Following in the aftermath of supergroups like Blind Faith and Mountain, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer stunned the music world with their 1970 debut. In a crowded field of incredible talent, ELP managed to sound completely unique. In 2006 Shout! Factory began releasing new titles in their ELP remasters series beginning with the self titled 1970 debut, Emerson Lake & Palmer and 1971’s Tarkus. ELP were a progressive favorite and managed to chart with an occasional top 40 AM radio hit. For a prog band in 1970, that was just amazing. Things got even more amazing for ELP with the follow-up to Tarkus, the late 1971 Lp release of Pictures At An Exhibition. For a band that didn’t have a proper six string electric guitar player, Pictures made a whole lot of sonic classical rock noise. The concept of covering a classical piece by Russian composer Mussorgsky was a stroke of genius, especially considering that Emerson was the premier rock keyboardist in the world at that point. Following Pictures, ELP were back on the charts in a big way with 1972’s Trilogy. It seemed like ELP were all over FM radio with Trilogy, which sported a chart-topping hit, “From The Beginning.” ELP went on to even bigger worldwide success after Trilogy, yet for some early fans, the initial magic of these first four ELP albums was gone. That’s not to say that the band stopped breaking new ground, it was just that fabled 1967-72 turning point in 20th century music history was a hard act to follow. Perhaps bass great Greg Lake summed it up best by adding, ‘ELP had a certain chemistry and a certain power that was obvious to all three os us when we would get together to record or play. It was something special.’ Look for Shout! Factory to continue reissuing the ELP catalog into 2008. www.shoutfactory.com

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