Emerson Lake&Palmer - 'Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 19
Mike Reed | USA | 10/21/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've heard about this show before,never thought I'd see it released on CD.This hour long/five track archive set was reportedly ELP's second EVER live performance.The mix most definitely has a real 'live' sound to it.My favorite would have to be the twenty-minute epic "Pictures At An Exhibition".There are two cuts from the very first ELP album(the one that many still refer to as the dove album);"The Barbarian" and "Take A Pebble" are nice to hear in their stunning world debut.Also sort of dug "Rondo",a song originally done by Keith Emerson's previous band The Nice.The eight-page booklet tells you about the festival in great detail.Highly recommended."
A good solid live album, although it has it's fair share of
Mike | Philadelphia, PA, USA | 08/21/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I'm sure no band is perfect their first night out. Emerson Lake and Palmer is no exception. Although technically their 2nd performance, they still had to tighten things up a bit. One of the most marring qualities of this record is Greg Lake's mostly out of tune bass. At a close listen, it only seems to be only one string out of tune (the A-string or second from lowest is my guess), and he had so many oppurtunites to fix the tuning ("Sage" section of Pictures, between "Barbarian" and "Take A Pebble", etc.), but never does which is a shame.
The sound mix is a bit raw. The piano and clavinet are never quite fully in the mix, which hurts "Take A Pebble" and "Nutrocker". Emerson's short spoken intro for "Pictures At An Exhibition" is almost inaudible, and Greg Lake's short quippy response to that isn't that funny.
Also, the version of "Rondo" here is severely cut up. If you want to, ditch the version on here, and buy the "Message To Love" album, which along with other great performances from the Isle of Wight festival, has the full 8-minute version of "Rondo".
Anyway, with all the negatives out of the way, it's still a very interesting document, and one that no fan of ELP, prog rock, or extreme bombast in Rock music should not be without."
Good for history but...
Rock Luv'r | Chicago | 02/02/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This is good for historical purposes but it might have been good for performance purposes as well had Lake's bass been in tune with Emerson's organ. You'd think for their debut they'd have made sure everything was set to go.
Can hear better versions elsewhere."
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1