In November 1970 here is Emerson, Lake and Palmer

We had already seen Super groups and law firm names before – Crosby, Stills & Nash must have been the first – but this was a hugely successful group worldwide.

 

We had seen Keith Emerson in The Nice, Greg Lake in King Crimson, while Carl Palmer was the drummer of Atomic Rooster, the band that had only released their debut album at the time. After a kind of general rehearsal, they even made their debut at the Festival of Wight without having recorded anything yet!

 

Clearly, the lion’s share is taken by Keith Emerson’s keyboards, who luckily  still uses the piano very much in this first album: the arrival of synthesizers sees and will see him almost as a poster person, unfortunately with an even excessive use. Just as excessive will become everything of this group, up to the last tours with an orchestra of sixty elements which had to stop because not even the great flows of spectators could absorb the cost. And if maybe it still does not completely represent them, this debut in my opinion remains their best work, with the incredible virtuosity of Emerson, who embraces moments of sweetness with the guitar and the singing of Greg Lake: the extremely famous Lucky Man remains in its own way a milestone.

 

Curiosity: compared to beat and rock, prog was really particular in drawing references from “high” culture: here we even go into Greek mythology. The Three Fates are in fact the Greek Moirae: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who were the weavers of life, and who later became the Parcae in Roman mythology.

 

Translated by Elena Gandelli, Sara Mentasti and Edoardo Graziani

Reviewed by Prof. Robert Clarke