Just finished watching ELP- Karn Evil Nine 1st, 2nd and 3rd Impression complete version Live at the
California Jam Festival in 1974 Live on Youtube. I still love that song the same now as I did when I saw them perform it live when I was 17 years old in Pittsburgh, Pa. Aug of 1974. Was anybody at that show, The California Jam? What is it about that song? Even though I'm a Pink Floyd fanatic who else has fond memories of that song those times of English Progressive Rock of the early to mid 70's? 
= new reply since forum marked as read
I was born in 1969 but I'm still into all of that British prog like white on rice!
I got there via the proliferation of prog-pop in the early 80s, when bands like Asia, Yes and Genesis were scoring all of their hit singles, and by the time I had my first job out of high school, I was spending around half of every paycheck on vinyl albums, cassettes and CDs. I simply couldn't get enough music.
Funny thing, though, is that I was into this wide variety of styles which most people considered anathema to each other. I caught so much shit in 1983 or so when Duran Duran and Iron Maiden were both breaking out big among various cliques of high school kids, but I loved both bands at the same time. 
It's a 5 part epic. 
Entry 1: Before it was a joke, prog was the future of rock ‘n’ roll.
By David Weigel|Posted Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012, at 3:45 AM ET
The death of real rock ‘n’ roll began one morning in 1964, at the Organ Center in the southern England city of Portsmouth. Keith Emerson, 19, had 200 pounds to spend on a keyboard. He had options. But he got distracted by something bigger, more beautiful, and beyond his means.
“There it was,” he remembers in his autobiography, “resplendent in beautiful shining mahogany—the Hammond L 100 electric organ. I played it.” He heard the warm tones, engineered to sound like they came from pipes, but with distinctive warm hums. “That was the sound.”
Read the rest at Slate.
(edited to fix overly long link)
Negative impressions by critics notwithstanding (the author likes Prog, btw), the article gives a decent history/timeline of progressive rock - a genre that emerged around the time I was born. I missed it then, and discovered it much later as a teenager...and then learned even more about it with the advent of the internet (thanks, Pandora and the 70s English Progressive channel on Live365.com!).
I agree about rock critics - music is really much too subjective to reach any meaningful consensus about what's "good" (influential, maybe, but "good" is merely an opinion).
Ritchie was a fairly serious speedfreak at that time and that his meltdown was the result of speed-driven mania. Never knew if it was true, but he did have anger management issues, to be sure.
... I'll try that
Brain Salad Surgery album. The way it bounced all around, then going in circles at The Civic Arena in Pittsburgh Pa. 
At the long demolished Met Center here in Mpls. The Mall of America now sits on that spot. That says something, but I am not sure what. 
