GREG LAKE

Having never been a big fan of ELP (one of the 'Big Six' of the classic prog bands), I get a peculiar pleasure being the first reviewer for this single -- which was released under GREG LAKE's name. But as the ELP connoisseurs remember, the song is from the supertrio's double album Works (1977) that consists of separate vinyl sides devoted to the music written, or arranged from classical music pieces, by (1) Keith Emerson, (2) Greg Lake and (3) Carl Palmer, while the fourth side is more of a team work.

Speaking of ELP, I'm not ashamed to admit that the songs of Greg Lake have generally been closer to my heart than the overbombastic and excessive virtuoso approach of organist/keyboardist Keith Emerson. I like Lake's strong and passionate voice which had earned a firm place in prog's history already on the King Crimson debut in 1969. 'C'est la Vie' is a deeply emotional 'larger-than-life' ballad with lyrics written by Pete Sinfield. Lake does a terrific job on vocals, but equally impressive is the majestic and melancholic feel in the music, up to the French-style accordeon. Indeed, the song can be compared to the best achievements in the Chanson genre and its artists such as Charles Aznavour, Yves Montand or Jacques Brel. Apart from the title phrase meaning "that's life", the lyrics are in English, though. 5/5.

The choice for the B side of this single is a real disgrace in comparison. 'Jeremy Bender' originally appeared on the much praised ELP album Tarkus (1971) in which it's nothing but a lightweight filler, frankly even irritating to some listeners, myself included. I really couldn't care less of it, and it's a strange choice altogether. A throwaway album track from six years back, what?? 1½ /5.

But I'll emphasize 'C'est la Vie' on my rating and give four stars. One of the highlight moments in Greg Lake's career as a singer-songwriter.

In search of the lost hit..... Greg Lake's follow up to his rather pedestrian self titled debut solo album is even less proggy than that album if such a thing is possible.This album is so hopelessly mediocre I find it almost impossible to get through.Poor old Greg seemed to be floundering in a desperate attempt to produce a hit single and all that is left is an insipid collection of totally forgettable songs if you can call them that.I know a lot of ELP fans will not agree but their "Love Beach" LP is a bona- fide Prog Classic compared to this.

One star

Greg Lake goes Mainstream.

If you thought ELP's "Love Beach" was heading into an AOR direction then you are in for a rude shock when you hear this album.There are a couple of good rockers especially the opening track "Nuclear Attack" (although Gary Moore's own version is better) and the Celtic flavoured "For those Who Dare"."Retribution Drive" and "Someone" are also fairly sophisticated songs and probably the closest thing likely to appeal to Prog fans. However, most of other the songs are rather insipid and frankly pretty cheesy love songs . As you would expect given the caliber of the players on display here especially Gary Moore the actual arrangements and overall production is good.butI really cannot get excited by this album.

3 stars-just.

Not nearly as bad as you might expect and preferable to the Manticore Hall CD that Lake did with Emerson , this comes from a solo tour that has no band and uses a backing track (gulp!). Lake sings very well though and his voice is seemingly stronger than it was in the 90's although obviously not having the same range of ELP's early days. You get a pleasing mix of covers of ELP , King Crimson , Beatles and even an Elvis song . His recollection of seeing Elvis in Vegas 'Tribute To The King' is a treasure in itself ( he can tell a good story!) as well as interesting recollections and anecdotes about Lucky Man and The Beatles. His version of You've Got To Hide Your Love Away is lovely and demonstrates perfectly Lake's ability to deliver a ballad. The backing track of course on some of the rockier songs is not ideal like KE9 but its okay. Will only be purchased by fans I guess but the stories and anecdotes hopefully will be of interest to everyone.

What we have here is a one-man show, combining Greg performing some of his most well- known songs (with a backing track) along with stories of things that have happened in his life. So, we hear about the Beatles, and when he saw Elvis in concert and so forth. The one thing I did learn from this was that the artist behind 'Court of the Crimson King' died only three days after he presented the artwork to the band, at the age of 21. There is no doubting Greg's musical ability or his stunning voice, but is this really the best way to hear him? Rick Wakeman has been performing a similar show, on and off, for some ten years or more where he tells stories and plays the piano. The major difference there is that Rick is providing new interpretations of songs, with no backing music whatsoever, whereas here we have instances such as on "From The Beginning" where there is quite an extended keyboard solo yet at that point all Greg does is play chords as that was his part in that section of the song.

I have always enjoyed Greg's performances with ELP (and I loved it when he fronted Asia, I just wish that they had recorded a studio album together), but he hasn't done a great deal outside that and definitely comes across better in the band environment. This has been billed as 'Songs of a Lifetime' but the most recent song here is the mighty "Touch and Go" from the Emerson Lake & Powell album in 1985, so what happened in the last 28 years? Greg also performs some covers that were important to him in his musical life, such as "Heartbreak Hotel" yet while it is interesting to hear Greg's version I would much rather hear more ELP. The stories are fairly lengthy, which means that the album doesn't benefit from repeated plays either.

All in all I would rather play the compilation of his that was issued a few years ago, 'From The Beginning', but although I can't see myself returning to it very often he still has a wonderful voice..

Greg Lake doesn't really need any introduction. The only two reasons I see for you not to know him are A) If you've lived in a cave for the last 40 years; B) You're a beginner in the Prog World.

First, Greg Lake was the vocalist/bassist of King Crimson and then of Emerson Lake & Palmer, both bands are pillars to what Prog Rock would be in the 70's. After ELP broke up in 1978 he basically did? very little, in the music scene. He released 2 solo albums in 80's (81 & 83), participated in the ELP (this time as Emerson, Lake & Powell) come back in 86 and again with the original ELP line up in 92. Since then he has released sporadic live albums here and there.

In 2012 Greg was writing his biography and the idea of a new tour appeared to him. The one that he would be alone on stage singing the songs that he considered crucial to his career and telling the stories of his musical life. So far so good, it would be probably a great DVD and a great experience on stage, but all in all, as a live album, it doesn't work at all.

Musically speaking, what's the point of having a great musician like Greg live, with a playback in the background? And what's worse, the versions on the playback are the ones from the 90's ELP comeback, not the originals. And it's kind of a shame having Prog classics like '21st Century Schizoid Man', 'Epitaph/The Court Of The Crimson King' and 'I Talk To The Wind' by King Crimson and 'Trilogy' and 'Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression Part 2' by Emerson, Lake & Palmer played that way with such bad and fake arrangements.

While Greg tells his stories, they are all great and very, very interesting, but by the second time you listen to it, they're all boring and old already. Like I said, for you to go to the concert or even watch a DVD that would be great. But to release a CD from it? I don't get it.

Greg sings basically his solo songs from ELP times like 'From The Beginning', 'Still? You Turn Me On', 'C'est La Vie' and of course, 'Lucky Man'. He also plays a few classics such as 'Heartbreak Hotel' by Elvis Presley and 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away' by The Beatles. The set also includes the inexplicable presence of 'Touch And Go' from the Emerson, Lake & Powell (1986) album. If he wanted to play something from that album it could have been 'The Miracle' instead. Other good songs (and fairly pop ones) like 'A Time And A Place', 'The Sheriff' or 'Benny The Bouncer' were forgotten. In conclusion, don't get me wrong, Greg Lake is one of the most humble and good guys on Prog World. But we're talking about music here, and even if he still has a powerful voice, Songs From A Lifetime (2013) doesn't go anywhere. If you're not a hardcore fan, or if you weren't in the one of the shows? avoid it.

Each member of Emerson, Lake and Palmer have done a tour and a live CD or DVD in solo with songs from ELP. This time Greg Lake played in 2005, some ELP's classics, plus some King Crimson's songs with his band. Those versions are pretty close to the original, except "Take a Pebble" who has been rearranged. There is some mellow tracks that are not as intense as the most progressive tracks, including a Christmas song that seems to have been included here by some fans requests. There is also a rock 'n 'roll song that is too much for my taste, called "Love you too much".

This is a very honest performance by talented musicians, with the beautiful voice of Greg Lake. On the second disk, we have 45 minutes of songs in rehearsal with complete songs. The camera work and the picture are very professional, and a nice 5.1 surround sound.

Overall, this album does not impress me at all even though Gary Moore contributes guitar part. It's probably there is basically no prog elements at all and I don't think his previous album as well. The only reason putting his music here is his contribution in Emerson Lake and Palmer. Not only the music that is too light and not that good melody-wise and composition-wise but also the lyrics are not compelling at all - consider "A Woman Like You" which I can not imagine Greg Lake wrote a lyric like this!

All songs are just mere pop with some of them having rock elements. "Too Young To Love" is probably the only track that I can consider good as a rock track as I can see stunning guitar work by Gary Moore. For those wanting to know this album - it's OK if your reason is to complete everything about ELP. But if you want to have progressive music, forget it - nothing here. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Greg Lake is one of the most essential and largely known vocalists in the world of prog. His tenures with King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer are already merit enough to say so. But unlike his fellow prog vocalists (from the most succesful prog bands) such as Peter Gabriel, Jon Anderson, Ian Anderson, Roger Waters, David Gilmour or Peter Hammill (or, excuse me, Phil Collins!), Greg Lake seems to be "an old fa(r)t" who hasn't made a notable solo career or hasn't even made much worthy as a band member either since the decline of ELP. That means in practice that this 2-CD compilation is rather uneven. Also it is quite questionable who exactly is the ideal listerner to this set. Probably one who admires especially Lake's vocals (putting the musical context to a secondary status), not someone who is primarily after classic Crimson and ELP stuff, because the latter gets too much weaker material here. But I'm not saying this retrospective would't deserve its existence. Even if Lake's career has been mostly downhill since the seventies, it is interesting to get the chronological wider picture including various phases (KC, ELP, solo albums, ELPowell, later ELP).

ELP gets the lion's share here. Naturally the track choices favour songs instead of instrumentally oriented ELP stuff. So it's not only about the singer Greg Lake, it's also about the song-writer Greg Lake. I'm not getting into more detailed analysis of contents, see the track list yourself. Solo stuff has quite a few goodies, they tend to be pretentious power-pop ballads or totally forgettable arena rockers. But I guess this compilation is as good as one can make of it without emphasizing more on the best years. (Collectors/ fans only: two stars.)

Well if you think of the end of a great artist, whose fame with ELP was interrupted by a dramatic accident which occurred to Keith Emerson in the period of "In the Hot seat" (to one of his hands as you know...), you won't believe that Greg has been able to create a new ensemble after a long tormented passage of his career, by touring all over Europe!! Of course the lead guitarist along with him is able to re-arrange "Take a Pebble" in a remarkable manner, even though for instance their version of "Pictures at an Exhibition" doesn't add anything new in comparison to the ELP version of the early nineties...but even Greg is involved into some excursions at the electric guitar and well supported by a good keyboard-player such as David Arch, so at the end- by excluding the tepid ballads like "Farewell to Arms" (except perhaps on the magic atmosphere of "I Believe in Father Christmas") or a useless blues rock entitled "Paper Blood"- the other tracks- also in the present video concert- are quite remarkable! Greg's voice is not bad, being so mature, even though not clear at all in some circumstances, never mind cause I've appreciated the choice of "Karn Evil 9" and also the ever green "21st Century Schizoid Man" so much, after all!!

So you'll forgive him as for some missing powerful ballads like "Still you turn me on!" or the solemn and imposing tune "Jerusalem", but his return on stage as a well supported "soloist" of the prog-related genre has been a true surprise during the year 2005, then becoming a fine "confirmation" in the following year, by means of the present live.

Very interesting product and almost a must-have (final evaluation: almost "4 stars", cause the tepid ballads prevent me to give this DVD-live a major score).