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Keith Emerson has been a persistent, successful representative of the art rock tradition, combining classical & rock elements. Mostly, his work in this subgenre falls into the 6th approach outlined in the text (using the musical language of rock to create an extended work modeled after a classical form), but they also were adept at the 4th approach (adapting a classical work to rock performance), as evident from the examples provided on the Rock & Classical Elements page of this web site.
Emerson first became known as keyboard player for The Nice (formed in 1967)with Lee Jackson (bass/guitar/vocals), Brian "Blinky" Davison (drums), and David O'List (guitar/vocals). O'List departed after the first album, The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack. In addition to setting the stage for ELP, this band provided a link between the musical experimentalism of late-60s psychedelia and art rock.
Greg Lake was a founding member of King Crimson with Robert Fripp (guitar/mellotron), Ian McDonald (keys/sax/flute/vocals), Michael Giles (drums), and Pete Sinfield (lyrics/lights). Lake departed after the bands first album (In the Court of the Crimson King) to form ELP. Interestingly, in 1976, McDonald was one of the founding members of Foreigner, a highly successful commercial mainstream rock band.
Initially, the band was to include Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but when those plans fell through Emerson & Lake settled on Carl Palmer. The band artfully fused Greg Lake's predominantly acoustic ballads (hit singles) with Emerson's pretentious keyboard excesses and expanded musical forms
The band's first album (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, 1970) went gold ... three tracks of the six on this first album were instrumentals ("The Barbarian," "The Three Fates," and "Tank").
The Barbarian
Take a Pebble
The Three Fates
Lucky Man (#48, 1970)
... in fact, each of ELP's first nine albums went gold
Their second album (Tarkus, 1971) continued the tradition
Tarkus
Bitches Crystal
Are You Ready Eddy?
Their third album (1971) was a recording of Emerson's transcription of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (the ultimate example of the 4th approach to combining classical & rock elements)
Promenade
The Gnome
The Old Castle
The Hut of Baba Yaga
The Great Gates of Kiev
ELP's fourth album (Trilogy, #5 in 1972) was their highest placed album contained their only Top 40 hit ("From the Beginning") ... their music does not typically lend itself to a 3-minute format; however, other songs (often excerpts of longer recordings) received significant airplay, especially on AOR radio stations
The Endless Enigma, Part 1
Fugue
The Endless Enigma, Part 2
From the Beginning (#39, 1972)
Hoedown
based on the "Hoedown" section of Aaron Copland's Rodeo, a ballet
Trilogy
ELP's fifth album was Brain Salad Surgery (1973)
Jerusalem
Toccata
adaptation of the 4th movement from Alberto Ginastera's First Piano Concerto
Benny the Bouncer
Still ... You Turn Me On
Karn Evil 9 - First Impression (pt. 1 & 2)
Karn Evil 9 - Second Impression
Karn Evil 9 - Third Impression
Conversation: The Making of Brain Salad Surgery
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