Emerson, Lake & Palmer Album: “Beyond the Beginning”

Whoever was in charge of this travesty should be shot. The majority of the "songs" are just 2-3 minute "clips". And two of the Cal Jam clips, Lucky Man and Karn Evil, are shown twice...I mean, does that make any sense??!!

Buyer beware....just be aware that very few of the songs are actually full length!!

As a rabid Emerson, Lake, and Palmer fan, I was looking forward to this documentary, and, luckily, for the most part, it was very good. The music is fantastic, and the "Beyond the Beginning" documentary is very good. The clips are interesting (even though the music of some of them are set to studio recordings, as, I assume, the original audio was lost). And there are some technical glitches here and there (which have been documented by other reviewers), but compared to previous ELP DVD releases, they are relatively minor. When I first saw Lake, I thought it was an overweight roadie. He looks like he hasn't left his flat in years. Emerson looked ragged as well, but looked more irritated than anything. Palmer, on the other hand, was lucid and looked very well for his age. I never really knew about the creative tension between Emerson and Lake before. It was the reason for the group's many breakups. Yet, when Emerson or Lake was in a seperate band (like Emerson and Palmer's horrible 3), it just wasn't the same. Personality conflicts aside, I wish bands nowadays would have the ambition that these 3 gentlemen did. They were always looking for new sounds, as opposed to many (but not all) bands nowadays, who seem only interested in the celebrity aspects of the business. While ELP probably indulged themselves like all rock stars do, they also had an intensity in their music that is sorely missing today. Even on lesser albums like Love Beach, they had a professionalism that makes it listenable (the album is not as bad as some would suggest). I always get annoyed at critics who rag (even to this day) about how ELP was a terrible band, just driven by ego and nothing else. Then there's the cliched line that they (and all of progressive rock) was pretentious. Emerson says in this documentary that the reason that many people disliked (and resented) them was because they were too good. This comment may sound arrogant, but it isn't. Emerson says it rather nonchalantly, not in an arrogant and smug way. Emerson is the best damn keyboardist rock has ever seen, and Palmer is the most underrated drummer ever. Lake was never given credit for his musical dexterity and songwriting capabilities. ELP's technical proficency is unbelievable and truly amazing. No matter how many times I hear them, I still marvel at them. I do love other progressive bands, like Yes and King Crimson, but ELP still remains my favorite. I would love to hear some band today to be as ambitious as these guys can. They (and the other progressive rock bands) were not pretentious, they were simply ambitious.

For those that LOVE ELP (me being one) this collection ROCKS.

You have to remember alot of the early stuff (70's), was being recorded and filmed by guys with one hand one the switch and the other holding a joint. But I love it all, cropped, early cuts and all . . . for those that Love Emerson, Lake and Palmer you will throughly enjoy it.

I just got this today. Watched the entire 200+ Minutes. WOW! I have to say that this is the ELP I have been waiting for. I was a "Lucky Man" in the 70's and attended at least 15 ELP Shows in Los Angeles. I saw JOURNEY Open up for ELP in 1974 at the Long Beach Arena. It was the Brain Salad Surgery Tour. I consider Emerson Lake And Palmer one of the Great Super-groups of the 20th Century. I watched the California Jam on a ABC show called IN CONCERT. Someone said it was Don Kirshner. No it was not. The show aired Friday Nights at 11:30pm on ABC every week. It was great. For all these years I have searched for that ELP performance. Now, I have it. Someone also complained that they should of fixed the Transfer from Video to Digital. I don't agree. This is the way it was shown and this is the way it should be viewed. It is awesome. Too bad there is not an entire version of TARKUS. I am going to see CARL PALMER perform here in Los Angeles at the Roxy Theater. That is a Small Club Setting. He will do Tarkus. Seeing and hearing all this great ELP gave me chills. I was there in the day when ELP sold out every venue they performed in. Of course at that time tickets were about 7 bucks or so. The Crimson clip does not show Robert Fripp. I guess that may have been shot on 8MM Film. For Progressive Rock Fans and ELP Aficionados, this is the Ultimate collection of one of the Great Rock Trios EVER! Don't hesitate to purchase this for your collection. I have no complaints. It seems great care was taken to put this collection together. I admire that in any artist. Welcome Back my friends to the SHOW that Never ends.

As a hardcore ELP fan with most of the available bootleg videos, I was curious as to what the band's first "real" official DVD documentary would look like. In short, this is an excellent two-disc anthology that collects nearly all of the known video footage of the group's career minus those shows already out on DVD (the 1970 "Pictures At An Exhibition" film, the Montreal '77 show and the '92 Royal Albert Hall performance, although good excerpts from the latter two do make an appearance here).

The spotlighted reviewer who complains about most of the songs being edited must be on crack; as someone who owns most of this footage on bootleg video, I can say for a fact that these tracks appear fully uncut and in outstanding audio/visual condition. The only tracks which are cut (Rondo/Pictures from the IOW festival, Rondo from Brussels) were cut on the original source films and not edited for the DVD; the same goes for some of the California Jam footage (and despite what some hopeful reviewers out there may believe, it's probably safe to say that the ABC TV footage is the *only* existing footage of that show, and in any case it appears here in sound and visual quality far, far surpassing any bootleg, and also presented in the *original* performance order, not the butchered order ABC broadcast it in). As for "Take A Pebble", "Watching Over You", "I Believe In Father Christmas" and "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression", these all appear complete, uncut, perfectly in synch and again in outstanding quality...I wonder just what copy some people here saw!

The only disappointment, really, is the footage of "Eruption" from the '72 Tokyo show: yes, the bootleg is better and contains a complete performance of the song, although the Japanese camerawork is so shoddy to begin with that perhaps the DVD producers felt it unworthy to include all 25 minutes of the piece.

The one-hour documentary "Beyond The Beginning" is better than the early 90s documentary "Welcome Back My Friends"; the band is more candid and revealing in the interviews, and the history is more comprehensive and not so focused on the 90s reunion tours. The segments with Bob Moog, the '73 rehearsal footage and the piece on the album covers are all revealing and completes a very welcome set. If the ELP fan gets this along with "Pictures At An Exhibition" (although it's too bad that *that* DVD is edited to include only the title track), "Montreal '77" (which comes with the 30 minute '73 Manticore documentary to boot, although the only complete concert performance on it is "Hoedown" from Milan which is indeed included on disc one here) and "Live At The Royal Albert Hall", they will have pretty much all of ELP that's worthy on video with only a few exceptions like the Tokyo footage and perhaps the "Knife Edge" from Beat Club.

In short, if you are an ELP fan, get it and just be thankful that all of this priceless, outstanding performance footage is now officially available in great audiovisual quality, along with a fine documentary. And let's not forget the almost never-before seen King Crimson Hyde Park footage in the extras...