Lucky Man

[Dixie]

...Some Boomer is gonna hate me for this (and I'm a Boomer).

I was surfing YouTube, and got into videos about the Moog synthesizer. It reminded me of my brother coming home after his freshman year at Auburn over fifty years ago. He was all stoked about this groovy ban, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Well, today I heard, Lucky Man, played for the first time since 1971.

After listening, I can now say I've found a band I hate worse than Rush. The only redeeming part of the song is the Moog solo, which is overwrought, but interesting, at least by 1971 standards. Maybe some Sin Semia, love beads, and a head band, would have made it sound better, but I doubt it.

So what's your take on ELP? Do you remember them? What were you listening to in 1971?

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by Dixie

... a band I hate worse than Rush.

My wife doesn't "get" Rush.
The audience at any Rush concert is almost all guys.

[masraum]

My second and third year in college, there was a guy across the hall that LOVED Rush. Had everything they'd even made/sold, and listened to it essentially all of the time, every day. I don't ever listen to them myself. They are OK, but after that experience, I just never want to hear them again.

I'll have to check out some of ELP's stuff on YT to remember what they did. I feel like they must have a song or two that I'm happy to have worked into a set of "classic rock". But I haven't ever had an album by them.

[look 171]

Its before my time, but that type is music is actually pretty good but I have to be in the mood for it or else, its just drawn out instruments. similar to Yes. Rush on the other hand, its OK. I like some of their music, rather only one album, Moving Pic. That's about it. Dislike most of their newer stuff.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Dantilla

My wife doesn't "get" Rush.
The audience at any Rush concert is almost all guys.

The current joke is that with the new lineup, there's finally a female at a Rush show.

ELP is fine, I tended to like 'Yes' better in the Prog rock days, but it's a matter of taste. I agree about Lucky Man, though. I heard it one too many times when it was current and then I heard it 5000 more times after that because it got played to death. (All Right Now by Free also fits that description from about the same decade)

And then there were Prog rockers who never got their due. Robin Trower for example.

[Dixie]

Originally Posted by masraum

My I don't ever listen to them [Rush] myself. They are OK....

To me, Rush is a band loved by engineering types (and therefore guys). Rush's playing is quite technical, but rather short on being emotional appealing.

[astrochex]

To add nothing to the discussion, Rush now has a female drummer, and she is excellent. She is German with fits with lack of emotion spin.

[Zeke]

I never had time to sit and try to get it in music. I would have been the Clive Davis of music, if it sounds good, put it out and who gives a rat about what it all means. Exceptions follow rules as in everything. There are hundreds of bands that I got nothing from. For some kind of meaning I'll take Bob Dylan as an example. One forth of his music is very listenable. The rest is not.

I'll bet there are 50 bands I'd take ONE song from for my personal stream. There're are another 1000 that I have never heard and probably there is a reason. No one has ever complained about my playlist which is getting long in the tooth.

[Chocaholic]

Wow. To discard an innovative band like ELP based on one pop made-for-radio song seems well…

Keith Emerson was a classically trained pianist extraordinaire that was doing incredible things musically during the Frank Sinatra era. Integrating classical and jazz into a rock-fusion style at that time was unheard of. Greg Lake may be one of the best rock and roll vocalists of all time (of former King Crimson fame). Their unique styles melded together with the drumming genius of Carl Palmer (the only remaining member) was pure musical chemistry that requires a much deeper dive than one pop tune. The breadth of their output was staggering, most definitely not made for radio.

As he aged, Emerson became physically constricted medically and when he could no longer play piano, he killed himself. This is not a band to take lightly. They changed the course of rock fusion and musical history with a depth of innovation and musical risk-taking that ushered in an entirely new genre of rock fusion. I will always be a fan.

[A930Rocket]

I haven’t listed to ELP in ages, but enjoyed their music. Saw them in concert in Atlanta in the late 70’s and it was a great show. I’ll have to listen to their music again.

[Sooner or later]

Like em a lot. Saw them in concert. At the end of the show they destroyed a baby grand piano.

Welcome back, my friends
to the show that never ends.
We're so glad you could attend!
Come inside! Come inside!
There behind a glass
stands a real blade of grass
be careful as you pass.
Move along! Move along!
Come inside, the show's about to start
guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you'll get your money's
worth
The greatest show it happens a hell-of-
alot.

[berettafan]

the drumming throughout the Rush catalog is just special. makes so many other drummers come off as lazy bums.

[unclebilly]

I am a male engineering type and I can’t stand rush either. That crap Dixie posted makes the back of my throat taste remarkably like vomit.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Wow. To discard an innovative band like ELP based on one pop made-for-radio song seems well…

Keith Emerson was a classically trained pianist extraordinaire that was doing incredible things musically during the Frank Sinatra era. Integrating classical and jazz into a rock-fusion style at that time was unheard of. Greg Lake may be one of the best rock and roll vocalists of all time (of former King Crimson fame). Their unique styles melded together with the drumming genius of Carl Palmer (the only remaining member) was pure musical chemistry that requires a much deeper dive than one pop tune. The breadth of their output was staggering, most definitely not made for radio.

As he aged, Emerson became physically constricted medically and when he could no longer play piano, he killed himself. This is not a band to take lightly. They changed the course of rock fusion and musical history with a depth of innovation and musical risk-taking that ushered in an entirely new genre of rock fusion. I will always be a fan.

Indeed. The song in question is something of an ironic narrative about a privileged man who was lucky in that regard. Then he goes off to war and is killed. The label "lucky man" then becomes sardonic. "No money could save him".

Greg Lake first sketched the song when he was just 12. IIRC my rock history it started as more of a folk song then it evolved into the rock masterpiece it is.

Read these lyrics... “white horses” and “ladies by the score” dressed in satin, with a “gold-covered mattress” and “white lace and feathers” . That's the lucky rich man.

Then he “went to fight wars for his country and his king” "of his honor and his glory the people would sing"

.So... “Ooooh, what a lucky man he was,” goes from an envious tone to a sardonic one.

Great song...great musicians.

YMMV

By the way that is not the released version of the solo.

[Jeff Higgins]

Emerson himself hated that song so much that he refused to play it until Lake agreed to add the Moog solo.

I never missed ELP when they came to Seattle. Or Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull... I guess I was a "prog" rocker back in the day. I still listen to all of them today. The depth and breadth of talent in these bands put every other rock'n'roll band to shame. They didn't produce many "hits", not Top 40 type nonsense, at least not often. When they were essentially told to, by their producers, they often rebelled and purposely wrote some pretty inane stuff. That, remarkably, and much to their chagrin, sold. Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick is a prime example - Ian Anderson wrote "the concept album from hell" as a giant "eff you", a thinly disguised parody, out of pure spite. And it sold... But they are still not in the R&R Hall of Fame, and Ian Anderson is adamant that they never will be.

So don't judge ELP by one song that Greg Lake wrote as an adolescent and their label pushed them to record.

[flatbutt]

I never missed a chance to see Jethro Tull. I still refuse to believe that Ian Anderson had only one tongue in his head.

[MMiller]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Wow. To discard an innovative band like ELP based on one pop made-for-radio song seems well…

Keith Emerson was a classically trained pianist extraordinaire that was doing incredible things musically during the Frank Sinatra era. Integrating classical and jazz into a rock-fusion style at that time was unheard of. Greg Lake may be one of the best rock and roll vocalists of all time (of former King Crimson fame). Their unique styles melded together with the drumming genius of Carl Palmer (the only remaining member) was pure musical chemistry that requires a much deeper dive than one pop tune. The breadth of their output was staggering, most definitely not made for radio.

As he aged, Emerson became physically constricted medically and when he could no longer play piano, he killed himself. This is not a band to take lightly. They changed the course of rock fusion and musical history with a depth of innovation and musical risk-taking that ushered in an entirely new genre of rock fusion. I will always be a fan.

Great post, some things I did not know... Agree on Lake, what a talent!

[MMiller]

"Take a Pebble" was the track that stood out to me off the first album.

[craigster59]

Rachel Flowers, a young blind girl in Oxnard, Ca was given Keith Emerson's Moog and is amazing. She has some videos on YT. Here's a short video with Keith and Rachel....

[HobieMarty]

https://youtu.be/L6TJWem-k0A?is=E-D1m6uExMPpbfjK

To me, THIS is Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.
As far as Rush goes, they have been my favorite band ever since I was a teenager. Lots of people don't "get" Rush, and thats okay, I do and that is all that matters, to me anyway.

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