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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)