Keith Emerson - Keyboards, Arranger, Director
Greg Lake - Bass, Guitar, Arranger, Director, Vocals, Producer, Adaptation
Carl Palmer - Arranger, Director, Drums, Adaptation
Eddie Offord - Engineer
Barry Diament - Mastering
Joseph M. Palmaccio - Remastering
Stephen Innocenzi - Mastering
Nic Dartnell - Cover Design, Paintings
Lively, ambitious, almost entirely successful debut album, made up of
keyboard-dominated instrumentals ("The Barbarian," "Three Fates") and
romantic ballads ("Lucky Man") showcasing all three members' very
daunting talents. This album, which reached the Top 20 in America and
got to number four in England, showcased the group at its least
pretentious and most musicianly — with the exception of a few
moments on "Three Fates" and perhaps "Take a Pebble," there isn't much
excess, and there is a lot of impressive musicianship here. "Take a
Pebble" might have passed for a Moody Blues track of the era, but for
the fact that none of the Moodies' keyboardmen could solo like Keith
Emerson. Even here, in a relatively balanced collection of material,
the album shows the beginnings of a dark, savage, imposingly Gothic
edge that had scarcely been seen before in so-called "art-rock," mostly
courtesy of Emerson's larger-than-life organ and synthesizer attacks.
Greg Lake's beautifully sung, deliberately archaic "Lucky Man" had a
brush with success on FM radio, and Carl Palmer became the idol of many
thousands of would-be drummers based on this one album (especially for
"Three Fates" and "Tank"), but Emerson emerged as the overpowering
talent here for much of the public. The reissues of this album on
either the Victory or Rhino labels are much superior in sound and
graphics to the older Atlantic compact disc.
Bruce Eder - All-Music Guide
With former members of King Crimson, The Nice, and Atomic Rooster,
Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a veritable supergroup, and the 1970
release of their debut album, ELP, was the first step for a band that
went on to define progressive rock. With capable Keith Emerson at the
controls of the Moog synthesizer and the Hammond B3 organ, Greg Lake on
guitar and vocals, and talented Carl Palmer on drums, the debut release
leaned heavily toward a new technical wizardry that became the band's
halmark.
Paul Clark - Amazon.com
...This is such a good album, it is best heard as a whole...
Just take a pebble and cast it to the sea,
Then watch the ripples that unfold into me,
My face spill so gently into your eyes,
Disturbing the waters of our lives.
Shread of our memories are lying on your grass;
Wounded words of laughter are graveyards of the past.
Photographs are grey and torn, scattered in your fields
Letters of your mem'ries are not real.
Sadness on your shoulders like a wornout overcoat
In pockets creased and tattered hang the rags of your hope.
The daybreak is your midnight; the colours have all died.
Disturbing the waters of our lives, of our lives, of our lives, lives,
lives, lives...
Of our lives.
Knife Edge
Just a step cried the sad man
Take a look down at the madman
Theatre kings on silver wings
Fly beyond reason
From the flight of the seagull
Come the spread claws of the eagle
Only fear breaks the silence
As we all kneel pray for guidance
Tread the road cross the abyss
Take a look down at the madness
On the streets of the city
Only spectres still have pity
Patient queues for the gallows
Sing the praises of the hallowed
Our machines feed the furnace
If they take us they will burn us
Will you still know who you are
When you come to who you are
When the flames have their season
Will you hold to your reason
Loaded down with your talents
Can you still keep your balance
Can you live on a knife-edge
The Three Fates
(Instrumental)
Tank
(Instrumental)
Lucky Man
He had white horses
And ladies by the score
All dressed in satin
And waiting by the door
Oooh, what a lucky man he was
White lace and feathers
They made up his bed
A gold covered mattress
On which he was laid
He went to fight wars
For his country and his king
Of his honor and his glory
The people would sing
A bullet had found him
His blood ran as he cried
No money could save him
So he laid down and he died