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2* ApprovalOfGod:
3** The composer of "Toccata", Alberto Ginastera, praised Emerson, Lake & Palmer's adaptation of it as "diabolic" and said the band had "captured the essence of my music, and no one's ever done that before".
4** Music/AaronCopland was also very pleased with their adaptation of "Hoedown" and also liked their adaptation of "Fanfare for the Common Man" (although he didn't consider it as inventive as their version of "Hoedown").
5** On the reverse side, Keith Emerson was quite complimentary to Music/JordanRudess' covers of "Tarkus" and a few other ELP songs.
6* BlackSheepHit: The folky ballad "Lucky Man" became a moderate hit in Canada and the Netherlands and climbed up to #48 in the USA. It was their first hit, but very atypical of the band. It is a straightforward acoustic-guitar ballad, as opposed to their long-winded, keyboard-heavy style, and it was only even included on the album because they needed another song and didn't have any other material ready at the time. (It also wasn't possible for the band to recreate its studio arrangement live due to the large number of overdubs and the fact that there were only three band members, something they later regretted.) As a result, most following albums had at least one ballad penned by Lake, such as "The Sage", "From the Beginning", "Still... You Turn Me On", and "C'est la vie", some of which became black sheep hits in their own right. "From the Beginning" is the band's sole Top 40 hit in the United States.
7* ContractualObligationProject: By 1977 the members were pretty much no longer on speaking terms. They had to record one more album before they were released by their label, though, and the result, ''Love Beach'', is regarded as ''their worst.''
8* HostilityOnTheSet: ''Love Beach'' was recorded at a point when relations between the three band members had broken down due to a combination of creative disagreements and exhaustion from being constantly mocked by the music press.
9* ThrowItIn:
10** "Lucky Man" - the synth solo was recorded in a single take, something Emerson was [[CreatorBacklash embarrassed about]].
11*** In fact, [[http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3661 the story of "Lucky Man"]] makes ''the whole song'' a ThrowItIn: the band were one song short of the label's quota on the last day of recording. Lake proceeded to play the ballad he wrote when he was 12, which nobody else was very receptive to but he reminded them they needed one more song. Emerson told him to record it himself and went off to the pub. Lake and Palmer took a first try at the song, and the result was, by their own admission, awful. Lacking any alternatives, Lake overdubbed a bassline onto the song, which suddenly improved it. He then proceeded to overdub more guitars, the choir-like vocal harmonies and an electric guitar solo, with the result being, in his own words, "it sounded pretty good... it sounded like a record". Emerson chose this time to return from the pub and listened to the song, being surprised at how it had gone from a piss-take to being an actual song, and he said "Wow, I suppose I better play on that!". Lake reminded him the song already had a guitar solo, to which Emerson instead suggested he play over the conclusion, and that he use his recently acquired Moog synthesizer that he hadn't had the chance to test before. Thus, Emerson fetched his Moog synth, asked engineer Eddy Offord to run the tape "as an experiment", and recorded the ending solo in one take.
12** Also, Palmer's {{Music/Ringo|Starr}}-esque exclamation "They've only got ham or cheese!" at the end of "Are You Ready Eddy?".
13* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The never-to-be-seen "HELP", with Music/JimiHendrix as the guitarist. Hendrix died before ELP could have a proper meeting with him. According to Keith Emerson in the book "Pictures of an Exhibitionist", a pun on ''Music/PicturesAtAnExhibition'', this was a not-entirely-true rumor. The way he described it, when he and Greg Lake were looking for a drummer, they at one point considered Mitch Mitchell (formerly of the Music/JimiHendrix Experience), who mentioned to them "Maybe I could get Jimi interested in joining", but that's as far as it went. Jimi was apparently supposed to try jamming with them, but he died first.

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