"Carry No Cross" is one of my favorite progressive rock songs ever. That album is a lost art. One of the last concept albums that was any good. All about the muses of a mercenary assassin. Carry No Cross is his guilt and pain getting the best of him. His conscience speaking out loud. Friggin excellent stuff.
I grew up on ELP, the first piece of recorded music I ever owned was ELP's 1st album. I was eleven years old, turning 12. My mom let me pick out one album at a local record store for my birthday. I had been hearing an instrumental on the radio called "Passport to the Future" by someone long forgotten. It had some synth parts in it, but I didn't know any better so I called it "organ sounds". I asked the hippie behind the counter for that particular song on "45 RPM" and he drew a blank. So I told him it had "a lot of organ in it". He said "Well if you like a lot of organ, try this." and handed me ELP's brand new 1st release. I bought it on 8-track - and my life changed forever. Six years later (I was 17 nearly 18) I had just seen my very first "rock concert" - ELP in Pheonix. No more than a week later I bought my first Hammond, then I sold my motocross racing bike and bought my first synth - a brand new ARP Axxe. That was the winter of 1978.
I'd been a complete ELP fanatic up until then. I had moved out and left home, one night in Houston, Tx. on some college radio station they used to play new albums in their entirety late at night. They put on UK's Danger Money. I also heard Rush's Hemispheres on that same radio station around the same time. Instant Rush fan, instant UK fan.
To this day Danger Money by UK and the song Carry No Cross are still one of my very favorite recordings. I started playing bass in 1990, and all that did was make me appreciate all of this "prog" music that much more. I own everything that Keith Emerson ever recorded that I could get my hands on (stuff with ELP, and also with The Nice), every Dream Theater album (searching for more of "the stuff"). And piles of other progressive rock albums (Rush, Kansas, Yes, blabla...). Even so - Danger Money is still one of my favorite progressive rock albums I own.
I still play keys, own two vintage Hammonds (1955 M3 and a 1962 A102). I power my Leslie with two Marshall guitar heads. I have a full-on modular synth as well. Plus all of my bass guitar gear.
So - like I said - that day in that record store when the rocker-dude behind the counter handed an eleven year old kid ELP's 1st album, he changed my life forever. I'm as certain as I can be that he had no idea what he had done.
I grew up on ELP, the first piece of recorded music I ever owned was ELP's 1st album. I was eleven years old, turning 12. My mom let me pick out one album at a local record store for my birthday. I had been hearing an instrumental on the radio called "Passport to the Future" by someone long forgotten. It had some synth parts in it, but I didn't know any better so I called it "organ sounds". I asked the hippie behind the counter for that particular song on "45 RPM" and he drew a blank. So I told him it had "a lot of organ in it". He said "Well if you like a lot of organ, try this." and handed me ELP's brand new 1st release. I bought it on 8-track - and my life changed forever. Six years later (I was 17 nearly 18) I had just seen my very first "rock concert" - ELP in Pheonix. No more than a week later I bought my first Hammond, then I sold my motocross racing bike and bought my first synth - a brand new ARP Axxe. That was the winter of 1978.
I'd been a complete ELP fanatic up until then. I had moved out and left home, one night in Houston, Tx. on some college radio station they used to play new albums in their entirety late at night. They put on UK's Danger Money. I also heard Rush's Hemispheres on that same radio station around the same time. Instant Rush fan, instant UK fan.
To this day Danger Money by UK and the song Carry No Cross are still one of my very favorite recordings. I started playing bass in 1990, and all that did was make me appreciate all of this "prog" music that much more. I own everything that Keith Emerson ever recorded that I could get my hands on (stuff with ELP, and also with The Nice), every Dream Theater album (searching for more of "the stuff"). And piles of other progressive rock albums (Rush, Kansas, Yes, blabla...). Even so - Danger Money is still one of my favorite progressive rock albums I own.
I still play keys, own two vintage Hammonds (1955 M3 and a 1962 A102). I power my Leslie with two Marshall guitar heads. I have a full-on modular synth as well. Plus all of my bass guitar gear.
So - like I said - that day in that record store when the rocker-dude behind the counter handed an eleven year old kid ELP's 1st album, he changed my life forever. I'm as certain as I can be that he had no idea what he had done.
Somewhere around 83/84.
