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Thursday, December 08, 2016

Another Voice Goes Silent.

In a year that has seen many musicians pass yet another one is gone.  Greg Lake has died at age 69 after a long battle with cancer.  Lake came out of the Bournemouth, England music scene that produced numerous musicians.  In 1969 his friend Robert Fripp recruited Lake as vocalist for his new band, King Crimson, and asked Lake to be the band's bassist as well, although Lake had been a guitarist.  The group's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King was a critical success, but tensions in the band led Lake to decide to leave in 1970.  He soon teamed up with keyboardist Keith Emerson and drummer Carl Palmer to form Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.  With their complicated music and often bombastic image ELP, along with Yes, was the band that came to represent what most people though of '70s progressive rock, and against which the punk movement claimed to rebel. 

Although ELP originally broke up in 1979 Lake and Emerson would work together again in the mid '80s with the late drummer Cozy Powell as Emerson, Lake, and Powell, and reunite with Palmer as ELP in the '90s.  Lake also did solo albums, and a duo tour with Emerson in 2012.  His best known solo work was the 1975 single "I Believe in Father Christmas."


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