Greg Lake interview in Rolling Stone

[Jeremy Bender]

New GL interview in the dinosaur hippie publication:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...ement-20130305

As with almost all people who do interviews for a length of time, a lot of it is old stuff that's been said before, but a couple things stood out for me, the first being a KC69 reformation [Bold is the question, Italics the response]

I'm thinking it should be 2019 for the 50th anniversary of the album.
There you go. Phone Robert up and tell him. [Laughs] Tell him Greg says so. [Laughs]

Snowballs, hell, that sort of thing is how I rate the chances of that happening.

Let's switch over the Emerson, Lake and Palmer . . .
Oh, do you have to? [Laughs]

Wow.

By the late Seventies critics really turned on you guys. You became the embodiment of rock excess. Did that perception bother you?
[snip]
I'm very proud of ELP, but it wasn't the journalists that brought down ELP. I think it was ELP themselves. It started to fragment when they made Works Volume 1. It was a good album, but it wasn't ELP. It was Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer with an orchestra. Well, with three separate orchestras. [Laughs]

[snip]
The demise of ELP was not brought about by different kinds of music, but more by the splintering of the group's chemistry. We broke up, in a way, although we remained together and have done albums since then, but the chemistry was never the same. Incidentally, I will mention to you that I did produce those early albums, and I did not produce any albums after Works Volume 1.

OK, I'm SICK of him claiming the producers chair for ELP. It was purely a credit thing; does anyone seriously think that Keith Emerson was going to break up The Nice, recruit Greg Lake (after Jack Bruce and Chris Squire turned him down) and start a new band and then give up control over how the music sounded on records? Hahahahahahaha.

I think it's clear the Emerson, Lake & Palmer should have broken up after the Brain Salad Surgery tour ended. In fact, I'd go so far to say that I'm a little surprised that they even lasted 4 years +, it's obvious that Keith and Greg didn't get along musically (or personally, for that matter). I wonder why Lake jumped at the first offer that came his way when it was clear that King Crimson was going to change, he was never comfortable as a bass player, with CSN&Y and James Taylor and all that mellow singer-songwriting thing going on at the time, why didn't he strike out as a solo singer/guitarist?

Oh well, there's always the Buffalo 7/26/74 recording to give me nice memories of a once-great band.

[JeffCarney]

OK, I'm SICK of him claiming the producers chair for ELP. It was purely a credit thing; does anyone seriously think that Keith Emerson was going to break up The Nice, recruit Greg Lake (after Jack Bruce and Chris Squire turned him down) and start a new band and then give up control over how the music sounded on records? Hahahahahahaha.

But yet you think he had no issue as regards giving up "control" of the Production credit?

Btw, a Producer doesn't typically have complete control over the way records "sound." My guess is that Eddie Offord was trusted by Keith in this regard while Lake made the majority of decisions as far as where to add effects, level adjustments and so forth ...

Oh well, there's always the Buffalo 7/26/74 recording to give me nice memories of a once-great band.

Oh yeah ... the stuff of legend. That show will pretty much render every other band's live show irrelevant for a while.

[Jeremy Bender]

But yet you think he had no issue as regards giving up "control" of the Production credit?

From what I gather, Keith gave it up just so Lake would shut the hell up. Really. That seems to be a constant during ELP's career! There's no doubt that Greg was more involved in the management of the band after they left the notorious EG and before they engaged Stewart Young and that he provided an energy and focus that the other two couldn't/wouldn't, but still, I'm a huge fan of record producers and just wished that the credits reflected the reality. I mean, I think they finally corrected the "Keith Emerson vocals on First Impression" error in the album credits that was perpetuated for years!

Oh yeah ... the stuff of legend. That show will pretty much render every other band's live show irrelevant for a while

I've given up hope about the complete Cal Jam video footage ever showing up, I think the stuff they didn't use was tossed away and ELP didn't care enough/was unaware of it to retrieve it. ELP was badly managed and badly run from the get-go. They knew they were going on a hiatus after the summer 1974 US tour. Didn't it occur to them and their management that a concert movie that was better made than the (as I knew it then) Rock n' Roll Your Eyes movie and didn't have the dated psychedelic crap on it, documenting the full BSS show with the curtains and video screen and killer light show would be a good stop-gap?

ELP 1973.jpgELP BSS backstage.jpgELP BSS full stage.jpgELP BSS Madison Square Garden.jpg

[JeffCarney]

From what I gather, Keith gave it up just so Lake would shut the hell up. Really. That seems to be a constant during ELP's career! There's no doubt that Greg was more involved in the management of the band after they left the notorious EG and before they engaged Stewart Young and that he provided an energy and focus that the other two couldn't/wouldn't, but still, I'm a huge fan of record producers and just wished that the credits reflected the reality. I mean, I think they finally corrected the "Keith Emerson vocals on First Impression" error in the album credits that was perpetuated for years!

Yeah, but let's keep in mind that if every artist had a perfect, unbiased view of what transpired during his career, we might not have many rock biographies to read.

I'm not saying that this might not have happened the way you perceive, just making a general point.

I've given up hope about the complete Cal Jam video footage ever showing up, I think the stuff they didn't use was tossed away and ELP didn't care enough/was unaware of it to retrieve it. ELP was badly managed and badly run from the get-go. They knew they were going on a hiatus after the summer 1974 US tour. Didn't it occur to them and their management that a concert movie that was better made than the (as I knew it then) Rock n' Roll Your Eyes movie and didn't have the dated psychedelic crap on it, documenting the full BSS show with the curtains and video screen and killer light show would be a good stop-gap?

So true. Of course, sometimes the bands who had the foresight to capture visuals didn't exactly capture the entire package very well. Witness Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same as evidence that a band could even develop a bit of a reputation for less than brilliant live performances based on such an attempt. And arguably not a very "fair" reputation at all.

In addition, so much filming in those days tended to be done at a place like Shepperton Studios, in order to get all of the camera angles and such. And I'm not sure that the full impact of "light shows" was yet something that was often captured on film. But Cal Jam makes clear that their show could have been captured on some level. My guess is that, as a general rule, bands weren't as enamoured of the visual aspect of things other than what transpired at the concerts themselves back then, but the stuff ELP captured of the European Tour in '73 is amazing. I only wish there were more!

[tom unbound]

[QUOTE=Jeremy Bender;]Rock n' Roll Your Eyes


I'm having a bad flashback thinking about that movie....

[mogrooves]

I think the times had something to do with it. There was a moment in time where new awarenesses were being experienced. People were doing LSD, and it expanded the type of thinking going on. There was something about the atmosphere of the streets, certainly in London at the time. You could feel the sort of excitement about the youth of the day taking control from the establishment.

[JJ88]

Rolling Stone were amongst the first to turn on the band, as Edward Macan's superb 'Endless Enigma' tome shows. But Greg Lake is right that the band themselves also played their part in the backlash. When ELP came back in 1977, bands like Genesis and Yes were scaling things down somewhat whereas ELP bloated up with that orchestra tour and all that solo material on 'Works'. It's unfortunate that they are largely remembered for their weaker elements, rather than the often excellent music they made in 1970-3.

It's also a shame that Deep Purple kept the full show they played at Cal Jam and ELP didn't. ELP were at their peak then (I'm not sure that Deep Purple were- after hearing what the Mark II line-up generated live across various live shows, all the subsequent line-ups pale considerably for me).

[iguana]

in their inimitable way to be as extreme, as ambitious, as outrageous, as bloated, as entertaining, as self-indulgent and as loud and (self-)destructive as they – and no one else*– wanted to be, ELP were more punk than many of the so called “punk” rockers of the ‘77/‘78 season. a great band is a great band is a great band. or was.

[Rufus]

New GL interview in the dinosaur hippie publication:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...ement-20130305

As with almost all people who do interviews for a length of time, a lot of it is old stuff that's been said before, but a couple things stood out for me, the first being a KC69 reformation [Bold is the question, Italics the response]



Snowballs, hell, that sort of thing is how I rate the chances of that happening.



Wow.



OK, I'm SICK of him claiming the producers chair for ELP. It was purely a credit thing; does anyone seriously think that Keith Emerson was going to break up The Nice, recruit Greg Lake (after Jack Bruce and Chris Squire turned him down) and start a new band and then give up control over how the music sounded on records? Hahahahahahaha.

I think it's clear the Emerson, Lake & Palmer should have broken up after the Brain Salad Surgery tour ended. In fact, I'd go so far to say that I'm a little surprised that they even lasted 4 years +, it's obvious that Keith and Greg didn't get along musically (or personally, for that matter). I wonder why Lake jumped at the first offer that came his way when it was clear that King Crimson was going to change, he was never comfortable as a bass player, with CSN&Y and James Taylor and all that mellow singer-songwriting thing going on at the time, why didn't he strike out as a solo singer/guitarist?

Oh well, there's always the Buffalo 7/26/74 recording to give me nice memories of a once-great band.

Disagree....the Works Tour whilst a financial disaster is ELP still at their peak & the live recordings prove it! And if they hadn't been around to record 'Works' , we would have been denied 'Pirates' which is a song I revisit more often than Close to the Edge, Supper''s Ready & Starless !!!

[Fracktured]

The works tour was good, but listening to recordings from the earlier tours, me personally, I'd say they were better before that tour. Many bands seem to be able to put aside their differences when they walk on stage to play the music to the fans. Maybe it's part professional or just the desire to perform the music they created. By the time works came along, it's obvious now that there was friction within the band and I think Greg is only pointing out what it felt like in the studio recording works. Perhaps it didn't have the magic as previous albums. I love Pirates myself, but with the orchestra it doesn't have the bombastic atitude to it like the music Keith did with The Nice with an orchestra.

Rick

[JJ88]

The group stuff on 'Works' is up to par IMHO. But I rarely if ever listen to the rest of it. I don't agree the orchestra tour shows the band at a peak; some of the arrangements are really not to my taste, nor are the synth sounds. Watching my VHS of the show filmed in this era I think a lot of the energy had gone; understandable, of course. I think the sound UK developed was really the way forward for ELP, especially tracks like 'Alaska' and 'Danger Money'.

I note a comment he made about punk has caused a stir elsewhere. I must admit the overwhelming critical reverence towards that music does get tiresome- though I see punk as perfectly valid music in itself- but I take some crumbs of comfort from the fact it's now much more part of the 'establishment' than progressive rock is. I note with some amusement what One Direction's latest single is!

[gregory]

He is absolutely right estimating Works 1 as ELP's last great album. The Works is unique in it's own way. To start with Piano Concerto was a courage act. And the Concerto is not bad - I like the first part most of all. Lake's side is more or less typical for him - Lend Your Love, C'est La Vie and Closer To Believing are good ballads. Palmer's side is various, with the help of Back Door musicans and Joe Walsh, and orchestra, of course. I like his Baroque excursus, Bach's arrangement for marimba and xylophone sounds curious, and his Prokoffiev movement was not bad as well, with inventive drumming. Side 4 is my favorite. I'm the one who likes that Yamaha sound, I think Emerson did one of his best solos ever on Fanfare. Pirates, reminding me of Milhaud a little, quite nice piece of music, the performance is very good. A true ELP classic!

[Jefferson James]

Cool interview. I was intrigued by this line particularly:

I've always felt that if someone is good enough to buy your album, that you owe them a performance.

Just wondered if it holds true in today's pirate bazaar download freebie society...

[Jeremy Bender]

The group stuff on 'Works' is up to par IMHO. But I rarely if ever listen to the rest of it.

I clearly remember buying the album and when I got the shrink wrap off and looked at the track listing, I thought "Almost 3 years and they come back with one original song?!". That one song is a masterpiece, but I've always felt (and it's borne out by interviews) that Works was a compromise because their the long-rumored solo albums never happened. I like the piano concerto, though as a classical snob, the fact that he had a lot of help writing it doesn't add up in Emerson's favor. I love the songs Lend You Love To Me Tonight and Closer to Believing and LA Nights is fantastic too but if I never hear their arrangement of Fanfare for the Common Man again, it's still too soon.

I don't agree the orchestra tour shows the band at a peak; some of the arrangements are really not to my taste, nor are the synth sounds.

Yep. I'm still baffled all these years later about how badly the orchestra was missued. Emerson had talked for years of wanting to do an orchestral version of Tarkus and how he'd wanted to use an orchestra on Karn Evil 9. Here he had an orchestra of eager young players at his disposal and....they play along on Knife Edge.

As for the sounds, to go from using the Moog Constellation prototype and the modular Moog + the great Ripper bass to the GX-1 and the horrible sounding click click click click Alembic bass click click click click click was another poor choice. When I heard them at Long Beach Arena in 1977, the sound was thin and washed out, none of the power I got from all the bootlegs I had was there.

Watching my VHS of the show filmed in this era I think a lot of the energy had gone; understandable, of course.

The Montreal orchestra show was recorded (badly) and filmed (badly) on 8/26/77, by then they had long gotten rid of the orchestra for touring purposes. They were in the midst of that long tour to recoup all the money they'd lost on the handful of orchestra gigs, they'd for all intents and purposes ceased to be a tight, cohesive band.

I must admit the overwhelming critical reverence towards that music does get tiresome

It bores me because prog and ELP in particular are portrayed as these monsters that needed to be slayed (slain?). It's just how rock music was/is: ELP were reacting against the British blues thing musically and the tendency for bands like the Grateful Dead to walk out on stage 2 hours late, spend 10 minutes tuning up and talking and playing with their backs towards the audience. Come and see the show! It was their turn 6 years later. What's annoying about the standard history is that by the time punk puked its way out of the underground in late 1976, prog had already been done for almost two years. ELP was in hibernation, King Crimson had "ceased to exist", Yes was past their prime, Genesis had lost Gabriel and was already on their way to Top 40 blandness, Gentle Giant was soon to dumb their sound down etc. It's a boring view of rock history and I'm glad to see that there's now at least a grudging respect in some quarters of the music press for what those bands did in their primes.

- though I see punk as perfectly valid music in itself-

Absolutely! By 1977/8, I was burnt out on the classic rock bands (who were all past their best at that point too) and prog, I played the God Save The Queen single to death, loved Never Mind The Bollocks, was totally knocked out by The Clash's incredible Give 'Em Enough Rope, which was released here before the US edition of the first album; it's still one of my Top 10 albums ever. The difference was I didn't throw away all my old stuff like so many did, but just added punk to the mix.

Of course, the situation in England and the US was different. The English version of punk had a strong social protest undercurrent amid all the leather and safety pins but here in Los Angeles, people were just tired of hearing Boston, *shudder* The Eagles *shudder*, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne and all that and wanted something fresher and more immediate.

but I take some crumbs of comfort from the fact it's now much more part of the 'establishment' than progressive rock is. I note with some amusement what One Direction's latest single is!

Hahahaha, I hope The Undertones at least get paid for the use of their great song.

[gregory]

Absolutely! By 1977/8, I was burnt out on the classic rock bands (who were all past their best at that point too) and prog

So it's no wonder you couldn't swallow the Works. Which isn't as comfortable listening as Tarkus.

[gregory]

I'm still baffled all these years later about how badly the orchestra was missued

This is plain fantastic. LSO sounds great, and Opera De Paris Orchestra arrangements done with astounding mastery.

[JAMOOL]

That was a good interview!! Of course he's going to come off pompous at times...this is Greg Lake we're talking about!! Even though I can't say I've liked much he's done in the last..oh..40 years, I'll always be a fan.

[N_Singh]

This is a fantastic thread of a flawed but great band, I'm really enjoying reading it for those of us who were too young to be there in the heyday period. The idea of Works being a microcosm of the band rings true to me. It must have taken some cajones to put that out. Pirates is one my favorite songs from any band of that period---as McCann says, where does the orchestra end and where does Emo begin? It truly is seamless-the orchestra does the impossible -it rocks. Beautiful use of tuned percussion there, also. That never seems to get mentioned . It really adds to the majesty and beauty of the piece. Now I have to search for this Buffalo show .,??

[Frumious B]

"in and around Greg Lake...Doughnuts fall out of the sky and he eats them."

"Every day a little plastered, a little faster....Somebody get me a Stairmaster."

Look, The Gregster had his time and his moment, but the bottom line for me is that IMHO his career could have totally and completely ended around 1974 or so and we really wouldn't have missed much of anything worth a damn. That's 39 years of near total and complete irrelevance for those keeping score at home. I find his comments on punk pretty laughable. If I want an opinion on, say, songwriting am I gonna trust Greg Lake or am I gonna trust a mere fashionista, flash in the pan like Elvis Costello?

[davis]

what does it stand for other than trying to jump on the publicity bandwagon to make money from rock music?

That's a good point, imo, at least regarding the Sex Pistols. I think that NMTBHTSP album just sounds like good rock n roll.

[refugee]

It's on the second Manticore Vaults box set, basically it's the same set list as Welcome Back but with the Pictures encore added. Don't expect stunning sound quality, the box sets were designed as bootleg releases and it's more than listenable, this show in particular is as good as people are suggesting here in terms of performance.

[JJ88]

"in and around Greg Lake...Doughnuts fall out of the sky and he eats them."

"Every day a little plastered, a little faster....Somebody get me a Stairmaster."

Look, The Gregster had his time and his moment, but the bottom line for me is that IMHO his career could have totally and completely ended around 1974 or so and we really wouldn't have missed much of anything worth a damn. That's 39 years of near total and complete irrelevance for those keeping score at home. I find his comments on punk pretty laughable. If I want an opinion on, say, songwriting am I gonna trust Greg Lake or am I gonna trust a mere fashionista, flash in the pan like Elvis Costello?

But really, what have a lot of these punk guys done since the 70s as well? A handful like Paul Weller are still regularly making music which captures the imagination of public and critics alike (Costello only does the latter now IMHO, but true, he's still at least very prolific and is still doing something), but it seems to me a lot of them bask in past glories too. Not to say they aren't entitled to do that, either.

From my vantage point as a younger rock fan, punk is no more important than any other form of music. Seems to me that progressive rock was just as radical in its own way at first. I really roll my eyes at some of the claims made about punk in the UK. You look at a lyric like Genesis 'Get 'Em Out By Friday' and to me that's as 'current' as a punk lyric, unfortunately so...as are others like 'Epitaph' and several of Roger Waters'.

[JAMOOL]

I don't think Elvis Costello was what Lake had in mind when he was talking about punk.

What I love most about ELP is that they're one of the few bands that truly seemed to "go for it" - I have no doubt that they intended for Brain Salad Surgery to be the greatest album of all time, and in a way, if you're not striving for true greatness, why try at all? I mean I do think the drop off these guys had was shocking - Lake's five "good years" produced so much more good material than everything else he did combined (Emerson's fared a *little* better, but mostly it's the same deal), but I'm strangely happy that his convictions haven't changed. Have you guys heard that 2010 show at High Voltage? It's downright awful! But hey, they still go for it!!

[davis]

"in and around Greg Lake...Doughnuts fall out of the sky and he eats them."

[Frumious B]

But really, what have a lot of these punk guys done since the 70s as well? A handful like Paul Weller are still regularly making music which captures the imagination of public and critics alike (Costello only does the latter now IMHO, but true, he's still at least very prolific and is still doing something), but it seems to me a lot of them bask in past glories too. Not to say they aren't entitled to do that, either.

From my vantage point as a younger rock fan, punk is no more important than any other form of music. Seems to me that progressive rock was just as radical in its own way at first. I really roll my eyes at some of the claims made about punk in the UK. You look at a lyric like Genesis 'Get 'Em Out By Friday' and to me that's as 'current' as a punk lyric, unfortunately so...as are others like 'Epitaph' and several of Roger Waters'.

The fundamental punk idea of guitar, bass, drums plus three chords still has relevance today and a number of artists of that generation did go on to careers that I would characterize as more productive than Lake's was. In terms of modern music outside of the prog ghetto, I hear echoes of Pink Floyd in lots of artists today. I hear echoes of Fripp. I hear echoes of Ian Anderson's folkier side. I even hear echoes of Jon Anderson and Yes in certain trippy sounding bands with helium voiced singers. I hear nothing at all that reminds me of Greg Lake in the slightest anywhere. His legacy seems to begin and end with himself.