Minnich Music
  • Welcome
  • About Me
    • News
  • Lessons
    • Voice
    • Piano
    • Professional Music Lessons
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • High Tea Carolers
    • High Tea Carolers Repertoire

Emerson, Lake and Palmer

2/18/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
Picture
Yesterday would have been my brother’s birthday. He would have been 67. I still have a lot of issues surrounding his death, with which I won’t burden you. But I thought I would give you one of my favorite stories about my big brother and music. (The picture is from 1982. Hal would have been 30. He went bald very early.)
​
Let’s go all the way back to 1970. I was 9 years old, Hal was 18. I was heavily into Bobby Sherman. I mean heavily. He was on a TV show called Here Come the Brides that I never missed. And I had all his albums. I loved Bobby. (Give me a break, I was only 9.) (That’s me at 9.)

Hal was mortified. He had introduced me to Jimi Hendrix and Alice Cooper, for heaven’s sake! And now I was a teeny-bopper?!?!? (In my defense, this was my only bout of teeny-bopper-dom. And I repeat: I was only 9!)
He made it his mission in life to make me see the error of my ways. Every so often I was invited up to his room. His room was completely off limits to me. He even kept it locked. So, this was a big deal.
Hal was a brilliant guitarist. He could play any style you wanted: rock, folk, classical, or flamenco. He had a six-foot concert speaker in his bedroom. Occasionally, it left the house to go along on whatever gig he had. But when he played at home, he cracked the thick plaster walls and set the chandelier in the dining room swaying. 

His preferred instrument was actually bass guitar, which he played left-handed like Paul McCartney. He could also sing anything from 2ndbass, the lowest notes you can imagine, to 1sttenor, the highest male voice, although he preferred bass singing, too.

In later years, he admitted that his room had been off limits to me because of the drugs he had there. I had not idea at the time. Sadly, neither did our parents. Fortunately, he survived those years.

Anyway, he introduced me to many groups in an effort to make me admit that they were better than Bobby Sherman. I was proving to be a problem. I remember “Me and My Arrow” by Harry Nilsson. Nope. “Teach Your Children” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash came very close. But no cigar.

Then, one day, he played Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s second album, Tarkus, for me. At this point, I really wanted to stay on my Bobby preference just to be difficult, but I couldn’t. Tarkusblew me away. I was hooked. Hal was so thrilled that he gave the Tarkus album to me for my birthday. I was the only 10-year-old I knew who was into Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Since then, I have been told that only music geeks like Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP). On the other hand, the same site that named “We Built this City” as the worst rock song of all time named ELP as the second worst rock band of all time (In between Insane Clown Posse—#1—and Michael Bolton—#3). Some people love their musical excesses and pomposity, others hate it. It’s odd that I really dislike that in most bands but love it in ELP. Maybe some of it has to do with my connection with Hal.

2016 was a rough year for rock. David Bowie started the year off badly, dying in January. (Oddly, just the day after my mother died.) We lost two of the three members of ELP that year as well--Greg Lakefrom cancer and Keith Emerson took his own life.I know that Don McLean wrote “American Pie” about “the day the music died” being the day that we lost Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper in an airplane crash. I think that 2016 felt like the year that the music died.

But, back to ELP. At their height, they wrote, arranged, and performed some of the most amazing music. “Still, You Turn Me On” is one of my favorite love songs ever. Their “Pictures at an Exhibition” from the Mussorgskyi s very close to the original, but with bits that are typical ELP. Then there are the bits of delightful fluff like “Are You Ready, Eddy.”

I’ll be playing some of ELP’s music this week on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out. Let me know what you think. Do you have any stories about the group? Love or hate them? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time!

Picture
1 Comment
The Yoni Bomber link
10/30/2023 10:32:36 pm

Good posst

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    November 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All
    About Me
    About Minnich Music
    Caroling
    Caroling Group
    Christmas
    Holidays
    Music Facts
    Music Fun
    News
    Welcome

    RSS Feed

JOIN ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

    Contact Me! 

Submit
Proudly powered by Weebly