The 1981 Listening Post - Greg Lake - Greg Lake

 Greg Lake - Greg Lake

#410

September 25 1981

Greg Lake

Grek Lake

Genre: Prog

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Love You Too Much

Retribution Drive

Long Goodbye

Lowlight:

"Let Me Love You Once Before You Go"

You learn a lot about the world reviewing thousands and thousands of albums. One of them is that “you may never come back from a nuclear attack”. Thanks, Greg. 

Although, “may”? Pretty sure a nuclear attack is gonna wipe you out but, you gotta write songs about something, right?

Tensions were so freaking in the 80s and I am so so grateful that we didn’t have 24 hour news to gin up all of our fears. I don’t remember fucking and covering like their did 30 years prior. 

You know why?

Cuz, you WILL never come back from a nuclear attack, Greg.

This album is more rock than prog and…was that what ELP fans were looking for from a Greg Lake solo spinner? Thing is, like Roger Taylor’s record, I find the departure…intriguing and not entirely a failure. “Love You Too Much” has more energy than I was expecting. Then I realized that Lake is a guitarist and, sure, this is what I want from an accomplished rock axe slinger who is breaking away from a sound. (Greg isn’t the lead guitarist, though. He’s enlisted the fingers of Gary Moore for that, and, well, we know how great Moore is. 

Speaking of “Love You Too Much”, I was gonna make a Dylan comparison and then I researched the song…it was co-written by Bob. So, there’s that. 

The songs aren’t great and exists mostly to showcase Greg’s guitar prowess but they try really hard to establish him as a force to make his mark on the rock road. “Retribution Drive” is a prime example of this. 

The one song Lake didn’t have anything to with the writing of, "Let Me Love You Once Before You Go”, is a hot piece of ballad garbage that screams label demand and belongs right where it is on the album, the penultimate track on the second side. It’s a turgid piece of soft Yacht Rock that stands out as the exception from the rest of the album, which rocks pretty hard. 

Among others, Gary Moore, Clarence Clemons and Snuffy Walden(!!!) appear on this. And it shows. It’s a strong record that I would not be unhappy to revisit. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/greg-lake/1061172926