Puneet Varma (Editor)

Works Volume 2

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Released
  
1 November 1977

Length
  
43:54

Artist
  
Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Label
  
Ariola Records

Recorded
  
1973-76

Works Volume 2 (1977)
  
Love Beach (1978)

Release date
  
1 November 1977

Works Volume 2 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumbc

Genres
  
Progressive rock, Symphonic rock

Producers
  
Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer, Peter Sinfield

Similar
  
Works Volume 1, Love Beach, In the Hot Seat, Emerson - Lake & Palmer in, Black Moon

Works Volume 2 is the sixth studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1977. Unlike Works Volume 1 (which consisted of three solo sides and one ensemble side), Works Volume 2 was a single album which seemingly was a compilation of leftover tracks from other album sessions that had not made those albums. While many derided the album for its apparent lack of focus, others felt that it showed a different side of the band, with blues, bluegrass and jazz being very prominent as musical genres in this recording.

Contents

Songs

"When the Apple Blossoms Bloom...", "Tiger in a Spotlight" and "Brain Salad Surgery" had been recorded at the 1973 sessions for the album Brain Salad Surgery but did not appear on it. Emerson's cover of "Honky Tonk Train Blues" had been released as a single in 1976, reaching #21 in the UK pop charts.

Volume 2 also included a stripped-down version of Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas". An orchestral version of the song had previously been released as a solo Lake single in the UK in 1975 and became something of an annual Christmas standard there.

Reception

In a contemporary review, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice facetiously remarked that it is "news" when "the world's most overweening 'progressive' group" makes an album "less pretentious than its title", but questioned whether it is "rock and roll". In a retrospective review, AllMusic's David Ross Smith felt that it was "highly underrated" and wrote that the album's "brief pieces sustain interest; there really isn't a weak tune in the set."

Bonus Tracks

  1. "Maple Leaf Rag (Single cut)" - 1:15

Singles

  • "Watching Over You/Hallowed Be Thy Name" (UK release)
  • "Tiger in a Spotlight/So Far to Fall" (German release)

    • Emerson, Lake & Palmer

  • Keith Emerson - keyboards, piano, organ, synthesizers, accordion
  • Greg Lake - vocals, guitars, bass guitar
  • Carl Palmer - drums, percussion

    • Guest musicians

  • Ron Aspery - saxophone on "Bullfrog" (uncredited)
  • Colin Hodgkinson - bass guitar on "Bullfrog" (uncredited)

    • Songs

    1Tiger in a Spotlight4:35
    2When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind I'll Be Your Valentine3:59
    3Bullfrog3:52

    References

    Works Volume 2 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA