WORKS VOL. 1

Back in the 1990's I used to take the freely available outtakes from the Beach Boys Smile sessions and arrange them in various different ways onto a CD to play back in the way I envisage the album was meant to unfold in the vision of Brian Wilson. The choral introduction of Our Prayer followed by the long version of Heroes and Villains was easy, but then came a jigsaw puzzle of piecing together the middle tracks through to the culmination of the seminal track Surf's Up to finish the album. Brian Wilson solved the puzzle himself when he released the Smile album under his own name around 2004.

Works doesn't command the legendary status of Smile but it does represent a watershed for the excesses of the Prog Rock movement which was being overtaken in popularity by Punk and New Wave.

Where it all went wrong I think was in its conception of giving each band member a side of music with the fourth side devoted to a band effort. Throw in a complete side of Keith Emerson music which is purely piano and orchestra and try to mesh it with acoustic Greg Lake numbers and a drum orchestral suite by Carl Palmer would be an impossible task for any record producer. Maybe it was a case of ego in combination with ambition, with the added anxiety of wanting to put out a studio album after a three-year absence, overriding common sense. The result actually isn't that bad. Musicians like Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer are incapable of producing sludge (even Love Beach has its moments).

So, this in my opinion is how the whole project could have been saved:

Opening track. Fanfare for the Common Man. This is a fantastic version of the Aaron Copeland and a favorite with ELP fans. Fast and jazzy with a catchy upbeat why was it hidden on side 4? It has to open the album.

Track 2. Piano Concerto. Keith Emerson's attempt at sonata form which sits with mainly 19th classical music. That's ok I guess because Keith is attempting something purely orchestral with piano. Trouble is even George Gershwin was dispensing with sonata form back in the 1920's. Bela Bartok was composing piano concertos in the early 20th century but they depart radically from anything before that period. I think inwardly Keith is a romantic who loves that period of symphonic music from mid to late 19th century and sees the pure orchestral form as a challenge reflecting his love of that period. If it was Gershwin it would be very jazzy and very American. That's not Keith. He turns to European late romantic 19th century. Whether he succeeds or not depends on your love of that period, your love of the symphony orchestra and your willingness to suspend your love of electronic form which led you to ELP in the first place.

Track 3. C'est La Vie. Greg Lake's song writing skills are never going to be a match for Ray Davies, Bob Fripp or David Bowie. Nevertheless, Greg has a voice to kill for, a beautiful guitar playing style and the sensibilities of building a song structure. C'est La Vie is a typical Lake acoustic ballad, a French flavor with the cliched piano accordion accompanying it and a beautiful orchestral arrangement. Ok, it not the most subtle composition Greg Lake ever wrote but it suits the romantic theme of the album.

Track 4. Pirates. Grand finale all guns firing, group effort here. Ok again, subtlety it isn't with cliched lyrics and a rousting theme, but the playing is superb and the orchestral arrangement is quite stirring.

I've deliberately left out side three which features a drum orchestral suite by Carl Palmer in which he offers a remake of Tank from their self-titled album and a reinvention of pieces of JS Bach and Prokofiev. As an added bonus you get to hear guitarist Joe Walsh on LA nights.

Verdict:

Two Stars for the original double album.

Three and a half to four stars for a reconstituted album stripped back to a single album size with my above suggested changes.

Fours stars for Carl Palmer's drum orchestral suite which is really the best thing on the Works album and deserved its own solo studio album.

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