Greg Lake

Welcome Backstage

BY Chris AyersPublished Feb 22, 2008

Super-groups breed superegos, and ’70s prog rock masters Emerson, Lake & Palmer had some of the biggest egos in rock history. Vehemently avoiding any semblance of a reunion in over ten-plus years, they have forged ahead with separate solo careers, each member covering his own bulk of the ELP catalogue. Fortunately, vocalist/guitarist Greg Lake can also draw upon debut-era King Crimson, but he doesn’t bother in this pre-tour practice, filmed on a soundstage. When Lake sings ELP’s signature "Take a Pebble,” he sounds like he has a frog in his throat — that’s because he was practically a teenager when the song was first recorded. The world-class young guns that Lake has assembled are stellar, especially guitarist Florian Opahle on the excellent "Fanfare for the Common Man” and keyboardist David Arch on "Karn Evil 9.” Flat renditions of "Watching Over You,” "Farewell to Arms” and the interminable "I Believe in Father Christmas” are tolerable only with snipped teases of "Lucky Man” and "21st Century Schizoid Man” tucked in between songs.
(MVD)

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