Although I was already aware of both Pink Floyd and King Crimson in my high school years, I didn't have any real awareness of "progressive rock" per se. I had a few Genesis albums, but they were all from the post-Steve Hackett period. To me, Floyd and Crimson were just another form of classic rock. However, once a friend introduced me to ELP, it became clear that this was part of a strain of early 70s music that stood apart from classic rock, with different goals. For ELP, the goal was to combine the complexity of classical music with the visceral excitement of rock. At this time in my life, I was studying music theory in college and loved the challenge of following such harmonically and rhythmically complex music while still "getting my rocks off".
The title suite occupies all of side 1, and it remains one of my favorite prog epics to this day. When I first discovered ELP, I recall I was more blown away by their over-the-top later efforts such as "Karn Evil 9" and "Pirates", but the earthier strains of "Tarkus" have aged much better. Besides the more approachable instrumentation, the thematic development in this piece is both felt on a gut level and also reveals its complexity and pithiness upon close theoretical examination. While Greg Lake's vocal sections ("Stones of Years", "Mass", and "Battlefield") provide the suite's most accessible moments, the interstitial keyboard pieces between these songs develop a common musical theme in various meters and modes, giving the entire piece a cohesion that one cannot miss.
A suite this great practically guarantees a great album even if side 2 is garbage, but the flip side holds up well too. "Bitches Crystal", "Infinite Space", and "A Time and a Place" are all excellent tracks. "Are You Ready Eddy?" and "The Only Way" are relatively weaker spots, but nowhere near as terrible as some critics have made them out to be. And even if they were, this would still be ELPs best album, as strong as it is on the whole.
Dan:
Unlike Steve, I had room for only one ELP album in my collection - the self-titled first album with "Lucky Man" on it. However, I did see them perform in a campus concert in the early 1970s. Three acts performed at the concert: Cactus, Livingston Taylor, and ELP. Cactus was LOUD!!! Almost comically so, I thought. When Taylor took the stage with his acoustic folk-oriented set, the crowd rudely demanded that he play LOUDER!!! I was appalled. Finally, ELP took the stage for one of their grand performances, complete with Keith Emerson's antic of pulling his organ over on top of him. And, yes, they were LOUD!!!
I can't explain why I avoided the later ELP albums, especially since I liked the first one. I am now in a self-guided ELP listening program beginning with Tarkus. I understand Steve's point about its 7-part title suite. The lyrics are nicely obscure - critical but not preachy - and they fit well with the instrumental parts (which seem to me to be the essence of ELP). The other tunes are satisfying too, except for the 1950s-styled closer "Are You Ready Eddy?" which does not fit with the rest of the album. Apparently, it was an in-joke to salute their engineer Eddy Offord. (Why doesn't anybody learn that in-jokes aren't as funny as they imagine?) A better joke is the anti-religious "The Only Way," which is first played in conventional rock mode, followed by Emerson's ironically churchy organ.
I enjoy hearing such a variety of keyboards played by a true virtuoso. From piano to synth to Hammond B-3 to pipe organ, Emerson knew how to deploy keyboards to fit the band's messages. Building a whole band around organ was rarely attempted outside of classical and jazz music, but here it succeeds. Greg Lake's poignant vocals understandably echo his major role in King Crimson. Overall, a winner of an album!
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