Another One Hits the Dust.

Keith Emerson has died aged 71

[johnhh]

Keyboardist and progressive rock legend Keith Emerson has died aged 71, his former band Emerson, Lake and Palmer says.

"We regret to announce that Keith Emerson died last night at his home in Santa Monica, Los Angeles," the band's Facebook page said

[bbc.co.uk...]

Saw ELP at the Oval Cricket Ground in London, my first outside concert, I think it was the one and only concert held there due to some fires being lit on the sacred pitch.
_{Ah title should be bites the dust in memory of ...}

[tangor]

While we have lost one of the greats that Band in the Sky just got a new member and that, even if only in the imagination, must be something else.

[Samizdata]

I think it was the one and only concert held there

It was actually the third (but definitely the last).

Previous shows featured Jeff Beck/Frank Zappa and The Faces/The Who.

Keith Moon memorably used a cricket bat on his drumkit at the first one.

that Band in the Sky just got a new member

Let's hope the audition was not too stressful.

...

[engine]

Did i read that it was suicide? That's always very sad to hear as it's the loved ones and friends left behind that have to reflect on the actions and loss.

I remember the music so well.

Lucky Man [youtu.be...]

[keyplyr]

I was in London in '67. Drove up to Leeds to hear the Yardbirds and Nice, Emerson's first major effort. He was playing the brand new Moog. Nobody had heard sound like that before. We all stood with our mouths open as he took us on a magical journey.

Even though this first synth was monophonic, Emerson had mastered it. His innovation was creative genius. He was a self-effacing artist of the highest level.

[Samizdata]

67 ... He was playing the brand new Moog

If you can remember the 60s you weren't really there.

Keith Emerson always said that he first heard a Moog synthesiser on Walter Carlos' Switched On Bach, released in October 1968.

And he first used one on stage in February 1970 at London's Royal Festival Hall, the first public performance in UK.

We all stood with our mouths open as he took us on a magical journey.

Mkay.

...

[keyplyr]

That's a quote about the 70s not the 60s. Obliously he was playing a different keyboard but WTF?

[Samizdata]

WTF?

That's what I thought when I read your post.

The fact is you did not see Keith Emerson use a Moog with The Nice in 1967 - he had never heard of it then, and first used one (which he borrowed from Mike Vickers) for a special concert in 1970 shortly before dissolving the band. It was the first time the instrument had been seen or heard on a British stage, as was widely reported in the music press of the time.

Nobody who saw that show would describe the Moog as merely "a different keyboard" - it was a massive contraption that looked like it came from a telephone exchange, with banks of patchbays, cables everywhere, and an oscillator display. It dominated the stage.

It did indeed produce sounds that people had never heard before, but you didn't hear them in Leeds in 1967.

He was playing the brand new Moog. Nobody had heard sound like that before. We all stood with our mouths open as he took us on a magical journey.

A charming personal vignette, but all completely untrue.

I fear you may have "misremembered".

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[keyplyr]

Have a nice day Samizdata