Should Black Moon have been better?

[The sage]

Yes ITHS was a disaster- Hand of Truth had real potential and isnt half bad- but thats it! Even pictures as an add on shows a lack of inspiration. Apparently Man in the Long Black Coat was supposed to be an extended piece with the themes from One by One as part of it... I'd need to dig out my KE interviews.....to make sure it was the right combinations- Heart on Ice is actually a lovely track- the Concert for Sarah version, despite a few glitches is much more in line with what you would expect a GL track to sound like. Although lyrically it doesnt gel very well fror my liking. There isn't much else on the album- Daddy is a lovely sentiment but it dont think it sounds like ELP. Street Wars- a make over track from Downes-Lake Ride the Tiger- wasn't particularly impressive in either incarnation. Apparently Keith Olsen ruled no extended pieces and no classical interpretations! If this was the Victory label trying to score hots with an ageing ELP due to the latter's financial woes- it also highlights the lack of insight into the prog audience- a classic elp album would have sold more- of course you did have 2 major challenges- KE's surgery which meant he had to do a lot more sequencing and left hand work, and GL's bass playing ( rumours are he didnt play the bass- KE sampled it) and his voice was probably at its worst at that point- It did improve for the tours....
In fact, IMHO, the whole album just doesn't sound like ELP... if this was Keith Olsen's doing then maybe Marc Mancina should have come back-- or Greg might have just been right and he in fact was ELP's best producer and KE & CP should have let him sit in the chair ...
There is a bootleg of ELP playing Crossing the Rubicon-a very bombastic march- which KE reused for Godzilla-

[The sage]

In the Hot Seat could have been way better, but actually its more like In The Hot Seat should have been way better. There was really no excuse for such a debacle. There's a whole story to the making of that one. They just weren't up for it. Sad how that ended up as their last album. They should have tried one more time after it. Supposedly they were supposed to do an album for 1998, but fell out over Lake insisting on producing the album but people not bringing enough material to the table, don't know all the details. There was a new short instrumental called Crossing The Rubicon. A shame we got robbed of a 1998/99 ELP album.

There is a video of ELP in Sth America- ( I have it in VHS!!!!!!!), not sure if its on youtube. I think pretty much the last tour before the final split, just before the millennium, as Carl is interviewed and he mentions plans for big millennium show featuring an orchestra- Greg is also interviewed..and he talks about the next ELP album and getting to capture the ELP approach of Trilogy, BBS and Tarkus.....and that it would be about cloning.. So its interesting that he appeared to want to return to a serious prog album ....as producer, but KE and CP didnt want him in the chair. I remember reading a CP quote shortly after the break up that had Greg been active as a performer and producer.. they may have considered it. We will never know as all we have is Crossing the Rubicon as a taster of what might have been.

[PhaseDance]

... start at Track 6, Canario, and Track 7, Memoirs.

This. Half of the album is excellent. Ignore the rest.