Keith Emerson SE Interview pt 4: Love Beach and Peter Hammil 

Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentlemen is an exquisite and unique composition. Totally rocking Chopin's Etude #1 in C Major.

RIP Keith Emerson :(

Great interview. And, yes, Love Beach had great moments.

In the words of Carl Palmer, they "looked like they were the Bee Gees"."

When I started following Keith on Facebook a number of years ago I was surprised yet delighted at how lighthearted he appeared to me. In particular I recall pictures from a Hello Kitty store or convention with his girlfriend including ones of him posing with a giant Hello Kitty. It certainly made his suicide all the more shocking. Personally I like Love Beach a lot, but then again I like a wide span of rock and pop from heavy and proggy to, well, yacht rock or even straight-up bubblegum. To me there's the lightweight poppy side one and the proggy side two. And I've always found it quite nice.

I really miss this great guy and brilliant musician. Love you Keith!

I liked Love Beach right from the start, the day it came out. Still got my original copy, and it still plays great. One thing: Yes and Genesis went commercial after ELP did Love Beach, so in a way, ELP were the first band to try going commercial, long before anybody else. I still like Love Beach.

I bought Love Beach when it came out, I was 13 years old. I saw the cover and thought *wtf?* I was such a huge fan I didn’t care. Like Keith said, there’s some great moments on the album.

There's no shame in Love Beach. The last studio album they did was Brain Salad Surgery. If they never did another thing they are still the monsters of prog rock. Love Beach is just a funny side note. Completely forgiven.

He can't remember writing with Hammill, but he remembers EVERY DAMN MINUTE OF LOVE BEACH! His memory has my sympathy.

Love Beach was a great album. A departure, but a great album. The tracks "For You," and "Taste of My Love" were excellent tunes. I hate the way this venture was lambasted by no-talent critics. Its good stuff.

More accurately entitled "Contractual Obligations", lol

As an old retired soldier, " an officer and a gentleman" is an exquisite tribute to all of us who (in my training in Canada, on the British Commando model) loved what Britain and her history bequeathed to us and what we still believe in. GOD rest you Keith and Greg. LOVE BEACH was NOT an indiscretion or an Those who think it is are the usual music -crit douche bags.

Shame he didn't remember about "Empire of delight", which he wrote the music, for it's a masterpiece. You can hear it on "And close as this", by P. Hammill. .

I have the feeling of some confusion in Keith. Is like he cannot get his ideas straight. His passing -and Greg's- has hit me very hard. I have so much admiration all love for this band and there music. I guess "death is life". RIP. I love you so much.

Great interview, and I love Dave Kerzner's face and demeanor! I'll never forget my usual foray to the record store to be there when ELP's new album came out, and how my heart sank when I saw the "Love Beach" cover photo. Not that the men in ELP didn't look good, they looked quite fetching (or should I say 'fetch'? no; "quit trying to make 'fetch' happen!"), but they did look like the Bee Gees, and the album name made me groan. I drove home worriedly repeating in my mind "please don't be disco, please don't be disco," listened to the album dismayed and disappointed it sounded to me like ELP Lite, and sadly filed it away with my ELP albums and never listened to it again until recently - after learning of the heartbreaking tragedy of Keith's health problems and passing. "Love Beach" does have some good music, but it didn't instill awe in me as ELP's previous albums had done - they grabbed me and took me for a thrill ride I wanted to repeat again and again ad infinitum. When Yes did "90125" it was a sea change, but it was still emotionally involving music - commercial, yes, but still great music. Keith, Carl, and Greg made up for it later with a lot more fantastic music. Their music excites me today as it did when their albums came out. What a blessing that audio and video recording was perfected in our lifetime, so we and future generations continue to be able to thrill to the magnificence of ELP and our other heroes.

R.I.P. Mr. Keith Emerson.👑

For me...Love Beach is still a great album. No shame there....👍

Side B of this album - "An Officer and a Gentleman" suite - is terrific.

This is a very interesting clip. I've never really heard what happened to them around this period. I was about 9 or 10 years old at the time and I absolutely loved ELP, especially Brain salad surgery and Works. All of a sudden they just disappeared. I got into Genesis to fill the void

The way he went out was so sad mann RIP Emerson

I guess it was the difference between their older stuff and Love Beach. Genesis had always pop elements in their music, Yes was always an unpredictable band with weird time signatures etc., ok - but sometimes they sounded like a guitar driven hardrock band. But ELP was the tip of the iceberg called Progrock. No other band played such "avantgarde" material like Tarkus or Toccata. But from there to Love Beach is quite some distance.

Ha. Keith is simply awesome. Totally upfront, slightly undisturbable but at the same time genial. Rick Wakeman may be the best prog keyboardist to have a beer with. But Keith would be a solid 2nd. Everyone knows Tony Banks hated 'parties'. Even better, is his description here of 'Love Beach'. As a college student fiending for any and all things prog, I bought a cd copy of 'Love Beach' for $8 at the local Pennylane record store in L.A. It did not disappoint, even with the ribbing of my roommate at how banal and ELP fanboy-ish the whole thing was. But he listened to The Stone Roses and Billy Bragg all day so who was he to judge? The cover of this LP pretty much says it all~ Looks like an alternate snap from Jay Ferguson's 'Thunder Island' or Pablo Cruise's 'A Place In The Sun' cover shoot. I highly suspect those Brit boys with their open shirts might have employed some tanning cream for chests, to match their clearly unhealthily sunburned faces. But hey, where is the law that says 'austere' white boys from the sceptered isle can't have a little frivolous fun in the sun like everybody else? With pina colada-soaked, sand in your shoes uncomplicated music influenced by it? Funny thing is, the actual content of the album does not really match the aesthetics of the outer cover. It does have some discernible, flights of fancy-type musical substance. But perhaps not to a diehard pomp and circumstance ELP fan, I suppose. Heck, Pete Sinfield allowed himself to be contribute to it lyrically as he did with many other ELP works so, how bad could it be?! One thing in all seriousness that did strike me in this interview, is when Keith stressed the machinations of the record industry at that time that tacitly if not directly required all prog bands to go through a 'cheeseification' reprogramming as it were, to stay viable in the pre-MTV singles heavy market. Love it or hate it, this apparently is the way it was. Also striking is how he references Genesis first, as the most successful example of that dreaded transition for those bands. I'll keep that in mind the next time I read a disgruntled comment in a Genesis YT vid where some Gabriel or Hackett fan is bemoaning and assailing the changes Phil enforced on the band, and how interminable and insufferable it made Genesis as a band after that. I never actually believed that anyways, to be honest. Music moved in quantum leaps from 1972 to 1982. It may as well have been 1972 to 2042, in terms of how linear, non-thematic and starchy music became in the 80's in general. To my way of thinking, aside from the few good tunes ELPowell put out in the 80's and Yes's 90215, it speaks volumes that Genesis was the prog band most capable of surviving into the 80's by playing by unpopular rules. Great music is great music in any decade. Buts sometimes, you have to make begrudging sacrifices to the whims of the calendar and the suits, to keep your genre alive. Guys like Collins and Rutherford(and to some extent Banks), understood this and acted upon it to their credit. Guys like Fripp, Emerson, Wakeman, Lake, Bruford and Anderson resisted it and have had to fade into more minor celebrated obscurity. Still in all, long live ELP and 'Love Beach'!

I agree. There are some great tunes on Love Beach. The problem was trying to make a crossover - they never should have tried. They were truly original, that's why their fans love them. The album cover is what did that record in.

It’s sad when a person is older and money problems as a musician are difficult thru your entire life anyway. When I heard how he left us it was so sad. I saw ELP. For Brain Salad tour and works tour They went all out on the stage show Just the storage costs when a artist isn’t as popular is very costly

Thank you thank you thank you for interviewing our best keyboardist ever! Keith RIP!!!

How can you don't remember writing for Peter Hammill? Sham on you Keith :P :)

I've been listening to Van der Graff Generator albums lately that I never heard at the time and the rest of their catalog re-issued on CD. Listening to them I kept comparing them to ELP even though they are different sounding bands in so many ways, but they share a similar form of instrumental passages along with song form.

*MEMOIRS* should have been the theme! It needed another 6 months to a year, and some serious time at Abbey Road (studio 1 for sure).

Anyone who has seen images of Greg near the end of his life will have to admit that a cover with him tanned and healthy is not a bad thing. The outfits? Look at what they had worn previously, there is a film of Pictures at an Exhibition that proves they were not a fashion band. The music is actually pretty good.

Love Beach was a fine and very musical album. I can't understand the arguments against it. Both sides are very good, not only the Officers-thing.

Once year I used give Love Beach a go thinking it must be something here. I gave up sometimes in the nineties.

Always wondered what the heck was up with that Love Beach record; but really wanted to hear more about this Emerson/Hammil connection. - just cuts off after Kieth mentions it...

To be honest, I played "Love Beach"-particularly "Memoirs"-a Hell of a lot more than I did "Works 2". I really liked "Canario"-Emerson smoked it, his lead on "The Gambler" displayed classic Emerson technique. Nothing to be ashamed of for the most part.

Thank you for this! I liked Canario and the Officer and a Gentleman suite, not a big fan of the other songs.

What a fine, clever and educated guy Keith always was!!! 'Music is about experimentation...' and thus they became the apex of prog... And Love Beach was simply a great LP, with a disastrous cover, and one or two poor songs, but pretty good, in general...Canario, by Gaspar Sanz, and the long Suite are both masterpieces...His speech was almost so musical as his own life...RIP

No matter what you think of Love Beach (I kinda like the corniness of it) it was pretty ballsy for a band like them to try some Pop tunes. Plus, Canario is a great song and Memoirs has its moments

Great interview !

I never, ever thought of ELP as austere 💜 . . .

Love Beach was not so bad - just not the style we where used to - we where used to high energy long songs - Love Beach was to mellow - but nice tunes Keith was so right about the cover to :) - people just did not want them to be a pop or mellow band - we wanted and still want the original ELP - Tarkus etc - energy and drama etc Thanks for sharing - very nice

Other than the track 'Taste of My Love' and perhaps the lyrics (not the music) of the track 'Love Beach' and the front cover(should have been a empty cover like Roxy Music's Country Life empty cover alternate version), the record's is a solid fine piece of work.

Keith looked like John Fogerty in that shot.

Keith alludes to Genesis here but Genesis did 5 Love Beaches really, ABACAB, Genesis, Invisible Touch etc. but the difference was that they really loved it, and talk very fondly about their tracks and the fans went with it. "Who dunnit" clearly isnt "Suppers Ready" is it? ELP didnt like the whole Love Beach thing. How can it do well if the band hated it.

their rendition of Canario is good. the problem was that there were no good melodies

Maybe if love beach had a different cover and title, it wouldn't have gotten the unfair criticism its had over the years.

ahhh! The mystery of Love Beach revealed. :) I'd be smiling too Keith.

Great album! to heck with the nay sayers

Did Keith ever end up listening to the song? If he did, what was his reaction?

It was TOTALLY the record company's fault, forcing the band to do "commercial" work, ignoring the fact that all records before went platinum! But if you can forget all they did before, it was a good album compared with the shit pop was doing and still does today.

Side B is awesome!

Is that Dave Kerzner

The problem with LB was making it a crossover album. They should have done what they did best, and if something within that was worthy of being released as a single, so be it. A bit like "Follow You, Follow Me" on Genesis Then There were Three, or "Wondrous Stories " by Yes. LB is pretty bad - Rachel Flowers seems to have avoided it too, ha ha!

Yes we could have definitely done without that cover ! On the other hand Its ELP trying to be more commercial so they gave it their best shot ( at the time) . It was also the last album of the contract and they were burnt out and tired of each other . Emerson on any given day can write super high quality 3-4 mins songs with interesting modal changes and tempos . Way better than 90 % of crap on radio / internet these days. Later examples of this are : EL& Powell, Black Moon, Power of 3.

@lilquiz1301 it's the package!!

Love beach album cover was gold . Yes I am a woman.. that was sexy!

The Love Beach album probably gets much undeserved criticism.

If he had the 'courage of ...convictions' they would have told Ertogan to stick it.

Squids!!!!!

It's a real pity that Keith decided to kill himself. He'd got a lot to give yet. RIP

yes and genesis both turned to shit to ...brain salad surgery was mind blowing ..and is still one of the finest piece's of music ever written ..

Don't worry EMERSON, no have any problem whit the album love Beach, the is fantastic the image or the picture of the album is great, is just 3 big Artists happy in the Island in the Bahamas, what, s the problem whit that, the only problem here is the sick heads of the stupid people nao have the feeling for watch when some thing have quality or not, i love the album love Beach and the picture of the album is great and lovely. If you dont like no problem listen the Bee Gees, and leave EMERSON LAKE & PALMER alone. Cheers

naagh emerson is being a bit evasive here, i read somewhere that it was a contractual obligatory LP they had financial problems so it was one of those had to do it type of things...or something along those lines BUT not what he is on about

"Love Beach" is ELP's "90125".

I liked Love Beach but it is the worse album cover in rock and roll history.

lol

"Hey Mister Give Me Back Those Dice..." ... a gamble that didn't pay off ... besides the "goofy" album cover ... it also had a "goofy' title "Love Beach" ...

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that ELP felt as bad about Love Beach as I did when I first put it on the turntable. I don't say this to be flippant; as a fan of the group from the beginning (no pun intended), I tried really hard to make myself like it. I really did. But ELP wasn't a band that wrote crap like this - They may as well have done a two-part 42 minute remake of "Are You Ready, Eddy?".

Spinal Tap Mach II

YES IT´S A BAD ALBUM, BUT I AGREE WITH JIM HUNT THE SUITE IS AMAZING

I can't believe he's attempting to defend Love Beach. People didn't like it because of the album cover?!?! Come on. True, the cover was horrible as was the name, but he's even admitting they were out of their element and didn't really believe in it, otherwise they WOULD have toured with it. They simply thought of pop music as insipid and in turn made a terribly insipid album. (WIth lyrics so bad it makes Manowar sound like geniuses). And by the way, "Still You Turn Me" , "From The Beginning", and "Lucky Man" were all hits singles. And they got plenty of other radio play. Bottom line: Brain Salad Surgery was a masterpiece -- one of the great collections of music of the later 20th century, and it was followed by one of the most insincere, amateurish, thrown together piles of dreck the industry has ever seen. A shame.

Canario needed a really nice solo in the middle that never really happened! I thought that the album was a horrible attempt to be POP! The cover was appalling enough,but the music was very lame overall.Sorry,because I am a huge "ELP" fan,but it was the wrong direction for the band to be forced into.

It's not the smiling, or the Pablo Cruise getups - LB blows.

I don't know why people beat around the bush, Love Beach sucked ! ! !, as did In The Hot Seat..... ELPs first album,.... Trilogy,.... Tarkus,.... Pictures At An Exhibition,.... Brain Salad Surgery,.... now that's what people want to hear.

One album of VDGG or Peter Hammill beats the whole catalogue of this guy...Keep on planting knives in organ...Peter hammill plants knives in words, voice and his music is an axe not a knive....

Difficult to hear...….

Cover,mother "cross over" attempt, and crappy tunes. That's why.

Love Beach may be the worst album ever made.

. Love Beach, is a Kick Ass Album . . gb* ~ hard life (MULDEW) .