"I
think there is some truth in the fact that ELP may have appeared at
times to be pretentious. It depends, really, on your view. I think
people tend to dismiss things they don’t understand.
I
think if someone listens to something like Pictures at an Exhibition,
they assume – because they were probably brought up that way – that
classical music is for the elite. And really, it’s not. Classical music
was for the everyman. It was written for the public; it was just written
at a different time in history. And, it’s less complicated than people
would imagine. There’s nothing really complicated about Pictures at an
Exhibition.
However, if your view of classical
music is that it’s for the elitist-type person — the intellectual, the
them-what-knows – then you’ll probably be offended when someone like ELP
tries to play some classical music.
To us, though, it was just doing a great tune that we liked."
Greg Lake RIP. (Died Wednesday from cancer. He was 69.)
http://wxrt.cbslocal.com/2016/12/08/greg-lake-ten-great-songs/
From Tad:
OK, this sucks. I'll miss ELP for half a dozen great pieces of music.
Ghod knows I didn't always love them (Tarkus, most of their later
stuff), but when they were good (Karn Evil 9, Fanfare for the Common
Man, Still You Turn Me On, From the Beginning, Lucky Man, even Emerson's
Piano Concerto) they were pretty great. I don't think Lake "made" ELP,
but he did write the hits and produced all the albums ... and he always
claimed he wrote the melody for King Crimson's "Epitaph,
