SONGS OF A LIFETIME

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..