Greg Lake of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer Dead at 69

Greg Lake, the prog-rock pioneer who fronted both King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, has died, the BBC reports. He died Tuesday after “a long and stubborn battle with cancer,” his manager said. He was 69.

Lake, a friend of Robert Fripp, co-founded King Crimson in the late 1960s. He sang and played bass on their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, which featured enduring prog classics such as “21st Century Schizoid Man” and the title track. During the band’s first U.S. tour, Lake’s chance encounter with Keith Emerson, the keyboardist in the Nice, sowed the seeds for a new supergroup. Emerson, Lake and Palmer subsequently became a leading prog-rock outfit throughout the ’70s.

Lake took a backseat in King Crimson’s second album, In the Wake of Poseidon, before leaving the group entirely. ELP went on to release prog classics like 1970’s self-titled debut, 1972’s Trilogy, and 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery. As well as selling more than 48 million records, the group became known for their elaborate stage shows. “We had 140 people on the road with 11 tractor trailers,” Lake told Rolling Stone in 2013. “We had our own doctor and all these crazy things. But for us, it was not just trying to be as loud and as big as we could. We were always trying to go one step further, one step bigger.”

The band split in 1979, sporadically reuniting in the following decades. Their last show, marking their 40th anniversary, took place in 2010. Since then, Lake had operated as a solo artist, recently touring a career-spanning, one-man show called “Songs of a Lifetime.” During the concerts, he would tell stories and invite fans on stage to discuss their memories of his songs. He also wrote an autobiography, Lucky Man.

Comments are closed.