Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Welcome Back

On April 6, 1974, I and 349,999 other people in attendance at the California Jam rock festival, watched keyboardist Keith Emerson, seated in front of his grand piano, suddenly rise into the air and--after a somewhat herky-jerky start--begin a series of 360 degree spins. At the time, my friends and I took a long hard stare at the cloud wafting around our heads and wondered "was it real? or was it cannabis?" Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Welcome Back, an ersatz documentary thrown together during the group's making of the commercially and critically ignored 1992 comeback album Black Moon (they have since disbanded again), captures that surreal but typically big ELP moment. Unfortunately, with the exception of some fine footage from a 1977 Montreal concert (where the orchestra-backed ELP performed a wonderful rendition of "Pirates"), the chopped-up music sequences are disappointing, and while fans will enjoy hearing bits of "Karn Evil 9," "Lucky Man," "Tarkus," and "Fanfare for the Common Man," they will just as surely miss "Still...You Turn Me On," "Take a Pebble," "Trilogy" or "I Believe in Father Christmas." Given the deserved supergroup status (at the top of their game, Emerson was a king on keyboards, Palmer unparalleled on drums, and Lake one of the most haunting vocalists in rock), this is a disappointing quasi-retrospective/tie-in DVD that is an optional purchase, at best. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)