TRILOGY

I used to love this album because of all the great piano work. But its weakness is the lack of good lyric writing ability of Lake. "Don't waste this time you've got to love again." I mean who says that to somebody at the end of a relationship. Lake wrote in too idealized a world. But I believe that this album integrated Lake's sentimentality back into the band after Tarkus, which Lake did not like and thought was a dumb idea. It is really a beautiful album but not a rock album and probably then not a prog rock album.

Hoedown is the rockiest number on the album and one of the band's highlights. It is said that Copland like this piece but I read an article in NY Newsday back in 1977-8, in which he said that he did not care for the piece but the copyrighters sure must have. This piece was reinforced by the incredible speed with whicih the band took it in concert; too fast in my opinion and now that Emo cannot play that fast anymore I wish he would slow it down. Abaddon's Bolero is one of the band's lowest points and when they did it with the orchestra during the works tour it was even worse. I think it would have been best for the band if Emo had an alternative outlet for his classical aspirations, the concerto and this piece. The lush piano writing of Trilogy and Endless Enigma, with its central fugue, are interesting. They really show how close Emo was to being a classical composer and these 'art songs' are Emo and Lake's gasp into classical immortality. Perhaps they really needed to prove that they could work together and create something worthwhile, which I believe these peices are. They are a real heartfelt attempt at something beyond the tripartitie pop song structure. But the trite lyrics really destroy the artistry as well as the inablity Emerson shows in writing organically.The piano ideas a great but they tend not to flow fluidly from one section to the next.

This album is a must for ELP fans and anyone who likes the laid back California sounds of the early 1970s, Eagles and the like will enjoy it. But I think that any fan of prog rock who likes the more technical, i.e masculine, side of the genre should stay clear. That having been said, I would like to add that ELP created a bridge between the world of pop and rock that appealled to both male and female audience members. This was rare in the early and mid-1970s prog rock and rock in general. Genesis and Led Zeppelin had done this but King Crimson and Yes had a very male dominated audience. I think the piano and sentimentality of this album points to the reason why this happened. So in some sense it could be said that this is an early example of power pop, Styx, Journey, Boston and Kansas,the genre that led to the demise in popularity of prog rock during the late 1970s.

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