Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Emerson, Lake & Powell
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 1986
Running time: 42:50
Rating: 3.5/5
Emerson, Lake & Powell, the short-lived ‘offshoot’ of the legendary supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer, was one of the strangest and most unexpected projects in prog rock history, and it still sparks some pretty lively debate among fans of experimental music today. Plenty of music lovers took the news with a mix of disbelief and curiosity: in 1985, keyboard maestro Keith Emerson and singer/guitarist/bassist Greg Lake decided to revive the glorious ELP story of the seventies without drummer Carl Palmer, who at the time, officially because of contractual obligations, preferred to stay on as a member of Asia, the AOR/art rock champs who were still commercially successful back then.
Keith and Greg actually wanted to see Bill Bruford (ex-Yes, King Crimson, UK) behind the drum kit, but he didn’t want to give up his jazz group Earthworks. So after some failed drummer auditions, they brought in Emerson’s old friend Cozy Powell (and, by pure coincidence, neatly kept the ‘ELP’ initials intact). Powell was another drumming great who had built a successful career as a member of The Jeff Beck Group, the famous heavy rock bands Rainbow, MSG and Whitesnake, and the Phenomena project. Later, after his brief ELP chapter ended, he also played in Forcefield and Black Sabbath and worked with Queen guitarist Brian May.
Even though Powell had spent most of his career up to then working with blues and hard rock musicians, jazz fusion and instrumental music weren’t foreign to him either, as he proved more than once in his solo career. So he had no trouble slotting into Emerson and Lake’s symphonic prog vision. For the new studio project, simply titled »Emerson, Lake & Powell«, that vision was to pick up where classic ELP left off, before things went, let’s say, a little sideways in the late seventies and they parted ways (temporarily) on pretty bitter terms in 1979.
Of course, Emerson and Lake, re-energized by working with Powell, knew that no new masterpiece on the level of »Tarkus« (1971) or »Brain Salad Surgery« (1973) was going to happen in the eighties. Still, the famous trio ended up making a very solid record that, in plenty of moments, recalled their best days, even if it was wrapped in typical eighties production, handled by Lake and Tony Taverner. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though: Emerson’s studio, housed in a former barn, was wrecked by some crazy tractor driver, so some parts of the album had to be re-recorded.
Things got complicated again when someone at the label suggested that the new ELP record an adaptation of Holst’s classic »Mars, the Bringer of War«, which Lake knew well since he’d once played it as a member of the original King Crimson. Emerson wasn’t convinced it was a good idea, especially since the darkly tinted »Mars« is stylistically and atmospherically quite different from the rest of the material on the album, but Powell managed to talk him round. Even though ELP’s »Mars« doesn’t come anywhere near the chilling, claustrophobic intensity of the King Crimson version of Holst’s classic, it holds up surprisingly well and convincingly next to the stylistically and atmospherically very different compositions on the album.
»The Score« was a typical, as-pompous-as-it-gets album opener, built around Emerson’s moog modular empire and a slightly goofy motif that was once used as the intro jingle for Japanese pro wrestling broadcasts on TV. Lake didn’t forget to casually ‘weave’ the famous »Karn Evil 9: First Impression« line »Welcome Back My Friends to the Show that Never Ends« into the lyrics. With »Learning to Fly«, ELP managed to create a short but interesting blend of symphonic rock and arena rock, though without any commercial punch. The melodramatic »The Miracle« had a classic ELP aftertaste, even though Emerson mostly used ‘modern’ synth textures here, while »Touch and Go«, built on a traditional folk arrangement, was the lead single and the most commercial track on the album. Thanks to its pompous chorus and epic main motif, it also did relatively well on the charts of the day.
»Love Blind« was a classic power ballad with Lake in great vocal form and a slight AOR flavor, one that reminded you at least as much of some of Asia’s more progressive creations as of ELP. The slightly dull »Step Aside« had a repetitive, jazzy-cabaret motif and a bar-room vibe, while the brilliant closing power ballad »Lay Down Your Guns« was written together with Steve Gould (Rare Bird), who contributed the uplifting, pacifist lyrics. The CD version also included two quality bonus tracks: an interesting instrumental take on the 1962 pop hit »The Loco-Motion« and the solid power ballad »Vacant Possession«
»Emerson, Lake & Powell« was a pleasant surprise when it came out, a cautious return to classic ELP form after the pretty embarrassing artistic stumble of the late seventies. All those prog rock ‘purists’ who feared ELP would follow the path of Yes and Genesis and start flirting excessively with the commercially tempting world of AOR and pop rock could breathe a sigh of relief: this was a thoroughly decent, if unspectacular, prog rock record, worthy of the famous ELP legacy of the early seventies. In a way it’s a shame the Powell chapter, who tragically died in a car crash in 1998 at the age of fifty, didn’t last longer, because the old disagreements between Emerson and Lake came boiling back up. The technically most polished rock keyboardist then worked with Palmer and singer/multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry in the short-lived band 3 between 1988 and 1989. A proper reunion of ELP with all three original ‘comrades in arms’ had to wait until 1991, while 1992’s »Black Moon« was in many ways a stylistic continuation of the »Emerson, Lake & Powell« direction.
Lineup
Keith Emerson – keyboards
Greg Lake – vocals, guitar, bass guitar
Cozy Powell – drums and percussion
Production
Greg Lake and Tony Taverner
Track list
1. The Score (9:07)
2. Learning To Fly (3:50)
3. The Miracle (7:01)
4. Touch And Go (3:39)
5. Love Blind (3:11)
6. Step Aside (3:47)
7. Lay Down Your Guns (4:23)
8. Mars, Bringer Of War (7:55)
9. The Loco-motion (CD bonus Track) (4:36)
10. Vacant Posession (CD bonus Track) (4:42)
