Emerson, Lake & Palmer Album: “Original Bootleg Series From Manticore Vaults, Vol. 1”

The common wisdom regarding ELP's bootleg series is that it's for the hardcore fan, the one who is willing to wade through inferior audience recordings. I disagree with that and would say that the Bootleg series are the place to begin investigating ELP. Rock and roll, and especially prog rock, and even more especially Emerson Lake and Palmer, are best experienced live. And since they are no longer touring as a band, it is only through the bootlegs where you can hear what a devestating live band they really were. I've been a fan since the late 70's, and I do not own a single studio disc. I discovered them with the Pictures LP, and also owned the Welcome Back triple LP set.

The bootleg vol 1 covers shows from their infancy. The first show, Stomping Encore, is from Gallic Park in the Bronx from September 1, 1971, just over a year from their world debut at the Isle of Wight festival. For a 1971 audience recording it is very good, especially when compared to audience recordings from other prog rock bands from the same year.

The other three shows, Louisville, Long Beach, and Saragota Springs, all come from 1972. Again, all of the audience recordings are very good to excellent except for the Louisville tape which I would say is fair to good (but still enjoyable).

People complain about the repetitiveness (Tarkus appearing in every show in the two box sets), but what do you expect? That is their magnum opus. What is facinating is to hear Emerson's improvs in the piece. In the Long Beach show, listen to a motive that he later used in Karn Evil 9 (First Impression).

I would recommend this box set to anyone who is curious to hear what ELP sounded like on stage in their young prime.

Greg Lake, at his website, in response to a question about unreleased vintage ELP concert recordings, said, "Yeah, there's lots of stuff...but ELP has too many live albums out...after a while, it is the same songs over and over" HUH? How many more versions of Tarkus do these two box sets add to that repetition? And redundancy aside, I can't believe the band actually put its blessing on these recordings! Long Beach is surprisingly listenable, especially for a purported 1972 bootleg, but I can't say the same for the rest. Some of this--and I don't care how spirited and inspired the actual performances are--is so badly recorded that I cannot sit through one complete listen! What's all the more frustrating is that Lake himself, at the same website, stated that they had located the original 16-track tapes from the 1972 Mar y Sol concert...!!! Duh, guys...to be so ostensibly concerned about performance and "sonic quality" of ELP live, what gives with this release?! For all you ELP purists that say an inferior recording shouldn't impede experiencing good music: look at the recent releases of the Allman Brothers in Atlanta (1970); Grand Funk's 1971 CD release from Shea Stadium, Detroit, etc; and of course Led Zeppelin's awesome recent CD from Long Beach/The Forum (1972) You CAN have both, folks! Vintage performances PLUS professional recordings from the era. We shouldn't settle for this crap. If anybody wants to make me an offer I can't refuse, contact me...I've already extracted what little is worth listening to here.

Well, it is called "The Original BOOTLEG series", so one should

expect the sound quality to follow suit--all of the four shows

in this box are taken from audience recordings, and although they have been remastered and sound better than the actual boots,

one should not expect crystal-clear sonics. Actually, the sound

quality varies from show to show--Gaelic Park is "C" quality,

Louiseville is "C+", Long Beach is "B+" (easily the best-sounding of the bunch) and Saratoga is "B".

What makes this release essential for ELP fans are the performances themselves--all from the glory years of '71 and

Although I'm very happy to have this release, I'm not sure it was necessary to include all four shows--the Louiseville, Saratoga and Long Beach shows all share basically the same setlist, and it gets a little tiring to hear "Tarkus", "Rondo"

I admit, I love ELP.

And since this was a bootleg series, and bootlegs from the 70's are usually pretty poor sounding, I had some extra low expectations.

No matter what I say below, remember, these CD's are NOT for casual listeners of ELP. It is only for hardcore fans that care about the performances more than the sound. Usually the sound is to bassy and echoing in the hall that it was recorded in.

Imagine my surprise when I heard the Gaelic Park show! Yes, it is audience recorded, and there is some clipping distortion, and the mike must have been right in front of the moog's amplifier.

But -- Hearing a REALLY GOOD performance of Tarkus for the first time, and the Bach partita segment of Knife Edge so clearly..

And the "piano interlude" is the 2nd movement of Emerson concerto #1! He had composed it full blown in 1971!

The rest of the albums are from 1972, and have early versions of "The Endless Enigma"... If you have an equalizer, you will want to drop the low end severely.

I also find it interesting to hear the slow degradation of Aquatarkus, until the culmination of bad versions -- "Welcome Back My Friends to he Show That Never Ends".

I do wish that there were more complete versions of "Pictures". All of them are the 2nd half of the album.

And I do hope that there will be more of these releases.

... and I AM (since 1971). However, we are reviewing a CD! Not some (...)scratched-up vinyl or hiss-heavy cassette ( which is x-actly how it sounds)! (...) Not only the sound, but the price is criminal. I'm playing Vol. 2 right now and it's not lookin' too good either. DO NOT LISTEN VIA QUALITY HEADPHONES! (...) Still, again, for the hard-core, it's a priceless time-capsule. Oh, to relive '71 > '74. I can't get enough! More, I want more!