Honestly, I have no idea how I came to own this record. The cover has "N.Langford" written on the top, but I don't remember ever knowing anyone of that name. I suspect I got it least third hand, and more or less by accident. I don't remember coveting it at any stage. The lyric-sheet insert, curiously, has lots of holes in it, as though someone has thrown darts at it — but then someone, possibly me, has meticulously put little strips of sellotape over each one, as if to preserve it.
Yet, as with David Gilmour, this was a record that reached me in a poor state of repair and subsequently served mainly as a buffer at the front of my record carrying case, to prevent wear and tear to the more valuable records behind it. Being beaten up and worn down suits Giger's cover rather well.
I don't believe I actually played the record inside more than two or three times ever, and the only bit that I remember is the opening of Side 2, "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends / We're so glad you could attend / Come inside, come inside", because Alan Freeman used to use it as the intro to his Monday Rock Show on Capital Radio in 1981. I always thought Smashie and Nicey were a little mean to Freeman, but that's another story. Not 'arf!
It's an odd experience, listening now. The music that made people so angry that they had to invent punk now seems like harmless eccentricity. Though no less fatuous for that. I'm far from the first to draw attention to it, but, Mr Lake, "Every day a little sadder/ a little madder / someone get me a ladder," what were you thinking? And don't pretend it was meant as a joke, because neither humour nor self-deprecation were ever part of the ELP schtick.
I went looking for the notorious clip of the Emerson, Lake and Palmer juggernauts that gets shown every time there's a lazy Let's-Laugh-at-the-Seventies feature on the TV. I found it about 3 minutes into this video, but it's worth watching the introduction as well for… well, you'll see:
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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