Today’s classic song of the day is “From the Beginning” from the prog rock trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Released as a single in August of 1972, this song was the group’s highest-charting single, going all the way to #39 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Greg Lake wrote “From the Beginning” and initially considered giving it to his other group, King Crimson, and their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King. King Crimson’s leader and guitarist extraordinaire Robert Fripp didn’t think it would fit with the other songs on that album, however, so Lake did the song with ELP instead.
“From the Beginning” is almost more of a folk song than a prog rock song. The piece is driven by Lake’s acoustic guitar with a late-in-the-song synthesizer solo by Keith Emerson. Carl Palmer supplies a little percussion backing on the congas, but it’s mainly just that acoustic guitar throughout.
ELP was prog rock’s first supergroup, with its members coming from other powerhouse bands. Keyboardist Keith Emerson (the “E”) came from the Nice; guitarist Greg Lake (the “L”) was also in King Crimson; and drummer Carl Palmer (the “P”) was formerly with Atomic Rooster. They got together in London in 1970 and stayed together through their first breakup in 1979. Emerson and Lake sort of reformed ELP with drummer Cozy Powell (whose name fortuitously also began with “P”) in 1985, when Carl Palmer declined to participate. The three original members reformed in 1990 and kept going until 1998, when they split again. In 2010, they got together for a one-off concert to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary, but that was it.
Over the course of their career, ELP released nine studio albums (ten, if you count one they did with Cozy Powell), the best-selling of which were 1970’s Emerson, Lake & Palmer, 1971’s Tarkus, 1972’s Trilogy, and 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery. “From the Beginning” was their biggest single, although “Lucky Man” also got a lot of radio play in 1970.
Post-ELP, Carl Palmer joined with King Crimson vocalist and bassist John Wetton, Yes guitarist Steve Howe, and Yes keyboardist Geoff Downes to form another supergroup, Asia. That band had a number of big hits in the 1980s, and even counted former ELPer Greg Lake as a member for a few gigs. (Carl Palmer was opposed to Lake becoming a full-time member, so he didn’t.)
In the where are they now department, Keith Emerson committed suicide in 2016. Greg Lake passed away from cancer later that same year. Carl Palmer is still kicking around today, performing with his own group on Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy Tour; he’s now 75 years old.
For today’s daily bonus video of the day, we fast forward to 2005 and Greg Lake and his own band performing “From the Beginning.” It’s a somewhat different arrangement but still a good tune.
