Even Emerson Lake and Palmer, whose name would seemingly ensure that they wouldn’t become another in the progressive rock genre’s endlessly interchangeable bands, endured a memorable roster shift. Greg Lake says he still regrets it.
“When the public make a band like ELP successful,” Lake tells Thom Jennings of BackstageAxxess in the attached video, “that is who they make successful. They anoint the band by buying their records. … They made ELP what it was. And I think there is a sense of betrayal if you change that which the public has ordained, in a way. You’re not entitled just to change it without permission.”
In the mid-1980s, while founding member Carl Palmer was occupied with Asia, Lake and Keith Emerson did what fellow proggers like Yes — a group that’s featured nearly 20 regular working members — had already made utterly common place: They recruited Cozy Powell, a celebrated drummer whose last name just happened to complete their familiar ELP monicker — and then issued “Touch and Go,” a hit that remains part of Lake’s solo shows.
Still, Lake says the particular recipe that made the original ELP a success was lost, and it sold him on the idea that he’d never try to go forward again with an altered line up.
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