I want to agree, but I also want to say that their debut is pretty stellar: I mean, Tank and Take a Pebble on the same album...

under duress i could listen to "trilogy" again, "from the beginning" is actually quite pleasant '70s single along the lines of anne murray, "saturday in the park" or that one great ambrosia single, "nice, nice, very nice." not perhaps as good as argent's "hold your head up," or flash's "small beginnings" (the latter is actually kinda cool) or for that matter, three dog night's "out in the country" and "harvest for the world," that great, spooky single of theirs. '70s music. of course, i have heard them do "pictures at an exhibition," which was a nice conceptual-art piece, and they got *really* pretentious and art-directed by the time of "brain salad surgery."

I think not. "Trans Europa Express" is a concept album featuring several lengthy and complex tracks with obvious influence from classical music.

Somewhat. Except the people behind the Arp 2600 thought likewise, and by "pushing" their synths on several major acts probably did more to spread synth technology than Moog did.

:)

omg I am drunk now and getting into ELP what is wrong with me?

that you waited this long

Carl Palmer could’ve been a pioneering electronic drummer, with the setup he had around ‘74-‘75 or so. But while the setup itself was innovative, he was still Carl Palmer.

re: the topic of this thread, I'm someone whose entry into Really Loving Music was through dance music of the mid-2000s, and a copy of the ELP live album from my dad's CD collection led to a brief foray into prog obsessiveness (the primary remnants of which today are a ride-or-die Mars Volta fandom and a respect for any band that can get their songs satisfyingly over the 10-minute mark) because it was "rock with synthesizers" and could thus break through my kneejerk aversion to a rock's then-apparent status as EDM's eternal mean older brother. Now, none of this rules out the possibility that I am, in fact, stupid, but it is at least a real data point in the argument's favor.
Also live "Aquatarkus" rules regardless of any other claims made here or elsewhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njbx8wJ78Qg