The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack

The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack Artist: The Nice
Label: Castle Essential
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Format: Extra tracks
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 5017615864724
ASIN: B00000AFC7


Release Date: 1998-09-16

The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack


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Tracks:

  1. Flower King of Flies
  2. Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack
  3. Bonnie K
  4. Rondo [Instrumental]
  5. War and Peace [Instrumental]
  6. Tantalising Maggie
  7. Dawn
  8. Cry of Eugene
  9. Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack [Single Version]
  10. Azrial (Angel of Death)
  11. Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon

Album Description

Digitally remastered reissue of the debut album by Keith Emerson's pre-ELP art-rock/ prog-rock act, originally released on Columbia in 1967 & now with three bonus tracks added: 'Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack' (Mono), 'Azrial (AngelOf Death)' and 'The Diamond Hard Blues Apples Of The Moon'. 11 tracks total. Also features the original cover art. The full title is 'The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack'. 1998 Essential/ Castle release.

Album Details

The Debut Album Remastered with Three Bonus Tracks: A Mono Version of the Title Track, Azrail, and Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Not exactly a "forgotten masterpiece", but it's worth hearing.......2006-02-19

Talk about obscure. The only way anyone would ever get to know The Nice these days is through ELP. There might be a reason for the continuing obscurity of The Nice; namely, that they had a love for long-winded instrumental jams. Their jams aren't very clean, either; they had a dirty and chaotic sound. Possibly the greatest strike against the band is that they never had a great vocalist like Greg Lake, who could put a lot of force behind the music he sang (just listen to "In The Court Of The Crimson King".) It's a shame that this particular album has been completely forgotten, though, because there are good songs on "Emerlist Davjack". You'll have to work through bad mixing and subpar vocals, but buried under all this mess are some great melodies.

Keith Emerson's organs and piano are all over "Emerlist Davjack", but he doesn't dominate the album. David O'List's guitar plays off of Emerson's keys and creates an interesting sound for the band. These two carry "Rondo", a classical adaptation, and make it exciting. The Nice could write songs as well; "Flower King Of Flies" and the title track are actually great psychedelic-style pop songs, and "Bonnie K" is an excellent driving hard rock tune. The other four songs are more or less acceptable, although "Dawn" and "Cry Of Eugene" don't really go anywhere. On the strength of the good songs, I'd give the record three and a half stars, but I'll round it up and give them the extra half.

So if you find this album lying around somewhere for a cheap price (although I'm sure it's out of print in the States), go ahead and get it, or get it here on Amazon. "Emerlist Davjack" might be dated and sometimes long-winded, but it's far from unlistenable. What a strange album cover, though. What did they wrap themselves in?

2 out of 5 stars Some things age well...and some things don't.......2002-04-24

At the time this came out it was pretty startling. Nobody played keyboards like Keith Emerson and his virtuosity, then as now, was astounding. And then, as now, the way he uses that virtuosity is highly questionable.

This album is hard to listen to. "Grating" would probably be a good way to describe the whole CD, to be honest. The songs are not good, and that's being kind. Most of them are clumsily constructed, and were undoubtedly designed to showcase Emerson's keyboard skills. Lame psychedelic cliche conglomerations suddenly crash into exotic keyboard forays that sound like (no surprise) Emerson Lake and Palmer, which with no grace morph back into inept psychedelia. Most songs bludgeon you with needlessly extended endings that become inadvertently funny.

Another thing that makes this difficult to listen to is the fact that Emerson is obviously the most accomplished musician on the record. The other bandmembers [do not play very well]; there were American garage bands (The Electric Prunes come to mind) who had better command of their instruments than Lee Jackson, David O'List and Brian Davison. They can't keep up with Emerson, and it shows. David O'List's vocals and guitar playing, in particular, are spectacularly bad.

The whole thing seems like a keyboard-oriented, psych/prog version of Spinal Tap - only they were apparently serious. Even the cover is forebodingly awful, four ugly guys apparently naked and wrapped in gauze, simpering up at the ceiling.

Overall, "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack," is of absolutely no interest to anybody except historians and Keith Emerson completists, and I will bet that there are some of those who wouldn't have this in their house. You probably shouldn't either.

5 out of 5 stars

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