greg lake ballads

Greg Lake's my favourite singer, and I love some of his ballads. I always thought that that was the strength of ELP, the contrast between Emerson's complex stuff and Lake's open, pure sounding ballads.

I like Lucky Man, Still You Turn Me On and the only track on Pictures that was not a Mussorgsky but a Lake tune, was that called The Great Gates Of Kiev? Well, I especially like those tracks. Great singer, great lyricist, great guitar player, great ballad composer.

Time for an applause

I think Greg Lake's an excellent singer and songwriter, and a fine guitarist.

It's interesting (to me anyway) to read from Emerson's autobiography, and watch on the documentary on "Beyond the Beginning", both Emerson and Lake were clearly very strong personalities who clashed a lot, Emerson annoyed with Lake using the band as a vehicle for his ballads, Lake annoyed with Emerson for - as he saw it - hijacking the group for his own projects - he makes a sarcastic comment about the "armadillo with tank tracks" (Tarkus!)

It's great they were in the same band, perhaps not suprising the group burnt out..anyhow I digress; what i would say is that I think being in ELP made Greg Lake (and Keith Emerson) push each other and perform at a higher level...as part of which I do think Greg Lake came up with some great songs.