Welcome Back, My Friends, To Show That Never Ends – Ladies and Gentlemen E.L.P. is the second live album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released as a triple album in August 1974 by Manticore Records. It was recorded in February 1974 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, during the group’s 1973–74 world tour in support of their 1973 fourth album, Brain Salad Surgery.

The album was a commercial success, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard 200, the band’s highest-charting album in the United States, and was certified gold for sales of 500,000 copies there. In the UK, the LP peaked at No. 6. Following its release, Emerson, Lake & Palmer took a long break from songwriting and recording.

The title comes from the introduction to the show by British DJ MC Pete Murray, as well as the introduction to “Karn Evil 9: First Impression, Part 2”.

For the recording of the album, personnel and equipment were brought from Wally Heider Studios in Los Angeles, including a 24-track recording unit as well as a 40-input console. Peter Granet, one of the sound engineers, called it the best recording experience he had ever had. The band used a four-channel quadrupole recording system on this tour. A quadrupole mix of the album was released as a triple 8-track cassette set. It was also planned to be released in Quadradisc format with quadraphonic sound, but was rejected due to technical problems.

Most of the album’s recordings were first played on the American rock radio show The King Biscuit Flower Hour. In 1999, these radio recordings were released on CD.

AllMusic gave the album a mixed retrospective review, saying that the album makes one realize how capable these musicians were and how well they worked together in their prime. It also praised the group for including all but one of the songs from Brain Salad Surgery, and particularly praised the performance of “Karn Evil 9” as far superior to the studio version. However, they noted that unlike most live albums of the era, Welcome Back did not incorporate studio overdubs, limiting the band’s ability to recreate moments from their albums and resulting in poor sound quality. Occasional leaks, echoes and apparent distance often give the listener the impression of sitting on the upper tier of the arena. “

From this historic triple live album I select “Take A Pebble” which also includes “Still…You Turn Me On” and “Lucky Man”.

Tracklsit

A1. Hoedown (Taken From Rodeo) 04:55
A2. Jerusalem 02:51
A3. Toccata (An Adaption Of Ginastera’s 1st Piano Concerto, 4th Movement) 07:24
B. Tarkus 16:42
1. Eruption
2. Stones Of Years
3. Iconoclast
4. Mass
5. Manticore
6. Battlefield (Including Epitaph)
C1. Tarkus (Conclusion) Aquatarkus 10:42
C2. Take A Pebble (Including Still… You Turn Me On And Lucky Man) 11:07
D1. Piano Improvisations (Including Friedrich Gulda’s ‘Fugue’ And Joe Sullivan’s ‘Little
Rock Getaway’) 11:53
D2. Take A Pebble (Conclusion) 03:33
D3. Jeremy Bender / The Sheriff (Medley) 05:06
E1. Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression) 17:26
F1. Karn Evil 9 (2nd Impression) 07:36
F2. Karn Evil 9 (3rd Impression) 10:17