EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER : WORKS LIVE

 

Disc One (41:20)

  1. Introductory Fanfare
  2. Peter Gunn
  3. Tiger In A Spotlight
  4. C'est La Vie
  5. Watching Over You
  6. Maple Leaf Rag
  7. The Enemy God Dances With The Black Spirits
  8. Fanfare For The Common Man
  9. Knife Edge
  10. Show Me The Way To Go Home

Disc Two (47:02)

  1. Abaddon's Bolero
  2. Pictures At An Exhibition
  3. Closer To Believing
  4. Piano Concerto
  5. Tank

Label : Sony Music

Venue : Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Québec, Canada

Recording Date : August 26, 1977

Release Date : 1993

Review (AllMusic) : In 1977, after three years' time off working on various solo projects - which were to have culminated with a trio of solo albums - Emerson, Lake & Palmer reunited to release Works, Vol. 1, a double LP containing the best of the solo works plus a side of group-conceived pieces. All in all, it was the most ambitious and wide-ranging body of music they'd ever released, and was followed by the more modestly proportioned but still successful Works, Vol. 2 in November of that year, and a tour that fall and winter; in keeping with the albums that spawned it, the concerts initially featured a 90-piece orchestra supporting the trio. They weren't able to keep the orchestra for more than a handful of shows before the money ran out, and the group spent the rest of the tour working as a trio to pay off what was owed, but they recognized the importance of those performances with the orchestra and saw to it that one of them, at least, was captured properly and professionally - and unlike Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends, their 1974 live album, which had its share of technical flaws, this time around the recording was state-of-the-art. Ironically, what they captured was almost an embarrassment of riches for their record label at the time - by 1979, the brand of progressive rock represented by ELP was falling out of favor with critics and the public under the four-way assault of punk, new wave, power pop, and disco, and all Atlantic Records felt comfortable releasing at the time was a paltry single live LP, entitled In Concert. The advent of the CD era and the revival of the trio in the 1990s led to the latter's reissue and expansion into this two-CD set, released in late 1993. Recorded at the Montreal Olympic Stadium (pictured on the cover of both albums), it features the trio performing with a symphony orchestra. Technically, it's a beautiful album, avoiding most of the pitfalls and sonic shortcomings of their earlier concert ventures on record, and the repertory is the widest ranging of their entire history, reaching back to "Knife Edge" (from their first album) and reviving "Abaddon's Bolero," an instrumental from Trilogy, plus a brace of tracks of all proportions from both Works albums, among them Keith Emerson's "Piano Concerto" and his more modestly conceived "Tiger in the Spotlight" and his rendition of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag," Greg Lake's "C'Est la Vie," "Watching Over You," "Closer to Believing," and his interpretation of "Show Me the Way to Go Home" - all in versions distinctly superior to their studio renditions - as well as the reconceived "Tank." Prog rock fans will be delighted by "Pictures at an Exhibition," here shorter, tighter, and obviously more symphonic than the group's 1971 recording. There is a real sense listening to this album, however - despite some light and disarming moments such as "Tiger in the Spotlight," and good, cohesive playing throughout - that you're really listening not so much to a band as to three personalities just chomping at the bit to go solo. Lake's featured numbers were, by now, so guitar-focused that they sounded like a separate body of music, which they were. Carl Palmer, who had fully come into his own as a creative musician by this time - even recording a concerto of his own for percussion and orchestra that would get released 24 years later - had also achieved a distinct voice, matching that of the other two members. Works Live is a proper and worthy successor to Welcome Back My Friends, capturing the group's last, grand musical gestures before ego conflicts tore them apart, though even in this regard there are flaws - apparently, they never did get a usable official recording of "Pirates," a centerpiece of Works, Vol. 1, and on Emerson's concerto, represented here only by its last movement, an otherwise beautiful and bracing live performance ends with a lackluster finale. No one will complain of the sound or the scope, however, and the enjoyable and even surprising moments do outnumber the disappointments, even if most of the material is less focused than the repertory represented on their earlier concert releases.

Review (Wikipedia) : Emerson, Lake and Palmer in Concert (also known as simply In Concert) is a live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), recorded at their 26 August 1977 show at the Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada which is featured on the album cover. It was released by Atlantic Records in November 1979, following ELP's breakup. It was later re-released and repackaged as Works Live in 1993. Some of the tracks were not from the Montreal concert, but from other concerts during their 1977–1978 tour, such as "Peter Gunn" and "Tiger in a Spotlight". "Peter Gunn" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 23rd Annual Grammy Awards. Similar to most live albums, In Concert showcased fan favourites of previously released material. However, "Peter Gunn", ELP's take on the classic TV theme song, was never released on any of their other albums (a slightly edited version of this live recording was included on the 1980 The Best of Emerson, Lake & Palmer compilation and released as a single in some countries). ELP frequently opened with this song on the Works Volume 2 tour. The band hired a 70-piece orchestra for some concerts of this tour but eventually had to dismiss the orchestra due to budget constraints that almost bankrupted the group. On the original release, the orchestra performs on "C'est la Vie", "Knife-Edge", Keith Emerson's piano concerto, and "Pictures at an Exhibition". Works Live adds four other songs performed with the orchestra: "Fanfare for the Common Man", "Abaddon's Bolero", "Closer to Believing", and "Tank". The original release of this album carried no producer credit; however, production and mixing of the album was largely carried out by Keith Emerson. While Emerson intended to release In Concert as a double LP, the band's imminent dissolution meant ELP's label, Atlantic Records, limited it to a single album. The 1993 re-release of the album, as the double CD Works Live, restored Emerson's original intent to some extent.