FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN [THE ANTHOLOGY]

"Fanfare For The Common Man [The Anthology]" is a compilation of Emerson, Lake & Palmer released in 2001. It has tracks from eight studio albums and of their debut live album. It has four tracks from their eponymous debut, two tracks from their second "Tarkus", six tracks from their third "Trilogy", three tracks from their fourth "Brain Salad Surgery", three tracks from their fifth "Works Vol. 1", two tracks from their sixth "Works Vol. 2", one track from their seventh "Love Beach", two tracks from their ninth "Black Moon" and one track from their first live "Pictures At An Exhibition".

So, "Fanfare For The Common Man [The Anthology]" is a compilation album with twenty four tracks. "The Barbarian" is an arrangement of the Bela Bartok's piano piece "Allegro Barbaro". Despite the original piece be only for piano, the band re-arranged it for organ, bass and drums. This is a version with a strong hard rock influence. "Take A Pebble" is a beautiful ballad with powerful vocals by Lake. His singing is great with the final line of verses building on the legacy of King Crimson's "Epitaph", which sounds even better. "Knife Edge" is based on the first movement of Leos Janacek's "Sinfonietta". It's a great piece with a great showcase by all band's members, with particular emphasis to the great bass lines. "Lucky Man" is a ballad with acoustic guitar, beautiful sung and with a great synth solo in the end. It's one of the best songs by Lake. It's also one of the band's most accessible pieces. "Tarkus" is a complex and fantastic piece with great creativity, experimental and avant-garde for those years. This great prog epic remains a favourite for the fans and was consistently played live. "Jeremy Bender" is in the same mould of "Benny The Bouncer". I'm not a great fan of this kind of songs, but is pleasant enough to hear. "The Sheriff", as I mentioned previously, I don't particularly like this kind of songs despite not be a bad song. "Nutrocker" is a jazz variation of a Tchaikovsky's piece. This re-elaborated version is a good example of the trio's interest in exploring the roots of the chamber music translating it to a rock context. "Living Sin" is a good dark piece. It has different vocals along the song, which is very uncommon with the band. Here, they do a great use of them. "The Endless Enigma" is a great piece, one of their best compositions. Unfortunately, it was rarely performed live. "From The Beginning" is a beautiful acoustic song with Lake on vocals and guitar and with some participation of Emerson in the end of the track. It has a simple structure but it's one of the best compositions of them. "Hoedown" is a re-interpretation of the piece of Aaron Copland, "Rodeo". This is a fantastic piece, another great version made by the band. "Trilogy" is one of their best and most beautiful compositions. It's largely an instrumental very much over piano in the beginning heavily influenced by the classical music. In the middle, the music blasts with all the instruments playing in continuo. "Jerusalem" is a British church hymn. This is the band's arrangement of Charles Hubert Parry's hymn, based on the prologue of William Blake's poem "Milton". It's a great version of the original piece. "Still ... You Turn Me On" is a Lake's classic acoustic ballad in the vein of "Lucky Man" and "From The Beginning". This is one of Lake's best ballads. "Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression Pt 2)" is one of the parts of the epic piece "Karn Evil 9". It's an instrumental featuring Emerson on piano sounding like jazz and Palmer's drumming showing his percussion skills. "Fanfare For The Common Man" is a great interpretation of another Copland's piece re-arranged for a rock band. The original is great and the band did a great arrangement. Synths are heavily used, especially in the later sections. "C'Est La Vie" is a well known acoustic song. It's similar in style to Lake's ballads on their earlier albums. I like it, especially of the amazing voice of Lake. "Pirates" was originally written for the soundtrack of a cancelled film of Frederick Forsyth's book, "The Dogs Of War". It's melodic, progressive, dynamic, charming and complex. It has a nice keyboard work and is sung with great passion. "Brain Salad Surgery" is a short piece full of strange and silly keyboard sounds and strange lyrics. This is a sarcastic song. "Honky Tonk Train Blues" is a song with Emerson having fun with the grand piano in a boogie-woogie style while the rest plays in a swing jazzy style. "Love Beach" is a very have simplistic music with few pleasant tunes and with very weak lyrics. I never liked this song. "Black Moon" opens with a tense dark atmosphere created mostly by Emerson's keyboards. The lyrics are biting and the synths give a certain structure to them. "Affairs Of The Heart" is a love ballad with acoustic guitar and a pleasant orchestration, somewhat in the vein of "Lucky Man".

Conclusion: "Fanfare For The Common Man [The Anthology]" is a good compilation of Emerson, Lake & Palmer that is well representative of the band's career at the time, with their first eight studio albums represented. Some of their best and most representative pieces are here, despite be more focused on their less lengthy pieces. It's also true that it has also some weaker tracks, especially "Love Beach". But even the tracks chosen from the "Works" volumes aren't really bad. So and all in all, "Fanfare For The Common Man [The Anthology]" has a good collection of tracks of the band that encompasses a wide variety of their music catalogue. It's nice for those who are looking for a fine sampler of the band.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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