Reviews & Spotlights
Emerson, Lake & Powell: The Complete Collection
In 1984, when prog rock legend Carl Palmer was seated behind the drum stool for his hit making group Asia - his former bandmates chose a curious time to reconvene as they would need to replace him in order to move forward. Lucky for them, the beast known as Cozy Powell was available and a new ELP (Emerson, Lake & Powell) was born hoping to tap into the MTV craze that was crowning many of their contemporaries as kings of this new musical medium.
"When Cozy came in, he really dazzled us. We didn't intend to put the group back together 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," Greg Lake told the LA Times back in 1986.
The new band got to work recording their debut which would turn out to be their first and last album. Why that was is hard to decipher. They evoked a sense of fun and whimsy as heard on their cover of "The Loco-Motion" - and, this version of ELP put others like YES and Asia on notice that they certainly could out-commercial them as the dramatic single "Touch And Go" was unmatched in power and potential for the era. Maybe the strength of that track made the rest of the record pale in comparison becasue come one tour later ELP would disband once again.
This 3 CD box set includes the bands one and only studio release: Emerson, Lake & Powell, featuring 3 bonus tracks. Also included is their live album, Live In Concert and a CD of rehearsals, The Sprocket Sessions, which has previously only been released as a bootleg.
Emerson, Lake & Powell The Complete Collection documents the sometimes glorious swift rise and fast fall of musical legends who were trying to redefine themselves for a new generation of fans in the 80's. Was this attempt a success or failure overall depends on your perspective. The music is mostly pretty damn good so maybe the chemistry was just not quite right in this configuration. One can only wonder what if it was Palmer on drums instead of Powell? At this point we'll never know.
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Review by Rockin' Rich Lynch |
Emerson, Lake And Powell - The Complete Collection
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