basti moon wrote:even though everyones heard of emerson, lake and palmer, not many people I meet talk about them, strange huh?
Well, they and most of the Progressive movement took a nasty hit when some "stick up the butt" critic decided that bands that could actually play their instruments well (and better than most others) were to be considered "self indulgent" and "pompous". I could never understand this line of thinking. I think it was jealousy. It is sort of like in "The Fountainhead", when the architecture critic openly reviles anything that is nonconformist because it is dangerous to think for oneself.
It is one of the reasons why Punk was so embraced at first, because the players kept it simple, both the style and the textures (guitar, bass, drums). These critics (mostly New York/Village Voice critics, I suspect) saw Punk as a return to roots, a fresh breath of rock 'n roll air amidst the excess of the "Stadium Rock" bands. I find it interesting that as the Punk movement caught on in the US, many bands with interesting sounds crept in under the radar, like Black Flag, Sacharrine Trust, the Melvins, Sonic Youth, UK bands like Killing Joke, and what did they give us? A new form of rock, part punk, part metal, part progressive. Also, heavy metal had a resurgence and brought chops and tone back into the equation.
In the meantime, though, people forgot about guys like Emerson, Lake and Palmer and just how good they were. Not much guitar, after all.
