Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends ~ Ladies and Gentlemen

Recording

The album 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 fourth studio album, Brain Salad Surgery (1973). Its title comes from the introduction to the show spoken by the show's Master of Ceremonies and the opening line of "Karn Evil 9: First Impression, Part 2".

To record the album, staff and equipment were brought in from Wally Heider Studios in Los Angeles, including a 24-track mobile recording unit and a 40-input console. Peter Granet, one of the engineers, called it "the finest recording experience I've ever had". The band used a Quadrophonic PA system on the tour, allowing a Quadrophonic mix of the album to be released on three 8-track cartridges. A four-channel sound LP, known as Quadradisc, was planned for release but it was scrapped due to engineering issues with master recording which prevented JVC, the manufacturer, from cutting a stable master to meet the format's specifications.

Most of the recordings on the album were first used for broadcast on the American rock music radio show, The King Biscuit Flower Hour. In 1999, the radio recordings were released on CD.

Reception

AllMusic gave the album a mixed retrospective review, saying that it "makes one realise how accomplished these musicians were, and how well they worked together when the going was good." They praised the set for including all but one song from Brain Salad Surgery, and particularly commended the performance of "Karn Evil 9" as being far superior to the studio rendition. 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: "Even the most recent remastered editions could not fix the feedback, the occasionally leakages, the echo, the seeming distance – the listener often gets the impression of being seated in the upper mezzanine of an arena."

Track listing

1. "Hoedown" – 4:27
2. "Jerusalem" – 3:20
3. "Toccata" – 7:21

1. "Tarkus" – 16:42
   1. "Eruption"
   2. "Stones of Years"
   3. "Iconoclast"
   4. "Mass"
   5. "Manticore"
   6. "Battlefield" (including "Epitaph")

1. "Tarkus (Conclusion)" – 10:42
   1. "Aquatarkus"
2. "Take a Pebble" (including "Still... You Turn Me On/Lucky Man") – 11:06

1. "Piano Improvisations" – 11:54
2. "Take a Pebble (Conclusion)" – 3:14
3. "Jeremy Bender/The Sheriff" – 5:26

1. "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" (includes Percussion Solo (Con Brio)) – 17:26

1. "Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression" – 7:36
2. "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression" – 10:17

CD reissue

1. "Hoedown" (Taken from Rodeo) (Aaron Copland, arr. Keith Emerson, Greg Lake & Carl Palmer) – 4:27
2. "Jerusalem" (Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, William Blake, arr. Emerson, Lake & Palmer) – 3:20
3. "Toccata" An adaptation of Ginastera's 1st piano Concerto, 4th movement (Alberto Ginastera, arr. Emerson) – 7:21
4. "Tarkus" (Emerson, Lake) – 27:24
   1. "Eruption" (Emerson)
   2. "Stones of Years" (Emerson, Lake)
   3. "Iconoclast" (Emerson)
   4. "Mass" (Emerson, Lake)
   5. "Manticore" (Emerson)
   6. "Battlefield" (Lake) including "Epitaph" (Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Lake, Michael Giles, Peter Sinfield)
   7. "Aquatarkus" (Emerson)
5. "Take a Pebble" (Lake) (including "Still...You Turn Me On" (Lake) and "Lucky Man") (Lake) – 11:06

1. "Piano Improvisations" (including Friedrich Gulda's "Fugue" and Joe Sullivan's "Little Rock Getaway") (Emerson) – 11:54
2. "Take a Pebble (Conclusion)" (Lake) – 3:14
3. "Jeremy Bender/The Sheriff" (Emerson, Lake) – 5:26
4. "Karn Evil 9 (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 35:21
   1. "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression" (includes Percussion Solo (Con Brio)) (Emerson, Lake, Palmer)
   2. "Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression" (Emerson)
   3. "Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield)

Personnel