LOVE BEACH

"Love Beach" is the seventh studio album of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and was released in 1978. It was their last release of a studio album in the 70's, before the separation of the group for more than a decade. The three original members of the band would only join again fourteen years later, in 1992, for the release of their ninth studio album "Black Moon".

"Love Beach" had a very difficult birth. It was an album that Emerson, Lake & Palmer never wanted to release. They only recorded it because they were forced to do that by their record label. It was only released to satisfy the contractual obligations to fill out the rest of their contract. The final result was somehow a critical and commercial disappointment.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer wasn't satisfied with the album, particularly with the art of the front cover of it. Carl Palmer even compared the cover photograph of the album with the covers of Bee Gees. Coupled with that fact and because Keith Emerson considered that the fulcrum of the album was "Memoirs Of An Office And A Gentleman" and not the four love songs composed by Greg Lake and Peter Sinfield, he even phoned to the record company protesting with the name and the art cover of the album. But, as many times is usual, the record label disrespected the will of the band.

"Love Beach" is an album with seven tracks. It can be divided into two distinct parts. The side one has four love songs composed by Greg Lake and Peter Sinfield, a song composed by the group and a song based in Joaquin Rodrigo's Concert for Guitar and Orchestra, "Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre". The side two has only one song, the long suite "Memoirs Of An Officer And Gentleman", divided into four parts and composed by Keith Emerson and Peter Sinfield.

About the love songs, in general they aren't bad songs, but they aren't good songs, either. "All I Want Is You", the title track and "Taste Of My Love" are basically the same song repeated three times. Greg Lake's music is pretty decent, the exception is the title track, but Pete Sinfield's lyrics on each range are very weak, really. So, the first three tracks all fall into the same unfortunate bucket, especially the title track which is awful. The fourth song, "The Gambler" is not a great song but it reminds me of other silly tracks like "Jeremy Bender", "Are You Ready Eddy?", or "Benny The Bouncer". It's a style they've done before and this song is certainly no worse than any of those tracks. Still, I never liked this kind of songs on a band like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. "For You" is more in the usual style of the band. It has a more "modern" sound than "Still?You Turn Me On" and really flows well. If they had released "For You" as a single rather than "All I Want is You", they might have garnered some radio play. "Canario" represents what the band usually does, and usually they do well. It sounds great and because of that it represents, without any doubt, the best part of the first side of the album. Finally, we have the piece of music that represents the best musical part on the album, its side two. "Memoirs Of An Officer And A Gentleman" has all the various movements and sections like their more well-known epics. It's a musical composition made in the same vein of other long classic suites of Keith Emerson, such as "Karn Evil 9", "Endless Enigma" and "Tarkus" and despite being less inspired and less good that it should be, and the others are, it has some really good and interesting musical moments. Greg Lake's voice sounds amazing on the track and Peter Sinfield's lyrics are touching and powerful. Keith Emerson wrote the music for the track and his playing on it is typically great. I really like this piece. Unfortunatelly, it represents the last great epic made by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Conclusion: I have all the studio albums released in the 70's, by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, since those years. The only exception was "Love Beach". I only bought it some years ago. For many years, I never was interested on "Love Beach" due to the cover of the album and also because I have read very bad things about the album. It was considered the worst studio album released by the band in the 70's. So, sincerely I expected it was much worse. This isn't properly a great album but it has some good musical parts. It has many of the usual ingredients that an Emerson, Lake & Palmer's album must have, Greg Lake's ballads, Keith Emerson's long side suite and the his driven keyboard parts. "Love Beach" has roughly a half hour of great music, a little more if you include "The Gambler". If people were to judge the album by the first three songs, it's no wonder people hate it. But, if it had the album been sequenced differently and maybe if they had overhauled the first three, maybe the album might have been seen differently. But, there is another great problem with this album, its art cover. The art cover of the album is awful and completely stupid for a progressive work. It reveals a completely lack of sense, sensibility, love and respect for a great band like Emerson, Lake & Palmer. When Rick Wakeman saw the art cover of "Love Beach", he must have felt very embarrassed and certainly blushed with shame when he said that he disliked the art cover of "Tormato", released in the same year of "Love Beach", and threw a tomato to its pictures. Compared with the art cover of "Love Beach", the art cover of "Tormato" is a piece of art, indeed. Concluding, for me "Love Beach" is far from is their worst album. For instance, "Works, Vol. 2" is even much worse.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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