Emerson, Lake Emerson Lake And Palmer Albums, CDs, Vinyl Records and LPs

Emerson, Lake - Emerson, Lake & Powell

Emerson, Lake & Powell
Emerson, Lake & Powell

We were forewarned by the British music press that Emerson, Lake & Palmer would be a "super-group," and indeed it was hard to see how they could miss. An extraordinarily inventive and tasteful organist, Keith Emerson, as the prime moving force of the Nice, was one of the few performers capable of holding his own against the flood of guitar oriented heavy rock groups of the ten thousand ton variety. He is also one of rock's most flamboyant showmen, and watching little Keith toss a Hammond organ around on stage and indulge in one of his orgies of key ripping was an unforgettable sight.

Unfortunately, the Nice suffered from extremely weak vocals and a lack of strong original material and
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as a consequence Emerson failed to get as much exposure as he might have. Now with Emerson, Lake & Palmer the situation has changed. Though Emerson is "featured" on piano and organ, he has some extremely strong support from Greg Lake (formerly with King Crimson) on vocals, bass, and guitar; and from Carl Palmer (formerly with Atomic Rooster a group formed by Arthur Brown's ex-organist Vincent Crane) on drums. There are also some very good new compositions by all involved.

It is rather hard to typify the music that Emerson, Lake & Palmer play, though I suppose that your local newspaper might call it "jazz influenced classical-rock," which means that while Eugene Ormandy might buy a copy Tommy Roe sure as hell wouldn't. If you're familiar with the Nice you probably know what to expect. Everyone turns in a fine performance and I was most surprised by Greg Lake, as I was not much taken with him before his singing here is extremely good as is his bass playing. Keith Emerson is heard to great advantage and at last he might achieve some of the recognition he has long missed. To my thinking Emerson (along with Brian Auger) is one of the few organists in pop music today worth his weight in semi-quavers. He is also a very sensitive and effective pianist.

This is such a good album it is best heard as a whole. However, my own particular favorites are "Knife Edge" and "Lucky Man." "Knife Edge" is a very tight, well put together song with some absorbing and heavy organ and a beautiful solo by Emerson. "Lucky Man" has interesting lyrics and someone (probably Emerson) plays a terrific solo on something that sounds like a cross between a flutophone and a Waring blender which I assume to be some insidious sort of synthesizer much like those one would learn to build for $37.50 in Popular Mechanics. While Carl Palmer is an exceptionally good drummer I find his solo on "Tank" to be a bit too mechanical and a little boring. "The Three Fates" has a very nice pipe organ solo, but towards the end becomes disturbingly reminiscent of "Baba l.u." The album is very well recorded and makes good use of many special effects. (In this respect it is much like "Godzilla.")

Though this album is very, very good I would not recommend that you rush out and buy it, simply b

Art-rock bands ain't what they used to be. There was a time when such groups could be relied upon to come up with scores of horrendously hookless epics operating under brilliant titles like "The Curse of Baba Yaga." But these days Yes has gone high-tech, Robert Fripp thinks he's David Byrne, and the members of Genesis are hiding behind Phil Collins, hoping nobody asks too many questions about their past.

If all this depresses you, then you're gonna love this comeback LP from Emerson, Lake and replacement P Cozy Powell. These guys are literally the only ones left in 1986 who still have the balls to serve up vintage crap like this. There are actually seven-, eight-and nine-minute tracks here with titles and lyrics that would make the Moody Blues blush. Of course, the guys also include plenty of shorter songs, but pomp fans shouldn't worry – the short ones have just as much hot air as the long ones.

As usual, all of Emerson's music is formulaic and wholly unsingable, but luckily that jibes perfectly with Lake's stiff, booming voice, which makes him less a vocalist than a voice-over. Call him the Don Pardo of rock & roll. As for the new guy, Powell's drum dribbles don't have quite the same lamebrained flair as Palmer's did. He doesn't overplay enough. Of course, Emerson's keyboard work more than compensates. His new riffs are bloated, and many of his solos are so fast lots of people won't even notice they don't make sense.

Perhaps Emerson's greatest triumph, though, is his noodling on another of those "great masters" covers that have so endeared the band to the classical community. This time they take on almost eight minutes of Holst's Plamets, and rest assured the result is every bit as sensitive and ironic as their job on Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. In fact, listening to Emerson's synth work here and throughout the record, one is reminded that in an age when electronics has made everybody sound the same, these guys have brought back a synth sound no one else would touch. In a sick way, you gotta admire that. (RS 480)

JIM FARBER

Emerson, Lake - Emerson Lake And Palmer CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

Emerson, Lake - Emerson, Lake & Powell