Emerson, Lake And Palmer - Beyond The Beginning (DVD)

...be proud of their achievements. Emerson, on the other hand, clearly still has issues, particularly with Lake, that he finds it difficult to keep a lid on. Don't expect further re-unions.

So, what to make of ELP's legacy--that is the question. This DVD presents some of their best music, and they were impressive, very impressive, there's denying that. But often it's a case of technique winning out over content, and the showmanship is ...
...plenty of virtuoso playing on this disc, but you'll also be confronted with exploding amps, spinning pianos and endless shots of Emerson riding his Hammond organ as if he's trying to be Lester Piggott winning the Derby yet again, and it does get a tad tedious. Even Emerson admits that he maybe got the balance wrong when he says "When people recognise me on the street, they don't want to talk about the music, they always say 'Hey, you're the ... more

Jimmy Page really set the bar high with the recent Led Zeppelin DVD. That set was a faultless document of a 70s supergroup throughout its entire career, and here we have another "Dinosaur" group from those halcyon days, the "Classical Rock" pioneers Emerson Lake & Palmer, attempting to cement their place in Rock History for posterity via a marathon trawl through the visual archives.
Do they achieve it? Well, yes I suppose they do...except that in my opinion, the place they have cornered for themselves is marked "Novelties and Musical Jokes".

Yes folks, welcome to the Emerson Lake and Palmer show. A four hours plus, double disc Gift from the Gods/ Horrific monstrosity, depending on your view of Progressive Rock music.
First impressions (in-joke intended) are favourable, though I must admit to being surprised it was only a double set. Surely these Emperors of Overkill could have stretched it to at least 4 discs!
But actually, if you remember the pre-MTV & VH1 days, usually there's very little usable footage of even the biggest groups from the 60s and early 70s apart from rare TV appearances, brief clips from Rock Festival films and the occasional promo film, and even then it's a nightmare to secure the rights to actually use the clips! So 4 hours and ten minutes of ELP is like manna from Heaven for Prog Freaks isn't it? Hmmm...well...yes...and no.

Don't get me wrong, this is a very enjoyable set, but there are so many frustrating things about it that it falls well short of the standard set by the Zeppelin epic. So, let's take the case out of the cardboard cover, open it up, extract the neatly designed and colourful 24 page booklet, and put the discs into the player. What do we find?

Wel, the menus are easy to navigate and each has a short loop of film playing behind them, the best of which features a Roadie confiscating a tape recorder from a punter at a gig and patiently explaining to the gentleman concerned that bootlegging is "Against the laws of the land".

Disc One features a chronological journey through 17 clips, and this is the meat of the disc, but first let me quickly moan about the space fillers.

Firstly you get footage of each member's previous band, which is a good idea to set the scene. Problem is, each clip is pretty ropey. Palmer (in a mask!) mimes away to Arthur Brown's "Fire" while Arthur goes over the top in no uncertain terms. Emerson looks suitably demonic (for the few seconds that you can actually see him) as The Nice perform their hit "America". Both of these clips are taken from the German TV show "Beat Club" and both suffer through being Black & White. Psychedelic effects just don't work in B&W so both clips end up looking very dark and almost unwatchable. Finally we get Lake with King Crimson at Hyde Park in 1969, except that the music is the studio version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" approximately synched with the live footage, and savagely edited to boot. So far, so not good.

There's a short featurette about ELP's album covers which isn't particularly enlightening except for the fact that most of the Band's cover artists died soon after working for them!

Bob Moog, the inventor of the noise generator that Emerson took to it's extremes, gets to talk about his relationship with Keith. Interesting but inessential.

A recently found 17 minute b&w film of the band rehearsing in 1973 barely merits one viewing, unless the sight of Emerson instructing Palmer on where his drum beats should go makes your pulse quicken.

Hmm..what else? Ah yes...there's "exclusive" film of the three band members enjoying a Celebrity Motor race at Brand's Hatch in 1973. Words can hardly begin to describe the undiluted excitement I felt when viewing these grainy b&w images of various Sports cars hurtling around the track. E, L and P are all in there somewhere, but God knows where! When the race ends we see Lake, who finished second behind jazzer Ronnie Scott, gloating over the fact that the other two failed to finish. Rivetting stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. The only thing missing is Murray Walker!

Onwards and definitely upwards then. The actual "Music" content of this disc comprises the following:

Take A Pebble (Beat Club TV, 1970)
Knife Edge (Brussels 1971)
Rondo/ Pictures A t An Exhibition (Isle Of Wight 1970)
Rondo (Brussels 1971)
Eruption (Tokyo 1972)
Hoedown (Milan 1973)
Tank (Milan 1973)
Lucky Man (California jam 1974)
Karn Evil 9, 3rd Impression) (California Jam 1974)
Tocatta (Palmer on Aquarius TV show 1973)
I Believe In Father Christmas (Lake in single promo clip 1975)
Honky Tonk Train Blues (Emerson on Oscar Peterson TV show 1975)
Fanfare for The Common Man (Montreal 1977 Promo film)
Pirates (Montreal 1977)
Tiger In A Spotlight (Pop Rock TV 1977)
Watching Over You (Memphis 1978)
Tarkus (Royal Albert Hall 1992)
Touch & Go (Budapest 1997)

Looks impressive huh? Trouble is, many of the above are savagely, and irritatingly edited. The Japanese footage is mainly of the group off-stage, "Tank" comprises a drum roll, a couple of gong bashes and a few clangs of a bell. The Isle Of Wight appearance has about thirty seconds-worth of musical tinkering followed by Emerson and Lake letting off a brace of cannon. This has been available for years on the "Message To Love" DVD, and in fact the brief appearance on that DVD has been edited down even further on this release!

"Tocatta" has Palmer tapping his tubular bells and thumping his tympanis in a TV studio. This lasts for about a minute (although the introductory spiel by the TV presenter actually appears in the documentary on Disc 2 of this set)

The California Jam tracks are also repeated on the second disc. Surely there must have been a couple of different performances that could have been slotted in here?

The rest is decent enough, although the Beat Club graphics are as heavy-handed and annoying as ever, it's just that there could be much, much more on here. By the time the 90s re-union clips roll around there also appears to be a bit of an "only in it for the money" attitude, though who can blame them?

BTW, on the 1997 "Touch & Go" clip, a haggard Emerson looks like Steve McManaman's Grandad, Lake resembles DJ and Celebrity Fat-Club person Jono Coleman, while Palmer could still be 25 and is the doppelganger of Dolph Lundgren!

On to Disc 2. This features 44 minutes worth of ELP's performance at the 1974 California Jam. Annoyingly the opening track "Tocatta" consists only of Palmer's percussion solo and the editing is clumsy to say the least. TV picture 'interference', presumeably from the original broadcast, recurs repeatedly. Most of the broadcast consists of solo spots with precious little ensemble playing until the Karn Evil 9 segment, and even then Palmer gets to hammer out a drum solo midway through. Emerson's piano playing is dazzling but is inevitably outshone by his "Spinning Piano" escapade, which is still impressive over three decades later.

The other half of this disc is given over to a "warts and all" documentary that purports to tell the story of the band from beginning to end. Narrated by popular comic actor, Chris Langham, it does the job adequately, featuring extensive interviews with our three heroes plus other business associates of the band. About 90% of the music clips in the doc are repeats from Disc 1, and those that aren't are of the blink-and-you-miss-them variety.
Lake (resembling a retired West Country Rugby prop forward) and Palmer (an intense Matinee idol) are fairly benign and appear to be proud of their achievements. Emerson, on the other hand, clearly still has issues, particularly with Lake, that he finds it difficult to keep a lid on. Don't expect further re-unions.

So, what to make of ELP's legacy--that is the question. This DVD presents some of their best music, and they were impressive, very impressive, there's denying that. But often it's a case of technique winning out over content, and the showmanship is usually the most memorable aspect of their performances. You'll find plenty of virtuoso playing on this disc, but you'll also be confronted with exploding amps, spinning pianos and endless shots of Emerson riding his Hammond organ as if he's trying to be Lester Piggott winning the Derby yet again, and it does get a tad tedious. Even Emerson admits that he maybe got the balance wrong when he says "When people recognise me on the street, they don't want to talk about the music, they always say 'Hey, you're the guy with the spinning piano!'"

So...this is a decent collection, but there's far too much ballast for it to considered the definitive article on ELP. No doubt there's a bootlegger out there putting it together right now. Rabid ELP fans will already have bought it. Casual buyers should try and pick it up if they can find it cheap. I've seen prices that range from £14.99 to £19.99.

Still, at least there's no sign of Jim Davidson....
 

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