Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP)

By the end of the 1960s, many artists were swept up in the wake of The Beatles and their aggressive exploration of pop and rock’s possibilities. For many young musicians (especially the formally trained), expanding the form by incorporating motifs and highly arranged extended compositions seemed appealing.

The result of this concept became known as art-rock (and sometimes, derogatorily, “6th Form rock,” as it was a style particularly favoured by pimply and bespectacled senior grammar school boys).

Depending on your point of view, Emerson, Lake and Palmer either encouraged such tonal indulgence or delivered some of the genre’s best moments.

Pianist Keith Emerson had already met much success in Britain with his theatrical pyrotechnics in The Nice.

Greg Lake was the vocalist/bassist for the explosively dark King Crimson, and drummer Carl Palmer backed the heavy, blues-based Atomic Rooster, a band that also included eventual Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie.

Months before ELP’s self-titled debut album arrived, expectations ran high about what the band would contribute to the expansion of rock.

The debut was impressive, ranging from delicate acoustic piano and guitar interplay to explosive free-for-alls, but with the second album, Tarkus (1971), it became obvious that the band often placed an enormous amount of finesse on playing to the back of the bleachers, rather than focusing that energy into a consistently satisfying musicality.

Tarkus was a pompous, lyrically incomprehensible, grandiose and flashy ‘concept’ album. It was also a complete waste of petroleum by-products to even press the bloody thing – From this point though, things could mercifully only decline.

ELP came to epitomise Prog Rock with their Bach-on-amphetamines concert jams, deafening sound systems, light shows and Moog synthesizers the size of the Chrysler building.

Nevertheless, they became a staple of FM rock radio during the 70s, even scoring a couple of hits with Lucky Man (1970) and From the Beginning (1972).

After touring in 1974, the band took an extended break. They regrouped in 1976 to record Works Volume 1 at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland and EMI Studios in Paris, France. The double album (with one side of an LP containing songs by each member and a fourth of group material) spawned a surprise chart hit (#2 in the UK): a version of the Aaron Copland orchestral piece Fanfare for the Common Man.

The track was recorded on a single microphone while the band jammed in the studio at Mountain.

The unlikely hit sparked an extravagant, doomed world tour with a full orchestra. After 19 shows, though, they returned to their original trio lineup, before quietly breaking up in 1979.

When Keith Emerson and Greg Lake temporarily checked their egos at the door and decided to re-form in 1986 without drummer Carl Palmer (who was busy with commitments with Asia), they called in former Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell to replace him so at least they could keep the ELP trademark.

In 1988, Emerson and Palmer wanted to work together again. Because Greg Lake was unavailable, they recruited American singer and multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry to form a spin-off band called 3. They released one album, To the Power of Three, and toured before disbanding later that year.

The original trio officially reunited in 1991 and returned to the spotlight by modernising their sound with digital synthesisers and MIDI technology.

They released their eighth studio album, Black Moon, with a harder, more contemporary rock edge, and promoted the album with a massive world tour spanning 1992 and 1993.

They returned to the studio in 1994 for what would be their final studio album, In the Hot Seat.

The recording was plagued by health issues, notably Keith Emerson’s repetitive strain injury and ulnar nerve compression, which required surgery and impacted his playing. The band continued to tour through 1996 and 1998, often co-headlining with other classic rock staples like Jethro Tull, before quietly ceasing operations again in 1998.

After a twelve-year absence, the original lineup reunited one final time on 25 July 2010. They performed a celebratory headline set at the High Voltage Festival in Victoria Park, London, to commemorate the band’s 40th anniversary. The performance was recorded and later released as the live album High Voltage.

Keith Emerson died on 11 March 2016 at his home in Santa Monica, California, of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was 71.

Greg Lake died of pancreatic cancer at age 69 on 7 December 2016.

Keith Emerson
Keyboards
Greg Lake
Bass
Carl Palmer
Drums
Cozy Powell
Drums