So far to fall (Emerson Lake and Palmer) (LP 2075 -2081)

Emerson Lake and Palmer   Love Beach (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1978) ** 

Emerson Lake and Powell   Emerson Lake and Powell (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1986) ***  

Emerson Lake and Palmer  Black Moon (CD, Manticore Records, 1992) ***  

Emerson Lake and Palmer  In The Hot Seat (CD, Manticore Records, 1994) *** 

Emerson Lake and Palmer  Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends - Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson Lake and Palmer (Vinyl, Manticore Records, 1974) ***** 

Emerson Lake and Palmer  In Concert (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1979) ****  

Emerson Lake and Palmer  Works Live  (CD, Manticore 2017) ****  

Genre: Prog 

Places I remember: Real Groovy for Welcome Back My Friends; In Concert (Passionate About Vinyl); Emerson Lake and Powell and the CDs (Slow Boat Records); Love Beach (Spellbound Wax Company)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Hoedown (Welcome back my friends...)

Gear costume: Fanfare For The Common Man (In Concert)

Active compensatory factors: This collection wraps up the Emerson Lake and Palmer and Emerson Lake and Powell efforts from 1978 onwards.

It's a mixed bag so buckle up.

Love Beach gets a bad press because of the cover. Yes it's cringe inducing. So let's move on...if we can.

It's a tough ask - the lyrics on songs like Love Beach and Taste Of My Love are pretty embarrassing (come ride on my rocket?).

On the plus side we have a return to writing succinct songs and musically it's pretty good - recognizably ELP, and Greg Lake does his best to sell Pete Sinfield's lyrics. But it should have all been a lot better given their outrageous talent.

Highlight: Love At First Sight (it's part of the side long suite - Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman).

After Carl Palmer was busy with Asia, E and L next enlisted friend Cozy Powell to fill in for a one-off 1986 album. 

It gets off to a great start with The Score, Cozy seems right at home in this setting (I tend to think of him as a hard rock drummer from his time in Rainbow) and Greg Lake's lyrics are much better than Sinfield's.

Being 1986 it does have those mid eighties production ticks but the songs are there this time. 

Highlight: Mars The Bringer Of War

Into the 90's now and Carl Palmer has returned to the band for Black Moon.

My CD copy of this comes with a bonus disc of the band live at the Royal Albert Hall in 1992.

Black Moon is quite impressive - big, confident and full sounding, but I can't help comparing this to their seventies albums. For some reason the big drum sound on the album is not as appealing as the more organic seventies drum sound.

Highlight: Romeo and Juliet; Farewell to Arms

In The Hot Seat was their final studio album. It was affected by health concerns to Palmer and Emerson, but you'd never know it. It sounds like a suitable end to the ELP journey.

My CD copy of this one has a live show from the Now tour of 1997-1998.

Highlight: Thin Line (a good nineties upgrade on the ELP sound with guitar and horns supplementing the regular guys doing what they do best).

A round up of the live albums:

Welcome Back My Friends...is the definitive statement on their seventies live show. A triple LP, it covers everything pretty much, starting with a blinding version of Hoedown and ending with two sides of Karn Evil. Tarkus also appears as well as other songs from their glorious early seventies albums.

This really is a moment in time - they'd never sound like this again. Better? A matter of opinion, but definitely different. Although it's 6 sides - it just speeds by in a brilliant rush of great sounds.

In Concert is a single album released in 1979, while the expanded concert is called Works Live released in 1993. The actual concert was in 1977 in Montreal's Olympic stadium. Got all that? 

I like both versions but probably the succinct single disc is the way to go.

Where do they all belong? And that's all folks. A massive canon that like all massive canon's has its peaks and troughs.

Hoedown (Emerson Lake and Palmer) (LP 1075-1078)

Emerson Lake & Palmer  Trilogy (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1972) *****

Emerson Lake & Palmer  Brain Salad Surgery (Vinyl, Manticore Records, 1973) *****

Emerson Lake & Palmer  Works Volume 1 (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1977) *** 

Emerson Lake & Palmer  Works Volume 2 (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1977) **

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: Chaldon Books and Records, Real Groovy Records, Taste Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: From The Beginning (Trilogy)

Gear costume: Fanfare For The Common Man (Works Vol 1)

Active compensatory factors: It's been a while since I started the journey through the Emerson Lake and Palmer canon. In fact, I had to check whether I'd covered these albums already or not. I hadn't, which was a mild surprise.

Trilogy is where my love for ELP began back in 1972. From The Beginning was played on the radio and the sound immediately hooked me.

When I bought the album my dad loved it too! That was a rarity back in the day. 

All this was strange. The guitars on From The Beginning hooked me but the keyboard bombast from Keith Emerson and the humour (The Sheriff) sealed the deal for me (and dad).

After borrowing a copy from a friend and taping it, Brain Salad Surgery was a non-brainer purchase in 1973 and I flogged it to death! All that humour again (someone get me a ladder) and guitars (Still...you Turn Me On) and kitchen sink keyboards from Keith plus the booming Palmerisms made this an album I have revisited often over the years.

Works Vol 1 was good in theory. After five albums in four years they had taken nearly four years off and came back with a different look. A double album, it has a side each by the individual members and then a side of ELP.

It's not a bad idea but it does result in three solo sides of varying quality and nothing to the standard of Trilogy or Brain Salad Surgery. The fourth side is a semi triumph thanks to Fanfare or maybe it just feels that way after the previous three sides.

Works Vol 2 is a single album and includes shorter material produced during the same time span. It's a grab bag of odds and sods and as such doesn't hold together as a coherent album.

Where do they all belong? A lot more to come as the late seventies and eighties take their toll.

Open your eyes (Asia) (LP 36)

Asia Alpha (Vinyl - Geffen Records, 1983) ****

Genre: Progressive Rock

Places I remember: Real Groovy in Queen Street, Auckland. 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Don't Cry (the first track side one, when John Wetton's vocals start you know all is right with the world). The cheesy Indiana Jones style video should be in a time capsule somewhere!




Gear costume: The Heat Goes On.

Active compensatory factors: Ah, supergroups...sigh. Sometimes they disappoint but often they are AMAZING.

My top 10:

• Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
• Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
• Cream
• The Traveling Wilburys
• The Plastic Ono Band
• Golden Smog
• Flying Colors
• Chickenfoot
• West Bruce and Laing
• Asia

That first Asia album was pretty special. Similarly, Alpha, their second album, is a worthy addition to the sub genre of supergroup albums.

Asia's pedigree is damn impressive. Members came from bands like Yes, King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer. Together they made a smoothly commercial brand of progressive rock.

John Wetton's voice alone is worth the entry price but the songs themselves are catchy and challenging enough to warrant your sustained interest.

Given all that, I can forgive the slick eighties production sensibilities. Do try it!

Where do they all belong? Yes (the Geoff Downes version), King Crimson (the early records), Emerson Lake and Palmer (the ones that Greg Lake sings on).