Greg Lake - Songs Of A Lifetime 25-11-12,London

 

Greg is undoubtedly an excellent musician although I'm not sure what else he should have achieved?

 

Played in the seminal progressive rock band

Played in the most successful rock supergroup

Played live with an orchestra

Has one of the most enduring and best Christmas records

Recorded two solo albums with the then best guitarist on the planet

Did that massive world televised concert with Asia

 

Also his best songs have been recorded and released either with ELP or as a soloist.

 

He's has a good career I feel.

Indeed, what do we have then to think about their debut's cover 

Strangely enough, that's part of the problem; for me, there is no best song; all we get are glimpses of possibilities, but I feel there is/was always something in there struggling to get out. I always regarded the ELP exercise as a wasted opportunity in that way, even though I'm a fan of the band's best work.

At any rate it clarifies that what broke down was the Revox playing the backing tape, not the Tron itself.

"After we recorded Trilogy (1972), we wanted to perform the album on stage, but Abaddon's Bolero was a hugely complex track with loads of Moog synthesizer overdubs and it was quite impossible to play it live. So we sampled complete phrases off the 16-track onto a Mellotron, which Greg could play using bass pedals. This still wasn't enough, so we also hooked up a Revox tape recorder and arranged the track around that. Unfortunately, the second time we tried it in front of an audience, the Revox ground to a halt and so did Carl, Greg and myself. We ended up having a huge argument backstage, the result of which was that we never attempted the Bolero again. I would have trashed the Mellotron, but I gave it to Greg instead. I've no idea where it is now."

Indeed (1973 according to Keith below), here a couple of pics showing the white M400, and Keith's recollection of the story (PlanetMellotron has a slightly different one which sounds less reliable).

"Carl wore an earphone, and played the drum in synch with a click on the backing tape. Greg played the prerecorded chords on the Mellotron. The trouble arose after playing "Abaddon's Bolero" about 4 times live - the tape went bad and the sound stopped going to Carl's earphone. Carl continued to play without his earphone, but at the climax, the sound from the backing tape was lost, and then it was only the three of us playing. We decided to stop using it after that. It was too risky and also Carl did not like playing to a backing tape. This happened in Germany in 1973."

he did co write Epitaph but then its a matter of taste whether you prefer that over say Trilogy which he co wrote with Keith Emerson. I like both and both are different. Whats a simple fact is that he would have had less freedom in Crimson compared to ELP so I don't really understand how that could possibly have been of benefit in developing his song writing.

 

I don't agree at all and I'm not sure where you are coming from anyway.

Fripp wouldn't let him record Lucky Man  and Lake gives this as one of the reasons he had to leave King Crimson.

 

I would argue that he became a better song writer in ELP. Emerson gave him lots of ideas. Would he have used Troika in his Christmas song but for the classical influence of ELP I wonder? Lake wasn't a prolific song writer and partnered up with Sinfield for Works in order to get six songs done. Emerson was quite happy for Lake to contribute more as I understand it and Lake was no shrinking violet in terms of stating and getting what he wanted. Those that knew them in the seventies would probably say Lake was the strongest personality in the band. He was never given the production seat in ELP he just took it!  Emerson also has a great story at the time of the recording of Pirates and a meeting with 'Lenny '(as Lake called him) Bernstein in his biography that also proves he was no shrinking violet.

Yes.  That is even more shocking.