If there's one singer we can say has a simply "divine" voice, it's probably Greg Lake.
He has a powerful and caressing voice that penetrates through the pores of the skin into the bloodstream and from there through the veins directly into the heart.
This talented singer is also a songwriter with supreme grace, who wrote and perform some of the greatest progressive rock anthems, and for all that, he also plays bass, guitar, and harmonica.
(Photo: Ian Dickson)
So let's tell you some facts about this very talented musician:
1. He was born to a poor family in the town of Poole in Dorset County, England, on November 10, 1947. His name at birth was Gregory Stuart Lake.
2. Already in his youth he became interested in music. Although his parents feared that there was no future from which to make a living, they did not stop him, quite the opposite. His mother, who was a pianist, bought him his first guitar and even work harder to finance his guitar lessons.
3. In 1957, when he was 10, he discovered rock 'n' roll and the first single he purchased was "Lucille" by Little Richard.
4. Already at the age of 12 he wrote his first song - "Lucky Man", which in due course will sign seal first album of the supergroup "Emerson, Lake & Palmer".
5. The first band he was a member of was "Unit Four", this was a cover band.
6. The first serious band he was a member of and with which he released Janis Ian's single "Don't Go Away Little Girl", was "The Shame".
7. Greg Lake was determined to fulfill his dream of becoming a musician, he worked during the day and played at night, but the money was not always enough so he often found himself hungry for bread and without heating in his apartment. On one occasion he even went into a coma as a result of acute pneumonia.
8. In 1967 he joined "The Gods", which included keyboardist Ken Hensley and guitarist Mick Taylor.
9. Greg later teamed up with guitarist Robert Fripp, also a native of "Dorset". They both took childhood lessons with the same music teacher.
10. After Robert Fripp disbanded his band "Giles, Giles and Fripp" he offered Lake to join his new band - "King Crimson", as a singer and bassist.
11. Although he was a guitarist, Lake agreed to join and to that end, he learned to play bass guitar.
12. Lake was part of the band's debut album, the masterpiece "In The Court Of The Crimson King" and even took part in writing some of the songs.
(Photo: Top of the Pops B.B.C T.V)
13. During the band's tour in the US he met and teamed up with Keith Emerson who was part of the band "The Nice". In this meeting, the two expressed their desire to form a joint band.
14. When "King Crimson" returned to England in the early 1970s, Greg Lake announced his departure from the band, but agreed to record one more album with them before retiring - "In the Wake of Poseidon". Lake even appeared with them on a TV show with the song "Cat Food".
15. In April 1970 Lake was already jamming with Emerson. Joined by drummer Carl Palmer, known from the bands "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" and "Atomic Rooster", they formed the supergroup "Emerson, Lake & Palmer".
16. The band's first album, which also bears its name, was released in November of that year, when the song that seals it is, as mentioned, "Lucky Man", which Lake wrote when he was only 12 years old.
17. The band later released masterful albums such as "Tarkus" and "Pictures at an Exhibition" both from 1971, "Trilogy" from 1972, "Brain Salad Surgery" from 1973, and the double album "Works Volume 1" and "Works Volume 2 " from 1977 and "Love Beach" from 1978.
(Publicity Photo)
18. In the late 1970s the band disbanded and Lake burst into his solo career with two albums: "Greg Lake" from 1981 and "Maneuvers" from 1983, both in collaboration with guitarist Gary Moore. The opening song of the first solo album - "Nuclear Attack" was also recorded by Gary Moore for his 1983 album "Dirty Fingers".
19. In 1983 he briefly replaced John Wetton in the supergroup "Asia" alongside his drummer friend Carl Palmer.
20. In 1986 Emerson and Lake sought to unite "ELP", but because Carl Palmer was committed to the band "Asia" the one who filled his place in the band was Cozy Powell. The band was called "Emerson, Lake & Powell" and released an album of the same name that year.
21. The band "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" returned to activity in 1992 with the album "Black Moon" and later in 1994 the album "In the Hot Seat" was also released.
22. In 2001, Lake joined one of the incarnations of Ringo Starr's All-Star Band - "Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band".
23. In 2003 he was a guest as a bass player on the song "Real Good Looking Boy" by "The Who".
24. On December 7, 2016, Greg Lake passed away after a long battle with cancer and is 69 years old.
We have prepared a playlist for you that includes some of his greatest moments: Spotify
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