>>I was thinking of ordering that ELP DVD. Let us know if it is a worthwhile purchase.
If you like early ELP with the raw, experimental stuff mixed into that great orchestral sound then you'll probably like the DVD. If you prefer their later, more polished sound and albums then this will be kind of irritating.
It's real interesting anyways. The concert was *before* their first album came out, ie nobody had really heard of them at all, and their first performance was in front of 600,000 people.
The DVD starts with the usual interview blather. Two interesting points came out of the interviews -- first, that this concert helps explain how ELP "came out of nowhere" and became so well known even though their music was not as accessible as other popular groups, and second that Greg Lake now looks almost exactly like the painting on the cover of "In the Court of the Crimson King"
Pictures at an Exhibition is the first piece they performed... ever, I guess. You can see that the orchestration is still pretty rough with the occasional "I thought you had that section" look between the band members, but overall it is a pleasure to watch. The band is very "close" and obviously really enjoying the performance, not at all like the times I saw them in the late 70s. There are a few spots where the sound level inexplicably drops, but that may have been what actually happened at the concert. I think most people who complain about the sound on this DVD have never heard what early ELP sounded like
Rondo was really good, with the drum solo from "Tank" in the middle.
Take a Pebble sounded good but was cut quite short in the middle. I wanted to grab the video editor and shake him -- during all of the interesting instrumental bits he cut in footage of people playing in the surf at Dover and when the video does finally switch back to the band Keith is playing the much-abused Hammond, not the piano, and THERE ARE NO ORGAN PARTS IN TAKE A PEBBLE BUDDY !!!
The last cut, Nutrocker, wasn't really a performance as much as the soundtrack for the credits.
Overall, a mix of really good music and really annoying editing, like most concert DVDs.
Pulse, of course, was exactly the opposite. Gorgeous, impeccable lighting, filming, and editing, flawless performances, but I still find that most of the post-Waters Floyd tracks drag a bit, with the exception of "Learning to Fly". I ended up fast-forwarding through the second half of the first DVD, but the rest was really good.
The only thing I don't quite understand is why in the projected films the "brain-damaged" guy strapped to the bed during Dark Side of the Moon looked awfully like a young Roger Waters. Maybe I do understand
