Huge in the 1970s, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) were trailblazers of the
pre-punk prog-rock period built around a crescendo of keyboards and huge,
ambitious neo-classical, thematic music. They had their roots in two earlier
bands, The Nice (featuring Keith Emerson on keyboards) and King Crimson (with
Greg Lake on bass) who shared the bill at several events and started jamming
together. It felt so natural that they decided to throw in their lot together,
recruiting Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster to play drums. At one point there was
talk of Jimi Hendrix joining (which would have ma...