Love Beach

Love Beach
Studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Released	November 18, 1978
Recorded	Summer 1978, Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas
Length	41:03
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Keith Emerson
Emerson, Lake & Palmer chronology
Works Volume 2 (1977) Love Beach (1978) In Concert (1979)

Love Beach is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1978. It was the band's final album of original material until Black Moon (1992) and was produced to satisfy contractual obligations with the group's record company. It was a critical and commercial disappointment, charting at #55 on the Billboard 200, although it did eventually go gold.^[1]

Original pressings of Love Beach carried no producer's credit, but production and mixing of the album were largely carried out by Keith Emerson following contentious recording sessions in the Bahamas. According to Emerson, "everybody but me wanted to get the hell out of Nassau ... in the end I stuck the whole album together ... and sent it off to Atlantic".^[2][3]

Reception

Critical appraisal of the album is negative; some reviewers consider it the nadir of ELP's 1970s output, while others refer to the continued popularity of some songs. Writing in Rolling Stone magazine at the time of the album's release, reviewer Michael Bloom said that "Love Beach isn't simply bad, it's downright pathetic. Stale and full of ennui, this album makes washing the dishes seem a more creative act by comparison".^[4]

Allmusic's retrospective review consisted of a single sentence: "A record that ELP released only because they owed it to their original label, and that's all one needs to know."^[5]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[5]
Classic Rock	[6]
Rolling Stone	(unfavorable)[4]

Track listing

1. "All I Want Is You" (Greg Lake, Peter Sinfield) – 3:10
2. "Love Beach" (Lake, Sinfield) – 2:46
3. "Taste of My Love" (Lake, Sinfield) – 3:33
4. "The Gambler" (Keith Emerson, Lake, Sinfield) – 3:23
5. "For You" (Lake, Sinfield) – 4:28
6. "Canario (From Fantasia para un Gentilhombre)" (J. Rodrigo) – 4:00
7. "Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman" (Emerson, Sinfield) – 19:45
   1. Prologue / The Education of a Gentleman – 5:24
   2. Love at First Sight – 5:10
   3. Letters from the Front - 5:37
   4. Honourable Company (A March) - 3:34

Bonus tracks

1. "Canario (Rehearsal 1978)" - 4:38
2. "Taste of my Love (Rehearsal 1978)" - 3:01
3. "Letters from the Front (Rehearsal 1978)" - 8:52

Personnel

• Keith Emerson: keyboards
• Greg Lake: vocals, guitar, bass, harmonica
• Carl Palmer: drums, percussion
• Peter Sinfield: lyrics
• Jack Nuber, Karl Pitterson - engineers

Singles

• "All I Want Is You" / "Tiger in a Spotlight" (UK release)
• "Canario" / "All I Want Is You" (German release)

References

1. ↑ The RIAA's Gold entry for Love Beach
2. ↑ Keith Emerson, quoted by Milano, Contemporary Keyboard magazine, September 1980, p. 17.
3. ↑ Macan, Edward (2006). Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Open Court, ISBN 0-8126-9596-8, p. 418-19.
4. 1 2 Bloom, Michael (8 March 1979). "Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Love Beach". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2007-03-16. Retrieved 2011-12-12. 
5. 1 2 Eder, Bruce (2011 [last update]). "Love Beach - Emerson, Lake & Palmer | AllMusic". Allmusic. Retrieved 26 July 2011.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. ↑ Fielder, Hugh (February 2005). "Eight by Three". Classic Rock 76. London, UK: Future Publishing Ltd. p. 104.  |access-date= requires |url= (help)