RIP Keith Emerson

[Yankeefan5545]

ELP, did some good stuff, just a while ago Paul Kanter & Signe Anderson left on the same day. Dropping like flies. ELP & the Airplane did some good stuff.

 

[yankeesince59]

...damn, what a shame...we've lost a few lately. I don't know how many time I've listened to Tarkus with my old Sennheisers.

 

[Mattingly23NY]

ELP were the bomb in and for their time, traveling with the first Quadrophenic sound stage system, that I can recall....

Loved their work, as well as: each of their previous work with earlier bands, and those thereafter....

Some freaking Legends of our time are falling like autumn leaves on a windy ass day...!

 

[totus44]

Oh wow....not another one. Emerson made the Moog Synthesizer famous. The man was a virtuoso on the keyboards.

Brain Salad Surgery is on my island LP collection.

 

[totus44]

ELP were the bomb in and for their time, traveling with the first Quadrophenic sound stage system, that I can recall....

Loved their work, as well as: each of their previous work with earlier bands, and those thereafter....

Some freaking Legends of our time are falling like autumn leaves on a windy ass day...!

I think of ELP and it conjures memories that also include Moody Blues and of course Pink Floyd.

 

[yankeesince59]

^^^very good analogy, Tote.

 

[Yankeefan5545]

The Moody Blues, Rock & Roll with sophistication, loved that band!

 

[totus44]

^^^very good analogy, Tote.

Having been in Jr high in the late 70s, the classic rock stations played a lot of progressive rock. This of course was before the commercial era of radio when ads need to run 7 mins per 3.5min song.

 

[yankeesince59]

The Moody Blues, Rock & Roll with sophistication, loved that band!

...loved their early stuff,



"Late Lament"

Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsitter people look back and lament,
Another day's useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white.
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion?



but this is my fav album;

 

[Yankeefan5545]

Loved most of the Moody Blues stuff, listened to Late Lament this AM preceded by Nights In White Satin on CD I have. Other favorites are Tuesdays Afternoon, For My Lady, Question, I found ther Music to have a dreamlike quality. Spent this am listening to them and ELO.

 

[yankeesince59]

Loved most of the Moody Blues stuff, listened to Late Lament this AM preceded by Nights In White Satin on CD I have. Other favorites are Tuesdays Afternoon, For My Lady, Question, I found ther Music to have a dreamlike quality. Spent this am listening to them and ELO.

...always liked Jeff Lynne's work...especially with The Traveling Wilburys.

 

[Mattingly23NY]

I think of ELP and it conjures memories that also include Moody Blues and of course Pink Floyd.

...^^^ no doubt, and only a couple others .... like - Procol Harum, ("Whiter Shade of Pale")

I heard this morn, Keith was found with a gunshot wound to the head, & its being investigated as a suicide.

this much is reminiscent of Robin Williams dreadful fate. It's been reported that Keith was suffering from a degenerative nerve disorder in his right hand, which left him a couple fingers short of playing with all 10. Had to of frustrated Him, as its been reported Keith was also suffering from 'Depression'. (same vein as Williams??).

ntm- Keith was hospitalized for a "dangerous polyp" in His Colon along with Diverticulitis' in 2010, (shades of Glen Frey too)...

IMO, if there is but one thing to take from all this, its: Depression should never be taken lightly, as it truly is or can be a killer....



and who can ever forget Keith's putting a new group together and touring with: "The Best" with:
The Best ~
Keith Emerson - Keyboards (The Nice/ELP/KEB)
John Entwistle - Bass Guitar & Vocals ( The Who)
Joe Walsh - Guitar & Vocals (Eagles/ James Gang)
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - Guitar (Steely Dan/The Doobie Brothers)
Rick Livingstone - Vocals (frontman) (Agent )
Simon Phillips - Drums (The Jack Bruce Band/ 801/The Jeff Beck Group/ Toto)
Hamish, Angus and Fergus Richardson - Backing Vocals ( Brother)
Produced by Jeff Baxter

One of Keith's wonderful performances-


continued

 

[Mattingly23NY]

Wiki has a helluva great read on Keith Emerson, and has already included Keith's unfortunate passing.


I Love this piece (noted below), on how Keith first came to know and love His Moog's, and became known as the Jimi Hendrix of the Organ/Moog/Piano....

The Nice:
In 1967, Emerson formed the Nice with Lee Jackson, David O'List and Ian Hague, to back soul singer P. P. Arnold. After replacing Hague with Brian Davison, the group set out on its own, quickly developing a strong live following. The group's sound was centred on Emerson's Hammond organ showmanship and abuse of the instrument, and their radical rearrangements of classical music themes and Bob Dylan songs.


Emerson first heard a Moog when a record shop owner played Switched-On Bach for him. Emerson said, "My God that's incredible, what is that played on?" The owner then showed him the album cover. So I said, "What is that?" And he said, "That's the Moog synthesizer." My first impression was that it looked a bit like electronic skiffle."[9]


Without one of his own, Emerson borrowed Mike Vickers' Moog for an upcoming the Nice concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London, with the Royal Philharmonic. Mike helped patch the Moog, and the concert was a great success. Emerson's performance of Also sprach Zarathustra from the recently released 2001: A Space Odyssey was a show-stopper. Emerson later explained, "I thought this was great. I've got to have one of these."[9]

ELP:
With ELP's record deal with Atlantic Records came funds for Emerson to buy his own Moog synthesizer. He later said, "It cost a lot of money and it arrived and I excitedly got it out of the box stuck it on the table and thought, 'Wow That's Great! a Moog synthesizer [pause] How do you switch it on?...There were all these leads and stuff, there was no instruction manual." The patch which had been provided by Mike Vickers produced six distinctive Moog sounds and these six became the foundation of ELP's sound.[9]


In 1969, Emerson incorporated the Moog modular synthesizer into his battery of keyboards. While other artists such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had used the Moog in studio recordings, Emerson was the first artist to tour with one. Emerson's use of the Moog was so critical to the development of new models that he was given prototypes, such as the Constellation, which he took on one tour[9] and the Apollo, which had its debut on the opening track "Jerusalem" on the 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery.


The Moog was a temperamental device; the oscillators went out of tune with temperature change. He later said, "I had my faithful roady Rocky tune the instrument to A 440 just prior to the audience coming in, but once the audience came into the auditorium and the temperature rose up then everything went out of tune."[9]


His willingness to experiment with the Moog led to unexpected results, such as the time he stumbled into the signature sound for "Hoedown", one of ELP's most popular tunes. He later said, "We'd started working on that arrangement and then I hit, I don't know what, I switched a blue button and I put a patch cord in there, but anyway 'whoooeee.'"[9]


The so-called "Monster Moog," built from numerous modules, weighed 550 pounds (250 kg), stood 10 feet (3 m) feet tall and took four roadies to move. Even with its unpredictability, it became an indispensable component of not only ELP's concerts, but also Emerson's own.[10]


Emerson became well-known for his technical skill as well as for his theatrical performances, including using knives to wedge down specific keys of his Hammond organ during solos, playing the organ upside down while having it lie over him and backwards while standing behind it. He cited guitarist Jimi Hendrix and English organist Don Shinn as his chief theatrical influences. He also employed a special rig to rotate his piano end-over-end while he was playing it, although this was purely for visual effect, as a piano cannot be played while upside down.


The band were not universally popular, with BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel describing their set at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival as "A waste of talent and electricity." Recalling the gig in a 2002 interview, Emerson said: "We tried the cannons out on a field near Heathrow airport," says Emerson. "They seemed harmless enough. Today we would have been arrested as terrorists."[11]


In a 2014 interview with Classic Rock Music journalist Ray Shasho, Emerson was asked about the origin of the 'flying piano' and about the difficulty of performing while spinning in the air. He explained:

"I think having a pilot's license helped a little bit. One of my road crew said we found this guy that used to work in the circus and he does a lot of things for TV and special effects and he's made something that might interest you, it's a piano that spins round, and I immediately responded, oh that sounds interesting. I happened to be within the New York area and I was driven over to Long Island to a guy called Bob McCarthy, and there in the background he had this piano situated. So he called his wife down from upstairs and said, darling could you demonstrate this for Keith? I looked on, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. His wife comes down and sits on the seat and up she goes in the air and proceeds to spin around. I thought, well that's great! Then Bob asked me, do you want to have a go at it? ... Yea, okay. You need to understand, below the keyboard there's an inverted-tee, like a bar. You wrap your legs around the down pipe and put your heels under the inverted-tee. Then you go up in the air and try and do your best to play. It was a little difficult to play at first because of the centrifugal force, so it wasn't easy. I think we actually used it for the first time at Madison Square Garden, it was a Christmas concert. People in the audience were so astounded they couldn't quite believe what they were seeing. Later on that coming year the California Jam came up and I said we have to do that there. Bob drove the whole contraption down to the California Jam and there was very little space to set it up. There were loads of bands up on that stage, all having to do their set and then getting their equipment off. Now, with the moog, the Hammonds, Carl's gongs and everything, it was hard enough to just get that off stage. We had the spinning piano and everything that went along with it and we tried to find a place to situate it. It ended up going just at the end of the stage, so when the piano went up it was literally over the heads of the audience. After that every TV show I did came the question ...Keith, how do you spin around on that piano? I'd say what about my music? When I had the honor of meeting the great jazz pianist Dave Brubeck just before he died, he said, Keith you've got to tell me how do you spin around on that piano? Dave Brubeck was 90 years old then and I said, 'Dave, don't try it!'"[12]

​

 

[totus44]

I blame Trump for the rise in suicides....who wants to live in a world where you have to see/hear him daily?

 

[Mattingly23NY]

I blame Trump for the rise in suicides....who wants to live in a world where you have to see/hear him daily?

I can see the direct correlation b/t Trump, Depressed Citizens who have to hear his bullshit, then fear the reaper, which he preaches so damn much about, and Suicide on top of it. Yep, direct effect....!

 

[Mattingly23NY]

Loved most of the Moody Blues stuff, listened to Late Lament this AM preceded by Nights In White Satin on CD I have. Other favorites are Tuesdays Afternoon, For My Lady, Question, I found ther Music to have a dreamlike quality. Spent this am listening to them and ELO.

I myself have not been able to get enough of ELO lately, or the Traveling Wilbury's, or George Harrison...

I watched Jeff Lynne's ELO, for the 4th time last night, taped live at Hyde Park in 014, too 50,000 paid Fans...What a show, but I still fkd up, and have to see it a 5th time, to DVR it....

 

[stampedehero]

Wiki has a helluva great read on Keith Emerson, and has already included Keith's unfortunate passing.


I Love this piece (noted below), on how Keith first came to know and love His Moog's, and became known as the Jimi Hendrix of the Organ/Moog/Piano....

The Nice:
In 1967, Emerson formed the Nice with Lee Jackson, David O'List and Ian Hague, to back soul singer P. P. Arnold. After replacing Hague with Brian Davison, the group set out on its own, quickly developing a strong live following. The group's sound was centred on Emerson's Hammond organ showmanship and abuse of the instrument, and their radical rearrangements of classical music themes and Bob Dylan songs.


Emerson first heard a Moog when a record shop owner played Switched-On Bach for him. Emerson said, "My God that's incredible, what is that played on?" The owner then showed him the album cover. So I said, "What is that?" And he said, "That's the Moog synthesizer." My first impression was that it looked a bit like electronic skiffle."[9]


Without one of his own, Emerson borrowed Mike Vickers' Moog for an upcoming the Nice concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London, with the Royal Philharmonic. Mike helped patch the Moog, and the concert was a great success. Emerson's performance of Also sprach Zarathustra from the recently released 2001: A Space Odyssey was a show-stopper. Emerson later explained, "I thought this was great. I've got to have one of these."[9]

ELP:
With ELP's record deal with Atlantic Records came funds for Emerson to buy his own Moog synthesizer. He later said, "It cost a lot of money and it arrived and I excitedly got it out of the box stuck it on the table and thought, 'Wow That's Great! a Moog synthesizer [pause] How do you switch it on?...There were all these leads and stuff, there was no instruction manual." The patch which had been provided by Mike Vickers produced six distinctive Moog sounds and these six became the foundation of ELP's sound.[9]


In 1969, Emerson incorporated the Moog modular synthesizer into his battery of keyboards. While other artists such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had used the Moog in studio recordings, Emerson was the first artist to tour with one. Emerson's use of the Moog was so critical to the development of new models that he was given prototypes, such as the Constellation, which he took on one tour[9] and the Apollo, which had its debut on the opening track "Jerusalem" on the 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery.


The Moog was a temperamental device; the oscillators went out of tune with temperature change. He later said, "I had my faithful roady Rocky tune the instrument to A 440 just prior to the audience coming in, but once the audience came into the auditorium and the temperature rose up then everything went out of tune."[9]


His willingness to experiment with the Moog led to unexpected results, such as the time he stumbled into the signature sound for "Hoedown", one of ELP's most popular tunes. He later said, "We'd started working on that arrangement and then I hit, I don't know what, I switched a blue button and I put a patch cord in there, but anyway 'whoooeee.'"[9]


The so-called "Monster Moog," built from numerous modules, weighed 550 pounds (250 kg), stood 10 feet (3 m) feet tall and took four roadies to move. Even with its unpredictability, it became an indispensable component of not only ELP's concerts, but also Emerson's own.[10]


Emerson became well-known for his technical skill as well as for his theatrical performances, including using knives to wedge down specific keys of his Hammond organ during solos, playing the organ upside down while having it lie over him and backwards while standing behind it. He cited guitarist Jimi Hendrix and English organist Don Shinn as his chief theatrical influences. He also employed a special rig to rotate his piano end-over-end while he was playing it, although this was purely for visual effect, as a piano cannot be played while upside down.


The band were not universally popular, with BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel describing their set at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival as "A waste of talent and electricity." Recalling the gig in a 2002 interview, Emerson said: "We tried the cannons out on a field near Heathrow airport," says Emerson. "They seemed harmless enough. Today we would have been arrested as terrorists."[11]


In a 2014 interview with Classic Rock Music journalist Ray Shasho, Emerson was asked about the origin of the 'flying piano' and about the difficulty of performing while spinning in the air. He explained:

"I think having a pilot's license helped a little bit. One of my road crew said we found this guy that used to work in the circus and he does a lot of things for TV and special effects and he's made something that might interest you, it's a piano that spins round, and I immediately responded, oh that sounds interesting. I happened to be within the New York area and I was driven over to Long Island to a guy called Bob McCarthy, and there in the background he had this piano situated. So he called his wife down from upstairs and said, darling could you demonstrate this for Keith? I looked on, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. His wife comes down and sits on the seat and up she goes in the air and proceeds to spin around. I thought, well that's great! Then Bob asked me, do you want to have a go at it? ... Yea, okay. You need to understand, below the keyboard there's an inverted-tee, like a bar. You wrap your legs around the down pipe and put your heels under the inverted-tee. Then you go up in the air and try and do your best to play. It was a little difficult to play at first because of the centrifugal force, so it wasn't easy. I think we actually used it for the first time at Madison Square Garden, it was a Christmas concert. People in the audience were so astounded they couldn't quite believe what they were seeing. Later on that coming year the California Jam came up and I said we have to do that there. Bob drove the whole contraption down to the California Jam and there was very little space to set it up. There were loads of bands up on that stage, all having to do their set and then getting their equipment off. Now, with the moog, the Hammonds, Carl's gongs and everything, it was hard enough to just get that off stage. We had the spinning piano and everything that went along with it and we tried to find a place to situate it. It ended up going just at the end of the stage, so when the piano went up it was literally over the heads of the audience. After that every TV show I did came the question ...Keith, how do you spin around on that piano? I'd say what about my music? When I had the honor of meeting the great jazz pianist Dave Brubeck just before he died, he said, Keith you've got to tell me how do you spin around on that piano? Dave Brubeck was 90 years old then and I said, 'Dave, don't try it!'"[12]

​

Matts...Once again bo stitch undone with your research.

 

[Mattingly23NY]

...always liked Jeff Lynne's work...especially with The Traveling Wilburys.

59, have you seen Lynne ELO Concert on BBCA, at Hyde Park, with full blow Symphony, including his great trademark light show, almost as good a PF's light shows, almost.....

 

[Mattingly23NY]

Matts...Once again bo stitch undone with your research.

Thank You my friend, hope you enjoyed the article, I sure did...!~~!

 

[stampedehero]

I saw them when they first toured our country It was powerful!!! Three guys sounded like four. Lake could sing with broadstroke deep tone. Emerson also formed a band with Marc Bonilla. Bonilla is a master guitarist, a great shredder and it all came with no effort. Check out Rock A-Z by Bonilla on Utube Great rifs!! RIP Keith Emerson.

 

[Mattingly23NY]

I saw them when they first toured our country It was powerful!!! Three guys sounded like four. Lake could sing with broadstroke deep tone. Emerson also formed a band with Marc Bonilla. Bonilla is a master guitarist, a great shredder and it all came with no effort. Check out Rock A-Z by Bonilla on Utube Great rifs!! RIP Keith Emerson.

Thanks for the tip, I was unaware of Bonilla, and will check out your recommendation, anything Keith touched turned to Gold or Platinum, even in the midst of other greats...

 

[stampedehero]

...loved their early stuff,



"Late Lament"

Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsitter people look back and lament,
Another day's useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white.
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion?



but this is my fav album;

I agree. I always liked To our children's children's children

 

[Mattingly23NY]

I saw them when they first toured our country It was powerful!!! Three guys sounded like four. Lake could sing with broadstroke deep tone. Emerson also formed a band with Marc Bonilla. Bonilla is a master guitarist, a great shredder and it all came with no effort. Check out Rock A-Z by Bonilla on Utube Great rifs!! RIP Keith Emerson.

In-fkng-credible, I am stunned I had not ever heard of Bonilla, very very reminiscent of Joe Satriani, and or Stevie Vai.....



and with Emerson: When I found this one, my initial reaction was, no one can outperform Greg Lake, on this patented great song, still I prefer ELP's original, but no doubt, enjoy seeing fresh blood, (and a virtuoso guitarist), with Keith, playing old covers of great classic tunes....

 

[Yankeefan5545]

The Moodys "Nicee to Be Here" classy tune, Lucky Man ELPS finest.

 

[stampedehero]

In-fkng-credible, I am stunned I had not ever heard of Bonilla, very very reminiscent of Joe Satriani, and or Stevie Vai.....



and with Emerson: When I found this one, my initial reaction was, no one can outperform Greg Lake, on this patented great song, still I prefer ELP's original, but no doubt, enjoy seeing fresh blood, (and a virtuoso guitarist), with Keith, playing old covers of great classic tunes....

Matts, I am happy you appreciate Marc Bonilla. All of his material is tremendous. You could tell he was a music theory talent.

 

[stampedehero]

In-fkng-credible, I am stunned I had not ever heard of Bonilla, very very reminiscent of Joe Satriani, and or Stevie Vai.....



and with Emerson: When I found this one, my initial reaction was, no one can outperform Greg Lake, on this patented great song, still I prefer ELP's original, but no doubt, enjoy seeing fresh blood, (and a virtuoso guitarist), with Keith, playing old covers of great classic tunes....

>Slaughter on main street on KMLA Is this music too advanced for morning media? I think he is more unique than Satriani and Vai is all notes. About 8-10 years ago I saw a concert with Eric Johnson, Satriani and Vai . Eric had soul, Satriani had complicated versing and Vai had speed notation

 

[yankeesince59]

...any guitar player who was good enough for Zappa has to be pretty damn good.