ELP - Emerson Lake & Powell (1986)

When I originally heard that ELP were to reform but with Cozy Powell on drums my heart sank – I was a big ELP fan and especially a fan of Carl Palmer’s flamboyant and technically astounding drumming on their early albums. Unfortunately Palmer was busy with Asia and so Emerson and Lake had had to seek out another drummer for the new album but I couldn’t quite understand why they settled on Cozy Powell – admittedly he’d done some reasonably nice stuff on the early Jeff Beck albums but the vast majority of his output was at best sadly lacking in finesse and technical merit and if, rumours of the band seeking a drummer with a ‘P’ for a surname had any foundation, I was hoping for Ian Paice!

Looking back, what I hadn’t taken into account was that ELP had changed – the complex time signatures and frantic instrumentalisation had gone and, furthermore, that Carl Palmer had really lost his way . . . in a BIG way . . . and no longer played in the style of his earlier ELP days. To his credit, Cozy Powell actually turns-in a good performance on this album throughout (and his interpretations of early ELP pieces are also worthy of note for those who’ve heard the Sprocket Sessions rehearsal tapes) and certainly stronger than Palmer’s when he returned to ELP subsequently – but I digress!

The album opens with the the unremarkable The Score, Learning To Fly and Miracle which, as was to be increasingly the case with ELP, are largely Greg Lake tracks backed by E and P without much scope for the old-style improvisations that abounded in their early releases.

Track 4, Touch And Go, is a real diamond in the rough however, and whilst of a relatively ‘radio-friendly’ style – featured a powerful riff from Emerson with Powell’s pounding drums really adding to it’s impact (the track was also a single from the album).

The album then drifts back into Lake-led mediocrity with Love Blind. Fortunately, Emerson provides a jazz-piano based number next in Step Aside which swings nicely and has the odd glimpse of the musical ability of Emerson – along with a very subtle performance from Powell. However, just as you think things are looking-up, the blandness returns with avengence on Lake’s Lay Down your Guns which wouldn’t be out of place on a Barry Manilow album!

Finally, a return to their early inspiration is rediscovered with an interpretation of Holst’s Mars The Bringer Of War which is mediocre but, by when you’ve endured the album thus far, is quite a standout moment! And then, at last, some cacophonous chord bashing from Emerson with attacking drums and uptempo instrumentalisation for The Loco – Motion . . . great! But alas, it suddenly turns into the Gerry Goffin and Carole King-penned Locomotion played on the cheesiest keyboard sound ever and is absolutely catastrophically bad . . . really, really bad!

It is with some relief that Vacant Possession arrives to close the album – an average AOR affair from Lake – but after The Loco – Motion, it is relatively enjoyable. In fact I think if I’d penned a song to follow The Loco – Motion it wouldn’t have seemed half bad by comparison . . . although Vacant Possession does have an awfully out of place keyboard solo in it.

I have to confess that listening to this album again some 20 years after I last heard it has really brought back the horror of just how bad it was/is: in actual fact, such is it’s awfulness (just a percentage point above ELP’s Love Beach album) that the only real positive was Cozy Powell which, when considering my opening comments, is something of a revelation – I feel quite sorry for him having to provide backing to such tripe. Consider buying it just so you can have the pleasure of throwing it away!

• Keith Emerson – Keyboards
• Greg Lake – Bass/Vocals
• Cozy Powell – Drums

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Black Moon (1992)

After calling it a day during the anti-prog sentiments of 1978, and after the awful Love Beach album, this was the band’s first studio album in 14 years to feature the full lineup of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and, having been a fan of their early work – and mildly pleased with their 1986 Emerson, Lake & Powell release – I waited with some anticipation for its release date. I guess it was fair to say that I was disappointed and happy in equal measure upon obtaining a copy!

Gone were the lengthy instrumental pieces and complex drum/keyboard interplay that made their early compositions sometimes breathtaking in their musical dexterity and in had come a heavily Greg Lake-led approach. Now, I’ve got a lot of time for Greg Lake but, whilst an integral part of ELP, for me it was Emerson and Palmer who held centre stage and really defined their ’sound’ but here it is Lake who largely relegates Emerson and Palmer to something of a backing group.

There are some really good tracks here – Paper Moon in particular is a cracking number, even a bit of Hammond sneaked is there for old time’s sake on a strong composition with Lake in rather ballsy form vocally. But for that, there’s Affairs Of The Heart and Footprints In The Snow which are insipid acoustic Lake numbers and even where there are instrumentals, things are not as great as they once were: Burning Bridges for example has a trademark Emerson keyboard approach but ends up in part sounding like a piece from some 80s film soundtrack.

And to make matters worse, there’s Romeo And Juliet – taken from Prokofiev – which I get the distinct impression was added as a result of a conversation to the effect of “we used to always have a classically influenced piece on an album, let’s think of one and put it on” and it is of very little musical merit.

The most disturbing part for me overall, however, is Carl Palmer’s apparent lack of interest throughout. For a drummer of Palmer’s undoubted ability and flair, he plays it straight here – and I emphasise STRAIGHT – being reduced to a metronome of staggeringly uninspiring proportions!

Not an album I’d recommend to be honest – if you wish to dip your toes in the waters of prog rock and/or ELP, go and get Tarkus and hear them in their prime – give a wide birth to their 1990s Prog-AOR pretensions.

• Carl Palmer – Drums
• Keith Emerson – keyboards
• Gregg Lake – Bass/Vocals

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus (1971)

Whilst prog-rock may today be a dirty word and the kiss of death to any hopes of commercial success, back in the early 1970s it was one of the most popular musical forms and no-one exemplified all that is both good and bad about the genre than Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Tarkus was the second studio album from ELP who, at the time where phenomenally popular with the album going to number 1 in the UK charts and catapulting the group into the super league.

For my money, Tarkus was a particularly strong album from the group with all three band members giving 100% throughout – something that can’t be said of some of their later efforts. As a drummer, after hearing this album Carl Palmer became my ‘hero’ – and I was fortunate enough to be taught by his brother who was a very gifted player too – and the breadth of his rhythms, fills and syncopations on Tarkus still thrill me to this day.

The album opens with a rather eerie sound effect that builds into the opening Eruption which has an odd time structure and heads off at a ferocious pace with Emerson wringing all he can from the Hammond. From then-on in the tracks blend seamlessly together on what was side 1 of the vinyl release with Gregg Lake providing the odd vocal passage and plenty of complex musical interludes, mostly played very uptempo.

Whilst side 1 provides a ‘concept’ (another dirty word), side 2 contains a varied collection of standalone tracks, the standout for me being the rapid Bitches Sin in 3/4 time with Carl Palmer providing a very jazzy pattern to carry the piece along at break-neck speed.

There are even a couple of ‘comic’ tracks with Jeremy Bender and Are You Ready Eddie? – the latter being a tribute to their sound engineer and is the musical low-point of the album, although I’m sure it seemed like a fun idea at the time!

Whilst ELP would go on to make some really poor albums later in their career and their name become synonymous with overblown self-indulgence, Tarkus was ELP at their greatest and I’d urge anyone to put their preconceptions and anti-prog prejudices to one side temporarily and give this album a listen and I’m sure the undoubted abilities of the musicians involved, if not the music itself, will provide for a rewarding experience!

• Keith Emerson – Keyboards
• Greg Lake – Bass/Vocal
• Carl Palmer – Drums