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#18 in US (Mar 71) |
| Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in December, 1970. ELPfan 09's rating: 9/10 |
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ELP's first release starts with a giant leap right into the world of progressive rock. "The Barbarian," although not adressed on the album, is an adaption of Bartok's "Allegro Barbaro." All three musicians recieved writing credits on this piece.
"Take a Pebble" was a piece the Lake wrote before joining ELP. It was not recorded, however, since he felt that he needed a different sound to it. Emerson was able to produce that sound with his piano work on this piece. The song also has an acoustic guitar solo by Lake, one of the few guitar solos that ELP will have before focusing on being solely keyboard-led.
With the help of one of their roadies, Emerson and Lake adapt "Knife Edge" from Janacek's "Sinfonietta," and it is a great hard-rock track.
The last 3 songs feature the talents of all three players. Emerson's "The Three Fates" showcases his organ, piano and counterpointal writing skills. The third fate, "Atropos," also has a characteristic that is common for the band: it is in 7/4 time. ELP's abuse of time signatures is one of the defining characterists of this new progressive rock genre.
Palmer also gets his two cents in with "Tank," written by himself and Emerson. The song features an absolutely superb drum solo, and a reworked, orchestrial version is on the Works, Vol. 1 album.
Lake's "Lucky Man" is arguably ELP's most widely known song. The ballad, which constrasts greatly with the other songs on the album, was a last minute addition to the record. Through it's radio airplay, ELP became well known. The synthesizer solo at the end of the song was the first intelligent use of a synthesizer in a popular song. Emerson, however, was not happy with the solo, since it was only his first take at it. Despite his attempts to re-record it, the solo ended up on the record. In order to get away from this "pop" sound and create a synth part that he was truly proud of, the next song that Emerson would write and record would be "Tarkus," featured on ELP's second studio album.
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