In 1971 Emerson, Lake & Palmer pushed the boundaries of popular music with the release of Tarkus. Although now regarded as a classic, their second album was all but slated by the critics at the time. As the conceptual opus celebrated its half-century in 2021, Prog explored its creation and the rise of it creators – one of the movement’s greatest and most unique bands.
Greg Lake could never be described as someone who was slow in coming forward, especially when he felt you needed the benefit of his opinion. “If you want to play that kind of music, you should play it on your solo album,” is what he told Keith Emerson, after the keyboardist played him the opening motifs of a new piece intended for their second album. Lake added: “I’m not interested in that sort of thing.”
