Showing posts with label emerson lake and palmer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emerson lake and palmer. Show all posts
March 12, 2016
KEITH EMERSON, EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER KEYBOARDIST, DEAD AT 71
By Daniel Kreps March 11, 2016
"Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come," Carl Palmer says of ELP bandmate
Keith Emerson, founding member and keyboardist of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and a prog rock legend, died Friday. He was 71. His bandmate Carl Palmer and the trio's official Facebook confirmed Emerson's death. TMZ reported that police found Emerson with a single gunshot wound to the head, and Santa Monica police confirmed to Billboard that Emerson died by suicide. "We regret to announce that Keith Emerson died last night at his home in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, aged 71. We ask that the family’s privacy and grief be respected," the band wrote.
"I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my good friend and brother-in-music, Keith Emerson," Palmer wrote in a statement. "Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come. He was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz. I will always remember his warm smile, good sense of humor, compelling showmanship and dedication to his musical craft. I am very lucky to have known him and to have made the music we did together."
After discovering the Hammond and Moog in his teenage years, Emerson grew into one of the greatest keyboardists of his generation, first as a member of the Nice before founding the prog supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer. ELP formed in 1970 after Emerson, guitarist Greg Lake (formerly of King Crimson) and drummer Carl Palmer, a veteran of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, joined together for a project that would better showcase their musicianship.
After a breakout performance at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970, the trio signed with Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegun; 37 years later, Emerson and other prog all-stars would open for Led Zeppelin at the Ertegun tribute concert at London's O2 Arena. ELP's self-titled debut arrived in 1970, the first of four albums the trio would release in their first four years together.
Following the release of 1971's Tarkus – the album's title track serves as a highlight of Emerson's keyboard prowess – and 1972's Trilogy, the group unleashed their landmark 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery; Emerson served as co-writer on that album's most enduring track, "Karn Evil 9."
After a brief hiatus to work on solo projects, ELP reunited for 1977's Works Volume 1 and Volume 2, which was followed soon after by 1978's Love Beach. ELP disbanded for the first time in 1979, although soon after Emerson, Lake and Palmer morphed into Emerson, Lake and Powell with Rainbow and Jeff Beck drummer Cozy Powell on sticks.
Emerson briefly reunited with Palmer for their 1988 project 3 before ELP reunited in 1991 and recorded their 1992 comeback album titled Black Moon; In the Hot Seat, their last studio album together, followed in 1994. After splitting again in the late-Nineties, ELP remained separate for nearly a dozen years until reuniting for one last tour together in 2010. Their final gig together came at London's High Voltage Festival in July 2010.
In addition to his time with ELP, Emerson also enjoyed a long musical career that featured both solo albums and film scores, including Dario Argento's 1980 horror film Inferno and the 1981 Sylvester Stallone thriller Nighthawks.
September 4, 2015
10121 - ROLLING STONE - 50 GREATEST PROG ROCK ALBUMS OF ALL TIME, DISC 12 - EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER - BRAIN SALAD SURGERY (1973)
For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock's most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush's first Rolling Stone cover story, here's the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill.
Compilation By Jon Dolan, Dan Epstein, Reed Fischer, Richard Gehr, Brandon Geist, Kory Grow, Will Hermes, Ryan Reed, Jon Weiderhorn for
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EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER
''BRAIN SALAD SURGERY''
1973
43:27
1 Jerusalem (Humbert Parry, William Blake) 02:44
2 Toccata (And Adaptation Of Alberto Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto, 4th Movement) 07:22
3 Still...You Turn Me On (Greg Lake) 02:53
4 Benny The Bouncer (Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Peter Sinfield) 00:47
5 Karn Evil 9 29:37
. 1st Impression, Pt. 1 (Keith Emerson, Greg Lake)
. 1st Impression, Pt. 2 (Keith Emerson, Greg Lake)
. 2nd Impression (Keith Emerson)
. 3rd Impression (Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Peter Sinfield)
Keith Emerson - Organs, Piano, Harpsichord, Accordion, Custom-Built Moog Synthesizers, Moog Polyphonic Ensemble, Computer Voice On 5
Greg Lake - Vocals, Bass, Zemaitis Electric 6-String Guitars, Zemaitis Electric 12-String Guitars
Carl Palmer - Percussion, Percussion Synthesizers
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. Indeed, "Karn Evil 9" is the piece and the place where Keith Emerson and his keyboards finally matched in both music and flamboyance the larger-than-life guitar sound of Jimi Hendrix. This also marked the point in the group's history in which they brought in their first outside creative hand, in the guise of ex-King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield. He'd been shopping around his first solo album and was invited onto the trio's new Manticore label, and also asked in to this project as Lake's abilities as a lyricist didn't seem quite up to the 20-minute "Karn Evil 9" epic that Emerson had created as an instrumental. Sinfield's resulting lyrics for "Karn Evil 9: First Impression" and "Karn Evil 9: Third Impression," while not up to the standard of his best Crimson work, were better than anything the group had to work with previously -- he was also responsible for Emerson's choice of title, persuading the keyboardist that the music he'd come up with was more evocative of a carnival and fantasy than the pure science fiction concept that Emerson had started with. And Greg Lake pulled out all the stops with his heaviest singing voice in handling them, coming off a bit like Peter Gabriel in the process. And amid Carl Palmer's prodigious drumming, it was all a showcase for Emerson, who employed more keyboards and more sounds here -- including electronic voices -- than had previously been heard on one of their records. The songs (except for the light-hearted throwaway "Benny the Bouncer") are also among their best work -- the group's arrangement of Sir Charles Hubert Parry's setting of William Blake's "Jerusalem" manages to be reverent yet rocking (a combination that got it banned by the BBC for potential "blasphemy"), while Emerson's adaptation of Alberto Ginastera's music in "Tocatta" outstrips even "The Barbarian" and "Knife Edge" from the first album as a distinctive and rewarding reinterpretation of a piece of serious music. Lake's "Still...You Turn Me On," the album's obligatory acoustic number, was his last great ballad with the group, possessing a melody and arrangement sufficiently pretty to forgive the presence of the rhyming triplet "everyday a little sadder/a little madder/someone get me a ladder." And the sound quality was stunning, and the whole album represented a high point that the trio would never again achieve, or even aspire to -- after this, each member started to go his own way in terms of creativity and music.
**********
BIOGRAPHY'AMG
Bruce Eder Emerson, Lake & Palmer were progressive rock's first supergroup. Greeted by the rock press and the public as something akin to conquering heroes, they succeeded in broadening the audience for progressive rock from hundreds of thousands into tens of millions of listeners, creating a major radio phenomenon as well. Their flamboyance on record and in the studio echoed the best work of the heavy metal bands of the era, proving that classical rockers could compete for that arena-scale audience. Over and above their own commercial success, the trio also paved the way for the success of such bands as Yes, who would become their chief rivals for much of the 1970s.
Keyboardist Keith Emerson planted the seeds of the group in late 1969 when his band the Nice shared a bill at the Fillmore West with King Crimson, and the two first spoke of the possibility of working together. After the Crimson lineup began disintegrating during their first U.S. tour, Lake opted to leave the group. Upon officially teaming in 1970, Emerson and Lake auditioned several drummers before they approached Carl Palmer, not yet 20 years old and already an overpowering talent, as well as a former member of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster.
The trio's first rehearsals mostly picked up from the Nice's and King Crimson's respective repertoires, including such well-known numbers as "Rondo" and "21st Century Schizoid Man." In August of 1970, ELP played their first show at the Plymouth Guildhall, just ahead of the Isle of Wight Festival in August of 1970, where they astonished more than half a million onlookers with their sound and instrumental prowess. One month later, the group finished their debut album, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, comprised of their strongest early originals and two dazzling classical adaptations filled with rippling piano and synthesizer playing by Emerson along lightning-fast drumming by Palmer, anchored around Lake's bass work. That album was an instant success, rising to the Top Five in England and the Top 20 in America with considerable help from a last-minute addition -- pressed to fill out the running time of the album, the group settled on a composition that Lake had written as a boy, called "Lucky Man." The latter became their debut single and made the Top 50 in America.
The trio's stage act rapidly became the stuff of legend, Emerson's organ pyrotechnics -- which dated from his days with the Nice -- getting him compared to Jimi Hendrix. The recording of the second ELP album, Tarkus (1971), tested their cohesiveness while stretching their sound in new directions and dimensions, with a much more complex electronic keyboard sound and a running time on the title track that took up the entire first side. But "Tarkus" the composition, despite its difficult birth (at first, Lake didn't resonate very well to the musical textures or time signature that Emerson and Palmer had begun with), ultimately defined the ELP sound as most people understood it: loud and bombastic, somewhat gloomy in its lyrical tone, and boundlessly exultant in its instrumental power. The Tarkus album reached number one in England and the Top Ten in America, and it seemed at this point as though the trio could do little wrong -- after a couple of abortive attempts, they captured a new feature of their concerts, a rock adaptation of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, at a March 21, 1971, concert at Newcastle City Hall, and it, in turn, became another major hit. Indeed, as a result of the release of that album, several million teenagers of high-school age suddenly had Mussorgsky's name and music -- after a fashion -- in their consciousness, to the delight or chagrin of music educators (depending on their outlook) everywhere.
It was eight months before ELP's next record, Trilogy, was released in July of 1972. In the interim, they toured extensively, and made it their business to cultivate the college audience that took most naturally to their work. Lake never sang better, nor did the group ever sound more comfortable and laid-back on that album, and among the eight very solid numbers in a classical-rock vein, there was tucked a track that became virtually the band's signature tune, a version of Aaron Copland's Hoedown. The group also enjoyed its most successful pop single off of that album in the Lake-authored ballad "From the Beginning."
Such was the group's credibility that when it came time to record a version of the first movement of Alberto Ginastera's Piano Concerto No. 1 and the publisher denied them permission, they approached the composer himself, who fully approved of the track that became "Tocatta" on Brain Salad Surgery, released in 1973.
The most popular album in their history, Brain Salad Surgery dominated the charts and the airwaves upon its release -- it was also their boldest group effort, offering the "Karn Evil 9" epic that filled more than the side of an LP, as well as the best playing and production in their history, and some of the most elaborate packaging of the fairly daunting progressive rock boom. By this time, the band had formed its own label, Manticore Records (named for one of the mythological creatures portrayed in "Tarkus"). Through Manticore, ELP also released material by ex-King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield and the Italian progressive rock band PFM; Sinfield's presence as a composer with Lake on Brain Salad Surgery also helped strengthen one of the group's lingering weaknesses, its lyrics -- where Lake's use of language had always tended toward the pleasant but simplistic, Sinfield, a veteran of King Crimson, provided lyrical complexity nearly as daunting as the best of the group's music.
In the wake of this string of successes, ELP released a triple live album, Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends, in August of 1974, which was their last new release for over three years. It was also at this point that the bandmembers began chafing at the restrictions that the trio put on their individual ambitions -- Emerson's boldest compositions were pure classical music, requiring orchestral accompaniment; Lake's songs didn't necessarily have much for Emerson or Palmer to contribute; similarly, Palmer's music was going in directions that would have left the others as little more than sidemen. A trio of solo albums would have been the answer, but they'd also seen how solo releases by members of such top acts as Yes and the Moody Blues had failed to sell in numbers resembling those of their respective groups.
The result was Works, Vol. 1, a double LP that was essentially three one-sided solo albums by each member and a fourth group side. Released in March of 1977, the record fared relatively poorly, both commercially and critically. Additionally, following the release, the group was never the same -- Works destroyed ELP's unity, and their remaining motivation for recording seemed only to be their contractual obligations. Worse still, they had squandered valuable time over the hiatus between Brain Salad Surgery and Works, during which the public's taste was changing -- by 1977, the notion of extended suites, conceptual rock albums, and classical-rock fusion that were trademarks of ELP's sound seemed hopelessly ponderous and pretentious, as the rise of punk rock and disco combined to undermine any notion of intellectualism in rock. Works, Vol. 2, released in November of 1977, was nothing more than a collection of obscure B-sides and odd tracks dating back four years -- though it received more positive reviews in some quarters than did its more ambitious predecessor.
Their next album of new material, Love Beach, was later described by the bandmembers themselves as nothing more than a matter of going through the motions. ELP split up in 1979, with Lake embarking on a moderately successful solo career, while Emerson took to composing film scores and recorded the occasional solo project and Palmer, after a stint with the band Carl Palmer's PM, joined the pop supergroup Asia. In the mid-'80s, Emerson and Lake got together with drummer Cozy Powell as the short-lived Emerson, Lake & Powell, complete with a self-titled 1985 album and a tour.
In 1991, Emerson, Lake & Palmer reunited for the Black Moon album, followed by a tour, which led to the release of Live at the Royal Albert Hall and another studio album, 1994's In the Hot Seat. The trio mounted several additional international reunion tours during the mid- to late '90s, although disputes over an intended new album, however, short-circuited their planned late-decade recording comeback. Emerson re-formed the Nice for a reunion tour and live album early in the new century, and later collaborated with Mike Bennett in the making of a triple-disc set entitled Reworks: Brain Salad Perjury, exploring new permutations of ELP's sound. He and Palmer have each toured with their respective bands, with Palmer later rejoining Asia for a 25th anniversary tour, while Greg Lake toured with Ringo Starr in 2001, and subsequently formed his own band. Lake and Emerson scheduled a tour of the United States and Canada performing in an acoustic format in 2010, and the trio planned to reunite for a single 40th anniversary performance in July of 2010, presented as part of Classic Rock magazine's High Voltage Festival at Victoria Park in London.
9645 - EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER - ONCE UPON A TIME IN SOUTH AMERICA, DISC FOUR (2015)
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
''ONCE UPON A TIME IN SOUTH AMERICA, DISC FOUR''
2005
255:50
DISC ONE (71:40)
LIVE IN SANTIAGO, CHILE, APRIL 1, 1993
1 Introduction Fanfare (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 00:46
2 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 09:10
3 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 05:32
4 Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 04:42
5 Black Moon (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 06:33
6 Close To Home (Emerson) 03:36
7 Creole Dance (Ginastera) 05:15
8 Still... You Turn Me On (Lake) 03:52
9 C'est La Vie (Lake, Sinfield) 05:04
10 Lucky Man (Lake) 05:33
11 Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis) 04:02
12 Touch And Go (Emerson, Lake) 03:10
13 Pirates (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 14:17
DISC TWO (76:19)
- LIVE IN SANTIAGO, CHILE, APRIL 1
1 Hoedown (Copeland) 03:07
2 Pictures At An Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 23:26
3 Fanfare For The Common Man; America; Rondo (Copeland, Bernstein, Brubeck) 17:48
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
4 Introductory Fanfare (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 00:23
5 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 09:20
6 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 05:37
7 Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 04:15
8 Black Moon (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 06:57
9 Emerson Piano Solo (Emerson) 05:23
DISC THREE (70:49)
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
1 Creole Dance (Ginastera) 06:34
2 From The Beginning (Lake) 03:03
3 C'est La Vie (Lake, Sinfield) 05:29
4 Lucky Man (Lake) 05:06
5 Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis) 04:26
6 Touch And Go (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 03:19
7 Pirates (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 14:35
8 Hoedown (Copeland) 03:09
9 Instrumental Jam (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 01:52
10 Pictures At An Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 23:11
DISC FOUR (67:02)
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
1 Fanfare For The Common Man; America; Rondo (Copeland, Bernstein, Brubeck) 16:16
- LIVE IN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL, AUGUST 16, 1997
2 Karn Evil 9 1st Impression part 2 (Emerson, Lake) 05:00
3 Hoedown (Copeland) 04:36
4 Touch and Go (Emerson, Lake) 03:58
5 From the Beginning (Lake) 04:02
6 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 06:19
7 Lucky Man (Lake) 04:38
8 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 08:27
9 Pictures at an Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 10:37
10 21st Century Schizoid Man (Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles) 01:45
11 America (Bernstein) 01:19
KEITH EMERSON/KEYBOARDS
GREG LAKE/BASS, GUITARS, VOCALS
CARL PALMER/PERCUSSION
9644 - EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER - ONCE UPON A TIME IN SOUTH AMERICA, DISC THREE (2015)
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
''ONCE UPON A TIME IN SOUTH AMERICA, DISC THREE''
2005
255:50
DISC ONE (71:40)
LIVE IN SANTIAGO, CHILE, APRIL 1, 1993
1 Introduction Fanfare (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 00:46
2 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 09:10
3 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 05:32
4 Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 04:42
5 Black Moon (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 06:33
6 Close To Home (Emerson) 03:36
7 Creole Dance (Ginastera) 05:15
8 Still... You Turn Me On (Lake) 03:52
9 C'est La Vie (Lake, Sinfield) 05:04
10 Lucky Man (Lake) 05:33
11 Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis) 04:02
12 Touch And Go (Emerson, Lake) 03:10
13 Pirates (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 14:17
DISC TWO (76:19)
- LIVE IN SANTIAGO, CHILE, APRIL 1
1 Hoedown (Copeland) 03:07
2 Pictures At An Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 23:26
3 Fanfare For The Common Man; America; Rondo (Copeland, Bernstein, Brubeck) 17:48
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
4 Introductory Fanfare (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 00:23
5 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 09:20
6 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 05:37
7 Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 04:15
8 Black Moon (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 06:57
9 Emerson Piano Solo (Emerson) 05:23
DISC THREE (70:49)
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
1 Creole Dance (Ginastera) 06:34
2 From The Beginning (Lake) 03:03
3 C'est La Vie (Lake, Sinfield) 05:29
4 Lucky Man (Lake) 05:06
5 Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis) 04:26
6 Touch And Go (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 03:19
7 Pirates (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 14:35
8 Hoedown (Copeland) 03:09
9 Instrumental Jam (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 01:52
10 Pictures At An Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 23:11
DISC FOUR (67:02)
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
1 Fanfare For The Common Man; America; Rondo (Copeland, Bernstein, Brubeck) 16:16
- LIVE IN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL, AUGUST 16, 1997
2 Karn Evil 9 1st Impression part 2 (Emerson, Lake) 05:00
3 Hoedown (Copeland) 04:36
4 Touch and Go (Emerson, Lake) 03:58
5 From the Beginning (Lake) 04:02
6 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 06:19
7 Lucky Man (Lake) 04:38
8 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 08:27
9 Pictures at an Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 10:37
10 21st Century Schizoid Man (Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles) 01:45
11 America (Bernstein) 01:19
KEITH EMERSON/KEYBOARDS
GREG LAKE/BASS, GUITARS, VOCALS
CARL PALMER/PERCUSSION
9643 - EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER - ONCE UPON A TIME IN SOUTH AMERICA, DISC TWO (2015)
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
''ONCE UPON A TIME IN SOUTH AMERICA, DISC TWO''
2005
255:50
DISC ONE (71:40)
LIVE IN SANTIAGO, CHILE, APRIL 1, 1993
1 Introduction Fanfare (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 00:46
2 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 09:10
3 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 05:32
4 Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 04:42
5 Black Moon (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 06:33
6 Close To Home (Emerson) 03:36
7 Creole Dance (Ginastera) 05:15
8 Still... You Turn Me On (Lake) 03:52
9 C'est La Vie (Lake, Sinfield) 05:04
10 Lucky Man (Lake) 05:33
11 Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis) 04:02
12 Touch And Go (Emerson, Lake) 03:10
13 Pirates (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 14:17
DISC TWO (76:19)
- LIVE IN SANTIAGO, CHILE, APRIL 1
1 Hoedown (Copeland) 03:07
2 Pictures At An Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 23:26
3 Fanfare For The Common Man; America; Rondo (Copeland, Bernstein, Brubeck) 17:48
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
4 Introductory Fanfare (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 00:23
5 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 09:20
6 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 05:37
7 Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 04:15
8 Black Moon (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 06:57
9 Emerson Piano Solo (Emerson) 05:23
DISC THREE (70:49)
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
1 Creole Dance (Ginastera) 06:34
2 From The Beginning (Lake) 03:03
3 C'est La Vie (Lake, Sinfield) 05:29
4 Lucky Man (Lake) 05:06
5 Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis) 04:26
6 Touch And Go (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 03:19
7 Pirates (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 14:35
8 Hoedown (Copeland) 03:09
9 Instrumental Jam (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 01:52
10 Pictures At An Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 23:11
DISC FOUR (67:02)
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
1 Fanfare For The Common Man; America; Rondo (Copeland, Bernstein, Brubeck) 16:16
- LIVE IN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL, AUGUST 16, 1997
2 Karn Evil 9 1st Impression part 2 (Emerson, Lake) 05:00
3 Hoedown (Copeland) 04:36
4 Touch and Go (Emerson, Lake) 03:58
5 From the Beginning (Lake) 04:02
6 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 06:19
7 Lucky Man (Lake) 04:38
8 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 08:27
9 Pictures at an Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 10:37
10 21st Century Schizoid Man (Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles) 01:45
11 America (Bernstein) 01:19
KEITH EMERSON/KEYBOARDS
GREG LAKE/BASS, GUITARS, VOCALS
CARL PALMER/PERCUSSION
9642 - EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER - ONCE UPON A TIME IN SOUTH AMERICA, DISC ONE (2015)
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
''ONCE UPON A TIME IN SOUTH AMERICA, DISC ONE''
2005
255:50
DISC ONE (71:40)
LIVE IN SANTIAGO, CHILE, APRIL 1, 1993
1 Introduction Fanfare (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 00:46
2 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 09:10
3 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 05:32
4 Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 04:42
5 Black Moon (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 06:33
6 Close To Home (Emerson) 03:36
7 Creole Dance (Ginastera) 05:15
8 Still... You Turn Me On (Lake) 03:52
9 C'est La Vie (Lake, Sinfield) 05:04
10 Lucky Man (Lake) 05:33
11 Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis) 04:02
12 Touch And Go (Emerson, Lake) 03:10
13 Pirates (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 14:17
DISC TWO (76:19)
- LIVE IN SANTIAGO, CHILE, APRIL 1
1 Hoedown (Copeland) 03:07
2 Pictures At An Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 23:26
3 Fanfare For The Common Man; America; Rondo (Copeland, Bernstein, Brubeck) 17:48
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
4 Introductory Fanfare (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 00:23
5 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 09:20
6 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 05:37
7 Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 04:15
8 Black Moon (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 06:57
9 Emerson Piano Solo (Emerson) 05:23
DISC THREE (70:49)
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
1 Creole Dance (Ginastera) 06:34
2 From The Beginning (Lake) 03:03
3 C'est La Vie (Lake, Sinfield) 05:29
4 Lucky Man (Lake) 05:06
5 Honky Tonk Train Blues (Lewis) 04:26
6 Touch And Go (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 03:19
7 Pirates (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 14:35
8 Hoedown (Copeland) 03:09
9 Instrumental Jam (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) 01:52
10 Pictures At An Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 23:11
DISC FOUR (67:02)
- LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, APRIL 5, 1993
1 Fanfare For The Common Man; America; Rondo (Copeland, Bernstein, Brubeck) 16:16
- LIVE IN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL, AUGUST 16, 1997
2 Karn Evil 9 1st Impression part 2 (Emerson, Lake) 05:00
3 Hoedown (Copeland) 04:36
4 Touch and Go (Emerson, Lake) 03:58
5 From the Beginning (Lake) 04:02
6 Knife Edge (Emerson, Lake, Fraser, Janacek) 06:19
7 Lucky Man (Lake) 04:38
8 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake) 08:27
9 Pictures at an Exhibition (Moussorgsky) 10:37
10 21st Century Schizoid Man (Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles) 01:45
11 America (Bernstein) 01:19
KEITH EMERSON/KEYBOARDS
GREG LAKE/BASS, GUITARS, VOCALS
CARL PALMER/PERCUSSION
8234 - EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER LIVE IN CALIFORNIA 1974 (2014)
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
''LIVE IN CALIFORNIA 1974''
DECEMBER 11 2012
52:16
1 Toccata (Alberto Ginastera) 03:45
2 Still... You Turn Me On (Greg Lake) 03:07
3 Lucky Man (Greg Lake) 02:54
4 Piano Improvisations (including ''Fugue'' And ''Little Rock Getaway'') (Keith Emerson, Friedrich Gulda, Joe Sullivan) 09:49
5 Take A Pebble (Greg Lake) 02:41
6 Karn Evil 9, First Impression, Pt. 2 (Keith Emerson, Greg Lake) 09:25
7 Karn Evil 9, Third Impression (Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Peter Sinfield) 10:00
8 Pictures At An Exhibition (Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Modest Mussorgsky, Carl Palmer) 10:29
Keith Emerson - Keyboards
Greg Lake - Bass, Guitar, Vocals
Carl Palmer- Drums, Percussion
REVIEW
by Jason Lymangrover (AllMusic)
Of all the ELP live shows, The California Jam stands as the largest audience the British prog rockers had ever played for, and a personal favorite performance of vocalist Greg Lake. In the spring following Brain Salad Surgery, the trio’s abilities were at a high for this set recorded at the epic outdoor venue, Ontario Motor Speedway. Because each member started to go his own way around this time, a good share of Live in California 1974 focuses on Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s individual abilities. "Still…You Turn Me On" and the mega-hit "Lucky Man" are performed solo by Lake on acoustic guitar, "Piano Improvisations (Including 'Fugue' and 'Little Rock Getaway')" features Keith Emerson turning in nearly seven minutes of virtuoso piano playing before the rhythm section of Lake and Palmer join in for a tightly executed bebop jazz approximation, and the classic rock staple "Karn Evil 9, First Impression, Pt. 2" segues into a gratuitous, five-minute-long (albeit pretty amazing) drum solo by Carl Palmer. Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends: Ladies & Gentlemen, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and From the Front Row…Live! are much better live documents from this period, but despite sonic imperfections, the firework finale of "Pictures at an Exhibition" captures the ambitious and dramatic spirit of the band nicely.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bruce Eder (AllMusic)
Emerson, Lake & Palmer were progressive rock's first supergroup. Greeted by the rock press and the public as something akin to conquering heroes, they succeeded in broadening the audience for progressive rock from hundreds of thousands into tens of millions of listeners, creating a major radio phenomenon as well. Their flamboyance on record and in the studio echoed the best work of the heavy metal bands of the era, proving that classical rockers could compete for that arena-scale audience. Over and above their own commercial success, the trio also paved the way for the success of such bands as Yes, who would become their chief rivals for much of the 1970s.
Keyboardist Keith Emerson planted the seeds of the group in late 1969 when his band the Nice shared a bill at the Fillmore West with King Crimson, and the two first spoke of the possibility of working together. After the Crimson lineup began disintegrating during their first U.S. tour, Lake opted to leave the group. Upon officially teaming in 1970, Emerson and Lake auditioned several drummers before they approached Carl Palmer, not yet 20 years old and already an overpowering talent, as well as a former member of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster.
The trio's first rehearsals mostly picked up from the Nice's and King Crimson's respective repertoires, including such well-known numbers as "Rondo" and "21st Century Schizoid Man." In August of 1970, ELP played their first show at the Plymouth Guildhall, just ahead of the Isle of Wight Festival in August of 1970, where they astonished more than half a million onlookers with their sound and instrumental prowess. One month later, the group finished their debut album, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, comprised of their strongest early originals and two dazzling classical adaptations filled with rippling piano and synthesizer playing by Emerson along lightning-fast drumming by Palmer, anchored around Lake's bass work. That album was an instant success, rising to the Top Five in England and the Top 20 in America with considerable help from a last-minute addition -- pressed to fill out the running time of the album, the group settled on a composition that Lake had written as a boy, called "Lucky Man." The latter became their debut single and made the Top 50 in America.
The trio's stage act rapidly became the stuff of legend, Emerson's organ pyrotechnics -- which dated from his days with the Nice -- getting him compared to Jimi Hendrix. The recording of the second ELP album, Tarkus (1971), tested their cohesiveness while stretching their sound in new directions and dimensions, with a much more complex electronic keyboard sound and a running time on the title track that took up the entire first side. But "Tarkus" the composition, despite its difficult birth (at first, Lake didn't resonate very well to the musical textures or time signature that Emerson and Palmer had begun with), ultimately defined the ELP sound as most people understood it: loud and bombastic, somewhat gloomy in its lyrical tone, and boundlessly exultant in its instrumental power. The Tarkus album reached number one in England and the Top Ten in America, and it seemed at this point as though the trio could do little wrong -- after a couple of abortive attempts, they captured a new feature of their concerts, a rock adaptation of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, at a March 21, 1971, concert at Newcastle City Hall, and it, in turn, became another major hit. Indeed, as a result of the release of that album, several million teenagers of high-school age suddenly had Mussorgsky's name and music -- after a fashion -- in their consciousness, to the delight or chagrin of music educators (depending on their outlook) everywhere.
It was eight months before ELP's next record, Trilogy, was released in July of 1972. In the interim, they toured extensively, and made it their business to cultivate the college audience that took most naturally to their work. Lake never sang better, nor did the group ever sound more comfortable and laid-back on that album, and among the eight very solid numbers in a classical-rock vein, there was tucked a track that became virtually the band's signature tune, a version of Aaron Copland's Hoedown. The group also enjoyed its most successful pop single off of that album in the Lake-authored ballad "From the Beginning."
Such was the group's credibility that when it came time to record a version of the first movement of Alberto Ginastera's Piano Concerto No. 1 and the publisher denied them permission, they approached the composer himself, who fully approved of the track that became "Tocatta" on Brain Salad Surgery, released in 1973.
The most popular album in their history, Brain Salad Surgery dominated the charts and the airwaves upon its release -- it was also their boldest group effort, offering the "Karn Evil 9" epic that filled more than the side of an LP, as well as the best playing and production in their history, and some of the most elaborate packaging of the fairly daunting progressive rock boom. By this time, the band had formed its own label, Manticore Records (named for one of the mythological creatures portrayed in "Tarkus"). Through Manticore, ELP also released material by ex-King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield and the Italian progressive rock band PFM; Sinfield's presence as a composer with Lake on Brain Salad Surgery also helped strengthen one of the group's lingering weaknesses, its lyrics -- where Lake's use of language had always tended toward the pleasant but simplistic, Sinfield, a veteran of King Crimson, provided lyrical complexity nearly as daunting as the best of the group's music.
In the wake of this string of successes, ELP released a triple live album, Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends, in August of 1974, which was their last new release for over three years. It was also at this point that the bandmembers began chafing at the restrictions that the trio put on their individual ambitions -- Emerson's boldest compositions were pure classical music, requiring orchestral accompaniment; Lake's songs didn't necessarily have much for Emerson or Palmer to contribute; similarly, Palmer's music was going in directions that would have left the others as little more than sidemen. A trio of solo albums would have been the answer, but they'd also seen how solo releases by members of such top acts as Yes and the Moody Blues had failed to sell in numbers resembling those of their respective groups.
The result was Works, Vol. 1, a double LP that was essentially three one-sided solo albums by each member and a fourth group side. Released in March of 1977, the record fared relatively poorly, both commercially and critically. Additionally, following the release, the group was never the same -- Works destroyed ELP's unity, and their remaining motivation for recording seemed only to be their contractual obligations. Worse still, they had squandered valuable time over the hiatus between Brain Salad Surgery and Works, during which the public's taste was changing -- by 1977, the notion of extended suites, conceptual rock albums, and classical-rock fusion that were trademarks of ELP's sound seemed hopelessly ponderous and pretentious, as the rise of punk rock and disco combined to undermine any notion of intellectualism in rock. Works, Vol. 2, released in November of 1977, was nothing more than a collection of obscure B-sides and odd tracks dating back four years -- though it received more positive reviews in some quarters than did its more ambitious predecessor.
Their next album of new material, Love Beach, was later described by the bandmembers themselves as nothing more than a matter of going through the motions. ELP split up in 1979, with Lake embarking on a moderately successful solo career, while Emerson took to composing film scores and recorded the occasional solo project and Palmer, after a stint with the band Carl Palmer's PM, joined the pop supergroup Asia. In the mid-'80s, Emerson and Lake got together with drummer Cozy Powell as the short-lived Emerson, Lake & Powell, complete with a self-titled 1985 album and a tour.
In 1991, Emerson, Lake & Palmer reunited for the Black Moon album, followed by a tour, which led to the release of Live at the Royal Albert Hall and another studio album, 1994's In the Hot Seat. The trio mounted several additional international reunion tours during the mid- to late '90s, although disputes over an intended new album, however, short-circuited their planned late-decade recording comeback. Emerson re-formed the Nice for a reunion tour and live album early in the new century, and later collaborated with Mike Bennett in the making of a triple-disc set entitled Reworks: Brain Salad Perjury, exploring new permutations of ELP's sound. He and Palmer have each toured with their respective bands, with Palmer later rejoining Asia for a 25th anniversary tour, while Greg Lake toured with Ringo Starr in 2001, and subsequently formed his own band. Lake and Emerson scheduled a tour of the United States and Canada performing in an acoustic format in 2010, and the trio planned to reunite for a single 40th anniversary performance in July of 2010, presented as part of Classic Rock magazine's High Voltage Festival at Victoria Park in London.
