Customer Reviews

Works, Volume 1

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Works was designed as album set that would decipher the elements that made up ELP and their music. Keith Emerson's piano concerto is a delight to listen to. Both elegent and enthralling, his piano playing backed by a orchestra shows a new side to his music and composing skills.

Singer Greg Lake delivers five songs also backed by an orchestral arrangement. Three of them, Lend You Love To Me Tonight, C'est La Vie and Close To Believing are three incredibly romantic songs and are simply beautiful.

Carl Palmer shows some new angles and early influences in his drum playing including a fun song called L.A. Nights with Keith Emerson and Joe Walsh and a re-interpretation of the instrumental Tank from the first album.

The fourth side shows ELP coming together for two of their best performances yet. A rousing and no holds barred rendition of Aaron Copland's Fanfair For The Common Man and Pirates, a thrilling and larger than life tale of scoundral life on the high seas.

This set isn't a ELP album in the classic sense but a study in the influences and the make up of Keith Emerson, Greg Lake & Carl Palmer and what brought them to that point in 1977.

Pretentious, self-indulgent, pompous, ELP's heard em all. While this album may arguably deserve those criticisms more than any of their others, and it seems in danger of becoming a muddled, bombastic mess at times, it never does. It's kept from crossing the line just because (almost) everything works so well.

Emerson's piano concerto is considered one of his finest works, and rightly so. The piano-and-strings orchestration may also be much more palatable to some than the endless array of keyboard and organ sounds used on other albums. Lake provides a lush, dreamy set of tunes done with wonderful orchestration, and his voice is at its finest. Palmer gives an indication what an underrated drummer he is; his selections aren't mind-blowing musically, but display a percussive inventiveness on a level with Bill Bruford or Terry Bozzio. The group pieces, like everything else, aren't quite perfect. "Fanfare" is probably as bombastic as ELP ever got; listenable but somewhat overwhelming. At times it flies, at other times Emerson's organ sounds as though it's being mercilessly throttled to death. "Pirates" paints a vivid picture of sunny lagoons and high seas before the first word is even sung; it's one of their most well-composed pieces.

Not a recommended album for those new to the band (Trilogy or the self-titled album would be better), this is nevertheless a well-produced and satisfying work, and the most pure classical album they've done. Recommended despite some small flaws.

I tried, I really tried to like this when it came out, but it was a bitter disappoiintment after the greatness that preceded it.

I don't mind the "pretentiousness" of this album: that's just a hack's word for "ambition". What's wrong with this is that the ambition doesn't come off.

There are three solo sides, one each for Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. What they show is that the three of them, but especially Emerson/Lake, were almost invariably best when they were writing together.

The Emerson side, with a reasonably good piano concerto, is the best of the solo sections. His concerto is derivative of Gershwin and Rachmaninov, but it's a respectable piece of music. If I were listening to it without knowing what it was, I'd guess it was from a minor but competent composer, written in the 1930s. On the whole that's a compliment. The third movement, _Toccata con Fuoco_, is genuinely memorable, not just "not bad for a piano concerto written by a rock musician" but actually "sit up and listen to this; it's good!"

The Greg Lake side is a problem. I like Lake's contributions the best on ELP albums, up until this one. But it's at this point, I think, that Lake started to let the ELP side down. I guess after singing for years about metal monsters and spectres and so on, he wanted to reinvent himself as a sensitive singer-songwriter, a love balladeer, which might be fair enough. But I wish he'd written better love ballads.

"C'est la vie" is the best of them. It's not a bad song at all, but I never enjoy it as much as the Lake ballads that I love: "Lucky Man", "Take a Pebble", "From the beginning", and so on. The first problem is the dreadful Hollywood Strings backing, which uses every awful soupy strings cliche: long swoops, cheesy climaxes, a burst of "French" accordian... This stuff is the reason you have to leave the room when your grandmother plays a Mantovani record (if she does that sort of thing).

The other problem is more sinister. Greg isn't singing very well. He's turned baritone, and his baritone voice isn't as good as his tenor, but that's not the only problem. The other problem is that he over-produces the song, sings with too much emphasis on some words, and generally wants you to notice his voice. It's all rather hammy. I listened with discomfort, and I realised that I could never play this to anyone who wasn't already a huge ELP fan, because I'd lose them immediately...

And as I say, "C'est la Vie" is the best of these songs. "Closer to believing" is also okay. And there's a Dylan impersonation on "Nobody loves you like I do" that's not bad either. (It turns out that Lake was hanging round with Dylan at the time. They wrote a song together, "I love you too much" that turns up on Lake's first solo album. It's not a great song, though the solo album, "Greg Lake", is probably better than "Works Vol 1" overall.) The other songs are forgettable and dismissable.

Carl Palmer's side is eclectic and contains two good moments. He adds a drum track to "The enemy god dances with the black spirits" (more or less), the last section of Prokoffief's "Scythian Suite". It sounds good, though that piece of music also sounds good without the drum track. And he does an all-percussion arrangement of a Bach invention, which is also good.

The rest is anonymous Californian middle-of-the-road stuff, "LA Nights" with Joe Walsh being embarrassing, and some bad big band stuff, including an unnecessary orchestral re-working of "Tank" from the first album. Despite that, I probably play the two highlights of this side marginally more often than I play any of the Lake tracks, these days.

Then we have the climax with the three of them together. A lot of people like the first piece, their reworking of "Fanfare for the Common Man". I like the opening fanfare, but I think the organ sound, a sort of buzzy out-of-tiune noise that Emerson chose for the jamming section is a mistake. It makes the main body of their version nearly unlistenable, for me.

The big surprise for me is "Pirates". This ought to be bad. It has so much against it: a long, orchestral-backed song about pirates, with Pete Sinfield lyrics. You might expect something like unintentional Gilbert and Sullivan.

But somehow, this one works for me. Lake sings much better on this piece than he does on his own side, getting back some of the flair and passion (and the high notes) that used to make his voice so awe-inspiring. And the lyrics are pretentious, sure, and certainly not aimed at a rock crowd, but they're good enough to justify their pretension. I'm not sure that I'd have recommended that they do this, but they've done it pretty well. I find that all of the music on this album, it's this track that sticks in my mind, and that I most often come back to.

But I'd recommend that if you want to find out why people like ELP, as opposed to "find out what ELP sound like when they're trying experiments that mostly don't work", you should try ELP, Tarkus, Pictures at an Exhibition, or Brain Slad Surgery. And if you like that, go on to the "Welcome back my friends to the title that never ends..." live album.

This is at best second-rate ELP, interesting in parts, and commendably brave, but not a satisfactory whole.

Cheers!

Laon

I used to listen to "Pirates" every morning before I went to school up until the time I was about 8 years old. This is what pirate music should sound like. When I heard the music for "that disney movie", I was like, "This doesn't sound like Pirates at all!"...the ELP song has forever burnt in my head what a soundscape to a swashbuckling adventure should be like, and it shall do the same for you. Buy it for Pirates.

Next to "Trilogy" (1972), "Works Vol. I" is next in line as my all-time cherished ELP album! It is a deftly crafted mix of classical conciertos and effervescent rock/blues melodies that will touch any listener! I must say the first side are the perfect songs to play for a significant-other at a candlelit dinner to spark the romance in your lives, or for yourself in the car or at home to seriously unwind! "Works Vol. I" is the culmination of ELP's musical maturity and genius; they play with the versitility of Renaissance Men. Keith Emerson's solo piano works and Greg Lake's "Closer to Believing" will touch your heart, mind, and soul with an indescribable awe (I remember choking up the first time I heard these tracks because they were so full of life and meaning). "Pirates" rings as a vivid epic ballad and is a nice touch to end this first part of the "Works" double-album.

Bottom line: ELP fan or not, BUY THIS ALBUM! It's a sentimental powerhouse that will reminensce with any wonderful memories you may have!!!

The Emerson piano concerto isn't exactly Beethoven but it is still interesting in it's own way. Frankly I expected something less "pop" in a real concerto and more "Stravinsky"-ish from Emerson. Pay no attention to Larry Crane's comments about Lake. These songs are among the best Lake ever did. The other E.L.P. fans I know say this is about their favorite album just for the great Lake songs. Most but not all of the Palmer songs aren't that great, this type of weird fusion of New Orleans jazz and rock just didn't fly with me. Give it a listen to somewhere before you buy, you'll probably like it.

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer had been a staple of progressive rock for years when Works, Vol. 1 was released. Their most recent album, Brain Salad Surgery, had been a big success, so fans were hoping for another classic. Works, Vol. 1 wasn't the brilliant comeback fans were hoping for.

In fact, it isn't really an ELP album at all.

Reflecting the collapse of the group as a cohesive band, Works, Vol. 1 has a side devoted to each of the bandmembers' work, with a group side at the end.

The comparisons to the Beatles' White Album are not unfounded, but whereas the Beatles were able to pull off that album, ELP's efforts fall flat (most of the time). The problem is the way they separated their efforts into sides. Keith Emerson, though he is an excellent keyboard player, does not even include the other members at all on his side. If his Piano Concerto does catch fire at times, it isn't terribly original or dynamic.

Greg Lake contributes five songs that are trite and boring. His earlier ballads were OK, and Still...You Turn Me On was pretty good (though that triplet with the ladder line - "Someone get me a ladder?!?" - still makes me twitch), but here it gets incredibly dull. His side is the worst of the four - I don't even like "C'est La Vie," which is widely considered to be his best from Works, Vol. 1.

Carl Palmer's side is by far the most interesting and inspired of the three solo sides. True, Emerson does contribute to Palmer's music, but it's solid stuff. Two classical adaptations (Prokofiev and Bach) as well as a re-reading of the Palmer showcase "Tank" from the self-titled debut as well as other fine originals puts Palmer's side way ahead of the others' music.

However, the final side is the best. Consisting of two songs - an adaptation of Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" and the original piece "Pirates" - side four boasts the best music. "Fanfare for the Common Man" is slightly overlong, but it is one of the few songs on Works, Vol. 1 that brings to mind the classic first four ELP albums. "Pirates" is highly underrated and unfortunately forgotten, but it's the very best song on the entire album, with good lyrics and excellent music. A pleasant surprise lurking at the end of this disappointing album.

It's definitely not for casual fans, but at times the double album catches fire. Pick up the first four albums before considering either Works album.

Keith composes a Piano Concerto that is very pro and enjoyable. - A+

Greg has a side of his "romantic" and "black humor" tunes he wrote with Sinfield. - A-

Carl does a side with Joe Walsh with some instrumental works that are nothing special and a pointless re-recording of Tank , however he does well with the classical Enemy God - C+

ELP 'comeback' with the Yamaha GX1 instead of the Hammond Organ on the brilliant Fanfare and the epic Pirates - A+

As a longtime admirer of the musicianship of ELP, I have to admit this is not my favorite of their albums (Trilogy and Brain Sald Surgery top that list), as they meander too far from what I perceive their geatest strength, which is merging their musical differences. Keith Emerson is at the top of his form, and Lake still has the voice that had him repeatedly being voted one of the top vocalists of his era in rock, but Carl Palmer is the real surprise here, showing remarkable evolution as a percussionist, beyond probably anything that has yet to be presented still by another drummer. A very good effort, but still not their best.

When one hears this album they are amazed how ELP went from BSS to Works !Group to Solos for each and 2 SONGS by the whole band,frankly I am amazed that they put 2 in.About my White Album ref.it was late in the bands history (one album before Love Beach). If you want a fair representative of the Works seriesget a hold of a copy of Works Live,the sound isn't great but the music makes up in full for it.Decent but not Great.