EMERSON LAKE & PALMER

A landmark in rock music as a listening experince. It is a shame that the band, at least on the early issues, claimed credit for composing music written by other people. The Barbarian is in fact Allegro Barbaro by Bartok, and Knife Edge is the Sinfonietta by Janacek. That said the Barbarian is a fantastically exciting piece of rock music.

Take a pebble shows Lake singing at his best and Emerson playing the piano with the subtlest of touches. Knife Edge is a great example of Lake's "mean and nasty" edgy vocal style.

The Three Fates are something really different, especially the third one, made famous as a jingle by Alan Freeman. Tank swings along brilliantly towards Palmer's drum solo, his definitive studio work. Lucky Man is very popular with everyone and much easier to listen to than the rest of the pieces on the album.

This album was never surpassed by ELP, in terms of pure music that grabs you by the ears and transports you to another place.