King Biscuit Flower Hour: Greatest Hits Live

King Biscuit Flower Hour: Greatest Hits Live
Live album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Released 1997
Recorded 1973-74 / 1977 worldwide tours
Genre Progressive rock
Length 1:41:51
Label King Biscuit
Producer Greg Lake
Emerson, Lake & Palmer chronology

In the Hot Seat
(1994)
King Biscuit Flower Hour: Greatest Hits Live
(1997)
Live in Poland
(1997)
Professional ratings
Review scores
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Allmusic [1]

King Biscuit Flower Hour: Greatest Hits Live is a compilation live album by the progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It features tracks from two different tours: The 1973-1974 Brain Salad Surgery Tour, and the 1977 Works Tour.

Almost all the material included here had been released before on other live albums: The five songs from the Brain Salad Surgery tour (Tracks 11-15) were originally included on the 1974 triple Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends, and four songs from the Works tour ("Peter Gunn Theme", "Tiger in a Spotlight", "C'Est la Vie" and "The Enemy God") had appeared in 1979 as part of In Concert. In Concert was re-released in 1993 as a two-disc set under the title Works Live, adding seven new tracks. Two of those seven ("Maple Leaf Rag" and "Watching Over You") have been included here too. That makes eleven tracks.

The remaining four tracks are available legally for the first time: A piano adaptation of the first movement of Keith Emerson's Piano Concerto No. 1 (mislabled as "Piano Improvisation"), a short Carl Palmer solo, and performances of "Fanfare for the Common Man" and "Pirates". The version of "Fanfare" included here is a performance without the orchestra the band used on some concerts during the tour. One version with the orchestra is available on Works Live. Also, the recording of "Pirates" is, maybe, the unique registered live recording of the track during the Works tour and was originally featured on the bootleg album Works: Volume ½. It does not feature the orchestra as by the time of this recording, the orchestra had been dissolved due to lack of funds to pay them.

Track listing

Disc One:

  1. "Peter Gunn Theme" (Mancini) – 3:43
  2. "Tiger in a Spotlight" (Emerson, Lake, Palmer, Sinfield) – 4:22
  3. "C'Est la Vie" (Lake, Sinfield) – 4:21
  4. "Piano Improvisation" (Emerson) – 5:39
    • Piano Concerto No. 1, 1st Movement: Allegro Giojoso
  5. "Maple Leaf Rag" (Joplin) – 1:17
  6. "Drum Solo" (Palmer) – 1:25
  7. "The Enemy God" (Prokofiev) – 2:45
  8. "Watching Over You" (Lake, Sinfield) – 4:13
  9. "Pirates" (Emerson, Lake, Palmer) – 13:27
  10. "Fanfare for the Common Man" (Copland) – 8:20
  11. "Hoedown" (Copland) – 4:23
  12. "Still...You Turn Me On" (Lake) – 3:01
  13. "Lucky Man" (Lake) – 3:09
  14. "Piano Improvisation" (Emerson, Gulda) – 7:09

Disc Two:

  1. "Karn Evil 9" (Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 34:31
  2. "Fully Interactive" – 36:01

References

  1. Eder, B. (2011). "King Biscuit Flower Hour: Greatest Hits Live - Emerson, Lake & Palmer | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 26 July 2011.