{"id":22500,"date":"2022-03-06T05:30:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T10:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22500"},"modified":"2022-06-30T11:40:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:40:26","slug":"march-through-time-emerson-lake-palmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/06\/march-through-time-emerson-lake-palmer\/","title":{"rendered":"March Through Time: Emerson Lake &#038; Palmer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>This month, I&#8217;m hitting<\/em> pause <em>on coverage of new artists and releases, focusing instead for a bit on the bodies of work from some of my favorite artists. &#8212; bk<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-22501\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ELP_autog.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ELP_autog.jpg 960w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ELP_autog-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ELP_autog-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/ELP_autog-768x767.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>The prog trio people love to hate, ELP were undeniably a polarizing force. At their best they were thrilling, innovative and wonderfully melodic. At their worst they were \u2026 well, none of those things. Some listeners would insist they were all or nothing in that regard. I never had the pleasure of seeing ELP live onstage. But as a pretty-damn-fine alternative, I did in fact interview, meet and see each of them perform. They also &#8212; years apart from one another \u2013 each autographed my <i>Welcome Back My Friends\u2026<\/i> LP jacket, now proudly displayed on my office wall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">Here\u2019s my capsule assessment of each of their releases.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Emerson, Lake &amp; Palmer<\/b><\/i><b> (1970)<\/b> \u2013 The debut still sounds fresh today. Lake is in fine voice, and Emerson and Palmer play their assess off. Lake\u2019s romantic lyrical concerns provide a nice balance to the ambitious instrumental work. Essential.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Tarkus<\/b><\/i><b> (1971)<\/b> \u2013 Avoiding the sophomore slump, this is an imposing record. The side-long title suite is an exemplar of what ELP could do with the long form. Pop fans beware, though: there\u2019s little for you here.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Pictures at an Exhibition<\/b><\/i><b> (1971)<\/b> \u2013 ELP covers the classics. Save for bits here and there, it\u2019s all Mussorgsky compositions. They handle it with verve and aplomb. Of its time, to be sure, but wonderful still.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Trilogy<\/b><\/i><b> (1972)<\/b> \u2013 The trio at the height of their powers. Never before (and, notably, never again) would ELP so perfectly navigate the spaces between their often incompatible musical goals. A desert island LP, and some pop songs to boot.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Brain Salad Surgery<\/b><\/i><b> (1973)<\/b> \u2013 Less immediate than its predecessor, but still quite good. Perhaps taking a leaf from the Led Zeppelin playbook, the title track is nowhere to be found here.. But \u201cKarn Evil 9\u201d is masterful.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Welcome Back My Friends\u2026<\/b><\/i><b> (1974)<\/b> \u2013 A bombastic and overblown 3LP set? To be sure. A great document of their live show? Indeed.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Works Volume 1<\/b><\/i><b> (1977)<\/b> \u2013 Some gems among the pretentious, long-winded material. Those whose tastes run toward songcraft won\u2019t want to miss Greg Lake\u2019s Side Three. And Side Four\u2019s \u201cFanfare for the Common Man\u201d is a thrill ride.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Works Volume 2<\/b><\/i><b> (1977)<\/b> \u2013 More of an odds-and-sods collection, it nonetheless has a wealth of gems. Emerson\u2019s Scott Joplin and Meade Lux Lewis pieces are a treat, and \u201cTiger in a Spotlight\u201d is a catchy, almost-pop number.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Love Beach<\/b><\/i><b> (1978)<\/b> \u2013 Is it as bad as its reputation suggests? Not quite. But it\u2019s pedestrian and lifeless, and you really don\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>In Concert<\/b><\/i><b> (1979)<\/b> \u2013 For those who found <i>Welcome\u2026<\/i> a bit much, this distillation is easier going. But for those looking for the big hits in a live context, they\u2019re not here.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>Black Moon<\/b><\/i><b> (1992)<\/b> \u2013 Though all three men still had much to give musically, this is an underwhelming reunion. It did, however, provide an excuse for live dates, which was a good thing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><i><b>In the Hot Seat<\/b><\/i><b> (1994)<\/b> \u2013 I never heard this one. Did you?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">Note: The non-canon release <i>Emerson Lake &amp; Powell<\/i> from \u201886 isn\u2019t included here. It\u2019s pretty good, though, especially by \u201880s-prog-wilderness standards. And the excerpt from Holst\u2019s <i>The Planets<\/i> is fun if \u2013 as am I \u2013 you\u2019re into that sort of thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This month, I&#8217;m hitting pause on coverage of new artists and releases, focusing instead for a bit on the bodies of work from some of my favorite artists. &#8212; bk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,65],"tags":[468,771,780,945,1236],"class_list":["post-22500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-review","tag-carl-palmer","tag-elp","tag-emerson-lake-and-palmer","tag-greg-lake","tag-keith-emerson","cat-27-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22500"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23299,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22500\/revisions\/23299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}