It's Wednesday night...

[Archae]

That means, "Post corny 70's record covers!" :D

[swag]

1. Love Beach

[tarkus]

2. My God, what a disaster.

Who could have possibly sat in a meeting and said "You know, I bet the people that liked Brain Salad Surgery would buy an album with this cover." I hear Emerson polled people who didn't know who ELP was in an airport, and almost everyone agreed that they wouldn't buy an album with that cover. But that is the cover, and everyone involved has had to love with it for almost 30 years now...

[swag]

4. Well, your handle is Tarkus, innit?

Brain Salad Surgery was probably the best, or was it Tarkus? Kind of structural companions. Both undeniably weird and esoteric.

The Works albums at least had the pomp intact (and that awful "Father Christmas" song sappy folks are so fond of quoting come Yuletide.

Pictures at an Exhibition was mostly a waste of time, aside from the name-check of Kim Fowley.

What's your take on ELP? I'm no authority, just a fan who saw them once live.

And I could have nothing to do with them after Love Beach. They had been on a downhill slide for a couple of albums by then, but that was too low and too offensive.

Thank god, then, for the Sex Pistols.

[swag]

6. Oh, forgot the first record, didn't I?

Well, the first record is less favored by me than BSS, though favored more greatly than Tarkus.

That was the core when I was a fan. The rest was dross.

Until Love Beach, which was just shit.

[tarkus]

8. Yeah, they went hardcore downhill with Love Beach

They were great in the early 70's, but then they went even more sharply downhill than most prog rock bands. "Owner of a Lonely Heart" makes what ELP did in the 1990's look genius.

Tarkus was great though, and it makes a good internet name I suppose.

[Archae]

3. Look at all that chest hair!

Gotta be falsies... :D

[swag]

5. I haven't read ol' Chest Hair's memo, but it's said to be full of what

"Emo" jocularly refers to as "rumpy pumpy."

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/artsandentertainment/0,6121,1110525,00.html

Read Rick Wakeman's ecsatic review!

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/artsandentertainment/0,6121,1110525,00.html

[swag]

7. What exactly this cover represented was a topic of endless discussion

among my jr. high school buddies (few though they were) and me:



The 70s was a long long decade.

I'm not convinced we're out of the 70s woods yet.