ELP #3- Pictures At An Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition- 1971

Rating: 13

Greg's lyrics don't make any sense, but not that I'm complaining

Best Song: The Curse of Baby Yaga or Nutrocker

Worst Song: The Great Gates Of Kiev

     This release is weaker then the last two, but is still a superb album. Anyway, before the band performed their first concert, they got the idea to create their own version of Modest Mussorgsky's original piece. However, this is VERY different from that version. 

     This is a live album recorded from ELP's first ever concert. Each piece is supposed to symbolize some sort of painting (except for the "Promenades" and "Blues Variations"). It starts with "Promenade 1", which is just a simple keyboard melody from the original classical composition. It is harmless to the album itself. After that is "The Gnome". That too is similar to the original piece, just with some added keyboards. The drums are an important part of the song, and both the bass and keyboards sound pretty cool. This song symbolizes a gnome running in short bursts. After that song comes "Promenade 2", which, like the 1st one, doesn't hurt the album at all. However, this time it is only Greg's voice driving the melody. The lyrics really don't make any sense, but Greg's voice sounds very nice. Then the album starts to stray away from the original.

     After that comes a Greg Lake original, "The Sage". This purely contains acoustic guitar and Greg's singing. Yet again, none of the lyrics really have any meaning, but they sound perfect. Parts of the acoustic guitar line sound suspiciously like the guitar part on the song "The Court of The Crimson King" by King Crimson. However, this song is different enough from it. I do not quite know what this part symbolizes. Then comes "The Old Castle", which barely sounds like Mussorgsky's piece. Some of those weird noises in the beginning are actually rather interesting, and no longer bore me like they used to. However, once the "current song" goes into an actual song, it sounds pretty awesome. The original symbolized a peaceful castle, but this symbolizes a castle under attack and on fire. That song goes straight into "Blues Variations". This song is pretty cool, and Emerson's Hammond line is excellent. It just runs a little bit too long. Then things change even more.

     "Promenade 3" comes in, and that has the melody from the first two, just drums have been added. It would hurt the album if there was another "Promenade", but this was the final one. After that comes "The Hut of Baby Yaga 1", which has a fast paced keyboard and drum line. It follows the originals melody 75% of the time. Next comes the strangest yet best part of the album, "The Curse of Baby Yaga". This was not in Mussorgsky's composition, and is purely ELP's amazing skills. It starts off with some harmless yet cool synth noises that, unlike the ones on "The Old Castle", add to the song. It then breaks into a cool jam before erupting into excellent madness. Emerson plays his Hammond like a madman, Greg kills his guitar/bass and sings random absurd lyrics that sounds pretty good, and Palmer beats his drums to death. That then goes into "The Hut of Baby Yaga 2", which is just a faster version of the 1st one. That entire melody symbolizes a witch in a hut.
    
     Then comes the worst song on the album, "The Great Gates Of Kiev". The thing that brings the song down is the random keyboard break that happens twice in the first three minutes. The keyboard is so quiet, and you really can't hear an interesting melody on the second time until the 2:25 mark. That quickly goes into the strangest guitar part which no longer bores me as it did, and is pretty interesting. As much negative things I said about the song, I still enjoy it; just not that much. Greg's singing is good, and when he says "Death is life" near the end, it actually feels like an ending. Then ELP stops playing and the crowd cheers.

     Now the suite is done, but suddenly, Greg says "You want some more music?". the crowd appears to say yes, even though I thought I heard some people say no. Anyway, Keith starts playing on a clavinet, and he plays "Nutrocker". It is a marvelous song, and I consider a sort of joke song, like "Jeremy Bender" from "Tarkus". The best part is when Greg starts screaming "YEAH!!!" and the crowd mimics him. Finally, Keith stops playing and the album ACTUALLY ends.

     In my opinion, this is at least a bit better then Mussorgsky's original piece, while at most a great improvement over the old composition. "Pictures at an Exhibition" is a very worthwhile album, even though it has it's share of flaws.