Search - Greg Lake: Live In Concert on DVD

Greg Lake and a new band doing ELP and King Crimson songs in

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 06/22/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"At some point when I was in high school I declared that if I could have the voice of any rock singer in the world, then I would want to sing like Greg Lake. Now, I probably would prefer to be able to play every keyboard in the world like Keith Emerson and I might have to flip a coin if the choice was between having Greg Lake's voice or being able to sing a phrase like Frank Sinatra, but ever since the first time I heard "Lucky Man" I have really liked the sound of this guy's voice. I am not alone in that regard and there are Greg Lake fans who go back to before Emerson, Lake and Palmer when he was the lead singer for King Crimson, which explains why "In the Court of the Crimson King" is the opening track in the concert on the first disc of "Greg Lake: Live in Concert."

I was rather surprised that most of the songs in the concert are from the ELP days including "From the Beginning" (just once I would love to see Lake start that song on the guitar and launch into "Roundabout" instead), "Touch and Go" (Okay, that is an Emerson Lake and Powell song, but two out of three ain't bad), a version of "Take a Pebble" that takes advantage of Florian Opahle on acoustic guitar, "I Believe in Father Christmas," "Farewell to Arms," "Fanfare for the Common Man," "Footprints in the Snow," "Lucky Man," "Pictures at an Exhibition," and "Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression - Part 2)" for the encore. I was even more surprised that "Lucky Man" was really the only ballad that Lake sang (he tells the story of how it became the last addition to ELP's debut album), because I was expecting to hear more songs like "Still...You Turn Me On" and some of the tracks from his side of ELP's "Works: Volume 1." I should add that "The Sage" part of "Pictures at an Exhibition" would count as being a ballad. But the only song from his solo career in the concert is "Love You Too Much" and there is a second King Crimson track with "21st Century Schizoid Man." The concert is enjoyable and while Lake is losing power on his upper register there are plenty of moments in many of these songs where he does not have to go that high and I remember why his was the voice I coveted most in my youth.

The second disc starts off with what would be called "Greg Lake: Live in Rehearsal," which consists of a half-dozen full length tracks from the pre-tour rehearsals (all performed on disc 1 except for one of the aforementioned missing ballads) mixed with backstage footage and interviews with band members and others associated with the tour. A short documentary on "The Band" has more interviews with the members, who explain how they came to be in Greg Lake's band (there is a nice bit where David Arch, who plays keyboards and is the group's musical director, explains how they did not intend to go the whole Keith Emerson route with lots of keyboards but could not avoid picking up an organ, a moog, a couple of more keyboards and eventually a second keyboard player). The final treat is a live performance of "I Believe in Father Christmas" performed live at St. Bride's Church on London's Fleet Street. Lake plays one of the two acoustic guitars accompanied by a keyboard player, the church's choir and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson on flute. The sound is not perfect (I have trouble understanding the minister's introduction), but fan's will still be enthralled. Too bad they did not also do Anderson's "Christmas Song," because that is my second favorite "prog-rock" Christmas song. But three versions of Lake's Christmas song on two discs is a pretty sweet.deal, especially this far out from the Holiday season."

Outstanding Concert!

T. Rosasco | 06/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wish I was there. This band rocks! Greg Lake hasn't sounded this good since the Brain Salad Surgery days. Some of the best sound and filming of a rock concert I've seen in a long time. Pictures at an Exhibition sounds better than original. A must buy for ELP fans."

As good as it gets

Z. Dan | bucharest, romania | 09/02/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"good sound - dts, 5.1
realy good band (difficult mision the replacement of keith and carl);
still can't go to 5 stars (let's keep it for historical events such as the real ELP live )
...and i would have liked to see more king krimson stuff (my favorite in this concert in 21th century...)
buy it
you won't think is lost money and time"

Superb...breathes new life into old classics

JESSE R. MC Glown | Enterprise, AL | 01/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I held off buying this one for a long time. Mistake! This DVD is phenomenal. The band is phemonenal. Ditto the arrangements. I actually had the DVD on my table for over a week...from the moment I put it on, I was in rapture! Greg indeed has not been in this fine form in years. He sounded tired and raspy during the ELP tours of the 90's...not on this performance. These renditions of classic ELP and King Crimson material are stunning. The audio is superb, as is the camerawork. Greg's voice is better than I've heard it since the eighties.

And no, I'm not just one more rabid ELP fan gazing through rose-colored glasses...I don't award a five-star rating to much of anything! I can't wait to burn the audio of this show to a CD-R. Greg also displays a humble outlook as he shares between songs. Very refreshing on a concert DVD. The arrangement of Take a Pebble includes an astonishing guitar solo from one of his band members. If there's an "uninteresting" track on this disc, it would have to be Pictures at an Exhibition, simply because the arrangement is virtually identical to the studio version ELP did back in the early 90's. It's still a strong performance, too; I had merely gotten "spoiled" by the fresh twists in the other classic material.

Having also seen footage of Keith Emerson's band from 2006, I'd say he and Greg Lake are performing better with the "fresh blood" of new musicians inspiring them. Stop pining away, waiting for an ELP reunion that probably won't happen ( and ask youself if you truly want to see the musical equivalent of Kirk, Spock and McCoy "on deck" in their sixties! )...this is about as good as it gets."