Emerson Lake & Palmer - Letters From The Front (1978)

When Gary asked if I could do something thing with ELP's 1978 album 'Love Beach', I replied that I thought that he was asking the impossible. It's universally agreed to be the band's worst album, although 'In The Hot Seat' looks set to overtake it at any time, and so I wasn't sure if anything could be salvaged from it. Online comments all point to the very, very worst thing about it being the cover, (and apparently the record company had no shame in including an insert which offered 'Love Beach' jogging shorts and 'Love Beach' satin jackets), so that was fairly easy to rectify, but what about the music? The sessions for the album were fraught from the beginning, as the band had just completed a grueling North American tour, and were looking forward to a rest, but Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun reminded them that they had to deliver one more album for the label, and insisted that they start work on it straight away. He suggested that they make a 'commercial' album, which Emerson felt reluctant to do, but Ertegun threatened to with-hold the offer of proposed solo albums if they refused to work together, so they had to agree. Feeling that the need for a commercial album suited Lake's method of songwriting, Emerson gave him the freedom he kept asking for, and Lake composed a number of more radio-friendly songs with lyricist Pete Sinfield. As the band had become tax exiles due to the punitive British tax laws placed on musicians at the time, Emerson and Lake were renting homes in Nassau in the Bahamas, and so they decided to record the album there, using the famous Compass Point Studios. The sessions were difficult due to the increasingly strained relationships between the three musicians, and Emerson's increasing drug use had started to affect his ability to work, or to collaborate with the others. It wasn't just the music that had problems, as Emerson was also particularly upset about the record's title, which Atlantic Records had taken from one of the album tracks, but despite Emerson conducting a public opinion poll which confirmed his opinion, the label refused to change it. The infamous cover shot was taken on an island off Salt Cay, depicting the group as 'bare-chested late-seventies disco stars', and has been the source of much ridicule ever since. 
The general opinion of the album is that there are a couple of good tracks, such as 'Canario' and 'For You', and that 'All I Want Is You' and Emerson's opus 'Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman' aren't too bad. Some of the other tracks do suffer from a lack of bass in the mix, and so as alternate mixes were added to the recent Japanese re-issue we do have something to work with. Most people agree that the title track is the worst song on the album, and as there was no alternate mix for it, that can go for a start. I've kept the original takes of 'Canario' and 'Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman', as they seemed fine as they were, and replaced 'All I Want Is You, 'The Gambler', and 'For You' with the alternate mixes, and although there is another mix of 'Taste Of My Love' available, it's such an embarrassment lyrically that I decided to omit it completely. Although that would still leave a 35-minute album, I'd prefer to have it around the 40-minute mark, so as 'Tiger In A Spotlight' was the b-side of the 'All I Want Is You' single, I've added that to the running order, which I've also re-jigged a little. Finally, as 'Love Beach' is no longer on here we can give it a new title, which I've taken from Emerson's 'Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman', and that means that we can also now have a new cover. There's not a huge amount we can do about the songs themselves, and if you don't like them, then this isn't going to change your mind, but Lake is in fine voice throughout the album, and Emerson's work on 'Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman' is up to his usual standard, so perhaps this alternate look at the record might make it a bit more palatable. 

Track listing

01 All I Want Is You
02 Canario (From 'Fantasia Para Un Gentlhombre')
03 The Gambler
04 For You
05 Tiger In A Spotlight
06 Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman: Prologue/The Education of A Gentleman
07 Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman: Love At First Sight
08 Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman: Letters From The Front
09 Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman: Honourable Company (A March)

Emerson Lake & Palmer - The Barbarian (1970)

When I found that the 2016 box set of Emerson Lake & Palmer's first album included quite a bit of unreleased and alternative material, I felt that I wanted to do something with it. However, there wasn't a huge amount to play around with, just a couple of alternate takes of 'Lucky Man' and one short one of 'Take A Pebble', an extract from 'The Three Fates', a Carl Palmer drum solo, a studio take of 'Promenade' from 'Pictures At An Exhibition', and one unreleased out-take entitled 'Rave Up'. I thought the best way to make something of these was to splice them together and make longer tracks, so 'Take A Pebble' starts with the short alternate take, followed by Palmer's drum solo, leading into the finale taken from the 2012 remix of the original track. 'Promenade' segues into the alternate take of 'Lucky Man', and 'Rave Up' is sandwiched between 'Atropos' from 'The Three Fates'. I've used the live take of 'The Barbarian' from the previous post, as it's such a great recording, (and I've managed to improve the ending), and this take of 'Knife-Edge' is slightly longer, with an extended outro. By using a bit more of 'Take A Pebble' than my first attempt, I've managed to get a 37-minute album of alternate and un-issued recordings from ELP's classic debut album sessions, which I hope you'll enjoy as much as it's parent record.     

Track listing

01 The Barbarian
02 Take A Pebble
03 Knife-Edge
04 Promenade / Lucky Man
05 Atropos / Rave Up / Atropos (Conclusion)

Emerson Lake & Palmer - A Time And A Place (1977) UPDATE

A lot has happened since I posted this album a week ago, the main one being that we finally got to the bottom of the question of why 'Just A Dream' didn't sound like a Greg Lake vocal, or even Emerson's keyboards. Thanks to YNJ for pointing me to the discussion on the stevehoffman site which explained:

The first song ever recorded by Spontaneous Combustion was erroneously included on the deluxe reissue of ELP's 'Tarkus' as a bonus track, after the re-mix engineer Steven Wilson decided to include it, and to title it 'Unknown Ballad', saying it was written by Keith Emerson with lyrics by Greg Lake. It was an honest mistake, because the recording was on one of the 'Tarkus' master recording tapes, and Wilson didn't know that another band had come in to record at the same time.

Carl Palmer and Keith Emerson had to leave a recording session about two hours earlier than planned one day, so Greg Lake called his friend and neighbor Gary Margetts of Spontaneous Combustion to ask whether they'd like to come in and record something during the available studio time. The three teenagers in the group didn't have anything prepared on the spur of the moment, but Gary brought along lyrics to a song written by his friend Mike Rowe titled 'Just A Dream', and Gary wrote the music, and the three teens and Greg worked out the arrangement in the studio. Producer Greg didn't ask for a separate tape for the recording, so famed engineer Eddy ('Are You Ready, Eddy?') Offord recorded it onto the same tape ELP were recording 'Tarkus' on.

This is how the song's impromptu arrangement therefore got included on an ELP deluxe reissue, credited to ELP.

Keith Emerson protested to Wilson, and also in interviews, that he didn't write or perform the song, and he didn't know who did. This was absolutely true: Keith and Carl had left the studio before the song got recorded.

As it has now come to light that this song had no ELP involvement I've removed it from the album. 

The other thing that had emerged was that Brian Currin has informed me that an instrumental version of 'Brain Salad Surgery' exists, and was included on the 2014 box-set re-issue of the album, and which I had somehow missed, so that gives me the perfect excuse to include a song that has already been released on 'Works (Volume 1)', but in a different form. 

I have therefore redone the whole album to make those two amendments, and the new version can be downloaded below.

Track listing

01 The Barbarian (live in London 1970)

02 Oh, My Father ('Tarkus' out-take 1971)

03 Prelude & Fugue ('Tarkus' out-take 1971)

04 Rondo (live at The Lyceum 1970)

05 A Time And A Place (single b-side version 1971)

06 From The Beginning (single version 1972) 

07 Brain Salad Surgery (instrumental) (out-take 1973)

08 The Pancha Suite (Carl Palmer out-take 1977)

09 Bo Diddley (out-take 1975)

Emerson Lake & Palmer - A Time And A Place (1977)

I know that in certain circles Emerson Lake & Palmer have endured derision and criticism from people who felt that their music was pompous and overblown, but I've always loved their exceptional take on progressive rock. Coming together from the ashes of The Nice, King Crimson and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, each member of the group was a first-rate musician in their chosen field, and together they produced some of the most exciting and innovative progressive rock of the 70's. Throughout their long career they recorded very little music that wasn't included on their studio albums, and what leftovers could be found were compiled on the 'Works (Volume 1)' and 'Works (Volume 2)' albums in 1977, but in recent years some further out-takes and newly discovered live performances have surfaced, and this albums collects the best of those into one place. The live recording of 'The Barbarian', from a concert in London in 1970, shows their superb musicianship, and I defy anyone who hears it not to be blown away with Keith Emerson's keyboard prowess. The recording sessions for the 'Tarkus' album produced a few extra songs which wouldn't fit on the record, with 'Oh, My Father' being a lovely ballad sung by Greg Lake, while 'Prelude & Fugue' shows Emerson as his best. A live recording of the old Nice favourite 'Rondo' from 1970 is a welcome find, and this is followed by a couple of album tracks edited for single release, one as an a-side, and the other as the flip to 1971's 'Stone Of Years' release. Although the song 'Brain Salad Surgery' never made it to the album of the same name, it was given away as a free flexi-disc with the NME music paper in 1973, and I still have my copy in it's miniature paper replica of the album sleeve. This was included on 'Works (Volume 1)', but an instrumental out-take appeared on the 2014 box-set re-issue, so that's included here. Carl Palmer recorded one tune for the 'Works (Volume 1)' album which didn't make the final track listing, but which is well worth hearing, and we close with a great cover of Big John Patton's 'The Yodel' from 1975, renamed 'Bo Diddley' for some reason. I'm sure fans of ELP will enjoy this album, but I also hope that people who have been put off by all the negative criticism will try it as well, and they might discover that the band are nowhere near as bad as they've been painted.          

Track listing

01 The Barbarian (live in London 1970)
02 Oh, My Father ('Tarkus' out-take 1971)
03 Prelude & Fugue ('Tarkus' out-take 1971)
04 Rondo (live at The Lyceum 1970)
05 A Time And A Place (single b-side version 1971)
06 From The Beginning (single version 1972) 
07 Brain Salad Surgery (instrumental) (out-take 1973)
08 The Pancha Suite (Carl Palmer out-take 1977)
09 Bo Diddley (out-take 1975)