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Hi,
I posted a review of Steven's work on the KC albums. I have not yet heard these by ELP, and at this point, I'm not sure I will at all. Here's why.
When I listen to music, I close my eyes and listen to it ... for the most part, it is the "totality" of the music that makes it for me, even though sometimes there is an individual that stands out a bit more than otherwise ... that adds something else to the music that "might" make it better or not. In many cases, as is the case with commercial music and tastes, the "solo" and the "moment" is almost always more important than the rest of the whole thing, and in many cases, the music is incidental.
KC, for me, as well as ELP's first 4 albums, are NOT about the individuals, but what the whole thing was about ... and too many people listen to KC's first album, call it the master progressive album, and ignore the lyrics ... meaning that the music is meaningless ... and I know it wasn't! Neither was ELP's despite their fun antics ... but a knife on his keyboard was not a show piece, but a way to get a specific sound out of the keyboard that could only be gotten when the 2 keys were pressed together ... but he also wanted to play something else with it.
For many folks, "The Endless Enigma" is progressive, but they don't know why ... when it is a massive attack about one's honesty and care ... about many things ... and "don't tell me lies" ... gets punctuated by drums heavily ... but ... noooooo ... it's progressive ... and no one bother to ask why that line is accentuated!
All in all, when I heard the first KC remaster, I was not impressed. Why? ... there was nothing in the "visual" side of it all, that changed anything! NOTHING.
My thoughts are this ... if you play on a stage a guitar, or bass, or drums ... it doesn't matter if it was recorded this way or that ... it might get a bit cleaner treatment and you can take out that idiot yelling rock'n'roll in the background, or that annoying drunk turkey on the side ... but in the end ... you are NOT listening to the player/players ... and their music ... you are listening to an image of digital or analog ... or some imaginary sonic'ness that is not there and never existed! On the other hand, you get those people that think that the Jesus story is better in technicolor instead of a book, and that Frank will sound better if he is ... whatever!
No one is sitting here and telling you and I that they just remastered Beethoven's 9th! And in the end, it really is just another commercial ploy to get you to buy things.
I'm not cynical enough to say that the "progressive" stuff does not need a few extra ears ... it does ... so people can appreciate some great music, but in the end, this insane need for dope, or digital this and that, or imaginary sonic something or other ... is not going to help your imagination unless you are already too doped up to know the difference and it sounds better than it really is.
I don't need a "better" recording to appreciate Gigli's Tosca. I don't need a better recording to appreciate Brubeck's Take 5. I don't need a better recording to appreciate Peaches en Bullshit! ...
Sorry ... these recordings do not make ELP better ... they just show that ELP was very good, and so was KC ... but to suggest the recordings did not "get it" ... is wrong!
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