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From: windhoek35
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  • This was epic in the day. i was 16 and remember it well. Of course when the magazines list the best front men or best bands or best drummers they will be far down the list, unfortunately.

    It doesn't matter though as they were one of the best and their concert in 77 with the orchestra at MSG was along with a New Order concert that i saw in 89 one of the best concerts i had or ever will see.

  • we were lucky to be around and hear these great songs and go to concerts where everyone was cool.....sadly its over today...and the young kids got crap and buy crap so they give them crap...but we have the memories.....thats enough for me.

  • what year was this filmed? God i hate when uploaders don't include that lol

  • @SRNF 1974, california jam

  • 1:19

  • Seen ELP 6 TIMES, just brilliant!

  • 24 people weren't sent to the gates!!!!!!!!!

  • Fantastic, real musicianship! Listen to Isao Tomita's Pictures as well, he's the God of synths IMO, but ELP are the Gods of 70's bands!

  • Fantastic, real musicianship! Listen to Isao Tomita's Pictures as well, he's the God of synths

  • @cazten

    Yes Tomita is wonderful . I also like his Debussy album Snowflakes are Dancing.

    Check it out on Youtube. I think you might appreciate it.

  • @cazten I agree 100% Isao Tomita is a genuis.......

  • While this is certainly cool, for those unschooled in classical music it is a cover of Modest Mussorgsky's piece of the same name, from his Pictures at an Exhibition. Check it out...beautiful piece of music and it makes this version all the cooler by knowing the source.

  • seems like 24 people have their end to their lives and the began the death

  • ELP is the best!

  • year anyone? clothing and style says '71, but lake's voice and the fact that they're playing in the States tells me its later. anyone know the year?

  • @butcherbird52 1974 California Jam, - Ontario, CA

  • Bravo, Bravo.... Awesome!

  • great lyric , vocal, and chamber orchestral tribute to a romantic era composer who took his nation: his indigenous country-folk to the heart of his art

  • They graduated from the cannons at the Isle of Wight to the fireworks at Cal Jam. Why this band isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just exposes it as the sham it is. They are ten times better than most of the artists in there and they made more sound as a three piece than that murderer Phil Spector ever did.

  • Comment removed

  • @Sargebri ROFL! I couldn't express it any better than you just did. Totally agree. Spector's "Wall of Sound" pales in comparison to these three prodigies of prog.

  • This is a stellar performance, but all some of you morons are talking about is chewing gum. Pathetic!

  • This is so majestic. Absolutely AWESOME!!! The Moog Modular at the beginning sounds like nothing else. ELP are real legends.

  • For Prog Jazz rock fans: TriMatch-King !!!

    A new band of prog : visit the Mousikos chanel !!!

    Cheers!!!

    And Thanks !!!!!

  • The era when musicians could actually play instruments is over.Everything now is based on technology and studio tricks.No more ELP although Rush is still around.Look what the Beatles did on 4 tracks.No artists today have the flare and beauty of genius in the art of playing and performing.Hendrix ,The Who and all the great performers never to be equalled.I'm thankful I grew up when music was still good.ELP definitely outshine even the best of that era.They were the best of the best.

  • I remember the whole audience singing that last line together. God was I lucky to have lived thru this era.

  • One word..... Genius!! ok, 2: PURE Genius.  ELP rocked in EVERY sense of the word.

  • My God!!! Still you turn me F@@@ ON!!! Long live ELP.

  • Always chewing gum. Whats the deal?

  • youtube.com/watch?v=bG3x-8EqA7­A

  • this is only about 1/3 of the song

  • I was there...it was incredible!!

  • @RevMishka

    I wished I lived at that time. Deep Purple, ELP, Black Sabbath and Eagles on one day........

  • The comments on elp videos are about how much modern music sucks, that's just wrong.

    When you were young and elp were playing previous generation said the same about this kind of music, they just had not their ears accustomed to these sounds and didn't took the time to dwell deep enough to understand it, don't do the same.

    Contemporary scene is adding so much to the performance that you don't get.

    check: Warp record, Ninjatune, The Knife, Animal Collective, Cocorosie.

    just one ex: v=-sOWlZGUYPY

  • @loopback69 That one sucks too.

  • My early recollections of ELP was Fanfare For The Common Man and Greg Lake singing about Christmas. But I have rediscovered them after by chance seeing 'Gates' on a music docu one late night re: progressive rock, I watched it having long been a fan of Genesis and Jethro Tull. I went and downloaded 'Pictures' and have been playing 'Gates' to death via the ipod on the train for the last few days... they just dont make rock like this anymore - absolutely brilliant !

  • 1:35 that's a FULL ON DOUBLE RAINBOW

  • @PhantomLord WHAT DOES IT MEAN!?

  • That thing with all the wires is a Moog Modular synthesizer. A REAL analog synth where programming of soundforms is done with patchcords connecting the outputs of one device to the inputs or controls of another. Wonderfully flexible, moderately finicky and very hard to learn similar in complexity to systems computer programming.

    Very few keyboard people learned them well enough to use them in the studio and only a tiny, tiny elite ever mastered them enough to take them on the road.

  • Greg Lake is so sexy when he is chewing gum!!!

  • what the heck is that big thing with all the wires

  • He looks like a mad scientist ready to some neferious deed with his massive elecrtonic board.

  • Mussorgsky is rolling over in his grave

  • @willspear1564 Why?

  • @willspear1564 Most people wouldnt know who Mussorgsky ,Copeland or Bartok was if it wasn't for Emerson Lake and Palmer 

  • @willspear1564

    Only so that he might hear the music better.

  • dude he wrote lyrics to an arranged transcription of a piano piece fuckin sweet

  • so they really could play Mussorgsky and chew gum at the same time!

  • Right on guys....glad we had this in our time....as you say ..kick ass music

  • it's awesome! real music!

  • Saw these in London around 1973..........AWESOME!!

  • Can you feed a punchcard in to that thing Emerson is playing in order to calculate 2+2?

  • this is great!! the synth was portable back then!!

  • Oh.

  • Good that Mussorgsky never heard this!

  • I had the good fortune to see ELP in North Carolina during this tour. It was life changing. To this day, except for maybe seeing Peter Gabriel on his Security tour it was the best concert I've ever attended.

  • @Steevlan1 I bet !!

  • as a classical musician im totally offended by the fact that they put words to the great gate of kiev

    as rock musician...it was ok pretty cool

  • @bassman31793

    as a jr high school hall monitor im totally offended that he was chewing gum.

    as a gum aficianado...i wonder if it was juicy fruit or hubba bubba

  • So bassman, what do you think Greg Lake was singing about in Great Gates (the whole lyric rather than this fragment)? I have my own thoughts... Until I decided what I thought he was singing, I found the lyrics to be pretty lame, but now I think they are pretty sly (from my perspective). Send a mssg tell me what you think.

  • Doesn't get better than this. I was priveliged to have seen this concert when I was a kid. WHEW! haven't been the same since. Unfortunatley MTV reared it's ugly corporate money=driven, commercial ,accountant lawyer based head and it all ended. It was profit ahead of music. Spearheaded by corporate lawyers and accountants with no musical taste and hired to crunch out numbers and sell millions of gargb...er records.... It was SOOOO good while it lasted.

  • hmm i was going to add but i think youve covered it all! lol

    sad but true most of the popular music is crap...not all but an alarming amount!

    People dont even have to sing they just sort of mime and writhe around. lol sorry that my rant of the day.

  • Chewing trio :Emerson -chiclets, Lake -wrigley´s and Palmer-stimorol

  • Music is epic not cyclical. What a pity! I only wish I could have seen this show. Anyway, it lives inside me. Every single day. From here to eternity.

  • kick ass old school real music not like the crap we have now days

  • totally agree with you

  • agreed. well said my friend

  • @DRGAS3339 yeh, like 100 years old music

  • @DRGAS3339 just wait 20 years when teenagers have gron up and bitch about how no one plays pop music

  • Love them because it's like the jordan rudess.. i love them both =')!!

  • Sounds exactly like what Mussorgsky had in mind.

  • what the f is this, MegaMoog?!

  • close, its a custom built Moog Modular IIIc with lots of xtra modules , a custom configured cabinet and ocsiliscope. the baddest touring modular synth ever built.

  • Correction I thought you were talking about the rainout in NJ.......Oh well

  • I was 17 then. I remember that day quite well. Sitting through shitty bands up against the stage, for seemed like forever waiting for only elp to come on when A tornado like cloud came over and dump a ton of rain on us, I remember running for cover, it didn't last for long and when we returned some dork like idiot with an afro told us no ELP so we tore the field up and tossed on stage the crowd went wild mayhem soon followed so mad we went next door and finshed up there hurt my hands big time.

  • check out my elp pics, .. . taken by me

  • was there on April 6th......and the day changed me forever. I was 13 years old, first psychedelic trip, dodged the most incredible water container fight (those who were truly there have to remember this very strange event) and watched ELP at their absolute best. It was a long, hot, unforgettable day.

  • La mejor banda progresiva de la historia!! Increible, 3 tipos en el escenario, parecían 30, sin palabras...

  • damn i only wish i could have seen these masters!!! missed it by just a few years. they are one of the greatest, dont make it like this anymore

  • I wasn't there, but I did see this tour.

    Perhaps the best musicians I've ever seen. And the VOICE!

  • lol its hard to imagine the music industry letting this amazing sound to get heard anymore, i had to dig REALLY deep to get this beautiful rendition of Modests' classic Pictures at an Exhibition, outstandiNg!!!

  • Roosevelt stadium was in jersey city and it was torn down in 86. 2 seats were sent to the Smithonian . Those were the days aah and for 6.50 for admission for all those concerts and most of the time you could get right up against the stage.... Stay thirsty my friend!

  • These guys are one of the greatest bands of all time. why does it matter that Lake was chewing gum? It doesn't. Him chewing gum and singing just means he is a BAMF and you need to get the fuck over it. More talented than you are.

  • Well said Jimmy, well said.

  • Also, Hendrix chewed gum throughout his Monterrey performance.

  • I think some singers, like Lennon and Lake, chew gum during performances because it keeps their mouths from drying out and helps their singing.

  • i know lennon chewed gum because he was extremely nervous before each performence and the gum helped to calm him

  • saw them in dec.73 at the garden, saw this concert, and that famous rain out at roosevelt statium n.j. summer 74 still allways makes me wonder just how amazing they really were. Saw tons of concerts no one even came close to ELP I allways said they played better live than thier albums just the best band in thier time. thanks guys

  • I saw them at Roosevelt Stadium too, but for the life of me can't remember where Roosevelt Stadium was...I think they tore it down.

  • where can I get their whole performance at cal jam 74?

  • It is available on their DVD "Beyond The Beginning" a 2 disc DVD set.

  • 70's creative gods-hell, looks as tho' they had a good time?

  • Must have been one hell of a concert, ELP must have been well pissed off with Purple after Blackmore had smashed one of the TV camera's and set light to half the stage.

  • actually ELP had theyre own stage on railroad tracks just for them. The rest shared 2 flat bed cars. 1 band would be taking apart there stuff while and the following act setting up all the while 1 act performing. ELP were the only band to get a sound check and were set up 1 day before the show.

  • Pot = Dry Mouth = Gum ...ok

  • How does chewing gun help them play, I wonder?

  • It does indeed help you concentrate... but speaking as a vocalist it also helps to keep the gob moist.... you have to learn to keep it under control though! ;-)

  • You're telling me! Many a time have I got my hair caught in my chewing gum. It's awkward, but you can't let it get in your way. Nothing can go wrong up there.

  • ELP is just that awesome. They can chew gum, cure cancer, and rock your world all at the same time.

  • Amazing isn't it? That's how it used to be. It was great!

  • How did we lose this. Instead of genius musicians/singers/songwriters we have Mitzi Gaynor type chicks singings and dancing to other people's music.

    I blame Madonna. And Disney.

  • @alcibaides dont forget about mtv...

  • @MarkoZds

    Yeah, them too. But more than anyone else I blame the record companies. They deserve to go out of business.

  • @alcibaides

    Hey, that's an insult to Mitzi Gaynor!

    Um, you do know that these guys are playing someone else's music here, right? (Mussorgsky). But at least they're actually playing and not sampling an old recording. Other than that, I agree with you about the twinkies of questionable talent making recordings and doing concerts nowadays.

  • @alcibaides IIRC a bunch of cockney gobshites like Johnny Rotten came along and told us this was crap and we had to listen to them instead. The NME and BBC fell for it and Malcom McLaren (and the NME) made a lot of money out of the whole thing. The BBC still bash prog rock to this day. Arseholes.

  • @mailbox827 I wonder how much of that was record companies pushing newer musicians because their royalty rates were much lower than established artists. Maybe they think people will buy anything. And with punk rock they pretty much proved they would.

  • @alcibaides Blame Stock Aitlen and Waterman - Death to the Philistines!!!!

  • @alcibaides

    It happened before Madonna.

  • @alcibaides I blame MTV.

  • @alcibaides The mass musical media always been the same. The public wants shit nowadays so they give them shit. And I talk about majorities.

  • @alcibaides i agree with you but you know gates of kiev was composed in the 19th century by a Russian composer not elp :P In a way they are dancing to others music with lyrics added

    But ye I know what you mean :)

  • my god look how many people are in that fucking audiance!

  • shut up >:-(

  • ..

    aiuto sembra un centralino il synth!!

  • I look back on this stuff 30 years later and while I still enjoy it (I have Tarkus on my PS3 and listen to it monthly), I can see where some of the claims that critics levelled at the band are accurate. While Keith has THE chops, he was still a bit masturbatory, let's admit. Was glad I got to see the band live in '77 before they parted company. And let's be men and admit that drum solos, in general, are a bad idea, eh?

  • i dont think drum solos r a bad idea, if a bassist, guitarist and kayboardist can get solos why not drummers? anyways ELP is amazing to the enth degree!

  • Well, I'm hard pressed to say I recall any memorable drum solos (live, that is). They were boring. There's everything on record from Conundrum back to Toad but even the venerable John Bonham (and I'm a huge Zep fan) couldn't wrench the lowly live drum solo from the depths of boredom. I love ELP and Carl was good but I'm beginning to side with Todd Barry's 'gong theory' these days.

  • i dissagree i do not think drum solos are boring in the least but i guess it is all personel opinion

  • Spoken like a typical non-musician, or at least not a very practiced one, perhaps you play one instrument, or more but none very well

  • Well, albszoso... there's a difference between trying to insult someone and presenting your well-reasoned argument. Are you capable of the latter?

  • ok sorry I came off insulting. Percussion can be as musical as any other section of the band.  The improv, the technique and feel these 3 possessed are beyond what most anyone can even begin to fathom in thought. I personally enjoy hearing the long solos and variations and soaking in the genius these guys had. Like ZEP said it's personal opinion. I'm not even a drummer and I got offended like one.

  • I never said percussion can't be musical. I said rock drum solos, by and large, are uninteresting. I don't return to them like I do other solos. I may need to go back and find the good ones. Any suggestions? For the record, I can program synths but my lack of physical coordination keeps me from being anything more than lousy as a player. (PS minastroneasse: I like both Kissin and Emerson. I wonder if Keith can do Chopin's Sonata 2 for us for comparison. He has referenced Chopin.)

  • Fair enough. As for good rock drum solos I would suggest Tank by ELP of course, but also Bonzo's Montreux, Led Zep, which does have some electronics added to it. Jethro Tull, Thick as a Brick (full version), to a much, much lesser extent, (someone will probably comment on this) Grateful Dead, Drums (live stuff), Though I don't highly recommend this. There's more but really and truly it's the jazzers. thats where it's at.Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Billy Cobham, et al

  • saw them perform this live at newcastle, they used the recording for the album, never compared ELP with anyone else, ELP were ELP and something wonderfull in their own right, Pictures was the epitome of their talent even though Tarkus is probably more well known.

  • I believe you can't compare Paice and Palmer, and the same goes with Emerson and Lord.

    Their bands musical approach, as well as theirs, is totally different. Certainly, Palmer and Emerson are more impressive, but I don't see them playing hard rock the way Paice and Lord did. We should also note that DP duo never used 20 keyboards or cymbals, and they always sounded really, really great.

    I guess we all love both bands. So stop this senseless discussions.

  • @mjecpa

    I´m not talking about Paice who is a brilliant drummer only playing more simple music. - Jon Lord had a good beginning with tunes you mentioned but was still some dimensions worse than Emerson. For instance look at his left hand, he hardly used it! But the worst: he didn´t develop since then and almost every solo he played in the 90s could have been played in the 60s/70s by him - he was just repeating his stuff again and again. - Ridiculous for a prof. musician!

  • Bruford.

  • Looks like they rented Blackmore's Rainbow stage set for this gig, lol.

  • Actually, it was the rainbow at California Jam that probably gave Blackmore the idea for his Rainbow staging.

  • Grat emerson, lake & palmer, but GREAT Mussorsgky!

  • Great!!

  • Always loved these guys! Great stuff!

  • ELP played with Deep Purple as support - wonder how Jon Lord dared to `play´ his boring solos in front of Emerson to come ....

  • Keith Emerson is very good and one of my favorites, but that is just a ridiculous thing to say. Perhaps you have never heard Mandrake Root or Wring that Neck Live, then you wouldn't make such a statement.

  • Jon Lord is a GREAT rock and roll keyboardist... it's not even a comparable genre.

  • these no end to my life, dead is lie!

  • heavy masterpiece

  • really it looks like a friggin computer from another planet LOL!

  • look at that sucker....IT does look like the Great gate of Kiev, hahahaha

  • How AMAZING.

  • Go listen to Green Day and get out of this area of music, It does not suit you correctly.

  • This is the classical music of the modern day and ELP are the today's version of the "Powerful Bunch"

  • Look at that synth!

    I'd have a better chance at being president than understanding how that damn thing works.

  • LOL, MaddMan95.

  • Thats your Moog Modular complete with 5 million miles of wire and patch cables, imagine having to program that sucker for each song, I have a smaller version and Emerson has his hands full lol

  • awesome!!!

    five stars

  • kunovondonderberg-you need to stop fuckin around on prog video pages you dick.

    if you you hate it so much then dont watch the videos.

  • what have you done musically that is more suprior than this?

    ...

  • damn straight.

  • emerson 1 skizofrén zseni (genius),greg a szelid oroszlán(bland lion),palmer ő(he is) PALMER.

    És kurvára nem érdekel,ha rosszul fordítottam.

  • It takes a great mind to patch properly and turn the nobs to what was recorded in the studio.

  • jeez, people will argue anything on you tube who cares just enjoy it man !peace :)

  • wow love it........my dad put me on to this band awhiles back....so glad he did. thanks....

  • same to me

  • El compositor Ruso Modest Petrovich Mussorgski en el mas alla debe estar muy orgulloso de EL&P. grandes maestros del sigloXX

  • first band to rock out the synth, rolling stones couldn't work out how to use it. 30 000 pounds later and u have a moog the size of a bus. genious...kraftwerk would be proud!

  • Seems it's the other way around, there, ironbuttermilk. You seem to be the "touchy" one, since you made the false statement regarding the polyphonic Moog set up Keith was using. It took the roadies over an hour to program and hook up the patch cords. The last thing Keith Emerson needed was something "fake" for show. He used 10 keyboards at the time, which was already blowing everyone's minds at the time.

  • what a great interpretation of a great song

  • When most people hear "prog rock" they think you're talking about some kind of Czech music.

  • LOL Prague Rock!!!!

  • How so ? The bottom row of modules where fake and for show. Most the other modules where used :). Remember severl where hard wired to the preset box, but hey still had to be patched. Oehts where deicated to the sequencers and other routings.

  • Blasphemy! Emerson and KISS (???WTF??)can't be in the same sentence....watch it next time!!...ProgPolice.

  • I have a hot girlfriend and most certainly I'm not a nerd. I was only fucking W/U. But dude, show some respect for this band. Would you? And I'm not being touchy, but really, KISS??

  • If you take the time to do some research and find some info about Moog modular synthesizers, which Emerson is using here, you'll learn that those arrays of wires and knobs were the only way to connect keyboard triggers, oscillators, filters, and ADSR controllers... big, clumsy, and unreliable pieces of hardware, it was a miracle it can perform live with that. Show some respect at least if you prefer to remain ignorant. Don't post about what you don't have a clue.

  • the only thing unreliable were the oscillators...its complex but a properly patched and functional machine will be reliable

  • I was thinking about the patches themselves, those were the big troublemakers. Of course, detuned oscillators and heat sensitive Moog filters were too.

  • ok see u soon!

    lol im naked! XT

  • Totally amazing

  • best lyrics ever

  • this is slightly random, but has anyone else noticed that all their hair was darker in Pictures at an Exhibition and it has kinda gotten blonder at cal jam? Or am i just going crazy?