Greg Lake

Greg Lake biography

Gregory Stuart "Greg" Lake (born 10 November 1947) is an English musician, songwriter and producer, best known as a vocalist and bassist of King Crimson, and the bassist, guitarist, vocalist, and lyricist of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Biography

1960s: King Crimson

Greg Lake came to prominence as a founding member of King Crimson. He was a school friend of guitarist Robert Fripp, who invited Lake to join the new band and take on the tasks of lead singer and bass player. Lake was primarily a guitarist, but agreed to switch to bass at Fripp's request. Lake had some involvement in writing the lyrics for King Crimson's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, although Peter Sinfield was the primary lyricist. Aside from being the lead singer and bass player, Lake also ended up producing the album after their contracted producer, Tony Clarke, walked away from the project.

"In The Court of the Crimson King", released in 1969, made King Crimson far more successful than any of Fripp and Lake's earlier projects (such as the Shy Limbs or Giles, Giles and Fripp), and became a key influence and landmark in the emerging progressive rock genre. Lake's vocals, which ranged from serene and soothing to acerbic and distorted, were a striking element of the album. However, Lake stayed with King Crimson for only about a year, leaving soon after their debut album to start the rock trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer. However, at Fripp's request, Lake provided the vocals for King Crimson's second album, In the Wake of Poseidon.

1970s: Emerson, Lake & Palmer

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Formation and debut album

King Crimson had played a couple of venues along with The Nice, and Lake had struck up a friendship with their wunderkind organist and keyboardist, Keith Emerson. As a result, they teamed up and brought in the drummer from The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster, Carl Palmer-forming the progressive rock 'supergroup,' ELP. From the outset, Greg Lake filled acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, lyrics, vocals and production duties for the band. The trio did not make use of external producers for any of their albums in the 1970s, nor did they ever employ session players for studio work or live performances-during concerts, Lake would play an acoustic guitar, electric guitar or bass as required. However, beginning with the 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery, Lake did collaborate with Peter Sinfield to write lyrics.

ELP became highly commercially successful in the 1970s (with album sales totalling more than 30 million), and significantly contributed to the evolution of progressive rock. Lake contributed to many of ELP's songs but was particularly noticeable for his guitar-orientated and soulful ballads. For example, on their debut album (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), Lake included an acoustic song (with a keyboard outro hastily recorded by Emerson) called "Lucky Man", based on a poem he had written at the age of 12. In determining the direction of the band, Lake's focus on ballads, radio-friendly material and "down-to-earth" compositions contrasted sharply with Emerson's desire to create rock symphonies and polyphonic, poly-rhythmic suites. The result was that ELP continuously merged classical and blues styles, producing albums with bewildering mixtures of classical pieces, ballads, hard rock songs and epic-length suites.

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