After Greg Lake’s passing last week, I decided to pick up another Emerson Lake & Palmer record for my collection. I went with the group’s big live album, clumsily titled… Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends ~ Ladies and Gentlemen.
I chose this one for a few reasons: One, I love live recording, even when they come with terrible titles in tow. Two, the album was newly reissued on vinyl with a proper remastering earlier this year, which hopefully means the muddiness of earlier releases will have been mitigated to a certain degree. Three, vintage editions of this record are basically impossible to find in decent condition, because the band decided to publish it as a three-LP edition with a triple gatefold, and each record sits behind a die-cut letter corresponding to a different band member’s name (E, L, and P). Die-cut panels do not hold up well to the ravages of time. And, finally, I originally received this album as a tape cassette for Christmas 25 years ago this month, and I was feeling a little nostalgic.
I haven’t had a chance to listen to the records yet — I’m currently working my way through Data Discs’s ridiculously plush two-LP 45rpm issue of Panzer Dragoon for review — but I did open it up and was honestly a bit crushed to see a newly added note inside the sleeve:
So… the record I bought as a memorial to the band member who just died was already published a memorial to the band member who passed earlier this year. Man. That’s rough.
Picked up In the Court of the Crimson King the other day. Trying to round out the ol’ music collection; I spend a lot of time with headphones on at work.
Never got a chance to see ELP or any of its individual members live, but I’ve seen Belew a couple times. And I’ve definitely seen *somebody* perform Crimson King live — can’t remember offhand whether it was Belew or Zappa Plays Zappa or Yes or who.