Greg Lake

With his larger-than-life baritone and charismatic vocal style, Greg Lake became a driving force in progressive rock. Born in Dorset, England to a working-class family, Lake developed a passion for rock 'n' roll at an early age. He began playing in bands in the mid '60s, including The Shame, with whom he cut the MGM single "Don't Go Away Little Girl," and The Gods. But Lake became part of rock history when he joined King Crimson. Lake and Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp had both taken lessons from the same guitar teacher, Don Strike. When Fripp's previous outfit, Giles, Giles, and Fripp, mutated into King Crimson, Lake came aboard as singer and bassist. The band's pioneering progressive rock approach took the world by storm when their landmark debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, was released in 1969. After their second album, 1970's In the Wake of Poseidon, Lake left the band to start something of a supergroup with keyboard demon Keith Emerson of The Nice and drummer Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. As Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the power trio (in which Lake switched off between bass and guitar in addition to singing) combined classical, jazz, and rock influences to become one of the biggest prog rock bands on the planet. Their self-titled 1970 debut album made ELP bona fide rock stars, and they were enormously successful through most of the '70s. A band of clashing egos, ELP split up in 1979. In '81, Lake released a moderately successful, self-titled solo debut album, which found him backed by everyone from guitar hero Gary Moore to Clarence Clemons and co-writing a song, "Love You Too Much," with Bob Dylan. After the less successful 1983 follow-up, Manoeuvres, Lake had a short run with another supergroup, Asia, which included Carl Palmer on drums. In 1985 he reconvened with Emerson, and with the addition of drummer Cozy Powell they recorded and toured as Emerson, Lake & Powell. ELP reunited in 1991, releasing a couple of new albums and touring at various points throughout the '90s, but split in '98. They got back together briefly in 2010. Five years later, Lake released an album with Asia/Yes keyboardist Geoff Downes called Ride the Tiger. Lake lost his life to cancer on December 7, 2016, just month's after Emerson's passing.