By Jim Rowland
Back in 1977 the punk revolution was in full swing, railing against the opulence, excess and self-indulgence of the rock superstars of the day, especially the progressive rock ones. So what were archenemies Emerson, Lake & Palmer doing at the time? A world tour with a full 70-piece orchestra and a choir, that’s what. That tour is captured on ‘Works Live’, a 1977 recording culled mainly from the Montreal Olympic Stadium performance, which now gets an updated and remastered release.
Of course, since those days, both punk and prog have endured. You may not have been allowed to admit it at the time, but plenty of people have a full appreciation of both, myself included. The legacy of ELP has indeed endured, with numerous archival releases and reissues of the classic albums in recent years, and with last man standing Carl Palmer set to hit the road with ‘An Evening with ELP’ live shows in 2027.
This recording was originally released as a truncated single LP entitled ‘In Concert’ following the band’s breakup in 1979, with ‘Works Live’ restoring much of the material originally intended for the project when it was expanded into a double-disc edition in 1993. This new BMG edition revisits that expanded presentation with refreshed packaging, remastering and updated notes.
As the title suggests, ‘Works Live’ is taken from the time when ELP were touring the ‘Works Volume 1’ and ‘Works Volume 2’ albums from 1977. Not surprisingly, the set leaned heavily on tracks from those albums such as ‘Tiger In A Spotlight’, ‘C’est La Vie’, ‘Closer To Believing’, ‘Watching Over You’ and of course the full version of ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’, an edited version of which had provided the group with a worldwide hit single. ‘Peter Gunn’, taken from this recording, was also a hit single in 1979.
There is still room for a handful of epic earlier ELP classics though, with ‘Abaddon’s Bolero’, ‘Knife-Edge’ and a trimmed down ‘Pictures At An Exhibition’ all featuring. The sound quality here is top notch, and although there is an orchestra and choir involved, the orchestration is tasteful. This isn’t an overbearing ‘orchestral’ album, and there is plenty of room for Greg Lake’s acoustic moments, Keith Emerson’s keyboard wizardry, and Carl Palmer’s explosive drumming, highlighted on the album closer ‘Tank’.
‘Works Live’ is a fascinating snapshot in time, and a most worthy addition to the collection of every fan of the work of ELP.
- ‘Works Live‘ will be released on Friday (24 June)