Into the Lake
Published December 21, 2002
Classic rock hero Greg Lake of King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, a solo career, and most recently a guest with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, has a very plush new website GregLake.com. Besides news, music, pics, bio, message board, flash goodies, and the like, there is also an electronic holiday greeting from the singer-songwriter-bassist-guitarist. Lake contributed to the enduring rock holiday music canon with "I Believe In Father Christmas."
With a tremendous, comfortably masculine voice and fine songwriting skills, for a time it appeared Lake might ascend to the highest heights, but while his work on the epochal first King Crimson album (with the proto-industrial "21st Century Schizoid Man," the epic "In the Court of the Crimson King," the sublim "I Talk to the Wind") and the first few ELP records ("Lucky Man," "From the Beginning") is enduring and essential, much of his other work is pedestrian and lyrically uninspired.
It's the holiday season so let's look at the glass a half-full and wish Greg all the best with the new site and endeavors.
- Into the Lake
- Published: December 21, 2002
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Classic Rock and Oldies
- Writer: Eric Olsen
- Eric Olsen's BC Writer page
- Eric Olsen's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Tim, Glad to hear my assessment is seconded by an expert in the genre.
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I was listening to the King Biscuit album listed above the other day, and the thing that struck me was how much better the old King Crimson and ELP songs in the set were compared with Lake's later solo material, which is mostly forgettable.
The only decent song on the Greg Lake Band album they were promoting at the time was "Nuclear Attack", which was written not by Lake but by Gary Moore.