Musician Greg Lake of Emerson Lake and Palmer passes away at age 69
Gregory Stuart “Greg” Lake (10 November 1947 – 7 December 2016) was an English singer, musician, songwriter, and producer. He was a member of the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP). He also recorded as a solo artist which included his 1975 hit single, “I Believe in Father Christmas”.
Lake grew up in Dorset along with future King Crimson founder Robert Fripp and went to a music college in London. Both of whom found commercial success with the group’s first album, In the Court of the Crimson King. During the subsequent tour, Lake met The Nice’s Keith Emerson and the pair decided to form ELP. Recruiting drummer Carl Palmer to finish the trio. ELP enjoyed significant success throughout the 1970s as part of the progressive rock genre. Lake performed with various groups in the 1980s. Occasional ELP reunions popped up in the 1990s. Greg toured regularly as a solo artist into the 21st century, and whilst he certainly isn’t one of the best hip-hop producers, he has crossed over with the genre from time to time whilst keeping his feet firmly in his own musical niche.
When Lake started his career, it wasn’t as easy as just uploading his music onto YouTube or music streaming sites as these things didn’t exist back then. His success in the music industry came from working his way up to the top and doing everything he could to get noticed. Nowadays, music artists can upload their music and songs on places like iTunes and Spotify, and can even think about buying Spotify Plays to help give them a better chance at being headhunted in the industry. It could be considered as being easier to work in this area now, and that is why Greg Lake will always be remembered as a popular musician.
He died in 2016 after suffering from cancer.
King Crimson
In the 1960s, Lake formed a friendship with future King Crimson co-founder and guitarist Robert Fripp, who was also from Dorset and the two shared the same guitar teacher. When Fripp formed King Crimson, he chose Lake to be the singer and bassist. This marked Lake’s first time playing the instrument as he had primarily been a guitarist for the previous eleven years. Though Peter Sinfield was the band’s lyricist, Lake had some involvement in the lyrics for their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King. After their contracted producer Tony Clarke walked away from the project, Lake produced the album. Released in October 1969, the album was an immediate commercial and critical success, as Lake recalled: “There was this huge wave of response. The audiences were really into us because we were an underground thing – the critics loved us because we offered something fresh”.
King Crimson supported In the Court of the Crimson King with a tour of the UK and the US, with some of the shows featuring rock band The Nice as the opening act. During the US leg, Lake struck up a friendship with Nice keyboardist Keith Emerson and the two shared similar musical interests and talked about benefit forming a new group. When King Crimson returned to the UK in early 1970, Lake agreed to sing on the band’s second album, In the Wake of Poseidon. He also appeared on the music television show Top of the Pops with them, performing the song “Cat Food”.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
In April 1970, Lake left King Crimson and reunited with Emerson, along with drummer Carl Palmer of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster to form a progressive rock supergroup, Emerson Lake & Palmer. As well as bass, Lake contributed acoustic and electric guitar work to Emerson Lake & Palmer. His voice had a wider and more diverse range than anything The Nice had recorded.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer conflicted between Emerson’s interest in complex, classically-influenced music and Lake’s more straightforward rock tastes. During the making of the band’s second album Tarkus, Lake initially rejected the title track, but was persuaded to record it following a band meeting with management. The meeting ended in the addition of an original Lake tune, “Battlefield”, into the suite.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer became one of the most successful groups in the 1970s before splitting in 1979 following the unsuccessful album Love Beach. The group reformed for a number of years in the mid-1990s before permanently disbanding bar a one-off gig in 2010.
Solo career and other projects
In 1975, while still a member of ELP, Lake achieved solo chart success when his single, “I Believe in Father Christmas“, reached number two on the UK Singles Chart. It has become a Yuletide perennial. Lake briefly joined Asia in 1983, replacing fellow King Crimson alumnus John Wetton, and then co-formed Emerson, Lake & Powell.
In 2005, Lake toured Germany and the United Kingdom with his “Greg Lake Band” which included David Arch, Florian Opahle, Trevor Barry on bass, and Brett Morgan. Lake performed “Karn Evil 9” with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at several shows. He was a special guest on the album Night Castle (2009).
In July 2010, Lake joined Emerson and Palmer for what was to be the final live concert by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, at the High Voltage rock festival, in Victoria Park, London. The entire concert was later released as the double-CD live album, High Voltage, and subsequently on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Lake continued to tour solo in the 2010s. On 9 January 2016, he was awarded an honorary degree in music and lyrics composition by Conservatorio Nicolini in Piacenza, Italy, the first degree awarded by the conservatory.
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