Greg Lake Remembered
Today’s gray December skies just got a little grayer. Iconic vocalist, musician, and producer Greg Lake lost his fight with cancer on December 7, 2016, at the age of 69. For more than 47 years, Greg has helped to challenge and mold the sound of progressive rock, art rock, and hard rock.
Greg Lake’s professional music career began in his school years, when he formed a friendship with guitarist Robert Fripp. They shared the same Dorset guitar instructor, and he instilled a deep appreciation for all genres of music into the young players – an appreciation that would stay with Greg throughout his professional career.
“There is a common thread throughout all the music,” Greg once observed. “The forms may be different, but each one to some degree draws upon inspiration from the past. I am as proud to have been as influenced by people like Elvis and Little Richard as I am by composers like Copland and Prokofiev.”
Greg and Robert would go on to form King Crimson, one of the most influential progressive rock bands of the ’70s. Since Greg and Robert were both lead guitarists, Greg volunteered to play bass guitar.
Like everything he did in his life, Greg took the bass and made it his own, playing it in ways that no one had before. “The style I developed was a more percussive and more sustained approach, which almost certainly came from all my years on guitar,” remembered Greg. “I discovered the key was to use the wire wound bass strings, which have far more sustain, rather like the low end of a Steinway Grand Piano. I think I was the first bass player to really use them in this way.”
In the middle of producing their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, contract producer Tony Clarke walked away. Greg stepped in and produced the album, which was released in 1969. It was an immediate success.
As fate would have it, King Crimson was touring with a band called The Nice, founded by master keyboardist Keith Emerson. You can already see where this is going. Greg and Keith formed an instant bond, centered around their mutual love of reinterpreting classical works, as well as making new classics of their own in new musical genres.
When they returned to England at the end of the tour, Greg and Keith were introduced to Atomic Rooster drummer Carl Palmer, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) was born. Of course, this supergroup would go on to perform throughout the ’70s, releasing seven studio albums – and all seven achieved Gold status in the US. To date, ELP has sold more than 48 million albums worldwide.
Greg’s guitar work complemented Keith’s keyboard style perfectly, and ELP would fulfill the two musicians’ dreams of re-creating classics in their own image. One of the finest examples is the ELP version of Aaron Copland’s 1942 masterpiece “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
The band also fulfilled Greg and Keith’s dreams for creating classics of their own. Perhaps one of ELP’s largest hits, “Lucky Man,” was written, sung, and performed on acoustic guitar by Greg. While Greg was known for his stellar electric guitar work, he professed a real love for the acoustic guitar as well.
“I love acoustic guitars. They’re delicate and light and yet at the same time are unbelievably powerful,” said Greg. “They are really a strange instrument from that point of view, but there is something very special about them.”
This time of year, it is fitting to remember Greg Lake for one of his largest solo hits, “I Believe in Father Christmas.” He wrote the music for lyrics written by Peter Sinfield. Sadly, the song has been debated, being labeled both a “Christmas song,” and an “anti-religion song.” According to the two artists, it is a song lamenting the over-commercialization of Christmas and the early loss of childlike belief.
Staying true to his dedication to classical music, Greg added the “Troika” portion of Sergei Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé Suite, written for a 1934 Soviet film, Lieutenant Kijé, as an instrumental riff between verses – it was Keith Emerson’s suggestion.
Perhaps the best way to say our goodbyes to Greg Lake is through words from this very song –
I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish, pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear.