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Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends – Ladies and Gentlemen

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Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends – Ladies and Gentlemen
Live album by
ReleasedAugust 1974
Recorded10 February 1974[1]
VenueAnaheim Convention Centre (Anaheim)
StudioWally Heider Recording Mobile
GenreProgressive rock
Length109:41
LabelManticore
ProducerGreg Lake
Emerson, Lake & Palmer chronology
Brain Salad Surgery
(1973)
Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends – Ladies and Gentlemen
(1974)
Works Volume 1
(1977)
Emerson, Lake & Palmer live chronology
Pictures at an Exhibition
(1971)
Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends – Ladies and Gentlemen
(1974)
Emerson, Lake & Palmer in Concert
(1979)

Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends – Ladies and Gentlemen is the second live album by the English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released as a triple album in August 1974 on Manticore Records. It was recorded in February 1974 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, during the group's 1973–74 world tour in support of their fourth studio album, Brain Salad Surgery (1973).

The album was a commercial success, reaching number 4 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest-charting album in the US.[2] In the UK, the album peaked at number 6. The album is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for 500,000 copies sold in the US. Following its release, Emerson, Lake & Palmer took an extended break from writing and recording.

Recording

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The album was recorded in February 1974 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California during the group's 1973–74 world tour in support of their fourth studio album, Brain Salad Surgery (1973). Its title comes from the introduction to the show spoken by the show's Master of Ceremonies (UK disc jockey Pete Murray) and the opening line of "Karn Evil 9: First Impression, Part 2".

To record the album, staff and equipment were brought in from Wally Heider Recording in Hollywood, including a 24-track mobile recording and a 40-input mixing console. Peter Granet, one of the engineers, called it "the finest recording experience I've ever had".[3] The band also used a 4-channel quadraphonic PA system on the tour. A quad mix of the album was released as a three 8-track tape set; a quad LP record edition was planned for release in the Quadradisc format, but was scrapped due to engineering issues in mastering, which prevented JVC, the manufacturer, from cutting a stable master to meet the format's specifications.

Most of the recordings on the album were first used for broadcast on the American rock music radio show, The King Biscuit Flower Hour. In 1999, these radio recordings were released on CD.

Songs

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All but one of the tracks from the band's most recent album Brain Salad Surgery appear in versions nearly unchanged from their studio renditions, save for the insertion of a five-minute Palmer drum solo to climax "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" and a stripped-down rendition of the Lake ballad "Still...You Turn Me On" which appears along with an equally downsized "Lucky Man" in the middle of Lake's acoustic solo spot during an extended "Take a Pebble".

The "Tarkus" suite is the most transformed from its original 1971 recording, thanks to extended keyboard solos on "Stones of Years" and "Mass", the insertion of an excerpt from King Crimson's "Epitaph" at the close of "Battlefield", and a greatly extended rendition of "Aquatarkus" which features a lengthy quote from Dick Hyman's 1969 Moog novelty single "The Minotaur". Only two tracks from Trilogy, "The Sheriff" and "Hoedown", featured since the group had previously encountered great difficulty in reproducing other songs from the album without the use of extensive overdubs; the synth work on "Hoedown" is considerably more advanced than that of the studio original, while "The Sheriff" is played as part of a medley with "Jeremy Bender".

The only songs played on the 1973-4 tour which did not make it onto the album were the primary encore "Pictures at an Exhibition" (due to its already having been their first live release) and the occasional second encore "Rondo", a live version of which had highlighted The Nice's self-titled third album.

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Sea of Tranquility[5]

AllMusic gave the album a mixed retrospective review, saying that it "makes one realise how accomplished these musicians were, and how well they worked together when the going was good." They praised the set for including all but one song from Brain Salad Surgery, and particularly commended the performance of "Karn Evil 9" as being far superior to the studio rendition. However, they noted that unlike most live albums of the era, Welcome Back did not incorporate studio overdubs, limiting the band's ability to recreate moments from their albums and resulting in poor sound quality: "Even the most recent remastered editions could not fix the feedback, the occasionally leakages, the echo, the seeming distance – the listener often gets the impression of being seated in the upper mezzanine of an arena."[4]

Track listing

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Original vinyl release

[edit]
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Hoedown"Aaron Copland, arranged by Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer4:27
2."Jerusalem"Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, William Blake; arr. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer3:20
3."Toccata" (an adaptation of Ginastera's 1st piano concerto, 4th movement)Alberto Ginastera; arr. Emerson7:21
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
4."Tarkus"
  • 1. "Eruption"
  • 2. "Stones of Years"
  • 3. "Iconoclast"
  • 4. "Mass"
  • 5. "Manticore"
  • 6. "Battlefield" / "Epitaph"
Emerson, Lake
  • Emerson
  • Emerson, Lake
  • Emerson
  • Emerson, Lake
  • Emerson
  • Lake
  • Emerson / Lake, Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Michael Giles, Peter Sinfield
  • 16:42
    Side three
    No.TitleWriter(s)Length
    5."Tarkus (Conclusion)"
    • 7. "Aquatarkus"
    Emerson
  • Emerson
  • 10:42
    6."Take a Pebble" (including "Still...You Turn Me On" / "Lucky Man")Lake11:06
    Side four
    No.TitleWriter(s)Length
    7."Piano Improvisations" (including Friedrich Gulda's "Fugue" and Joe Sullivan's "Little Rock Getaway")Emerson11:54
    8."Take a Pebble (Conclusion)"Lake3:14
    9."Jeremy Bender" / "The Sheriff"Emerson, Lake5:26
    Side five
    No.TitleWriter(s)Length
    10."Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" (including "Percussion Solo (Con Brio)")Emerson, Lake, Palmer17:26
    Side six
    No.TitleWriter(s)Length
    11."Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression"Emerson7:36
    12."Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression"Emerson, Lake, Sinfield10:17
    Total length:109:41

    CD reissue

    [edit]
    Disc one
    No.TitleLength
    1."Hoedown"4:27
    2."Jerusalem"3:20
    3."Toccata"7:21
    4."Tarkus"
    • 1. "Eruption"
    • 2. "Stones of Years"
    • 3. "Iconoclast"
    • 4. "Mass"
    • 5. "Manticore"
    • 6. "Battlefield"
    • 7. "Aquatarkus"
    27:24
    5."Take a Pebble (including "Still...You Turn Me On" and "Lucky Man")"11:06
    Disc two
    No.TitleLength
    1."Piano Improvisations"11:54
    2."Take a Pebble (Conclusion)"3:14
    3."Jeremy Bender / The Sheriff"5:26
    4."Karn Evil 9"
    • 1. "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression"
    • 2. "Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression"
    • 3. "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression"
    35:21

    Personnel

    [edit]
    Emerson, Lake & Palmer
    Technical Personnel
    • Andy Hendriksen – engineer
    • Peter Granet – engineer
    • Michael Ross – package concept and design
    • Carl Dun – photography

    Charts

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    Chart (1974) Peak
    position
    Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[6] 34
    Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[7] 2
    Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[8] 6
    German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[9] 26
    Italian Albums (Musica e Dischi)[10] 7
    Japanese Albums (Oricon)[11] 23
    Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[12] 16
    UK Albums (OCC)[13] 6
    US Billboard 200[14] 4

    Certifications

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    Region Certification Certified units/sales
    United States (RIAA)[15] Gold 500,000^

    ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

    References

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    1. ^ Lake, Greg (2018). Lucky Man (2nd ed.). Constable. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-47212-650-4.
    2. ^ "Billboard Hot 200 via AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
    3. ^ "Circus Raves". Circus. August 1974. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
    4. ^ a b Bruce Eder, François Couture & (2011). "Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends: Ladies & Gentlemen, Emerson Lake & – Emerson, Lake & Palmer | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
    5. ^ Pardo, Pete. "Emerson Lake & Palmer: Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends-Ladies and Gentleman (remastered)". Sea of Tranquility. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
    6. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
    7. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends, Ladies And Gentlemen" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
    8. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 3885a". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
    9. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends, Ladies And Gentlemen" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
    10. ^ "Classifiche". Musica e Dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 17 October 2023. Set "Tipo" on "Album". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Emerson Lake & Palmer".
    11. ^ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
    12. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends, Ladies And Gentlemen". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
    13. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
    14. ^ "Emerson Lake Palmer Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
    15. ^ "American album certifications – Lake Emerson & Palmer – Welcome Back...To The Show That Never Ends..." Recording Industry Association of America.