Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer,
Few bands embodied the excess and grandeur of prog rock like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Combining Keith Emerson’s virtuoso keyboards, Greg Lake’s soaring voice, and Carl Palmer’s thunderous drumming, ELP filled stadiums in the early ’70s and sold millions of albums. Their shows featured giant synthesizers, exploding gongs, and even Emerson using knives to sustain organ notes.
At their peak, they were bigger than Yes or Genesis – yet they’ve aged poorly. While Yes and Genesis retained a degree of cool thanks to their songwriting and reinvention, ELP are often remembered as the poster children of prog’s overindulgence. Punk critics targeted them mercilessly.
Still, ‘Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends’ remains a perfect slogan for their maximalist legacy: both awe-inspiring and absurd.
The second live ELP album (after “Pictures at an Exhibition“) was recorded in February 1974 at the Anaheim Convention Center on the Wally Heider 24-track mobile unit. The program begins with a trio of performances from classical repertoire, Keith Emerson’s usual way of signaling serious intent: reimagined versions of Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown,” Alberto Ginastera’s “Toccata” and Charles Parry’s setting of William Blake’s poem “Jerusalem.” The setlist continues with extended performances of almost the entire smash “Brain Salad Surgery” album, the half-hour “Tarkus” suite (with Greg Lake’s King Crimson co-write “Epitaph” inserted), and a medley of “Take a Pebble/Lucky Man” from their debut LP.
Many praised the album for presenting what was played on the night, without the post-show editing and overdubbing that had become ubiquitous for most live albums of the period.
ELP fans drove it to become their highest U.S. chart position to date (#4 in Billboard), but over time it became the target for anti-prog-rock forces who argued that even if the raw musicianship was top notch, it was applied to material that was overblown, faux classical and just plain exhausting to hear.
The Fat Angel Sings 