Basic information editing
Music types: progressive rock, progressive rock, hard rock and classical music.
Debut location: England, UK
Active years: 1970- 1979,1991-1998,2010.
Record company Scorpion and Lion, Atlantic Ocean, Salon, Island, Shelter, Rhino, Shout! factory
Band members: Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer.
Introduction editor of the orchestra
In the empty stadium, three young people are playing works adapted from classical music on the empty stage. Keith, who has long hair and shawls, is self-serious, and his fingers quickly slide across the keyboard at the speed of the wind; Greg, who is slender but has a baby face, sings while playing the guitar; Carl, he looks dry, agile, energetic, precise and focused. Three completely different images play classical music different from the original music with their own good instruments, but the complex music structure and concise and powerful interpretation can be perfectly reconciled. Appreciating their precise improvisation scene is something that every music fan relishes. In the definition at that time, this was the so-called super band. They are the leading avantgarde/classical rock stars Emerson, Lake and Palmer in 1970s.
It all started with their unusual meeting at 1969. In the mid-1960s, there was a classical rock band-Nice, Keith Emerson, who was fascinated by Tchaikovsky and sibelius since childhood. It was both romantic and national, hoping to become a second career with superb piano skills like Mozart. In Nice's second album Ars Longa Vita Brewis (1968), he tried to cover the episode of leonard bernstein's musical west side story that was familiar to the United States (it was said that Bernstein didn't agree with this idea at that time). In the same year, the performance of Real Albert Hall was also very successful, and Keith Emerson, who put forward original ideas, became the focus of the spotlight. 1969 was the lead singer of the crimson king, a pioneer of progressive rock. Greg Lake, the lead singer who became famous with the album The Court of the Crimson King (1969), met Emerson of Nice during the jazz blues season in Croydon, England. At that time, the two sides remembered the heroes and decided to leave their original orchestras and form a new group T after the concert.
They found the drummer Carl, who is only 20 years old and is famous for his rock and roll and fusion jazz performances, and dedicated it to Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster.
70-year-old album Emerson, Lake &; ampere
Palmer, it will be the spring of 1970 when Lake finishes recording the second album of "The King of Crimson". After several tense rehearsals, the confidence of the three became stronger, and they decided to use the surnames of the members as the group names to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer (E.L.P) (note 1). According to the literature, they practiced songs from Bernstein to Copland, and {Take a pebble} was their first song, which was also included in Lake's first album Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1970). Influenced by German Bartok and Czech Janacek, the lead singer's soft and lyrical voice and tough beat constitute the initial impression of the album of the same name. In this masterpiece, which is regarded as the definition of classical and technological rock at the same time, classical, hard rock and even folk songs are mixed together, and the all-star super trio tries to bring fans a completely different feeling. Looking around the music environment at that time, both YES and Genesis were not yet mature. Only King Crimson and Pink Floyd kept pace with ELP in popularity and pioneer performance. {Barbarian} started with a pure performance, and the musical style was reversed at the last minute. Emerson's keyboard perfectly matches Lake's bass line and Palmer's precise drumming. {Take a pebble}, 12 minutes, which is the first tune of ELP that pays attention to music structure. We heard a complicated arrangement with a mixed flavor, and a baritone like Bel Canto Lake. {Knife} was a little influenced by the Chinese music school, and the three were full of tacit understanding and enthusiasm in playing. In the third paragraph of {Three Fates}, you can hear Emerson's exquisite performances such as organ, piano and drum ensemble. {Tank} has Palmer's wonderful drum solo, and there is a special synthetic instrument sound in the middle. {Lucky Man} is the finale and my favorite song. From the lake sound and acoustic guitar, chorus and simple melody gradually attract people's attention. One minute before the end, Emerson played an indescribable solo with Moog, an early synthetic instrument that specialized in simulating the tone of orchestral music. To sum up, from the later albums, we can see that ELP is not engaged in the invention or innovation of concepts, but can create a combination of classical and avant-garde music style with its skillful skills and unique music concept.
In the second album Tarkus( 197 1), ELP slightly changed the style of some previously acclaimed works, but of course the centripetal force of the team was not affected at all. Emerson focused more on the sound effect experiment of Moog synthesizer, while Palmer continued to study the more difficult drum technology. The concept of fable and myth is also adopted in the content, and the story is based on the fight between two fictional beasts. This picture has been praised by sales and word of mouth in Britain and the United States, and Britain has also won the first place. The first few capitals are singles, and the special one is {Eddy, are you ready? Pay tribute to Eddy Offord, a recording engineer with high status at that time (most of the albums in the heyday of YES were made by his brother). {Honky tonk} is an imitation of the old-fashioned swing music popular in the 1950s, which is very interesting. {Stone of Time} and {Time and Place} were released as singles in America. The title song {Tarkus} is the most ambitious song since ELP joined the army. Instrumental music is played faster than the last one, creating an urgent and melodic effect. It can be said that it is Yu Dacheng who combines the above essence.
Commercial success didn't make them get carried away by fame and fortune. Shortly after the release of Tacus in the same year, ELP made persistent efforts and released a live performance at the New Castle Town Hall in March of that year. However, it is not a picture book with Qvanxian Zhang content, but a reinterpretation of the suite "Pictures at an Exhibition" (197 1) created by Russian five-member Musorgskiy in memory of his friends. It is necessary to mention its background (Note 2). There is a so-called five-person group in Russia, which is a branch of the national music school. Among them, Mussoqi, the most talented but shortest-lived, lived a people's commune-like life with a group of artists and friends under the influence of Russian realistic literature. Among them, like-minded architect friend Hartman occasionally exhibited tickets in St. Petersburg, and Mussochi specially composed music to celebrate. Hertmann died of a sudden illness on 1873. The best way for Mussochi to pursue his best friend is to express his paintings in the form of sleepless music. This suite and Night on a Barren Mountain are the most outstanding and famous works of Mussolich. However, this composer did not get today's praise during his lifetime.
ELP adapted the original music according to the idea of the orchestra, and kept some fantastic parts of the original music, and then added lyrics to sing in Lake. This piece of music was originally composed of ten piano solos related to painting and a {Promenade} group with intermittent function. Compared with the original piano, except {The sage} and {Blues variation} which were later added by the orchestra, ELP kept four of the original paintings, namely {The gnome} (dwarf), (castle), (baba yaga's cabin), (witch's cabin) and {Kiev's gate}, representing "vivid and vivid" respectively. Except for the part {Baba Yaga's Cabin} that moved from the penultimate to the third picture of the original painting suite, the viewing time sequence is basically the same as that of the original painting, and the whole suite is not counted as 35 minutes. Why go to so much trouble to explain? There must be a reason for this. The wonderful convenience of this queer song is that the emotional turning point of the painter was set in the song from the beginning. Starting from the {long corridor} in front of the first painting, the artistic conception will change with what the paintings with different meanings want to express, and the walking speed and mental journey between the two paintings are also vividly written in the {long corridor} in the middle. In other words, from the first step into the gallery to the first step out of the gallery, it has been written into the whole song. The interaction between the painter's inner experience and the complexity of the external environment that the composer wants to express has become the unique connotation of this song.
So what is the explanation of ELP? Well, as far as the author is concerned, it does bring me an alternative expression of this work that I like very much, especially the result of the combination of vocal music with drums, bass, guitar and synthetic instruments, which is very fresh. But purely speaking, it was not so successful. First of all, my thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of human voices in the music, and the two paragraphs inserted in the middle of the song also added a little redundancy to the intention of creating an atmosphere. The noise of the audience during the live performance also destroyed its sometimes proper voice expression. The configuration of instrumental music in other music and painting is different. I was particularly surprised at its beginning and end. The initial {Promenade} (Promenade) had a strange motive, and the orchestra brought the feeling of promenade to a heavy speed and met the lively three-quarters beat of the dwarf. {The Gate of Kiev} should be the climax of the album. From the solemn theme at the beginning to the finale, it is a powerful form of performance. Finally, it is a great pleasure to hear Emerson compete with the orchestra for a gorgeous fast sound group. On the other hand, encore played a little joke on Emerson's spiritual mentor Tchaikovsky and adapted a song from The Nutcracker into Nutrocker. It is a small decompression gift for all the fans who have experienced this music journey.
The next trilogy (1972) was still recognized by both fans and music critics. The tacit understanding and ideas of the three people's performances can be fully demonstrated on this record, from adult lyric to space rock, and of course, works sorted out from classical music. There is no innovation in concept, but the melody is more refined than the previous two albums, and it has also set off a whirlwind among local fans. The mysterious sound effect in front of the {Endless Mystery Part I} and the band and lead singer entering the stadium for more than six minutes later are exciting. {fugue} (fugue) continues the artistic conception of the first song, with Emerson's piano solo as the main axis. {Endless Mystery Part II} is the grand finale of ending this concept. {From scratch} is the only top music of ELP in America. Lake sings with a soft alto, and is also responsible for acoustic and electric guitar solos. Finally, Emerson's Moog slipped in quietly. In {The Sheriff}, Lake's singing is slightly transformed into a playful performance, and the transition in the second half is abrupt, accompanied by a gunshot. {Hooedown} was originally a well-known pop music. Excerpt from "Rodeo" by Aron Copeland, it feels completely different from the original. In the middle of the title song {trilogy}, Emerson played exquisite synthetic instruments, which was reflected by Palmer's strong and accurate drums. {living hell} may be a weaker tune in comparison. Lake deliberately makes his voice threatening and low, but it can be seen that Lake is ever-changing and capable. {Bolero of Abaddon} You can see from the structure that this is a tribute to Bolero of Ravel (or from the title? ), of course, is also a good demonstration of Emerson's talent. The whole performance lasted for more than eight minutes, the levels were orderly, the sound was from small to large, and the orchestration became more and more complicated. In all fairness, I can't see ELP's outstanding creativity or complicated musical ideas in this film, but it is still worth listening to, because it is composed of nine works, all of which are in one go. (Note 3)
73 years album "Brain Salad Surgery"
1972 also changed the ELP. First of all, Peter Sinfield, the original poet of The King of Crimson, jumped to ELP and became Lake's lyricist partner. In the same year, they set up a new record company Scorpion Lion under the name of the monster in Tacus album, and started their business with the works of Italian art rock group P.F.M (Peter Sinfield is also a member). In addition, they also signed artists such as stray dogs and Banco. 1973, ELP went back on the road and recorded the blockbuster Brain Salad Surgery (1973), which was their first work released by Scorpion and Lion. Brain salad surgery is regarded as the ultimate development of technology rock and space rock. First of all, the envelope design was drawn by H.R.Giger, who later became famous for his special-shaped films. Quite strange, similar to the coitus between unknown creatures in outer space and ancient civilization on earth. The melody of the first single {Jerusalem} comes from the traditional English songs, and Lake sang with a solemn atmosphere. {Toccata} is an excerpt from the fourth movement of Emerson's Piano Concerto No.1, which is full of high-tech sound effects. Emerson flew to Geneva to ask the composer himself for benefits, leaving a much-told story. Guinestra wrote in the annotation on the inside page of the record: "Keith Emerson has a good grasp of the mood of my work." {You still excite me} Every painting in the general lyric work Lake should be made in the same way, and Benny the Bouncer is full of noisy and impromptu atmosphere. {karnevill 9} is probably the longest and most ambitious work of ELP since he joined the army. The whole song lasts more than 30 minutes (! ! ), just like the double album "Stories from Terrain and Ocean" (1973) released by YES that year, made many people cry. From the complete madness of 1st Impression (first impression) band to the rapid increase of second impression and third impression (second impression and third impression), Emerson used several musical instruments, such as Hammond (a brand of electric organ), Muge, harpsichord and traditional piano, which seemed to have exhausted his personal energy on this piece. ﹔Palmer's drums follow the beat like hot pursuit. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the addition of the poet Sinfield more or less makes up for the difference between the original ELP music and the meaning of words. In short, this is the performance of the orchestra in its heyday.
When future generations comment on the development of "pre-"progressive rock, they will inevitably mention Yes and ELP. Of course, there is no denying that they will have Yu Liang complex. They are all famous superstars, and with the call of super-famous keyboard players, every new record release is inevitably compared. Rick Wakeman is unique in new age music style, with the overall atmosphere of music as the main contrast; ﹔keith· Emerson is good at adapting and giving new ideas to the era of classical music (works after the twentieth century), both of which have contributed to the expansion of the experimental sound field of various synthetic instruments. Interestingly, yes, an earlier group, influenced by ELP's album of the same name in the early 1970s, changed from hard rock to concept album. The two groups also reached the peak of their respective performing arts in 197 1-72. In 73, they released a long work with both positive and negative comments, and some people began to think that progressive rock has gone to the old tune of moaning and grandstanding. After the mid-1970s, the two regiments took different paths. Of course, this is another story.
Album list editing
Studio photo album:
1970- Emerson, Lake & Pilgrims
1971-Tacus
1972 —? trilogy
1973-brain salad surgery
1 977-engineering quantity1
1977-Engineering Volume 2
1978-Love Beach
1992 —? Black moon
1994-in a difficult situation
Real-time album:
Britain: 197 1, the United States:1972-photos in the exhibition.
1974-Welcome my friends back to this never-ending program ... Ladies and gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Pilgrim.
1979-concert/work site
1993-Live broadcast from Royal Albert Hall Hotel.
1997 (Austria: 200 1, rest of the world: 2003)- lives in Poland.
1997—Live broadcast of Isle of Wight Music Festival 1970
1998-past and present
2002-Original pirated series from Scorpion and Lion? basement