Emerson, Lake & Powell - Complete Collection: Boxset Review – At The Barrier (2024)

The brief career of the Classical-Prog behemoth that was ELP (Mk.2) – collected, repackaged and remastered

Release Date: 12^th April 2024

Label: Cherry Red Records

Formats: 3 x CD

If you were still paying attention by that stage, you will be aware that the original ELP – Emerson, Lake & Palmer crashed and burned (in a comfortable sort of way) in 1979, one of the highest-profile casualties of the apathy – and sometimes outright aggression – felt and expressed by the punk generation towards progressive music in general and classical affectations in particular. The original ELP’s final album, Love Beach (1978) had been slated in the music press and, although it had still sold in vast numbers, those who’d been there in the beginning had all but lost interest in the project – and that includes the band members, too.

The ELP band members went their separate ways; Carl Palmer hitched up with guitarist John Nitzinger to form PM, before moving on to find huge commercial success with John Wetton, Steve Howe and Geoff Downes in their supergroup, Asia. Emerson and Lake, meanwhile, launched solo careers, Emerson working mainly in film score projects and Lake fronting his own band before he, too, briefly joined Asia as a replacement of John Wetton.

Lake failed to settle with Asia and, citing a dislike of the band’s internal politics and of the seemingly inexorable move towards corporate rock and, after concerts in Japan in late 1983, he left the band.

Fast forward to late 1985 and a phone call from Polygram Marketing VP, Jim Lewis. Lewis was proposing that Emerson, Lake & Palmer reformed – the dust had settled after the punk revolution and many of the bands formerly classified as “Dinosaurs” were once again in the ascendancy – Genesis, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull amongst them. Unfortunately, Palmer was still deeply involved with Asia and was, therefore unavailable, so Emerson and Lake set about searching for an alternative drummer to fill the – not inconsiderable – Palmer void.

A long-term friend of Keith Emerson’s – and a fellow motorcyclist – Cozy Powell was a drummer with an awesome reputation, as a solo artist and as sometime drummer with bands as prestigious as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, The Michael Schenker Group, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath. And, what’s more, he was available, and keen to step in to occupy the ELP drumstool.

Greg Lake, speaking to the LA Times, back in 1986, said: “When Cozy came in, he really dazzled us. We didn’t intend to put the group back together [this statement contradicts other contemporaneous records – including Lake’s own recollections in his 2017 autobiography, Lucky Man ] but he was such a good technical drummer and such a good performer, we thought it might be a good idea to go back out with a new version of the band.” And, Lo! Emerson, Lake and Powell came to pass. Incidentally, both Emerson and Lake always insisted that the fact that Cozy’s surname began, like Palmer’s, with the letter ‘P’ was purely coincidental – although both have also joked that Gene Prupa, Phil Pollins and Ringo Parr were all drummers who were considered for the role… Whatever – it did allow the trio the opportunity to continue using their ELP moniker.

The career of Emerson, Lake & Powell (or ELP (Mk.2), if you prefer) was a brief one. Their self-titled studio album was released in May 1986, before the band embarked on a mammoth 42-date tour of North America. By the end of the tour, however, the band were – in Lake’s words – “Losing momentum” and, once their obligations were fulfilled, Emerson, Lake & Powell decided to call it a day.

That’s not to say that Emerson, Lake and Powell was an unsuccessful enterprise – far from it. The band were pleased with their album and, although the critics of the time felt obligated to sharpen their knives, it seems that the public agreed with band; the album charted on both sides of the Atlantic and spin-off singles, Touch And Go and Lay Down Your Guns, both performed well. And, although road-weariness played its part, and the band were critical of the way their management handled the US tour, the tour was packed with highlights, notably, the 20^th September show at Madison Square Garden, which was recorded, and an appearance on The David Letterman show, on which the band performed a version of America – a hark back to Emerson’s days in The Nice.

And now, Cherry Red Records have collected the complete works of Emerson, Lake & Powell, remastered them, and presented them together in a new 3-CD package. Whilst there’s nothing here that will cause the more dedicated completist’s flesh to tingle, it’s a satisfying, comprehensive, document of a short-lived trio. Disc One features that eponymous studio album, together with single B-sides, The Loco-Motion and Vacant Possession, plus the single edit of the album’s epic opening track, The Score. Disc Two collects the recordings of the Sprocket Studio (London) rehearsals for the American Tour. Previously released in bootleg form and, in 2003, in official form as The Sprocket Sessions and Disc Three is a reissue of the 2003 Live in Concert album, recorded at that triumphal Madison Square Garden show in September 1986.

Cherry Red have, of course, applied their usual meticulous attention to Emerson, Lake & Powell – Complete Collection. All material included in the box set has been remastered by renowned engineer, Andy Pearce and the discs are accompanied by a lavish booklet with sleeve notes written by Jerry Ewing, editor of Prog Magazine. It’s a product that will appeal strongly to ELP fans who, for some reason, didn’t pick up on this incarnation of the band at the first time of asking, to anyone rediscovering ELP after having allowed their 70s offerings to linger too long on the shelf, and also to anyone who, having heard Tarkus, Trilogy or Brain Salad Surgery for the first time (and, believe me, such people DO exist) is deciding where to look next.

And, so: to the music; I have to say how surprisingly well that studio album has aged. The band were right – it’s a good album. It would have been tempting for the reassembled band to latch onto the contemporary tastes for electronic pop or AOR, after all, they certainly had all the tools necessary to do that, but they resisted. The tunes are immediately recognizable as ELP – long and complex with lots of classical references, but there are differences, too. Cozy’s heavy metal influences are clearly evident and Keith’s keyboard pyrotechnics are more regimented and ordered than they were during the early days. And, what’s more, the album’s highlights are a match for much of the material from the original band’s heyday.

Opening track, The Score is a 9-minute epic that crystallises the ‘ELP with a different man in the engine room’ description and, to solidify that link, there are even nods to Karn Evil 9 from the Brain Salad Surgery album as Greg references the famous “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends” line. The Miracle is another epic track that hits the ELP spot, but, perhaps, the most intriguing track on the album is the reworking of Gustav Holst’s Mars, the Bringer of War. ELP were, of course, famous (some might say notorious) for their adaptations of the works of classical composers and this track continues that tradition. King Crimson would often perform their version of the piece as an encore whilst Lake was in the band, and Cozy Powell had also performed it earlier in his career. Emerson was, at first, reluctant, fearing that it would perpetuate ELP’s reputation as classical dabblers, but he was talked round, and the result is certainly worth a listen.

The Sprocket Sessions – the live rehearsal tapes that constitute Disc Two of this collection – give an initial indication of what could be expected when this new incarnation of ELP hit the road. There’s a lot of emphasis here on the latest album, with half of the featured tracks being drawn from that source, with the rest comprising an ELP ‘Greatest Hits’ selection, including Pirates, Tarkus, Pictures At An Exhibition and Lucky Man.

But, cometh the show, cometh the man and, alongside newer tunes like The Score, Touch and Go and that Gustav Holst reworking, the band filled their set for Live in Concert with a clutch of old favourites, including the tunes mentioned above, and Keith’s Nice showcases, America and Rondo. They still sound great and we’re reminded, once again, of the sheer stadium-filling power of Greg Lake’s voice. Call them classical dabblers if you like, but on a good night, there wasn’t much to touch Emerson, Lake and P.

Emerson, Lake & Powell may have faded away after their brief sojourn in the sun, but that wasn’t quite the end of the ELP project. Emerson and Lake were rejoined by Palmer in 1992 for a couple more laps around the block. Tours and a final two albums emerged before the trio split up once again at the end of 1998. There was a reunion concert – at the 2010 High Voltage Festival in London’s Victoria Park. Sadly, with the passing of Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, within a few months of each other in 2016, there’ll be no further reunions.

Emerson, Lake & Powell – Complete Collection is deserving of its place in the canon of this most singular of bands.

Watch the official video to Touch And Go – a track from the eponymous Emerson, Lake & Powell album – here:

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