On 12 Dec 2003, Conan the Librarian spake unto rec.woodworking:

A couple of years ago I dug out a bunch of old ELP stuff, and when
I put it on I was struck by how pretentious, overbearing and pompous
it was. In other words, it sounded as good as ever.

Amen to that. I lived in north Jersey during my high school years,
half an hour from New York City. Got to see lots of great shows at Madison
Square Garden and the Capitol Theater in Passaic - Jethro Tull, Allman
Bros., Frank Zappa & the Mothers, and speaking of pompous and pretentious,
Yes. Rick Wakeman wasn't quite as bombastic as Keith Emerson, but he
wasn't any slouch, either.

The most memorable - this was the late sixties to mid 70's, mind you,
so 'memorable' is relative - was a Pink Floyd concert on the 4th of July at
the Garden. It was the 'Animals' tour, we had seats on the floor about 12
rows from the stage, dead center. They played most of 'Wish You Were Here'
and some of 'Dark Side of the Moon' in addition to 'Animals.' At one point
some idiots in the nosebleed seats started tossing firecrackers off the
balconies (it being the 4th of July, after all) and Roger Waters got
seriously ticked off and interrupted the show, telling the malefactors to
"sod off." The crowd went wild, and the nonsense stopped.

Today's synthetic pop crap and rap "music" can't hold a candle, never
mind 20,000 Bic lighters, to those days.