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

Infobox Album
Name = Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends... Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Type = Live album
Artist = Emerson, Lake & Palmer


Released = August 19 1974
Recorded = 1973-1974, worldwide tour
Genre = Progressive rock
Length = 1:49:41
Label = Manticore Records/Rhino Records
Producer = Greg Lake
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:6uq2g44btvnz link]
Last album = "Brain Salad Surgery" (1973)
This album = "Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends... Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer" (1974)
Next album = "Works Volume I" (1977)

"Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends... Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer" is a 1974 live album by progressive rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, originally released as a three-disk vinyl album, but is now a double CD, in a gatefold cover, the inside of which used the letters "E", "L" and "P" as retainers for the individual disks.

During 1973 and 1974 ELP toured on their "Someone Get Me a Ladder" Tour all around the world, and this album captures the representative musical sound of that tour. The title of the album comes from the opening line of the song "Karn Evil 9: First Impression, Part 2" as well as the introduction to the performance, uttered at the beginning of the song "Hoedown."

The album reached #4 on the Billboard album chart making it ELP's highest charting album in the US.

Most of the original recordings included on the album had been first issued as a presentation for the syndicated US radioshow "King Biscuit Flower Hour." In 1999, these original recordings were released on CD and music fans could now see how Greg Lake, as the executive producer of the live album, changed some parts of the sound little-by-little by editing echo effects or reverb. On the other hand, the "King Biscuit" tapes also show that ELP did not re-record musical parts of their songs.

The Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando, Florida, also has the title as a message above their main entrance.

Track listing

CD track listing

Disc one

#"Hoedown" "Taken from Rodeo" (Aaron Copland, arr. Keith Emerson, Greg Lake & Carl Palmer) – 4:27
#"Jerusalem" (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, William Blake, arr. Emerson Lake & Palmer) – 3:20
#"Toccata" "An adaptation of Ginastera's 1st piano Concerto, 4th movement" (Alberto Ginastera, arr. Emerson) – 7:21
#"Tarkus" – 27:24
#*"Eruption" (Emerson)
#*"Stones of Years" (Emerson, Lake)
#*"Iconoclast" (Emerson)
#*"Mass" (Emerson)
#*"Manticore" (Emerson)
#*"Battlefield" (Lake) "including "Epitaph" (Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Lake, Michael Giles, Peter Sinfield)
#*"Aquatarkus" (Emerson)
#"Take a Pebble" (Lake) "including "Still...You Turn Me On" (Lake) and "Lucky Man" (Lake) – 11:06

Disc two

#"Piano Improvisations" "Including Friedrich Gulda's "Fugue" and Joe Sullivan's "Little Rock Getaway" (Emerson) – 11:54
#"Take a Pebble (Conclusion)" (Lake) – 3:14
#"Jeremy Bender" / "The Sheriff" (Emerson, Lake) – 5:26
#"Karn Evil 9 (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 35:21
#*"Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield)
#*"Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression" (Emerson)
#*"Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield)

Original LP track listing

"For songwriting credits, see above."

ide one

#"Hoedown"
#"Jerusalem"
#"Toccata"

ide two

#"Tarkus" – 16:42

ide three

#"Tarkus (Conclusion)" – 10:42
#"Take a Pebble", including "Still...You Turn Me On" / "Lucky Man"

ide four

#"Piano Improvisations"
#"Take a Pebble (Conclusion)"
#"Jeremy Bender" / "The Sheriff"

ide five

#"Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" – 17:26

ide six

#"Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression" – 7:36
#"Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression" – 10:17

Personnel

*Keith Emerson – keyboards
*Greg Lake – bass, guitars, vocals
*Carl Palmer – drums, percussion

Certifications