Prog-Rock Legend Greg Lake 1947 – 2016
By Scott Bernstein Dec 8, 2016 • 6:23 am PST
The losses just keep on piling up as 2016 comes to a close with word that prog-rock legend Greg Lake has died. Lake’s manager, Stewart Young, revealed the news on Facebook, “Yesterday, December 7th, I lost my best friend to a long and stubborn battle with cancer. Greg Lake will stay in my heart forever, as he has always been. His family would be grateful for privacy during this time of their grief.”
Lake is best remembered as one of the forces behind Emerson, Lake & Palmer, among the biggest bands of the 1970s. He was also a founding member of another progressive rock institution, King Crimson. Greg founded King Crimson with his childhood friend Robert Fripp. Lake played a big role in the recording of 1969’s In The Court Of The Crimson King and stepped in as producer when Tony Clarke walked away from the project. Though the bassist/singer/guitarist had already started to work with ELP, he did contribute vocals to KC’s sophomore effort, In The Wake Of Poseidon.
Greg Lake met keyboardist Keith Emerson, who sadly committed suicide earlier this year, during a tour with King Crimson and Emerson’s Nice. The pair decided to form a group with drummer Carl Palmer and Emerson, Lake & Palmer went on to sell over 48 million records by the time they parted ways in 1979. Some of the band’s most successful albums were 1971’s Tarkus and Pictures At An Exbihition as well as 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery. “Lucky Man,” “Fanfare For The Common Man” and “Karn Evil 9” are a handful of the trio’s most beloved songs.
In recent years Lake focused on his solo career, though he did participate in a few short-lived ELP reunions since the threesome’s original 1979 breakup. Lake scored a solo hit in 1975 with “I Believe In Father Christmas” as it went all the way to No. 2 in the U.K. and was only kept from No. 1 by Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Our thoughts are with Greg Lake’s friends and family.
