Books on ELP

Pictures of an Exhibitionist
by Keith Emerson (Author)

From Publishers Weekly
One expects a rock n’ roll memoir to be full of sound and fury, signifying nothing if not the inflamed passions, tortured egos, precipitous climb and calamitous descent of its subjects. Emerson, composer and keyboardist for the Nice and, later, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, gives readers all this: from flag-burnings to overeager groupies, from musical mishaps to drunken, drug-addled excesses, as well as a host of backstage celebrity interactions. (Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Rod Stewart and a wonderfully catty portrait of Leonard Bernstein as a supercilious old perv are just a few that dot the book’s landscape.) Wildly theatrical onstage, Emerson played Norman Bates to his organs and keyboards, hacking away at them with knives and swords, often leaving them ruined and smoldering in his wake. The problem is that, as narrator to his own life, Emerson seems too, well, nice to rev the engine needed to drive such a book properly. He pulls back when he should barrel full-speed, and his writing lacks the killer incisiveness of his keyboard play. Slow to start, often clumsily overwritten and self-serving, Emerson’s memoir shows little sense of the narrative arc of the author’s life, and so the book trudges on in a litany of events, happenings and episodes that ultimately don’t add up to more than a series of pictures at an exhibition. Emerson seems too self-absorbed to be an acute observer of others, neither does he appear reflective enough to cast light on the shadows of his own life. Fans of Emerson’s bands will relish the scenester details anyway, but others may find themselves wishing he could write with the same brilliant abandon that he applied to his music.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Sunday Times
“Unputdownable! A hysterical, intriguing, and important musical memoir.”

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Metro Publishing, Limited; New Ed edition (March 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1844540537
ISBN-13: 978-1844540532
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1 inches

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Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer
by Edward Macan (Author)

Book Description
Throughout the 1970s, no style of pop music was more controversial than progressive rock, and no progressive rock band was more controversial than Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The group’s imaginative fusion of rock, jazz, and classical motifs with cutting-edge technology, breathtaking virtuosity, and monumental stage shows made them hugely popular on both sides of the Atlantic — and gave rise to a host of detractors. In Endless Enigma, Edward Macan argues that ELP was an important contributor not only to progressive rock, but to 1970s rock in general. Besides a magisterial band biography, Macan provides a comprehensive critical examination of the band’s music and, in particular, its best albums, such as Brain Salad Surgery, which addressed technology's role in fostering societal alienation and totalitarianism. His analyses are so perceptive, precise, and detailed, that listening to the recordings in conjunction with his comments opens new avenues of thought about the band and its music.

Paperback: 704 pages
Publisher: Open Court (July 17, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0812695968
ISBN-13: 978-0812695960
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.8 inches

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer - ELP (Songbook)
by Keith Emerson (Translator), Keyboard Transcription by John Carlin (Translator), Keith Emerson (Foreword, Author), Greg Lake (Author)

Book Description
Keith Emerson's Foreward begins, "The music in this book has been compiled to be usedas a basic guidance to the music of E.L.&P." The keyboard transcriptions by Emerson and Carlin with tablature were intended for advanced keyboard players. Contents: benny the bounce the endless enigma (part 1) the endless enigma (part ii) jeremy bender the sheriff take a pebble trilogy

Publisher: Warner Bros Publications (1977)
Language: English

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP)

@ Wiki
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) were an English progressive rock group. In the 1970s, the band was extremely popular, selling over 30 million albums and headlining huge concerts.

The trio consisted of:
- Keith Emerson (originally from The Nice) keyboards
- Greg Lake (originally from King Crimson) guitars, bass guitar, vocals
- Carl Palmer (originally from Atomic Rooster) drums, percussion

The band formed in 1970. On two occasions in 1969, The Nice and King Crimson shared the same venue, first on August 10, 1969 at the 9th Jazz and Blues Pop Festival in Plumpton, England and on October 17, 1969 at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, England.

After playing at a few of the same concerts, Emerson and Lake tried working together and found their styles to be not only compatible, but complementary. They wanted to be a keyboard/bass/drum band, and so searched out a drummer.

Jimi Hendrix was considering joining the group; the British press, after hearing about this, speculated that such a supergroup would have been called "Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer", or HELP. Before settling on Carl Palmer, they approached Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience; Mitchell was uninterested but passed the idea to Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix, tired of his band and wanting to try something different, expressed an interest in playing with the group. Due to scheduling conflicts such plans were not immediately realized, but the initial three planned on a jam session with Hendrix after their debut at the Isle of Wight Festival, with the possibility of him joining. Hendrix died shortly thereafter, so the three pressed on as Emerson, Lake and Palmer. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Emerson Lake Palmer[com]
The seeds of ELP were sown in 1969, when both The Nice (which featured Keith Emerson on keyboards) and King Crimson (which featured Greg Lake on bass and vocals) did a few shows together. Both bands had been at the forefront of the British rock scene.

The Nice had enjoyed several hits, but were known more for its wild stage show that was a showcase for Keith Emerson, who had been tagged a keyboard wizard and "the Jimi Hendrix of the Hammond organ." They were just beginning to build a huge following in the United States. King Crimson, had exploded out of nowhere in 1969. Moving, in a matter of a couple of months, from club obscurity to big stars. The band's debut LP, IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING, had become an instant smash and established the band in the UK, Europe and America.

On two occasions The Nice and King Crimson shared the bill, once on August 10, 1969 at the 9th Jazz and Blues Pop Festival in Plumton and on October 17, 1969 at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, England which was the premier of The Nice's "Five Bridges Suite" which featured an orchestra.

Greg Lake, about meeting Keith Emerson, has said: "It was at the Fillmore West in San Francisco and King Crimson was on the same bill as The Nice . King Crimson began to disintegrate at this time, and I met up with Keith at the soundcheck. Ian and Mike decided they didn't want to tour. They sort of pressured us. And, so the band was going to split up and at the time Keith was feeling that he'd taken The Nice as far as it would go.

"And he and I were on this stage during a soundcheck and so he was fumbling through this piece of....I can't remember what it was for the life of me, it was something - it was a jazz piece. And I played with him you know. "

Keith Emerson did confirm this jam at the Fillmore West in a 1972 press bio: "Greg was moving a bass line and I played the piano in back and Zap! It was there."

So after the soundcheck, we were both conscious of each other's position, and I think his manager, Tony Stratton-Smith, came over to me and said 'Can we talk about something personal?' And I said' Yeah', because I didn't want to carry on in King Crimson.

"I mean we had finished you know and so for me I was looking for a way to move on, musically, and there was Keith. And Keith was into a classical thing, me too - to some extent. He was a keyboard player and I'm a singer so.... it was a mutual need situation. We both needed something from each other to make a third person. So that was the basic embryo of the situation and then we obviously turned to the third member who was Carl Palmer."

The final live performance for the original King Crimson took place on December 16th., and the band returned home to the United Kingdom.

The band still had contractual obligations and Fripp was desperately trying to re-build King Crimson with Greg Lake still at the forefront.

"Bob wanted me to stay in the band and put a new line up together, but I wasn't prepared to carry on. I had already made up my mind to work with Keith Emerson, but I agreed to help him finish the second LP."

A tour booked for January and February had to be canceled because of the departure of McDonald and Giles, so Fripp and Lake returned to the studio, using other musicians.

The album was called "In The Wake Of Poseidon", and featured Lake singing on three tracks, including the single, "Cat Food."

(Both Michael Giles and Peter Giles also appeared, as did vocalist Gordon Haskell and sax player Mel Collins).

The album was released in March of 1970, and during the same month, King Crimson appeared on the BBC TV show, "Top Of The Pops", lip synching "Cat Food", with Greg Lake on an acoustic guitar. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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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, an up-and-coming band that featured lead singer and bassist Greg Lake. Emerson and Lake first discussed the possibility of collaborating at that point, but only after the Crimson lineup began disintegrating during their first U.S. tour did he finally opt to leave the group (after agreeing to sing on the forthcoming Crimson album). Upon officially teaming in 1970, Emerson and Lake auditioned several drummers, including Mitch Mitchell, before they approached Carl Palmer, a former member of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown who later hooked up with bandmate Vincent Crane in an experimental band called Atomic Rooster.

The trio's first rehearsals mostly picked up from the Nice's and King Crimson's repertoires, including such well-known numbers as "Rondo" and "21st Century Schizoid Man." In August of 1970, even as they were working on the songs that would ultimately comprise their first album, ELP played its first show at the Plymouth Guildhall, just ahead of the Isle of Wight Festival in August of 1970. The group's self-titled debut album was finished the following month and released in November; an instant success, it rose to the Top Five in England and the Top 20 in America. The single "Lucky Man" also was a hit, and their stage act rapidly became the stuff of legend.

The recording of the second ELP album, 1971's Tarkus, tested their cohesiveness while stretching their sound in new directions. Emerson was interested in further exploiting the range of the Moog synthesizer, and had conceived of an extended suite built around an opening eruption of sound, while Palmer had come up with an unusual drum pattern that he was eager to use. When they tried to present their ideas to Lake, who had assumed the mantle of producer with the first album, however, he couldn't really grasp the piece. He balked, and arguments ensued, and for a time it looked as though there might be no second album.

The group eventually agreed to disagree about the proposed track: "Tarkus" became the title of the new album, and ultimately defined the ELP sound as most people understood it -- the song was loud and bombastic, somewhat gloomy in its lyrical tone, and exultant in its instrumental power. A descendant of "The Three Fates" and "Tank" from the first album, "Tarkus" was a much denser piece of music, featuring not only multiple overdubs of instruments but textures that ultimately proved very difficult to re-create on-stage. After Tarkus hit the number one spot on the English charts and reached the Top Ten in America, their March 21, 1971, concert at Newcastle City Hall -- featuring the group's adaptation of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" -- was recorded for release, and became another major hit.

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. With Trilogy, the partnership was back fully in balance, with each member taking an equal share of musical responsibility. Moreover, Lake never sang better, nor did the group ever sound more comfortable and laid-back; 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.

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 and applauded the track that became "Tocatta" on Brain Salad Surgery, released in 1973 on their own record label, Manticore (named for one of the mythological creatures portrayed in "Tarkus"). Through Manticore, ELP also released material by Pete Sinfield and the Italian progressive rock band PFM; Sinfield's presence as a composer with Lake on Brain Salad Surgery 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, but their streak came to a halt with Works, an album that also marked the dissolution of the group sound. At the time, each member was feeling constrained by the presence of the others, and their inclination was to release a trio of solo albums; cooler heads prevailed, however, and they reasoned that none of their solo works would sell remotely as well as an ELP album. The result was Works, a double album released in March of 1977. The album consisted of three solo sides and a fourth side on which the group did two extended collaborative efforts, "Pirates" and "Fanfare for the Common Man." =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Classic Bands
Emerson, Lake and Palmer were one of rock and roll's earliest "supergroups" who were formed from members of three already successful bands, The Nice, King Crimson and Atomic Rooster.

The Nice had enjoyed several minor hits and were beginning to build a following in the United States, gaining attention for their wild stage show that was a showcase for keyboard wizard, Keith Emerson. King Crimson had risen to fame after their debut album "The Court Of The Crimson King" had caught on with underground rock lovers. The amazingly tight LP had brought the band from obscurity to a major concert attraction in the UK, Europe and America in just a few months.

In the summer and fall of 1969, the two groups shared the bill at two major concerts in England. Inner turmoil had already begun to tear King Crimson apart and Keith Emerson was feeling that he'd taken The Nice as far as it would go. During a sound check, King Crimson's bassist, Greg Lake began to jam with Keith Emerson. After some discussion, the pair came away with the feeling that it was time to move on from their current bands.

The final live performance for the original King Crimson took place on December 16th and the band returned home. The group still had contractual obligations and were desperately trying to re-build King Crimson with Greg Lake still at the forefront. Although he had already made up his mind to leave, Lake did stick around long enough to finish a second album, using studio musicians to fill in for band members who had already split. The album, called "In The Wake Of Poseidon" was released in March of 1970 and featured Lake singing on just three tracks. King Crimson made one final appearance on the BBC TV show, "Top Of The Pops" with Greg Lake on an acoustic guitar, later the same month.

Two weeks later, Britain's New Musical Express ran the headline: "Keith Emerson and Greg Lake to form new group", while the pair were busy holding auditions for a third member. Several drummers were considered, spoken to, or auditioned; among them were Coliseum's Jon Hiseman, Cream's Ginger Baker, as well as Mitch Mitchell from The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was Cream's manager, Robert Stigwood, who suggested Carl Palmer, a 20 year old drummer who had worked with Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. After a pair of auditions, Palmer was hired.

Although Emerson wanted to keep the project a keyboard-bass-drums trio, there were serious talks about adding Jimi Hendrix to the line up. A jam session was set up with Hendrix for late summer, 1970, but Jimi died before it came together. The rumours of the potential band with Hendrix did leak out to the British music press, who began running articles saying the band would be called "Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer" or HELP for short.

Before they even had an album out, the band began playing shows. Although most ELP fans believe their first gig was at the massive three day long Isle Of Wight Pop Music Festival on August 29th., the band has since revealed that their first gig actually took place six days earlier at a 3000 seat hall in Plymouth Guildhall. According to Lake, the band was paid $500. The show that ELP played at the Isle of Wight was spectacular. Keith Emerson played the Hammond organ, piano, and his custom Moog synthesizer. Since their first album had not yet been released, the audience was not familiar with their music, but responded with thunderous applause, nonetheless.

Although some critics, such as Melody Maker's Chris Welch, praised the band's early shows and its debut album, not everyone in the media was a fan. John Peel, a popular British DJ called ELP's performance at the Isle of Wight, "a tragic waste of time, talent and electricity."

The trio spent much of the summer of 1970 rehearsing and writing material for its debut album after signing with Island Records for Europe, and an Atlantic subsidiary, Cotillion Records, for the US. Recording commenced in July, 1970, with Lake producing. The resulting album, simply entitled "Emerson, Lake & Palmer", remains one of the most popular rock LPs of all time. It would be the album's final track, an acoustic / folk ballad called " Lucky Man" - penned solely by Lake - that would launch the group, bring Greg Lake's voice to the forefront of the pop music scene, and give the band its biggest hit. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Articles from Friends Magazine Oct 2nd 1970 Emerson Lake and Palmer grooved onto the stage after an hour of watching their equipment being set up, looking so typically like Speakeasy hipsters it was painful. Why they chose to try so hard to look like superstars is a mystery , who are they trying to alienate themselves from ? Their music turned out to be technically brilliant , definitely the most proficient band IÕve seen in months , shades of King Crimson in the constructions of Greg Lake , neither good or bad as such, just similar. Emerson, not content with the organ , played two organs, a piano, electric piano and moog synthesiser ,sometimes simultaneously , always with his usual picturesque flair. The groups "piece de resistance "turned out to be a version of one of the finest classical compositions a I know, Mussorgsky's incredible "Pictures from an exhibition " . As their model they used Ravel's orchestration of the work and amongst any criticisms of their efforts it has to be noted that they performed on stage . the most convincing and excellent version of any classical piece that any rock band has ever done . Try listening to the Berlin Philharmonic doing the same piece and you'll probably see why in comparison ELPÕS version of "Pictures At An Exhibition " was, to me anyway , unconvincing . The finest orchestra in the world easily makes one of the finest bands in the world sound like a weak fart. As usual precise and faultless drumming from Carl Palmer . The clothes and aura of the band were less entertaining than their music , Pity. =>>>>>>>>>>> =============================== Carl Palmer Helming New ELP, Asia Projects Anni Layne @ Rolling Stone Never mind the Y2K problem. In the year 2000, a more menacing threat may come from YELP -- as in "Why Emerson, Lake and Palmer?" Concern is just as foreboding with respect to Asia -- the other Carl Palmer band, not the continent -- as both groups plan to christen the new millennium with a fresh batch of art-rock. | The reunited ELP, for one, began writing material for a new album this fall, immediately following their three-year international tour. So far, keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson has laid down a twenty-five minute tape of rough cuts that Palmer says he will work from during a creative brainstorming session in London this January. The new material, he says, is accented by strong melodies and elaborate instrumentation -- trademarks of classic ELP albums like 1971's Tarkus and 1973's Brain Salad Surgery. "I feel that the band just needs more musical ideas collectively and individually. We need to stockpile," Palmer says of the album-in-progress. "Prog rock is a part of us, and we can't abandon that. But we have to move forward, too. We might have to look at doing something retro again, like appearing with an orchestra. Or we may have to look at new ways of presenting ourselves. Who knows, maybe a ballet." =>>>>>>>>>>>

Keith Emerson

@ Wiki
Keith Noel Emerson (born 2 November 1944) is a British keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of The T-Bones, V.I.P.s and as backing band to P.P. Arnold (which evolved into The Nice), he went on to start Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP), one of the first supergroups, in 1970. Following the first breakup of ELP circa 1979, Emerson went on to modest success with other bands including Emerson, Lake & Powell, 3 and subsequent ELP reunions during the early 90's. He reunited The Nice in 2002 to go on tour and currently tours (through 2006) with The Keith Emerson Band.

Emerson was born in Todmorden, Yorkshire but grew up in the seaside resort of Worthing, West Sussex, England.

As a child, he learned western classical music, from which he derived a lot of inspiration to create his own style, combining classical music, jazz, and rock themes. Emerson became intrigued with the Hammond organ after hearing jazz organist Jack McDuff perform "Rock Candy" and it subsequently became his instrument of choice for performing in the late 60s. In 1969, Emerson incorporated the Moog modular synthesizer into his battery of keyboards. While other artists such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had used the Moog in studio recordings, Emerson was the first artist to tour with one.

He is known for his technical virtuosity and for his live antics, including using knives to wedge down specific keys of his Hammond organ during solos, playing the organ upside down while having it lie over him and backwards while standing behind it. He also employed a special rig to rotate his piano end-over-end while he's "playing" it (purely theatrical, since acoustic pianos cannot function when turned upside down in this manner). Along with contemporaries Richard Wright of Pink Floyd, Tony Banks of Genesis, Billy Ritchie of Clouds and Rick Wakeman of Yes, Emerson is widely regarded as one of the top keyboard players of the progressive rock era, and was to some observers, one of the most technically accomplished of the lot.

Central to much of Keith Emerson's music are rock arrangements of classical compositions, ranging from (lots of) J. S. Bach via Modest Mussorgsky to 20th century composers like Béla Bartók, Aaron Copland, Leoš Janáček and Alberto Ginastera. Occasionally Emerson has "borrowed" certain classical and jazz works without giving credit, particularly early in his career, from the late 1960s until 1972; the song "Rondo" by The Nice is a 4/4 interpretation of "Blue Rondo à la Turk" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, originally in 9/8 time signature. Furthermore, on ELP's eponymous first album, Emerson's classical quotes went largely uncredited; "The Barbarian" and "Knife Edge" being notable examples. Note-for-note extracts were taken from pieces by Bartók, Janáček and Bach, mixed in with some original material, and credited completely to Emerson, Lake, Palmer and roadie Richard Fraser. By 1971, with the releases Pictures At An Exhibition and Trilogy, Emerson began to fully credit classical composers.

In 2004 Emerson published his critically acclaimed autobiography entitled "Pictures of an Exhibitionist", which deals with his entire career, particularly focusing on his early days with The Nice, and his nearly career-ending nerve-graft surgery in 1993.

Emerson has provided music for a number of films since 1980, including Dario Argento's Inferno and World of Horror, the 1981 thriller Nighthawks and, more recently, Godzilla: Final Wars. He was also the composer for the short-lived 1994 animated television series Iron Man. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Steve Huey @ Allmusic
Throughout his career with the Nice, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and as a solo artist, Keith Emerson has proven himself perhaps the greatest, most technically accomplished keyboardist in rock history. For all his reputation as an innovator and master of classically influenced rock, Emerson (born November 1, 1944, in the English town of Todmorden) began his career playing R&B; the Nice got their first big break backing soul singer P.P. Arnold in 1967. Independently of Arnold, the Nice carved out a niche in the fledgling prog rock movement, with Emerson's classical flourishes and flamboyant showmanship (flinging knives at his keyboard, etc.) leading the way. After the Nice's dissolution, Emerson fleshed out his musical ideas to their fullest with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, which debuted in 1970 and had a series of highly successful albums throughout the decade. Emerson made his solo debut in 1976 with the single "Honky Tonk Train Blues," which hit the U.K. Top 30, but did not pursue a solo career in earnest until after ELP's 1980 breakup. Emerson first scored the films The Inferno (1980) and Nighthawks (1981), but did not return until 1985, when he released Honky. 1986 found Emerson participating in a revamped ELP -- this time with drummer Cozy Powell -- but still finding time to record the solo LP Murderock. In 1987, Emerson released Harmageddon/China Free Fall, and the following year, he undertook a project with Carl Palmer and songwriter Robert Berry. Emerson, Lake & Palmer reunited in 1992 to record new material and tour, but when this venture proved less successful than hoped, Emerson announced his retirement from the music business in 1994. That retirement was short-lived, though, as Emerson went on to release the occasional collection of new material or appear on-stage. He even reunited with Nice bandmates Brian Davison and Lee Jackson for a show in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2002 (Vivacitas). He penned an autobiography, Pictures of an Exhibitionist, in 2004 and received the compilation treatment from Castle Records in 2005 with the two-disc Hammer It Out: The Anthology. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Greg Lake

@ Greg Lake Official Web Site

“For me as a writer, the only music worth creating is music that comes from the heart.

As a producer, the challenge will always be to capture great performances, without losing the essence of feeling contained within the original inspiration.”
Greg Lake, 2002

One of the most important and popular British musicians of the last 50 years, Greg Lake has continued to push the boundaries of contemporary popular music both as a solo artist and within legendary bands - notably King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Well known to millions for his classic solo Christmas hit, "I Believe In Father Christmas," which continues to be one of the top festive radio hits across the world, and also for the ELP smash "Fanfare For The Common Man," Greg's work over four decades has always been innovative, vital and much-loved by a global fanbase of millions.

From his initial days in the explosive London music scene of the late 1960s, through his time with rock innovators King Crimson, and as lead singer and guitarist for the legendary British rock band, Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Greg Lake has continually made records that have endured the test of time.

Today, nearly four decades after he was first introduced to the international music scene, Greg Lake remains committed to creating vital and contemporary music. As with the classic recordings of his past, he continues to explore the marriage of sophisticated pop and rock music with his deeply European musical heritage.

“I suppose when I come to think about it, my musical roots are probably more European, when perhaps compared to most American rock musicians, whose roots are mostly based in the blues or R&B,” says Lake. “I certainly have a great deal of respect for the artists and writers who, over the course of time, have made the genres of blues, rock and R&B into the popular musical styles they remain today, but when it comes to creating my own music, my influence has always been the music that stems from Europe's golden age of classical music and period when the early acoustic minstrels were so much a part of England's cultural history.”

Since he last worked with ELP in 1998, Lake has focused his creative energy into discovering his own musical identity. His fascination with record production, guitars, and contemporary music dates back to the late 1950’s and early 60’s when Lake, like many of his peers at the time, were immersed in the pioneering rock records of Little Richard, Elvis, Cliff Richard, and guitar legend Hank Marvin.

Born and raised in Dorset, England, Lake made a name for himself in a series of London-based club bands, including The Shame and Shy Limbs. In 1968, he formed (with guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp) the experimental King Crimson. The two had been childhood friends and shared the same guitar teacher as pre-teens and teenagers, Don Strike. Greg fronted the innovative King Crimson as lead singer, bassist and co-songwriter.

King Crimson's debut album, In The Court Of The Crimson King (Atlantic Records, 1969), a huge international hit, featured,"21st Century Schizoid Man,” the nihilistic anthem and FM radio staple. It is regarded by most rock historians as one of the most pivotal albums of all time since it effectively blended hard rock, jazz, and classical music into a cohesive, commercial context.

In The Court Of The Crimson King is also regarded as the birth of the progressive rock movement that paved the way for such other acts as Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd and Lake’s next project, the supergroup: Emerson Lake & Palmer.

Lake remained with King Crimson completing a tour of the U S A, and contributed to its second album (In The Wake Of Poseidon). He left when the band broke up in 1970, to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer with ex-Nice keyboardist Keith Emerson and drummer Carl Palmer, who came to the group by way of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

From their debut at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival, it was clear that ELP would be one of the few major supergroups of rock. Their debut LP, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Atlantic/ Cotillion Records, 1971) reached platinum status and became a staple on FM radio, with the Lake-written hit single, "Lucky Man."

With Keith Emerson on keyboards, and Greg's own songwriting, vocals, and production ability, ELP was able to blend hard and soft rock music from an intricate and compelling classically influenced base. The result was a musical genre that remains in a class of its own today.

From its inception and throughout the 1970s, ELP remained at the top of the charts. A series of Greg Lake produced albums followed, including Tarkus, Pictures At An Exhibition, Trilogy, Brain Salad Surgery, Works Vol. 1 and 2, and two different live albums. These albums scored a series of hit singles, most of which were both written and sung by Lake. Among them: "Still…You Turn Me On", "From The Beginning", "Karn Evil 9", "C'est La Vie" and the chart topping seasonal holiday single: "I Believe In Father Christmas."

The ELP live show became one of rock's most visually and musically exciting events. The band often combined spellbinding visual stunts with their compelling music to make for a brilliant concert experience.

But, by 1980 and after nearly 40 million record sales, ELP had burned out. Rather than disintegrate in public, the group decided to focus more on their individual careers. Greg Lake used this period to launch his solo career, which included two powerful albums (Greg Lake and Manoeuvres, both released on Chrysalis Records) and featured collaborations with Bob Dylan, Clarence Clemmons, members of Toto, and guitar powerhouse and close friend Gary Moore. During this period, Lake also performed briefly with Carl Palmer's band, Asia for a single tour of Japan and an international live satellite broadcast on MTV and simulcast on The Westwood One radio network.

In 1986, Emerson and Lake recorded an album with drummer Cozy Powell, and in 1992, ELP proper regrouped. They returned with the Black Moon LP, followed by 1993’s Live At the Royal Albert Hall and the 4 CD anthology Return Of The Manticore, and in 1994, In The Hot Seat (all released on Victory Music/ PolyGram Records.). The group continued to tour throughout the end of 1998.

In July 1995, The King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents: Greg Lake In Concert was released worldwide. The album is Lake’s legendary 1981 solo concert recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London with his all-star backing band. Two years later, a 2 CD career anthology, From The Beginning: The Greg Lake Retrospective (Rhino Records, 1997), which includes studio tracks and rare tracks from Lake’s entire career, was released on Rhino Records, followed in 1999 with a companion album, From The Underground: The Official Greg Lake Bootleg, featuring many rare and previously unreleased tracks.

A brief US tour in 1994 was staged to raise money for the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children, an organization for which Lake had already done charity work. 1999 and 2000, respectively, were spent building a home studio and writing material for future projects.

In 2001, Greg Lake was invited by Ringo Starr to join with him for his US/ Canadian tour. Lake performed material from King Crimson and ELP, and, aside from adding vocals and bass on the Ringo solo and several Beatle classics, he also performed with Supertramp's Roger Hodgson; Sheila E, Ian Hunter; Howard Jones; and Mark Rivera. Lake’s role on the tour was later featured in the Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band 2001 Live CD, DVD video, and a worldwide pay-per-view TV Concert.

"Touring and performing with Ringo Starr was a great experience," says Lake. "Aside from being one of my musical heroes, Ringo was just a terrific person to be around. I absolutely fell in love with the band; they are all such wonderful people and enormously talented musicians. We were all from different styles of music but somehow there was a spiritual connection between all the members of the band.”

Lake also performed in 2003 with an all-star band led by The Who's Roger Daltrey, including Procol Harum's Gary Brooker and Gary Moore. The music stars played one exclusive show at the Ronnie Scott Club in London, raising funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Along with further performances with the all-star band - which has also included Robert Plant – Greg’s continued support for the charity has resulted in funds raised in the amount of £1,500,000 since his participation. Lake’s performance with Daltrey led to an invitation for him to play bass on the forthcoming new studio album being recorded in London by The Who.

The future is full of new Greg Lake projects and in 2005 he also made the decision to return to touring with his new band, whilst working closely with music DVD label Classic Pictures, based at Shepperton Film Studios, UK.

In autumn 2005, audiences in the UK enjoyed the long-awaited return of Greg Lake to the stage for the first time in a decade. The critically acclaimed 20-date tour provided the opportunity for all to see the man, and hear the voice, that defined the world of rock music!

In a review of the live show by Classic Rock magazine, they describe: “Greg Lake is in fine voice…it sends shivers down the spine”. Record Collector magazine verified Greg’s continued vocal ability as a performer in a review from the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall: “Lake is sharper than ever, the voice still altering comfortably between angelic and magisterial as he led an impressive band through a stirring cross-section of his King Crimson, ELP and Solo repertoire.”

Greg’s fabulous new band comprises four of the finest musicians in the world today – David Arch (on Keyboards, MD), Brett Morgan (Drums), Trevor Barry (Bass) and Florian Opahle (Guitar).

Warner Music Vision release a two-disc DVD set, Greg Lake – Live, from Classic Pictures on 27 March 2006.

Greg Lake – Live is a fantastic live concert performance, recorded on his UK tour in 2005, and viewers of the DVD will be treated to all his best-known classics, including King Crimson’s “In The Court Of The Crimson King” and “21st Century Schizoid Man,” along with Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s hit “Lucky Man,” in addition to “Fanfare For The Common Man” and “I Believe in Father Christmas.”

“I am absolutely thrilled by the release of this new DVD;” says Greg, “it is the honest and joyful record of a fantastic band of musicians playing an inspired performance. I am both pleased and proud to be able to say that the versions of all the King Crimson and ELP pieces that have been included here are amongst the best I have ever heard or performed”.

Taking full advantage of the DVD medium, Lake’s second disc on the DVD includes a wealth of bonus material including; "Welcome Backstage” - an exclusive insight into Greg Lake and his band in pre-tour rehearsals filmed in September 2005 at "Classic T Stage", Shepperton Film Studios, UK.

"The Band” is a documentary filmed exclusively behind-the-scenes during Greg Lake's tour - featuring interviews with Greg Lake and many of the key musicians involved.

And finally, “St. Bride’s - featuring Ian Anderson, David Arch and Florian Opahle” shows Greg Lake performing his 1975 classic “I Believe In Father Christmas,” filmed at St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, in the City of London with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame on the flute and the church choir.

Greg Lake’s new music will be based around his ongoing love for both the electric and acoustic guitar. “I have spent many years touring with ELP and in that context, I was primarily positioned on bass guitar,” says Lake. “Although I love playing bass, and I have recorded and toured with King Crimson, ELP, Asia and Ringo Starr as a bassist, my artistic focus has always been built around the guitar. All of my songwriting has been derived from the guitar and it was the main instrument I played in the recording studio. These new recordings and my new musical projects will allow me to play the guitar full time on stage again. This something I have wanted to do again for a long time…”

"I am very proud of the music I made in both King Crimson and ELP, and I am very grateful for the success that I achieved, thus far", says Lake. "But there is still much I have to accomplish as a musician, both now and in the future. I still enjoy the experience of performing for live audiences and hope that there are still many worthwhile things for me to achieve through my contribution to the world of music." =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Bruce Eder @ All Music
As a singer and instrumentalist, Greg Lake has had his greatest success and influence in the progressive rock outfit Emerson, Lake & Palmer and, before that, as a founding member of the original King Crimson. He has also been reasonably popular as a solo artist working in more of a hard-rock idiom.

As a boy, growing up in a poverty stricken part of the seaside resort town of Bournemouth, he got his first guitar for his twelfth birthday, as a gift from his mother, and began taking lessons from a local teacher named Don Strike, one of whose other students was Robert Fripp, who became close friends with Lake. Around the time he was 12 years old, Lake also wrote a folk-style song that played a major part in his future, entitled "Lucky Man."

Lake learned to read music and also to play pieces by Paganini, among other classical composers, but his aspirations lay with emulating the sound of his favorite band of the era, Cliff Richard & The Shadows, and their lead guitarist, Hank B. Marvin. Lake passed through a succession of groups, including a local quartet called Unit Four, in which he played guitar and sang. He and Unit Four guitarist David Genes later formed the Time Checks, and, still later--around 1967--with another Unit Four member, John Dickinson, was a member of a band called the Shame, who cut a single in 1968. He also sang on a record by a band called the Shy Limbs.

In 1968, Lake succeeded Mick Taylor as a member of an outfit called the Gods, whose other members included future Uriah Heep founders Ken Hensley (keyboards, vocals) and Lee Kerslake (drums), and it was there that his songwriting first blossomed. He left the band just before they began to record, having been approached by his boyhood friend Robert Fripp to join the outfit that he was putting together out of a failed trio called Giles, Giles & Fripp--Lake joined the quintet (Fripp on lead guitar, Ian McDonald on keyboards, saxes, and flute, Michael Giles on drums, and Peter Sinfield as lyricist) as lead singer and bassist.

King Crimson proceeded to carve out a name for themselves unique in the history of rock music as the leading progressive rock band of their era. Their first album, In The Court of the Crimson King, became the standard for serious progressive rock albums. Lake, along with the others, was suddenly a star. That first line-up of the band only lasted a year--by December of 1969, Giles and McDonald were tired of touring and opted out, and Lake refused to continue working with the group, although he stayed around long enough to sing on their second album, In the Wake of Poseidon (1970).

At the suggestion of Tony Stratten-Smith, Lake was approached by keyboard player Keith Emerson, who was in the process of putting together a new group after three years with his current band, the Nice. The latter group's main fault was its lack of a real lead singer, and Emerson saw in Lake--whose voice had dominated In The Court of the Crimson King--the solution to that problem. The two eventually recruited drummer Carl Palmer and formed progressive rock's first supergroup, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who were a success from their self-titled first album, released in 1970, which closed with Lake's old song "Lucky Man." The latter became one of the group's few successful singles, one of their rare attempts to compete on AM radio--it also turned Lake into one of the most familiar voices in progressive rock, rivaling such figures as the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward. Lake's production experience as a member of King Crimson (who had produced their own debut album) also served ELP in good stead, and his songwriting became the creative nucleus for the group's first three studio albums.

ELP dominated the charts and the field of progressive rock right up until 1977, by which time the entire genre of "art rock" was beginning to lose popularity. The stresses between the trio caused them to split up after a tour in 1979, and Lake embarked on a solo career. Lake organized a new band with ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore on lead guitar, Rory Gallagher alumnus Ted McKenna on drums, and ex-Joe Cocker/Gerry Rafferty keyboard player Tommy Eyre, and recorded Lake's first solo album, Greg Lake (1981).

The sound on that record was very different from ELP, as it was dominated by guitars, rather than keyboards, and featured Lake singing in a harder, more aggressive style. On tour he covered material going back to the King Crimson days, but he also regaled audiences with pumping versions of the new songs. A second album, Manoeuvers, followed in 1983, but by that time the creative and commercial bloom were both off of the rose, and Lake took his first break from music. He appeared in 1985 as the lead singer of Asia during that group's tour, but he didn't remain with the band.

In 1986, he reteamed with Emerson and drummer Cozy Powell as Emerson, Lake & Powell, and recorded an album for Mercury Records, which wass followed by a world tour. After a stint with ex-Asia member Geoff Downes and King Crimson drummer Michael Giles in a group called Ride The Tiger, Lake reteamed with Emerson and Palmer for a film that was never finished, which led to their first new album in 13 years, Black Moon (1992).

During the middle- and late-1990's, Lake has continued to work with Emerson and Palmer, while pursuing his solo work as well. The latter has included a 1994 tour of the United States. He had also done a considerable amount of charitable work on behalf of missing children, and his song "Daddy," written in response to one such case, which ended tragically, achieved national exposure as a theme for a television series devoted to the plight of missing children. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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@ Wiki
Gregory Stuart Lake (born 10 November 1947 in Poole, Dorset, England) is an English bassist, guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and producer, best known as a founding member of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Biography
1960s: Early life, The Gods and King Crimson
He was interested in music at a young age, and wrote what would become one of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's biggest hits, "Lucky Man", when he was still at school. In 1969, Lake was a member of a band called The Gods along with future members of Uriah Heep. Lake left the band before they released their debut album.

Lake went on to form King Crimson with an old school friend, Robert Fripp. As both Fripp and Lake were primarily guitarists, Lake switched to playing bass.

For King Crimson's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, Lake also contributed as songwriter and singer. The album was originally to be produced by Tony Clarke who was then the producer for the Moody Blues. However, after the first day Clarke walked out as he had difficulty understanding what the band were trying to create. Lake assumed the role of producer. Although the album credits the whole band as producers, it was primarily Lake who produced it.[1]

King Crimson went on a North American tour with The Nice, who were on their farewell tour. It was after this tour in April 1970 that Lake left the band to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer along with Keith Emerson from The Nice on keyboards and Carl Palmer from Atomic Rooster on drums and percussion. Despite his official departure from King Crimson, Lake agreed to help with the completion of King Crimson's second album In the Wake of Poseidon.

1970s: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
ELP were hugely successful in the 1970s (with album sales totalling over thirty million), and significantly contributed to the evolution of progressive rock. Lake contributed to many of ELP's songs but was particularly noticeable for his guitar oriented and soulful tunes such as "C'est la vie" (Works Volume I), "Still... You Turn Me On" (Brain Salad Surgery) and "The Sage" ("Pictures at an Exhibition"). Lake became popularly known for his UK Christmas number two single, "I Believe in Father Christmas" in 1975 which was later included on the ELP album Works Volume II.

In 1973, Lake founded the Manticore label and signed some very talented musicians such as Italy's PFM and Banco and King Crimson/Emerson, Lake & Palmer lyricist Pete Sinfield.

1980s: Asia and solo career
After the break-up of ELP, Lake toured briefly with the group Asia in 1983 as a temporary replacement for John Wetton, as well as releasing two solo albums and conducting a tour in the early 1980s. The albums were Greg Lake (1981) and Manoeuvres (1983), both of which featured ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore and, even though the latter is more sophisticated, saw Lake playing straight rock.

1990s: Emerson, Lake & Palmer again
Emerson, Lake & Palmer subsequently reunited in the early 1990s and played the progressive rock circuit, especially in outdoor summer concerts, and released two new studio albums. In 1998, the members of ELP had a rather acrimonious falling-out and Lake left the band.

2000s: Recent work and Greg Lake band
Keith Emerson's 2004 memoirs "Pictures of an Exhibitionist" give an unflattering portrait of Lake, and not surprisingly Lake has said that he will never reunite with ELP in the future. He has not been especially visible on the music scene since then, though he did tour as a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band in 2001. In late 2003 he played bass on The Who's "Real Good Looking Boy".

On October 22, 2005 Lake began touring the UK with a brand new "Greg Lake Band", to positive reviews. The band comprises David Arch on keyboards, Florian Opahle on guitar, Trevor Barry on bass, and Brett Morgan on drums. A double DVD was released by Warner Bros/Classic Pictures early 2006, with Greg Lake in full form, his voice now deeper and louder than before. The Greg Lake Band was ready for a new tour on September 2006 with rumours of a new album in the pipeline, although this tour was cancelled at the last minute due to "management troubles".

Greg Lake performed "Karn Evil 9" with the Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island, New York on December 20, 2006, and at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ on December 21, 2006. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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Carl Palmer

Bruce Eder @ All Music
The progressive rock boom of the late 1960's and early 1970's produced its own pantheon of superstars -- Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman at the keyboards, guitarists Robert Fripp and Bill Nelson, and Chris Squire on the bass come to mind. Among the drummers in the field, Carl Palmer stands out as the best known of them all -- he has peers within the genre, to be sure, including Michael Giles, and at least one rival, Bill Bruford, who transcends the field, but Palmer is easily the biggest name, principally by virtue of his work with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, although he's had successes in other contexts as well.

Palmer was born in England's West Midlands in 1950, placing him among the youngest members of his generation of art-rock musicians. He was at best an indifferent student within the context of formal education, a frequent truant who preferred practice his drums, and he was serious enough to take -- and his parents sufficiently supportive to pay for -- lessons with a proper teacher in London. He reached his teens just as the Liverpool sound started sweeping the country; he was a fan of the Beatles, but already Palmer had musical idols far removed from anything that had come out of the Cavern Club and other Merseyside venues -- Buddy Rich, whom he came to know personally, brazenly showing up at his hotel on one occasion when the American legend was on tour in England; Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Gene Krupa, and other figures out of jazz and the big-band swing era. He also listened to a lot of r&b and was a formidible player when he joined his first professional group, originally known as the King Bees but later rechristened the Craig; a Mod outfit par excellence, they were a solid r&b-based band, and on their first record, "I Must Be Mad" b/w "Suspense", Palmer -- all of 16 years old -- revealed a prowess that might've made Keith Moon (who was practically a drumming god moving among mortals), if he'd been listening, start keeping an ear pointed in his direction. Palmer also managed to intersect with the Merseybeat sound on at least one occasion that year, playing a session for a single with the black Liverpool singing group the Chants.

At that point in his life and career, Palmer could easily have gone the route of such players as Jimmy Page or fellow drummer Clem Cattini, into work as a session musician, which was both lucrative and steady -- possibly even more so than lead guitarists, session drummers were essential to most producers' work when it came to recording new or relatively untried groups (especially on their singles) during this period, and Palmer could easily have put himself into that talent pipeline, alongside the likes of Cattini, Bobby Graham, John Bonham et al. In an interview with Alan Robinson for the notes for the double CD Anthology (2001), however, Palmer recalled that his father saw more ahead of him in music than simply playing on sessions for other musicians, even for top fees, and urged him to resist that temptation and avoid that career choice. He found a steady gig easily enough with Chris Farlowe's backing band the Thunderbirds, playing alongside Albert Lee et al for a couple of years, and following this with a stint in the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Out of that, and his friendship with keyboard player Vincent Crane, he co-founded Atomic Rooster. The latter group, along with such outfits as the Nice, bridged the gap between psychedelia and progressive rock, sometimes with impressive results, and at times sounded almost like an Emerson, Lake & Palmer prototype. In the interview with Robinson, he recalled that it was while working with Atomic Rooster that Palmer realized that he liked working with small groups, preferably a trio -- he got to open up his playing and try doing some of the things that he'd long admired in the work of his idols like Buddy Rich and Art Blakey. In 1970, following his exit from Atomic Rooster, Palmer managed to cross paths with Greg Lake, a bassist/guitarist/singer who was a refugee from the first line-up of King Crimson, which had split up after (almost during) their first American tour; and Keith Emerson of the Nice, who'd split with his group amid a chaotic year that saw the collapse of their label, Immediate Records. In a sense, Palmer was the vertex of the triangle formed by the three personalities, a Beatles fan and a pop-rock listener like Lake, but also a jazz enthusiast like Emerson.

Within a year of their debut in the summer of 1970, Palmer had become one of the most idolized rock drummers in the world, the group's debut album showcasing a level of speed, dexterity, and taste that was wholly removed from the kind of playing -- by the likes of Keith Moon in the Who, John Bonham in Led Zeppelin, or Charlie Watts in the Rolling Stones -- that had previously captured the ears and imagination of rock listeners. This was playing -- especially on the instrumental "Tank", and the extended bridge of "Take A Pebble", but also woven through "The Barbarian" -- of a kind with which jazz listeners were familiar, and classical audiences could understand, but it completely dazzled rock audiences. And when the group toured, and Palmer showed that he could also do this on stage, he was suddenly a major lure for their concerts. He also demonstrated precisely how formidible he could be on the creative side when it came to recording what became their second album, Tarkus. The title track grew out of a piece of music that Palmer devised around an incredibly complex time signature and Emerson elaborated, into a side-length conceptual piece that became a major part of their concert repertory. He only had a couple of rivals during this period, Michael Giles of the same first incarnation of King Crimson whence Lake had come, and Bill Bruford, of Yes and a slightly later version of King Crimson, and Palmer was more extrovert as a musician than either of them and enjoyed by far the biggest public reputation -- it wasn't unusual for his fans to compare him with his longtime idol Buddy Rich, with whose band he sometimes played.

Following a string of ever-more ambitious (some would say pretentious) albums, culminating with Works, which gave Palmer the chance to write and produce the music on a whole side of an LP, the group split up, principally due to the changing musical aspirations of its members, who wanted to express themselves independently of each other, and amid a precipitous decline in their popularity as the 1970's drew to a close. Palmer landed in PM, a band formed with guitarist/singer John Nitzinger, whose ranks also included Todd Cochran on keyboards and vocals, Barry Finnerty on guitar and vocals, and bassist/singer Erik Scott -- they were a decidedly more pop-oriented band, and cut a single album, One P.M., for Ariola in 1980 before breaking up. He found considerably greater success in 1982 as a member of Asia, a supergroup whose other members came from the ranks of Yes and King Crimson. "Heat of the Moment" became their signature tune and a huge international hit; with a platinum record behind him for 1980's enabling him to step away from ELP in the public mind, Palmer was able to concentrate more on pure music-making in his next group, The 3 Project. The latter, dating from the late 1980's, also included Keith Emerson but allowed both musicians a chance to work on music in a decidedly less formalistic, more popular context.

By the 1990's, however, he was back working with Emerson, Lake & Palmer (following a brief sojourn by his former bandmates in collaboration with Cozy Powell in Emerson, Lake & Powell. As of the early twenty-first century, and just into his 50's, Palmer probably enjoyed the highest level of musical respect of the three members of the trio, mostly by virtue of his sustained (and still overwhelming) virtuosity. =>>>>>>>>>>>

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