Emerson Lake & Palmer
April 10th, 1972
Academy of Music, New York

Disc 1

01 Hoedown
02 Tarkus
03 Take a Pebble
04 Lucky Man
05 Take a Pebble (Conclusion)
06 Pictures at an Exhibition

Disc 2

01 Rondo

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This is one of the most enjoyable of ELP's 1972 concerts, I really enjoy listening to this show. The band usually raised their game for New York and this night was no exception. ELP played the Academy of Music on April 10th and 11th, performing two shows each night, at 8:00 and 11:30.

I'm uploading this in response to a request from Zeeker. Here are some of his recollections:

"My father was parked near the backstage entrance of the Academy, that night, waiting to pick up my brother & myself after the show. He blew my mind by telling us that he hung out & chatted with the band when they came out to get some air before the encore! Keith even had a few swigs from my dad's whiskey flask!

The opening bands were Mother Night (a funk band if I recall correctly) & Wild Turkey (with ex-Tull bassist Glen Cornick). I seem to recall that I attended the late show which is why my father offered to pick us up after the show. I was all of 15 seeing ELP for only the second time & my brother was but 13.

One of the clearest memories I retain of that night, besides my father's meeting the band, is Carl moving to a much larger kit for this tour. He had gone from 1 mounted tom & 2 floor toms to 6 mounted & 2 floor toms. He now was using a series of Ludwig single-headed concert toms in three different colors: black, silver & orange. This was a big change from just 5 months earlier & you could tell he was enjoying figuring how to deal with all of this new real estate.

I spent the next week figuring out the drum parts to Rondo having studied Carl's playing intently that evening. I also seem to remember running down the aisle to get a close glimpse of Keith when he jumped into the audience with the Moog Ribbon Controller."

I have another friend, tarkusnj, a great ELP fan and unsung hero to ELP collectors, who was at the late show both nights. He actually recorded the April 10th 11:30 show. Tragically, the tape was stolen from the front seat of his car thirty years ago while he was visiting Florida, along with a number of other one of a kind priceless cassette treasures. Here's what he remembers:

"I attended both nights, late show each night. Emo's performance the last night was the best!

I guess you have also heard Emo used the house Hall Organ (for lack of a better description) to start PAAE. THAT was AWESOME! After he played the intro, he actually vaulted out of the orchestra pit and onto the stage and ran over to his keyboards to continue.

There was hardly a soul outside around the back of the Academy the first night so I walked up to his limo, Keith opened his window to sign the actual cassette tape box that contained the recording of his performance!"

I BELIEVE this recording is from the early show. Both Zeeker and tarkusnj have told me that Abaddon's Bolero was part of the setlist at the late show, and it's not here. I don't detect that there is anything missing between the songs that are present. So that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

As tarkusnj said, this concert is notable for being one of the very few where Keith played the opening bars of Pictures at an Exhibition on a real concert organ, as he did on the actual Pictures album. It also features an outstanding Moogy version of Rondo.

As far as I know, this is the only recording of the four Academy of Music concerts that survives, it's certainly the only one that circulates. If you happen to know of anyone who taped any of the other three shows, or you have a tape marked Academy of Music 1972 that is different from this show, PLEASE get in touch with someone. If you stole a bunch of cassettes from the front seat of a car in Key West, Florida in 1976, all is forgiven, please get in touch.

This is a fairly nice audience recording, it comes from a copy of the Highland bootleg "Promenade Gates" minus the four bonus tracks on CD2, two of which are from Sept 1st, 1971 Gaelic Park NY, officially released as part of ELP's "Original Bootleg Series From The Manticore Vaults Vol. 1", the other two from April 3rd, 1972 from the Mar Y Sol Festival in Puerto Rico, officially released in the 1970's on the Mar Y Sol album and on CD as part of Greg Lake's "From the Beginning: Retrospective" collection.

Enjoy!

edgecroft - October 2006