Never mind the Y2K problem. In the year 2000, a more menacing threat may come from YELP -- as in "Why Emerson, Lake and Palmer?" Concern is just as foreboding with respect to Asia -- the other Carl Palmer band, not the continent -- as both groups plan to christen the new millennium with a fresh batch of art-rock. |

The reunited ELP, for one, began writing material for a new album this fall, immediately following their three-year international tour. So far, keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson has laid down a twenty-five minute tape of rough cuts that Palmer says he will work from during a creative brainstorming session in London this January. The new material, he says, is accented by strong melodies and elaborate instrumentation -- trademarks of classic ELP albums like 1971's Tarkus and 1973's Brain Salad Surgery.

"I feel that the band just needs more musical ideas collectively and individually. We need to stockpile," Palmer says of the album-in-progress. "Prog rock is a part of us, and we can't abandon that. But we have to move forward, too. We might have to look at doing something retro again, like appearing with an orchestra. Or we may have to look at new ways of presenting ourselves. Who knows, maybe a ballet."

Before Palmer learns to plié, he'll take another trip down memory lane and reunite with members of the art-rock supergroup Asia ("Heat of the Moment," "Only Time Will Tell"). Fellow Asiamates Geoff Downes [of Buggles fame] and John Wetton [formerly of King Crimson] have already written several compositions, one of which Palmer may record in London next month. Those new songs -- or several long-archived live tracks -- may end up on an album alongside four or five Asia tunes that were recorded between 1981 and 1986, but never released. Now, Geffen is bidding to release them.

"They were B-sides and obviously they weren't good enough then, so a lot of people would say, 'Well, why are they good enough now?'" Palmer says about the lost tracks. "But we've revisited some of them. Their melodies have been reworked, the lyrics have been rewritten and various keyboards have been replaced."

As Palmer's various prog projects take form over the next year, the world will have to make do with a live ELP album titled Then & Now (curiously, a 1990 greatest hits album by Asia has that very same title.) The 1998 Then & Now shares five songs with ELP's Greatest Hits Live of last year, but Palmer is quick to point out the distinctions.

First and foremost, Then & Now takes half its content from a monumental performance at the 1974 California Jam concert, which Palmer calls "history in the making." ELP culled the rest of the double-CD from their 1997 and 1998 world tour, hand-selecting specific songs requested by their fans over the Internet.

"Unfortunately, we don't have such a big fan base as we did years ago," Palmer says with a laugh. "We don't play to as many people as we did years ago, but the fans that we do have will take everything that we give them -- even if they have the same song five times before. They just want the 1998 version in case there is a different guitar lick or keyboard solo."

ANNI LAYNE (December 3, 1998)