After the rather dull Works, Vol. 1, the highly underrated Works, Vol. 2 is a godsend. Works, Vol. 1 took their pompous, bombastic, keyboard-driven prog rock epics to the limit; had it been stripped of its excesses and coupled with the strongest cuts from Works, Vol. 2, the band may have had an enormous success with critics and fans alike…
Emerson, Lake & Palmer's In the Hot Seat is an album, not unlike their 1978 album Love Beach, which was made for the wrong reasons, at a bad time, and probably shouldn't have been made at all. Speculation is that ELP was contractually obligated to record the third of a three-album deal at a time when Carl Palmer had required minor surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and Keith Emerson had required major surgery for performance-induced damage to his right arm…
Shout! Factory's Essential Emerson, Lake & Palmer retrospective features 28 remastered tracks from the seminal progressive rock trio's '70s heydays. The collection, which was overseen by the band itself, features all of the usual suspects like "Lucky Man," "Still…You Turn Me On" and "Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2," as well as deeper cuts such as "Bitches Crystal" and "Medley: Jeremy Bender/The Sheriff," the latter of which is presented live…
Culled from concerts in Chile, Brazil and Argentina in 1993 and 1997, ELP Live in South America is an essential collection to the catalog of this progressive rock supergroup. Features versions of their hits from their forty five year career including Lucky Man, From The Beginning, Hoedown, Knife Edge and Pictures at an Exhibition…
Set 1: "Stomping Encore" - Gaelic Park N.Y. Sep. 1st 1971 - The Stratasphere vs. The Spectre." This set and its companion, the eight-CD volume two, display all the strengths that made Emerson, Lake & Palmer one of the world's most popular bands during the '70s, and the weakness that comes with a trio's attempt to play complicated music. Keith Emerson was a virtuoso keyboard player, Greg Lake supplied a pleasant voice and flair for writing melodic songs, and Carl Palmer played drums as though he would perish if he stopped. But the group lacked the depth of fellow progressive rock bands, such as Yes and King Crimson. Those groups supplied multiple lead instrumentalists – Yes with their guitar/keyboard tandem and Crimson with their venerable guitarist, Robert Fripp, and a series of cohorts who played saxophone, violin, or second guitar.
Set 2: "The Iridescent Concubine" - Louisville Town Hall, Kentucky - Apr. 21st 1972. This set and its companion, the eight-CD volume two, display all the strengths that made Emerson, Lake & Palmer one of the world's most popular bands during the '70s, and the weakness that comes with a trio's attempt to play complicated music. Keith Emerson was a virtuoso keyboard player, Greg Lake supplied a pleasant voice and flair for writing melodic songs, and Carl Palmer played drums as though he would perish if he stopped. But the group lacked the depth of fellow progressive rock bands, such as Yes and King Crimson. Those groups supplied multiple lead instrumentalists – Yes with their guitar/keyboard tandem and Crimson with their venerable guitarist, Robert Fripp, and a series of cohorts who played saxophone, violin, or second guitar.
Set 3: "Celestial Doggie: The Lobster Quadrille" - Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA - July 28th 1972. This set and its companion, the eight-CD volume two, display all the strengths that made Emerson, Lake & Palmer one of the world's most popular bands during the '70s, and the weakness that comes with a trio's attempt to play complicated music. Keith Emerson was a virtuoso keyboard player, Greg Lake supplied a pleasant voice and flair for writing melodic songs, and Carl Palmer played drums as though he would perish if he stopped. But the group lacked the depth of fellow progressive rock bands, such as Yes and King Crimson. Those groups supplied multiple lead instrumentalists – Yes with their guitar/keyboard tandem and Crimson with their venerable guitarist, Robert Fripp, and a series of cohorts who played saxophone, violin, or second guitar.
Set 4: "Iconoclastic Madness" - Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY, on August 13, 1972. This set and its companion, the eight-CD volume two, display all the strengths that made Emerson, Lake & Palmer one of the world's most popular bands during the '70s, and the weakness that comes with a trio's attempt to play complicated music. Keith Emerson was a virtuoso keyboard player, Greg Lake supplied a pleasant voice and flair for writing melodic songs, and Carl Palmer played drums as though he would perish if he stopped. But the group lacked the depth of fellow progressive rock bands, such as Yes and King Crimson. Those groups supplied multiple lead instrumentalists – Yes with their guitar/keyboard tandem and Crimson with their venerable guitarist, Robert Fripp, and a series of cohorts who played saxophone, violin, or second guitar.
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. Well, such is the idea for an Emerson, Lake & Palmer compilation, but this one does tend to fall a bit short, literally. After all, since it was originally released as an LP, the disc comes in at less than 40 minutes. Certainly with a catalog as rich as Emerson, Lake & Palmer's it is extremely difficult for one CD (especially a short one) to truly capture the essence of the group. This one fails both as a chronological compilation and as the best-of that it is billed as being. That said, there are some good points here. "Lucky Man," "Peter Gunn," and "Still You Turn Me On" are all essential Emerson, Lake & Palmer cuts that truly work well here.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer's most successful and well-realized album (after their first), and their most ambitious as a group, as well as their loudest, Brain Salad Surgery was also the most steeped in electronic sounds of any of their records. The main focus, thanks to the three-part "Karn Evil 9," is sci-fi rock, approached with a volume and vengeance that stretched the art rock audience's tolerance to its outer limit, but also managed to appeal to the metal audience in ways that little of Trilogy did…