Memoirs of Anofficer and a Gentleman is excellent. Some exquisite piano from Keith especially.

Great video. I've never disliked LOVE BEACH but I must admit that I've got to admit that I need to be in the mood to listen to listen to it.

This is an album that I really like. I looked up the guitar chords on side A of this album and I sung it almost every day.

Just to let you know that the Carl Palmer band performed Canario at the Borderline, London 2005. This is a great documentary, thank you for putting it on youtube.

Canario, and Officer & a Gentleman are top line songs. I saw ELP FEBRYARY 5,1978 at thw Philadelphia Spectrum- excellent gig!

Damn, all the shade thrown at Pirates :( I love that one

I remember seeing boatloads of this album on LP, cassette & 8-track in the $1.99 bins EVERYWHERE back in the late 70's.

Chopin's etude #1 in C Major set with bass and drums is embedded so well in Memoires. Great summary.

Really good and enjoyable 30 minutes! Thanks Dude!

The guitar solo on Greg Lake’s It Hurts was not played by Gary Moore but by Steve Lukather of Toto.

Pretty accurate description of the album. But you’re wrong on Pirates.

Nice review and commentary and breakdown ELP were very beloved and etched in many of us

Still enjoy this album!

You've convinced me that in spite of the title and cover picture, it's still an ELP album. ;-) Seriously, I loved Brain Salad Surgery, and somewhere along the way I picked up a copy of Love Beach, probably in a clearance bin, but it never really grabbed me like BSS. Still, given the quality of modern music, almost anything from the 70s is a welcome respite. Also nice to see that Leblanc and Carr aren't entirely forgotten. And then Emerson Lake and Powell came out and it was like Brain Salad Surgery Part 2. Another great album to make me forget about Love Beach!

Fantastic job! This albums seems to be treated as a key moment in the downfall of 70s prog rock and it's nice to see a good objective review.

Amazing, Jose! thanks a million, yet and yet again

I hope I live long enough to see JCM cover the album Chicago VII

Fabulous presentation! Thanks for posting !!!

Good Day. Very nicely done. I've seen them in concert twice. The First Time was in Albuquerque New Mexico in 1974, in 4 channel sound system. Always one of my favourite bands. Thanks

I was a big ELP fan back in the day. I saw them in 1977 both with and without the orchestra (which I didn't think added all that much). I bought Works I and II and thought "I guess this is the new ELP. Might as well get used to it". I heard that "Love Beach" had been released and was shocked when I saw the album cover in the record store. That was the last ELP (Palmer or Powell) album I bought. Love Beach had its moments, but to me, it was nothing like the albums prior to Works. Still a fan of ELP. Saw Keith and Greg peform together before they passed and Carl with his band a few years ago. Keep making these videos!

Wow. I didn't know I'd ever find anything like this. You did a very good job. I don't like the way you phrased some things but I'll reserve any comment other than to say this is quite accurate to all of my views of the album, too, in retrospect. Groups on FB give it more love these days. I'm 60. When this came out I was psyched but instead it made me shudder

Nothing wrong with love beach there is some great moments on it

Nice show of a fantastic band, Thank you from Houston TX 🇺🇸✌️

Didn’t know anything about this lp, but it was fun to learn ! Nice job!

Thanks J. I'll get you a love beach ⛱️ jacket and jogging shorts. Great work, and those lyrics 😮

Before and after the 13min mark...what you think is GX-1 bass is actually Greg's Alembic 8 string bass. The guitar sound you speculate to be GX-1 is actually the Roland Guitar Synthesizer.

Interesting as always Jose I was never into them, but they were all great musicians

Bought this on day of release and still think it’s great . And I think it’s Carl Palmers best ‘ stripped back ‘ playing , much less busy but still inventive . It was a Gretsch Wooden shell kit , not actually the stainless steel . Great video

I was a huge ELP fan in Jr. High. I saw them live in Feb. '78 shortly after they ditched the orchestra for their Works tour. It was a great show other than them opening with that Peter Gunn/James Bond theme which I and the rest of the audience found very awkward. I remember Greg Lake stopping mid Tarkus to tell the audience they were not going to play if they kept throwing things so it almost stopped there. Despite this the rest of the show went quite well. Dig your channel. Subscribed!

To be love on the beach is a great album the songs are melodic what is missing in today’s music still love on the beach was certified gold

Great! Thanks

I liked this album.It was my first ELP album .Being a female fan i LOVED the album cover ❤😂

A really good analysis of the many sides of the last ELP album. I think that they were left alone by the label and the producers as well... they made their own choices but inevitably made some mistakes... Anyway I think ELP and mostly Keith Emerson are amazing and at the same time with a complex personality that makes them what they are: unique and matchless. Anyway, very good job!! An ELP aficionado

The research is poor! Barrel House Shakedown was not a "left over" from the Works Volume 1 recording sessions. The track was recorded by Keith as early as 1972 when he was already working on a solo album. "So Far To Fall" was the fourth track, recorded in 1973 during the recording sessions for the Brain Salad Surgery album, that was not on the album. In 1975 the brass was dubbed on the track. Keith does use the Yamaha GX-1 but he also used for the first time Korg synthesizers. The Korg PS3100 and PS3300. Carl did not drum with his stainless steel kit. He played a Gretsch drum kit on the entire album. Greg Lake, for the first and only time on an ELP album, played a synthesized guitar. The Roland GS-500 guitar controller hooked up to the Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer. That is why the electric guitar sound heard on the tracks has different textures.

I have nothing against this album. Was a huge ELP fan back in the day. Perhaps it was the cover that affected eveyone's take on the music. And.....you are wrong about Pirates, fantastic track!

Jose , you really brought out a lot of info on Love Beach. I have the album but I could not tell you the last time I played it. You make me want to review it with new ears. I always wondered if the cover and album title were different how that might effected the response of the album. I don't think it had a chance when it came out with the cover.

JMC, Your spanish pronunciation is perfect, man! 👌

Very nice!

Great doc. The thing that amazed me was it took Chicago several albums to go from brilliance to schlock and ELP did it in one fell swoop. Still love both bands though.

Never thought I'd see Narciso Yepes on your channel!

I’m not really into ELP but this was a great informative episode. I’ve learned a lot about them. Cheers ✌️

Admittedly, Love Beach is not on the same level as other ELP albums, but still I love it and still listen to it with pleasure, especially Canario and Memoirs of An Officer and a Gentleman.

This album contains a rare example of Keith Emerson playing a Rhodes piano. He reportedly didn't like them and described them as "muddy". Halfway through side 2. That bit and Canario make this LP worth having...

GREAT EPISODE! "If You Know what I Mean" is an almost Spinal Tap lyric from the song Big Bottom!

Can't wait! What do you mean " Last Days"? The show never ends ... They reformed in 1991 and made it to 1998. Lol- then a High Voltage concert in 2010. CP once said (paraphrase) The trouble with ELP is if you look at the 1st album they all had a solo song and 7 years later they had repeated it. He said another time about Love Beach - one can get the cover abd make it into a PLntEr. There is one version of Love Beach that contains rehearsals versions of 3 songs "Canario", "Taste of My Love" and " Letters From the Front". Its been out of print shortly after its release 2001. Thanks again!

Loved watching this. It’s ELP so by definition there are some great moments, “Canario” in particular. Have to differ with the harsh assessment of “Pirates.” It’s a true epic with phenomenal performances by all three of them.

Good review!

Get well soon my friend, your work is to important! I seen GTR at the Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh it was terrific!

JCM - I never thought of it myself, but you hit it right on the head when you said ELP lacked in the songwriting department. For Love Beach, I never thought it was so much bad musically (though the lyrics are mainly awful), just boring. I tell kids to get Pictures At An Exhibition, Trilogy and Welcome Back.

I, like many ELP fans, bought this album when it was released in 1978 and I was completely disappointed with the cover and the sound I heard... I tried for many years to listen and like this album but I couldn't and it ended standing still and ignored by me... But after forty years, to my surprise, one day listening to it completely, I understood and liked this album, I don't know how to explain how this happened or what was the reason why it only happened after forty years, but today I can say that I like and respect this album and it is one of the albums that I listen to the most in my entire ELP collection... Maybe since its release I have been very influenced by negative criticism of this album and the reputation of ELP's worst cover and album didn't let me, didn't allow me to want to be able to understand and like this album...But it's good that as time goes by we mature, change and improve in our way to think about as happens with the maturation of a good old wine.

I lived in Love Beach for a year! What a great video

Pressure and urgency from the record label. Also the time and place, and the fact that there was lots of snow flowing over those tropical islands to Miami. Look what happened to musical titans! Good documentary though!

Massively underrated. I feel it got a "Go to Heaven" treatment, where public and journos took one look at the cover art, thought they are riding the Bee Gee's wave and just didn't bother to check the music.

Yep, I'm one of those guys that bought the LP back when it first came out, gave it a couple of spins, and never listened to it again. Maybe someday, I'll give it another shot. Maybe.

It's sad they couldn't find the success that Genesis found in the 80's, but we know they Lake and Emerson had it in them when they cut "Touch and Go" with Powell.

Cool love the variety bro.There is a youtube channel called 'Flipside CT' who makes videos like these about The Stones.He goes in depth about what instruments were played also..My favorite two channels for music history.

I hope you get better soon. God bless you

The Yamaha GX-1 sounded great as did the Roland guitar synthesizer throughout the whole album

Funny you should mention Tormato, one of my favorite Yes albums plus I love Love Beach!

Love Beach starts out on its left foot with the title and, of course, the album cover; critics that already loathed ELP really didn't need any more to start the usual flogging of ELP, ELP couldn't win with the critics no matter what they did. ELP's fans that loved the original, unflinching gothic and austere image and musical presentation (that already suffered with WV1) figured the band had just surrendered (like their peers). Sadly, had ELP - and their management - worked just a little harder (and had Keith, Greg, and Carl stuck to their guns) they could have had a 'real' ELP album with very little additional effort. Firstly, the good things on the album - all of Memoirs... is true to the ELP spirit; yes, the screaming Hammond and Moog are gone, but this has been replaced by a more mature and measured compositional approach from Keith. Canario is nice arrangement with the band (Carl) going for the Fanfare-like shuffle magic that served them so well on the Copland piece. For You is a well-paced piece that has (good) traces of Greg's side of Works, V1. The Gambler is basically a rehash of Tiger in a Spotlight; it also serves as 'here's the jokey/light track' offering that ELP employed on Tarkus, Pictures, Trilogy, and BSs, it's acceptable. All I Want is You, Love Beach, and Taste of My Love are rather hideous, possibly only surpassed in awfulness by some of the tracks from In the Hot Seat. However, had ELP changed the title (to Memoirs, for example), used a different cover (perhaps a British military man in a battle setting) and replaced all of side 1 (excepting Canario) with Carl's Percussion Concerto (which was ready) or replaced the three clunkers with any of the bonus tracks that cropped up as bonus tracks later (Prelude and Fugue, the wonderful Greg tune Oh, My Father) they would have had something that truly was representative of ELP. Would it have prevented the break-up of the band? Probably not, it seems that the financial stress from the orchestral tour was a great motivator to take a breather. On the other hand, Peter Gunn (from the In Concert album) was a huge hit in Holland and Belgium; would they have stuck together for the sake of success and would the ELP-like consistency have continued? Going a bit further back, had ELP released I Believe in Father Christmas instead of it being a Greg Lake solo offering, what would that have done for the band? One can only wonder... I don't know if WV2 was an indicator of Love Beach, as much of WV2 already had been conceptualized and recorded during the ELP glory years; there was definitely a gap of time in between. I agree with you that Keith and Greg were not as well prepared (or even able) to go commercial like their peers were; ELP was better represented by being only slightly commercial (Greg's tunes, of which there never was a surplus); Keith's strength never was composing commercial material (he has said so himself). On the other hand, Emerson, Lake and Powell's Touch and Go (Keith adaptation of Vaughn Williams' Lovely Joan) was a 'hit' a few years later and even became part of the ELPalmer shows during the bands latter touring days (Carl must have thought, I traded this for Asia's Astra?). Great video; thank you. Contact me if you'd like a free copy of my ELP book.

Nicely done. Thanks for posting. Some of “Love Beach” is at least listenable, unlike “In The Hot Seat” which is just dreadful.

Seen ELP June 16, 1977 not My first concert, Kansas was My first in 77!

Great stuff! It was a fun ride revisiting this album, enjoying the lyrical breakdown of “Taste of my Love” and the story of that homoerotic album cover! Several years later another band working through their own issues arrived at Compass Point to make an album. One could say they were possibly inspired by this album (specifically “Taste of my Love”) as that band was Judas Priest their creations were Turbo and Ram It Down. Peter Sinfeld wrote the lyrics to the first King Crimson album for fucks sake. So the man who wrote the lyrics to “In The Court of the Crimson King” brought us “Taste of my Love” and all of its vivid, adolescent imagery…well I guess this explains “Cat Food.” The lyrics on Love Beach reek of someone who had a month to do a massive homework assignment only to put off starting it until the night before it’s due.

🌠Alright JCM..Another Good One..I never knew this album existed before I watched this video...I prefer the early 70's stuff..Father Christmas..but my fav is ....from the beginning ..u rock JCM..I saw Pantera last nite in Baltimore USA last nite ..they were really good ..never saw em before...rip abbott brothers...dime/ vinny

I recall way back when this first appeared - the title "Love Beach" - just seemed schmaltzy - but with that cover photo - I could only say to myself .. "what on earth were they thinking here ?" - how do you go from the amazing art of H.R. Giger on Brain Salad Surgery to this ?

An interesting video.... it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the album Emerson, Lake & Powell from 1986 maybe the topic for your next video ??

Keith stated, and I quote, "Three years is the ideal length of time for a group." Welcome back... could be their farewell album, everything after that was worse and worse. Works 1 and 2 are tolerable but Love Beach was the last ELP album I bought. And ELP are my number 1 even after 50 years.

12:07 Lake probably had that Alembic 8-string bass with him - the same one that was used on WORKS VOL. I and the subsequent tour. 12:27 Lake also had the first version of the Roland guitar synthesizer on this album. LOVE BEACH is an outlier in the ELP catalog for how much electric guitar there is throughout. 12:32 Definitely the 8-string.

Just 3 thoughts from me: Brain Salad Surgery was the climax of all Prog Rock, nobody had the faintest idea how to top it, not even ELP themselves. And second: There are many bands who would consider themselves being lucky, to have put out an album like Love Beach. As for the lyrics, well, Brain Salad Surgery, i hope, you know, what it means ...

I was at the July 3 1977 show in Baltimore.

Carl still plays "Canario" onstage with his solo band.

Yes, same with me regarding Love beach. Never favourite. Great video. Rip Greg and Keith.

please, talk about Topographic Oceans, I think its forgotten by people. Thank you for this video, Let there be ELP

Thank you Jose for this video. I love Tormato (drop circus/arriving ufo). It jams. So does Drama. ELP were just burned out. I remember this album coming out and I knew it was terrible. The cover had the vibe "do not purchase!" ha ha ha.

Don't care what anyone says. Didn't realize Love Beach existed when I was coming along until spotting it at the used records store back in the mid-80's. Beach is of course an obligation album but that doesn't mean there isn't half-decent material on there. Especially on its full length second side and the title track is peppy and far superior to the music they made later on and indeed those time-wasting affairs from the previous year (outside of Fanfare and Pirates; both of which take up one side of a double album.)

This is awesome. 😅 What a weird album. It always perplexed me. The music isn't all that off brand, actually.

I thought it was a good album. I still listen to it.

The Guitar on ''IT Hurts'' was Steve Lukather.The track was recorded with Toto...

Excellent work on this oft-neglected part of ELP‘s career. I’m a huge ELP fan. Actually, the album cover doesn’t bother me at all, though they should’ve come up with a different title indeed. But where I’m probably like most fans, Canario and Officer and gentleman really stand out and are usually the only two songs I’ll listen to from this album. I submit, they’re not just good, they’re really really good! Are they Tarkus, no, but good nonetheless. And I agree with the documentary and other commentators, that the piano piece on Officer and gentlemen is amazing and emotional. Keith at his best.

As a hard core ELP fan from way back, I can’t disagree with any of this.

I like love beach. Obviously it's not their best work, but there's some decent songs on it.

🥁🥁🥁 Para el ciclo de "Peores discos de las grandes bandas"? Allí entra también el In The Hot Seat de ellos, Open Your Eyes y Heaven and Earth de Yes, etc...

22:33 wow, that's an interesting idea. i think "CANARIO" would've been great, it somehow looks awesome, and feels tropical, hinting at some album concept. and "FOR YOU", which always makes sense, but does so in particular with the broad smiles and overall appearance of the band.

“It Hurts” indeed! Massive fan when it came out. Bought it upon release. Skeptical when I saw the title and cover. By the time I got to “Taste of My Love” I was literally crying. No joke. Thank you for this story. Great job. I completely forgot about the swag you could buy. I remember the insert with the shirts and shorts. Just dreadful. Oh well 😊

I had to laugh at "If you like Yes's Tormato....." That was great. Sometimes bands are obligated contractually to the label and as the band, in their minds and actually physically sometimes, they have already broken up as a group and are absolutely hating the fact that they have to put out an album. They don't really care if it sells, they don't really care if the critics or the fans like it. They do the album sometimes without seeing the other bandmates at all, doing their tracks at a home studio or just going in to the label studios solo with the engineer and just getting the job done with no heart and no soul behind the notes and using a click track to keep their boredom from missing a beat. It's a shame. That happens too often in the music industry.

There are so many great albums made in Nassau.

@12:30 the guitar is the Roland GR500

ELP was one of the first bands I truly loved as a kid, but when Works 1 & 2 came out I was very disappointed, but I played them endlessly, determined to like them, which I ended up doing at the time, but then Love Beach came out and I knew it was all over. These three albums are perfect examples of why punk had to happen. Looking back now, over 40 years later, I still like these LPs - nostalgia and memories - but in reality they are pretty crap albums, totally up their own arses - as if punk never happened. Brilliant docu as usual JCM. Please do one of Trilogy or their first LP!!! Thanks :) .... "I think even David Coverdale would be fed up". Hahaha! Good one JCM!

The movie An Officer and a Gentleman came out in 1982, 4 years after Memoirs of An Officer and a Gentleman.

“Love Beach:” Silver spoons should have been replaced with, “love balloons🎈.” I always when hearing this awesome song, sing those words. Silver spoons have nothing to do with beaches.

Hope you are feeling better

Thank you for this thoughtful video; I bought this album when it came out, and while it was never my favorite it's quite enjoyable. Musically it shows that Keith was using "current" technology in his keyboards. Yes, there's some questionable lyrics but what about the "But if you lose control they will take away your T-shirt" line from Nobody Loves You Like I Do on Works Vol I - or even worse - "She did a thing to my thing like it's never been done before" from So Far To Fall on Works Vol 2. Possibly the worst lyric ever... Cheers Jose!!

I'd love to see a JCM take on Genesis, Rush or Maiden. (Just as I was writing the word Genesis you mentioned Follow You Follow me, it's a sign JCM!)

I remember this era. I was a huge ELP fan but this wasn't the record ELP needed to make. Ahmet screwed this up by making them make a commercial album. I liked Greg Lake's first solo album. I used to play stuff from it on my college radio show. But it was the wrong music for the times. New Wave of Brittish Heavy Metal had arrived. Hard music was in. Greg Lake's 12 string guitar, was not going to sell records in 1982. Kinda sad, it was a good album.

I enjoy the eel p documentary on lugbeach I didn't know what about your Bath now. I do the different tab almost 47 years ago versus Dale if you have a great job buddy.

I told Greg many years ago that every decade that goes by, this album gets better and better.

As an ELP fan when it came out, I thought it was their worst album too, when it came out. I agree that side twom is a masterpiece. But this wasn't their last album and it wasn't their worst. their worst was 'In the hot seat and that was their last album. But after love beach came "Black moon." I also disagree that pirates is a bad song. It's one of my favorites by them. All iin all, this was a good video.

Good video. I didn't even know that this ELP album existed. They lost me somewhere after Brain Salad Surgery. Too much pomp. Whatever chemistry they were able to weld together with their amazing talents seemed to get lost in that rock star house of mirrors. Too much fine wine, coke and the good life suffocates.

Taste of My Love with a Paul Stanley guitar riff and Ace Frehley guitar solo would have made a KISS track in the vein of Take Me and Rocket Ride. Also the cover of Dynasty could have had Paul, Ace, Peter Criss and Gene Simmons in their costumes

Couple of details: then guitar on Greg's It Hurts is by Steve Luthaker I believe; and I don't think Carl is playing the stainless steel kit. Thanks!