[LS]

Sad. As a former musician and writer, I somewhat get the pressure of being able to meet expectations, but Emerson was a perfectionist (you could tell that by the type of music he played.)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Oh, what a lucky man he was.

[P.O.E.]

RIP. One of my all-time faves.

[Cicero]

Piano improvisations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg2KjxNtAiM

[faithhopecharity]

I’ve never heard of this fellow but its SO VERY SAD!
that’s a senseless “reason” to kill yourself, imho

if he made nice music for many years, he should be happy

none of us can do everything we used to do

especially when we are 71 years of age, ha!

we find NEW things we CAN do!!!!!

[Billthedrill]

It is, believe me, a very difficult thing to age gracefully. Rush wrote a song about it: “Losing It”. It’s why Hemingway shot himself. It’s why Thomas wrote “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Prayers up for family and friends.

[Psalm 73]

"...because he feared he was no longer good enough as a musician..."

That's the problem with having a sense of self not predicated on who you are in God's eyes.
I loved his music, and it's a shame he defined himself by what he did, and not who he was.
Likewise saddened when Bob Welch shot himself. If only he knew how much Jesus loved him.

[CrazyIvan]

I was introduced to ELP by a college roommate who was a classically trained organist. We’ve seen them perform several times. I would go with Dave when he practiced sometimes and we had the whole chapel to ourselves. Being a private audience to a performance of Karn Evil 9 on a monster 1032 pipe organ is quite an experience. RIP Keith.

[fella]

That’s growing old gracefully.

[Cecily]

RIP, Keith. You and ELP were truly great.

[blueunicorn6]

Very sad.

For the really good musicians, making music is life.

To lose that ability is to lose life. It becomes existence.

Musicians, the good ones, are a different breed. Not good or bad, just different.

They have a “sense” for music that most of us don’t have.

It can be quite beautiful and quite torturous for them.

Very sad.

[DoughtyOne]

[Sirius Lee]

It's a terrible thing for a performer to lose the ability to perform, but Mr. Speedy still had that unique compositional voice. It's a tragedy that he never released his 2nd Piano Concerto.

Here's one his compositions, which always struck me as a perfect soundtrack for B-17s assembling in the skies over the Channel. This is close enough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q13ZsnQA9TU

[Mears]

Lot’s of people can’t “meet expectations” as we age-—but we don’t kill ourselves.

He obviously had other problems.

.

[be-baw]

Shooting yourself sends a horrific message to someone.

He made a lot of great music. I saw ELP live at Jenison Fieldhouse at MSU shortly after they released Brain Salad Surgery. They were awesome.

[goodnesswins]

awful....he had kids....that’s something to live for. Having come from a family where suicide happened....it’s not the way to go...it affects generations.

[EDINVA]

How can anyone shoot his brains out, leaving his body there to be found by someone who loves him and who theoretically he loved? I’ll never ‘get it.’

[chajin]

There were two organists I admired in the mid 1970s, and they were both named Keith: Keith Chapman who played the Wanamaker organ in Philly, and Keith Emerson. Both of them came out with LPs of organ arrangements of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and both recordings went gold, I think. Because of them, I convinced my now-ex to process to the organist playing the Promenade, and for us to recess to The Great Gates of Kiev. Later, when I became a church organist myself, I would play them as the prelude and postlude for every Sunday nearest our anniversary, until the ex decided to become an ex.

I am saddened at the unnecessary loss of a man who, along with the "other" Keith and Jimmy Smith, led me to a life of enjoying, and in some ways playing, classical, jazz, and rock organ music.

P.S. And the other Keith? I brought him to FL in 1985 for a concert on a Frobenius pipe organ, the only one in FL AFAIK. He stayed with us for the weekend, and one thing he talked about was how he wanted to make enough money to purchase a private plane. He eventually obtained the plane, and that is how he died, crashing the plane four years later in CO.

[bgill]

That’s some kind of messed up.

[usconservative]

Emerson, Lake and Palmer was the very first concert my parents allowed me to go to and I saw them at the Chicago International Amphitheatre in 1977. (That locale is now long gone.)

I will never forget them playing Fanfare for the Common Man and blowing up the synthesizers -- which were the size of cars back then -- at the end of the song.

What a sight! Man could they put on a show!

[FreeReign]

Here's the only live version I could find of "Bitches Crystal" (1997)