Track Listing

1. Third Movement
2. America
3. Hang On To A Dream
4. My Back Pages

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58305 in Music
• Released on: 1990-12-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Still Playing this Today
I bought this album when I was 14 or 15, to cheer me up on the way to the dentist. I think it was the cover that appealed to me, I hadn't heard the album, but I remember it being among the first few I bought. This placed me firmly in the "weirdo section" at school, when everyone carried their favourite albums in plastic sleeves to broadcast tastes and attract exchanges. It also established a lifelong preference for bands with keyboards, and I soon bought the other 4 albums.
My own favourite track is My Back Pages. I love the way it goes from a piano intro to heavier when the organ kicks in. Hang onto a Dream features some really nice piano playing. America live has` Keith Emerson "playing" the strings of the piano and later on the track sounds like a train going slowly over points. Not so impressed with these bits nowadays.
Overall this is probably the best place to start listening to The Nice. The original 4 tracks are all outstanding. This was the last album they released.
(Great pity as they were due to bring out another, featuring their version of Lt Kije. Its release was announced in the music press, but due to difficulties with the publisher it was shelved. Not sure, but this is probably the "new" content on The Immediate Anthology).
And I am still playing this CD today, long after I wore out the album.

A fitting tribute
I was lucky enough to see The Nice just before they broke up and I remember buying this on vinyl when it came out (just after I had seen ELP on their first tour).

It has always been one of my favourite albums as it celebrates all the best things about the band. 'Hang on to a Dream' is a 12 minute version of the Tim Hardin song with some beautiful piano playing from Keith Emerson right through to the full power of the band in their version of 'America' -it is a great pity this is not available on DVD so that everyone could see what Emerson was doing to get the range of sounds from the Hammond organ.

The extra tracks really are just an add on to what is really the Best of The Nice

Everything Emerson did best
I've just been listening to this album again, and it still sounds futuristic!

It's a reminder that Keith Emerson in his younger days was peerless, not just a superb keyboard player but taking risks with the insouciance of youth. He played more complex stuff later, but never played with more freedom or joie de vivre.

As KE knew, the limitations of the band were in Jackson and Davison. The vocals and bass-playing are crude (sorry Lee!) and the drumming is basic, but somehow it doesn't seem to matter. Emerson is so virtuosic, so out there with his prodigious talent that you forget the deficiencies.

And the material is delightfully, wackily eclectic: covers of Dylan, kids' stuff, the justly famous version of America. Hang on to a Dream is without equal, and I just love Tchaikovsky's Pathethique on Hammond, bass and drums - what chutzpah!

Roll over Beethoven!