NEW TAKE OF INTERVIEW:
Greg Lake 10:26
No, we're going back to the story of trilogy, we, we had a piece on there, I think it was called a balanced Bolero. And we piled up these scents. And we attempted to try and play it using a tape to play some of the extra synth parts. And I'll never forget one night, we tried to do it. And the monitors went off, and we lost. So we were playing out of time with obey was a nightmare. So we never did that again. But of course, now of course, people run stuff off sequences and computers. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I think I think live music is about live music. I'm not really too keen on, on, you know, half of it being pre recorded in a way this. It's, it's tempting. But I think really, it's not what what an audience wants, they come to see someone perform.
Greg Lake 10:26
Right on the Isle of Wight. There was a Moog synthesizer, I believe
Greg Lake 11:33
Yeah, Yeah, we used it there. That was really the early days of it used to go out of tune. I mean, it was a difficult thing to use in the early in the early days. But they improved it. And and we continued to use it, how I think it was one of the things really that, you know, was another element of ELP, which was a breakthrough. It just struck people, because they hadn't really heard anything quite like that. He was also a tremendous help with a three piece band. It was it was something else in our armory that we could pull out. That would be a strength. And so from that point of view, it was it was very useful.
Murray Lerner 12:19
Does electricity do more than just shake people up? Does it do anything musically? Or does it
Greg Lake 12:27
Yeah, I think
Murray Lerner 12:28
spiritually,
Greg Lake 12:29
spiritually, I think it does, because anything that gives you a new, opens up new possibilities musically, gives you a new way to express. And some of the some of the synth things that we did were, for instance, extremely beautiful things. They weren't just used to hit hard and to shake people physically, but they were used in a more gentle way. And so yeah, I think I think that the advent of electricity, coming into music was a good thing. But like all good things, it could become abused, and it could become misused. And and, and so be it. I mean, you know, I suppose one could argue that about the invention of the piano, you might go back and ask Mark, you know, do you think it's a good thing? And he might say no, you know, you've just ruined it all. But in truth, I think that, you know, used with integrity and used with honesty, I think electronics brought something creative and good to music.
Murray Lerner 13:40
What is music?
Greg Lake 13:43
Music is really the expression, I think of emotion and the transference of that emotion from one person to another. Without necessarily the use of words. I mean, as simple as drums in a jungle, it transfers a feeling or a meaning with sound through the air. I think in its simplest form, that's what music is. And the refinement of it and the refinement of the skills it takes to use that ability is the sophistication of music.
Murray Lerner 14:28
Why does it affect everyone universally in different ways?
Greg Lake 14:32
Because I think we are electronic receptors in a way we are we have the ability to interpret sound emotionally. And I think it probably comes from things like the beating of the heart, the voice of a mother. The simple things like you don't like someone shouting, but you like someone saying I love you, you know? It's it's just a natural thing for you. able to hear sound and associated with feeling. And I think so it is with music. Certain harmonic relationships have certain effects, you know, a minor chord as a sad overtone, but a major chord has a happy tone. So, you know, I think in that sense, people are having an inbuilt receptor and interpreter of sound. And music really is just creating those sounds.
Murray Lerner 15:34
Just to get back, we'll finish up with the Isle of Wight, when you realized that you were superstars in a way, by virtue of the reaction. What happened after the Isle of Wight?
Greg Lake 15:46
It's hard to remember. Every day was extraordinary. It was, it seems now when I look back, like an entire blur, it's not until someone like yourself brings up a specific date, you know that I can start to relate to it. It was just a blur day upon day upon day of extraordinary events. The Olympic Stadium, Montreal, California jam, Isle of wight. there were just things that went one after the other, and ELP would play probably, I don't know, 200 shows a year. So every everyday different city and it just became a blur. Good blur, a really good blur. I mean, I've cut you know, you can't go through something like that with people being so appreciative, and so responsive and enthusiastic. It was a fantastic period. And, you know, I'm eternally grateful for being lucky enough to be in that position. Because I believe in some senses, it was just fate, you know, really don't look upon myself as being talented. I just think I was lucky to want to play originally to have the one to play music and and just was was was lucky along the way in a way.