***ELP -Works Vol 1 & 2 (uk 1977) -amazing album with classical, prog and power ballads***

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Works Volume 1 is a 1977 album by progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It is a two-disc set divided into four major sections, one each highlighting each band member, and one for combined works.

The album was highly anticipated, as it had been four years since the release of ELP's last studio album, Brain Salad Surgery. However, it was different from the synthesizer-driven music that most fans had expected and received a mixed reaction from fans and press.

Side 1 of the first disc is the Keith Emerson side, a concerto for piano and orchestra.

Side 2 is the Greg Lake side, and consists of acoustic ballads, most of which were written by Lake and Peter Sinfield.

Side 3 (disc 2, side 1, the Carl Palmer side) includes a remake of "Tank" (from ELP's eponymous first album), with orchestral accompaniment and without the drum solo. Another track on Palmer's side is the rocker "L.A. Nights", featuring Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh on lead and slide guitar and scat vocal. Also, two arrangements of outside composers' pieces figure on the Palmer side: one of Bach's baroque D Minor Invention #4, BWV 775, and a piece titled 'The Enemy God Dances With The Black Spirits', an excerpt of the 2nd movement of "The Scythian Suite" by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), written in 1915.

Side 4 (disc 2, side 2) features the entire band together, and consists of a modern piece re-arranged for rock band, Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, and the long-form song "Pirates" which features lyrics added to music Emerson had written for the soundtrack of a canceled film version of Frederick Forsyth's book The Dogs of War. Aaron Copland found ELP's version of his piece appealing although he was puzzled at the inclusion of a modal solo between two fairly straight renditions of his piece.

Track listing:
Disc one
Keith Emerson

"Piano Concerto No. 1" (Keith Emerson) - 18:19
First Movement: "Allegro giocoso" – 9:21
Second Movement: "Andante molto cantabile" – 2:09
Third Movement: "Toccata con fuoco" – 6:48

Greg Lake

"Lend Your Love to Me Tonight" (Greg Lake, Peter Sinfield) – 4:01
"C'est la Vie" (Lake, Sinfield) – 4:16
"Hallowed Be Thy Name" (Lake, Sinfield) – 4:35
"Nobody Loves You Like I Do" (Lake, Sinfield) – 3:56
"Closer to Believing" (Lake, Sinfield) – 5:33

Disc two
-Carl Palmer

"The Enemy God Dances with the Black Spirits" (Sergei Prokofiev, arr. Emerson, Lake, Carl Palmer) – 3:20
"L.A. Nights" (Palmer) – 5:42
"New Orleans" (Palmer) (features Joe Walsh on guitars and scat vocal) and Keith Emerson on keyboards. – 2:45
"Two Part Invention in D Minor" (J. S. Bach, arr. Palmer) – 1:54
"Food for Your Soul" (Palmer) – 3:57
"Tank" (Emerson, Palmer) – 5:09

-Emerson, Lake & Palmer

"Fanfare for the Common Man" (Aaron Copland, arr. Emerson, Lake, Palmer) – 9:40
"Pirates" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 13:19

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Works Volume 2 is an album released in 1977 by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Unlike Works Volume 1 (which consisted of three solo sides and one ensemble side), Volume 2 was a single album which seemingly was a compilation of leftover tracks from other album sessions that had not made those albums. While many derided the album for its apparent lack of focus, others felt it showed a different side of the band, with blues, bluegrass and jazz being very prominent as musical genres in this recording.


Album material

"When The Apple Blossoms Bloom...", "Tiger in a Spotlight" and "Brain Salad Surgery" had been recorded at the 1973 sessions for the album Brain Salad Surgery but did not appear on it - rather strangely in the case of the latter.

Volume 2 also included a stripped-down version of Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas". An orchestral version of the song had previously been released as a solo Lake single in the UK and became something of an annual Christmas standard there.

Track listing:

"Tiger in a Spotlight" (Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer, Peter Sinfield) – 4:32
"When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine" (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) – 3:56
"Bullfrog" (Ron Aspery, Mick Hodgkinson, Palmer)– 3:49
"Brain Salad Surgery" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 3:07
"Barrelhouse Shake-Down" (Emerson) – 3:37
"Watching Over You" (Lake, Sinfield) – 3:54
"So Far to Fall" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 4:55
"Maple Leaf Rag" (Scott Joplin) – 2:00
"I Believe in Father Christmas" (Lake, Sinfield) – 3:17
"Close But Not Touching" (Palmer) – 3:18
"Honky Tonk Train Blues" (Meade "Lux" Lewis) – 3:09
"Show Me the Way to Go Home" (L. James Campbell, Reginald Connelly) – 3:30

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