Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Emerson, Lake & Palmer ‘Works Volume 1’ - I’ve recently read David Weigel’s ‘The Show That Never Ends’ summary of prog rock and, having been reminded of ELP’s obscene excesses of the time, thought I give this a rare spin. Oh dear, I rather wish I hadn’t. Aside from a couple of Carl Palmer’s tracks, and the full length version of ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’, this could be the most self indulgent wank ever unleashed upon the masses. Keith Emerson’s Piano Concerto is puerile, neo-classical rubbish that might’ve just worked as a band piece, but is sheer tedium for an orchestra who must have had to mask yawns and laughter in its execution. Greg Lake’s tracks are dreary, trite and tuneless. Worst of all, ‘Pirates’ is a sub-Lloyd Webber mini “rock” opera that cloys from start to finish. Even the sleeve has an annoying, pompous feel about it, coming across like the cover of a posh restaurant’s menu. If this hadn’t been a surprise gift from my dear late dad I’d have ditched this decades ago. As it is, I’ll put my still pristine 1977 double LP back in the racks, never to be played again - well, not by me anyway. Life’s too short, and I’m already in its latter stages.

Even the full length version of Fanfare wears out its welcome, becoming just a series of farts as it drags on. Works Vol.2 is actually much better. If they'd dropped the weaker tracks from that, replaced them with the single edit of Fanfare and a couple of other tracks from Vol. 1 and used the epic single version of 'I Believe In Father Christmas' it could have been a pretty decent album. But ELP had no self awareness, as evidenced by the cringeworthy titles of Lake's ballads and the painful vocalising that ruins their take on Mussorgsky's magnificent Great Gate Of Kiev on their otherwise enjoyable version of Pictures At An Exhibition. Still ... I'm a big fan of their first few albums and it was great to see them play their 40th anniversary/farewell concert at the High Voltage festival in 2010.

Yeah, the albums up to ‘Brain Salad Surgery’ are what will stay in my mind as ELP’s best work. I never saw them live so if they impressed at the High Voltage fest it’s a great tribute to Emerson who, according to David Weigel, had developed some severe health problems by that time. Given his tragic demise and that of Lake soon after, I almost feel guilty in slagging the post-Salad ELP off, but I really can’t forgive abominations like ‘Works Vol 1’ or, worse still, ‘Love Beach’.