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Emerson, Lake & Palmer is the debut studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It was released in the United Kingdom by Island Records in November 1970, and in the United States by Cotillion Records in January 1971. After the group formed in the spring of 1970, they entered rehearsals and prepared material for an album which became a mix of original songs and rock arrangements of classical music. The album was recorded at Advision Studios in July 1970, when the band had yet to perform live. Lead vocalist and bassist/guitarist Greg Lake produced it.
Upon release, the album went to No. 4 in the UK and No. 18 in the US.[2][3] Lake's song "Lucky Man" was released as a single in 1970 and helped the group achieve radio airplay; it peaked at No. 48 in the US. After a warm-up gig in Plymouth, the band performed songs from the album at their next, a spot at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival which propelled them to widespread fame. In 2012, Steven Wilson prepared a special edition that features a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes, plus bonus material.
Songs
Side one
"The Barbarian" is an arrangement of Béla Bartók's 1911 piano piece Allegro Barbaro, but original early pressings of the album credit the track to the group.[4][5] Bartók's widow contacted the band shortly after the album's release to request that the credit be corrected.[6]
"Take a Pebble" was penned by Lake, with the primary sections being a jazz keyboard arrangement by Emerson, and the middle section being a folk guitar work by Lake with water-like percussion effects from Palmer, plus bits of clapping and whistling.
"Knife-Edge" is based on the first movement of Leoš Janáček's orchestral piece Sinfonietta (1926),[5] with an instrumental middle section that includes an extended quotation from the Allemande of Johann Sebastian Bach's first French Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812, but played on an organ rather than a clavichord or piano. Lake provided the lyrics, with assistance from Richard Fraser, a member of the group's road crew.
Side two
"The Three Fates" is a three-part "pseudo suite",[4] written and predominantly performed by Emerson. Each section is named after the three sisters of Greek mythology known as the Three Fates, or Moirai: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. The "Clotho" movement was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London, with Emerson playing the venue's pipe organ. "Lachesis" is a short piano piece that features baroque and jazz influences, ending in grand, sweeping arpeggios. "Atropos" sees Emerson play a piano vamp in 7/8 with percussion accompaniment from Palmer.[7] An improvisational section is played on top, which transforms into a polymetrically played repeated sequence in 4/4 time. The resonance of the final chords is curtailed by the sound of explosions.
Palmer's solo spot "Tank" was composed with Emerson. The first section features Emerson on clavinet and piano, Lake on bass and Palmer on drums. The middle section is a drum solo. The final section features Emerson on clavinet and Moog synthesizer.
"Lucky Man" is a song written by Lake on the acoustic guitar when he was 12. It features an improvised Moog synthesizer solo by Emerson at the end, liberally using portamento.[8][9][10] A 5.1 surround sound mix of the song was released on a 2000 reissue of Brain Salad Surgery.
Artwork
The album's cover is a painting by British artist Nic Dartnell. Although it has been said to be originally intended for the American group Spirit, and that the bald-headed man on the left of the cover is Spirit's drummer, Ed Cassidy, the artist denied this in an interview with Mike Goldstein of RockPoP:
"I'd like to take a moment and dispel a rumor that, according to Wikipedia, the image is somehow linked to the LA band Spirit. The fact is that, at the time I painted the ELP 'Bird', I also painted a portrait of Spirit which I sent to them in LA. A very similar bird was featured in the corner of that painting. I got a message from Spirit to say that if they had received their painting in time they would have put it on the back of Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. I became friendly with Randy California over the years and I took the photograph that is on his 1982 12" EP All Along the Watchtower. The bald image in "Bird" has no connection to Ed Cassidy of Spirit and doesn't look anything like him. Ed still has the Spirit portrait – so I'm told."
— Nic Dartnell, [11]
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [12] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | C[13] |
| Rolling Stone | (favorable)[14] |
| Classic Rock Revisited | A[15] |
| The Daily Vault | A−[16] |
| MusicHound Rock |  [17] |
| Sound & Vision | [18] |
Upon release, Loyd Grossmas at Rolling Stone enthused "this is such a good album it is best heard as a whole".[14] Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said: "This opens with 'The Barbarian,' a keyboard showpiece (not to slight all the flailing and booming underneath) replete with the shifts of tempo, time, key, and dynamics beloved of these bozos. Does the title mean they see themselves as rock and roll Huns sacking nineteenth-century 'classical' tradition? Or do they think they're like Verdi portraying Ethiopians in Aida? From such confusions flow music as clunky as these heavy-handed semi-improvisations and would-be tone poems."[13]
In a retrospective review, Bruce Eder at AllMusic claimed it "showcased the group at its least pretentious and most musicianly"[12] while The Daily Vault hailed it as a "dizzying mix of keyboard solos, incredible bass work, excellent vocals and powerful drums".[16] Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock commented of the album, "Still hailed by many as the band's best effort, it established the blueprint for a musical style which, for all the bullish puffing of the band's 'progressive' credentials, they would develop hardly at all." However, he found significant shortcomings with all of the individual songs, excepting only "Atropos", which he called the album's best track.[1
Ian Boddy & Harald Grosskopf | Doppelgänger | DiN91
Release date 21st March 2025
Limited to 500 copies Digipak CD
Bar Code 5028423250913
Available this Friday, March 7 on BANDCAMP FRIDAY, when Bandcamp waives all seller fees.
Fostering musical collaborations has been a key motivational force for DiN label boss Ian Boddy since the inception of the imprint in 1999. He has also made no secret of his musical heritage and influences, especially the 1970’s German electronic music masters such as Tangerine Dream and particularly the late, great Klaus Schulze. So when, through a chance conversation with Harald Grosskopf at a music festival in the Netherlands, the opportunity arose for them to collaborate together Boddy jumped at the chance. Grosskopf has had an amazing career as a drummer working with many German music luminaries. Of special interest to Boddy is his work with Schulze on some of his finest mid-70’s albums and this connection forms an emotional bridge to that fervent, shared musical heritage. However Grosskopf is way more than just a percussionist and his classic Synthesist album showcases the other side to his music with his very personal use of melody and harmony.
Thus Boddy and Grosskopf combine forces in a stunning display of sequenced and groove based tracks that constitute the album Doppelgänger. The album flirts with the so called Berlin School of music but goes way beyond it’s metronomic straitjacket with Boddy serving up multi-patterns of shifting sequencer lines underpinned by Grosskopf’s mesmerising percussion grooves. There are ample examples of Boddy’s modular synth sound design on show, especially on tracks such as Boulevard Horizon and Dubnium. Elsewhere Grosskopf has a playful input on the track Livewire and indeed his keyboard playing are as much a part of this album as Boddy’s own. The album ends with the stunning title track with its grandiose chords and processional percussion.
Once again the DiN label forges into unknown sonic territory by serving up two unique musicians in collaboration creating a musical dialogue that is as inspiring as it is unexpected.
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