TRILOGY

This is one of my first adventures in the large and strange world of progressive rock, and what an adventure! I have always loved everything with unusual sounds, long songs and lots of melodies. Always been absolutely bored when listening to usual hit music. So when I heard about progressive rock the first time, realizing it contained so many of my favorite bands (Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Osibisa, etc), I had to take a closer look. Emerson, Lake and Palmer´s Trilogy was one of the most extreme things I had ever heard! So many wild rhythms, melodies colliding and mixing with each other and the feeling of musicians who really knew how to play their instruments! It hit me like a ton of bricks, but in a good way.

Right from the start, the mysterious opening of The Endless Enigma with all the space sounds and effects, I knew this was going to something different. And to hear the beautiful voice of Greg Lake for the first time, mixed with Emerson´s keyboard playing was almost unreal. It felt both romantic, exciting and really really smart. I came to love Trilogy because it had so many different types of songs on it, still it all worked together really good as a complete album. From the Beginning is a nice pop-song, not as crazy as the other songs. Living Sin had a bit of Deep Purple to it and The Sheriff just felt happy and playful. Hoedown is probably the most famous of the Trilogy-songs and is the song I most likely would define the group by. A piece of classical music with some of Keith Emerson'sS Hammond/Moog-magic blown in to it, and some crazy drumming to go with it! A very typical ELP-song and it always makes me think F**K YEAH!

Even though many might think of Hoedown as the best track, I have always considered the title track to the albums absolute peak! The song melody is so touching and beautiful, showing of Lake as one of the greatest singers of all time. Along with the piano playing it sets a somewhat sad mood for the song, before sneaking into a beautiful piano solo. Then its time for some more moog and the crazy stuff kicks in. I have no theoretical knowledge about music to show off, so I choose to explain the feeling with a beautiful metaphor. It was like all the melodies was waves in a stormy ocean, the jazzy rhythms came down on me like heavy rain while floating out there. It was beautiful, exciting, scary and completely nuts! I loved it, and have loved it ever since the first time I heard it! My ex girlfriend hated it, I could not understand why. Her father yelled at me to turn down that destructive jazz, even though it most obviously was the greatest rock-song ever created! Not until many years later I accepted the fact that people often prefer music that keeps to ONE melody and a simple rhythm easier to dance to. How depressing is that? But at least I could enjoy it by myself, and thats pretty much what progressive rock is to me. Something dirty I only listen to when there is no one else around.

Yeah, and an excellent album closer to! Abaddon's Bolero is really slowly building up to not much at all, and still its so dramatic! Just as a closing track should!