Emerson, Lake & Palmer Album: “Trilogy”

TRILOGY is another great ELP CD. Shout! has proven that it can do ELP the same justice that it did the Marshall Tucker Band, with this CD being just another example of how a great remastering job can overcome the limitations of the original source. Even the Rhino remaster didn't do right by this album, but Shout! finally did.

This is one of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's best studio albums. It has a much more polished feel than Tarkus did, and the songwriting (save for one song) is exemplary. The opening song, The Endless Enigma, is one of their signature songs, another epic (running 10 1/2 minutes if you include the fugue), and one that doesn't get put into the category of epic ELP tracks (but it should). It also has some of Lake's best lyrics, brooding and mysterious. From the Beginning is one of Lake's loveliest ballads, and Emerson and Palmer's accompaniment is really subtle and compliments the song beautifully. The Sheriff is really intricate and entertaining, and I love Hoedown. The title track is majestic, with some of Emerson's best piano playing ever. The final track, Abaddon's Bolero, starts out slowly, but builds to a magnificent climax. The only dud here is Living Sin, mainly due to the smarmy, sleazy lyrics. The music isn't bad, but the lyrics (and Lake's vocal) really detract from it. But aside from that one song, the album is pretty damn perfect, and it's one of ELP's best studio albums.

ELP fans will happily debate forever the point at which the band reached its creative peak but there is a firm consensus that their early years were their finest. Whether the absolute best was Tarkus, Trilogy or Brain Salad Surgery is secondary to the simple fact that Trilogy is one of the finest pieces of work that this band did.

The secret of their music is that they put together a set of talents the like of which had rarely been seen before let alone moulded into a single unit. The opening salvo, (The Endless Enigma Part One, Fugue and The Endless Enigma Part Two) illustrates this perfectly.

To deal with Carl Palmer first, in the early seventies he was finding ways of breaking up rhythms that had never been heard before. Nothing on Trilogy is quite as radical as his drumming on Tarkus but nonetheless, he was doing things here with sticks and skins that nobody else had tired.

In terms of rock music, Keith Emerson is an outstanding talent but that does not give full account of his real contribution. On the classical concert circuit, keyboard performance talent such as his is not unique but never before had this been combined with the kind of driven creative rock intensity of his contemporary guitar greats.

Greg Lake is often overlooked in comparison with the other two members of the band but that does not do him justice. As well as his distinctive voice, his bass guitar work is the perfect match for Emerson's keyboard playing. If you listen to the opening suite and try to imagine it with an ordinary, unimaginative bass line, you will appreciate that he adds his own dimension to the music.

Trilogy is a nice balance of the range of ELP's style. After "The Endless Enigma" comes "From the Beginning" a typical Greg Lake ballad. After that the band switches into exuberant fun mode for "The Sheriff" and an adaptation of Aaron Copeland's "Hoedown". The opening drums on the first of those two serves notice of what is to come.

Those tracks complete the opening side of the original vinyl release and, together with the title track which opened the second side, they form a powerful statement of the band's ability. The next track, "Living Sin" is the least convincing here and that is mainly because Greg Lake's voice does not really suit the style that he is trying to deliver. Finally, comes "Abaddon's Bolero" which is closely derived from Ravel's "Bolero" but which is curiously not credited as such on the sleeve notes. It's OK to listen to but, unlike most of ELP's covers, it does not really deliver much that was not in the original though Grek Lakes bass playing does stand out.

Trilogy is a good introduction to ELP though I think that Tarkus or their first album "Emerson, Lake and Palmer" server that purpose better. If you do like Trilogy, you will appreciate any of the albums that came before it and you might like to listen to music by Yes from the same time frame.

Trilogy, the fourth album of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, is one of their best works. It even contains my favorite song of all time. With each listen, it gets better and better, and mind you, I've listened to it thousands of times. Here's how it goes:

1) The Endless Enigma, Part 1: You won;t like it at first. It's okay second time through. Third time, pretty good. After that, truly amazing.

2) Fugue, just a little Emerson ditty separating the previous song from...

3) The Endless Enigma, Part 2: A much shorter version of Part 1, but still great nonetheless.

4) From the Beginning: Greg Lake put out plenty of acoustic songs in ELP, and many were quite good. This is one. I had skipped over it for a long time, but then I had put it on, and I remember thinking 'Wow, this is pretty good!' And it is.

5) The Sheriff: Reminiscent of Jeremy Bender. Great, great song. I can't listen to it enough.

6) Hoedown: Taken from Rodeo, by Aaron Copland. A great rendition of the song you know from everywhere.

7) Trilogy: My favorite song of all time. It starts with piano and Lake, but moves into driving guitar, along with the Moog. It's the best.

8) Living Sin: An underrated song. The more you listen, the more it becomes a great little song.

9) Abaddon's Bolero: The longest song on the album, and the one many view as the worst. It may be, but I think it's great.

Buy this album if you appreciate Progressive Rock. It's money well spent.

This album is somewhat iffy as to the point were it doesnt have too much direction to it. but the song trilogy itself is one of the most beautiful complex songs to ever grace my ears. it makes up for the rest of the albums wandering direction with its neo-classical sound. Pure genius is the only real way to describe it