 Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970) [ larger cover art ] |
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He had white horses
And ladies by the score
All dressed in satin
And waiting by the door
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was
White lace and feathers
They made up his bed
A gold covered mattress
On which he was led
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was
He went to fight wars
For his country and his king
Of his honor and his glory
The people would sing
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was
A bullet had found him
His blood ran as he cried
No money could save him
So he laid down and he died
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooooh, what a lucky man he was
| ccjemmett (Toronto) | Posted: May 07, 2013 - 09:06 bb_matt wrote: Terrible use of a Moog - someone shoot that Moog player! - random noise. Pioneer use of Moog actually. someone had to try that stuff... |
| ccjemmett (Toronto) | Posted: May 07, 2013 - 09:00 Very nice but can we dare to hope for something Yes from this era? Even earlier... |
| bb_matt (Hampshire, England) | Posted: May 07, 2013 - 08:56 Terrible use of a Moog - someone shoot that Moog player! - random noise. |
| kurtster (Back in Ohiya, for now ...) | Posted: May 07, 2013 - 08:56 Some of the best use of a Moog, ever ... |
| Highspirits (who cares) | Posted: Mar 05, 2013 - 17:44 hey, i liked your story alot....reminds me of my dad and how he used to play train sound effects records REAL LOUD on Saturday mornings.... bseib wrote: This song has a special spot in my memory as a kid. My dad was an electrical engineer with a passion for music and HiFi. Somewhere around 1970 he built a pair of Altec "Voice of the Theater" speakers, which were impressive in performance, as well as in physical stature. Anyhow, I believe Mr. Lake intended Lucky Man to have the "lowest recorded note" (a really low "D"). For my Dad, this made Lucky Man a favorite song to demonstrate his Altec's. He loved to turn it up. Really Loud. It was actually quite impressive feeling that note in your chest. :-) I miss you Dad. |
| On_The_Beach (The Blue Planet) | Posted: Mar 05, 2013 - 17:33 bseib wrote: This song has a special spot in my memory as a kid. My dad was an electrical engineer with a passion for music and HiFi. Somewhere around 1970 he built a pair of Altec "Voice of the Theater" speakers, which were impressive in performance, as well as in physical stature. Anyhow, I believe Mr. Lake intended Lucky Man to have the "lowest recorded note" (a really low "D"). For my Dad, this made Lucky Man a favorite song to demonstrate his Altec's. He loved to turn it up. Really Loud. It was actually quite impressive feeling that note in your chest. :-) I miss you Dad. I know just the note(s) you're talking about, towards the end. I too used to crank this up to test (read show off) my JBL L100s. |
| Giselle62 (many bear, big rock, estuary California) | Posted: Mar 05, 2013 - 17:33 this sounds so great after that Ween song. wow, just perfect—-and very Ween-like! (My mom had this album.) |
| kaybar (Memphis, TN--The REAL Music City) | Posted: Mar 05, 2013 - 17:32 Fantastic ending. Wish it had gone on for about 4 or 5 minutes. |
| bseib (40 21' N 86 53' 40" W) | Posted: Feb 02, 2013 - 10:16 This song has a special spot in my memory as a kid. My dad was an electrical engineer with a passion for music and HiFi. Somewhere around 1970 he built a pair of Altec "Voice of the Theater" speakers, which were impressive in performance, as well as in physical stature. Anyhow, I believe Mr. Lake intended Lucky Man to have the "lowest recorded note" (a really low "D"). For my Dad, this made Lucky Man a favorite song to demonstrate his Altec's. He loved to turn it up. Really Loud. It was actually quite impressive feeling that note in your chest. :-)  I miss you Dad. |
| rdo (DC) | Posted: Dec 01, 2012 - 16:48 (former member) wrote: You smell bad... everybody in my hotel room thinks you should bathe... we love this song... Touche, or should I say Douche. Miss ya, nonetheless. O' banished bro of mine. |
| (former member) (hotel in Las Vegas) | Posted: Sep 29, 2012 - 21:26 sublime... love it... |
| lemmoth (NYC) | Posted: Aug 29, 2012 - 08:30 ziakut wrote: Ok, ok...I know this is a classic and all. I do like ELP very much...BUT those keyboard swells are just plain annoying. I've always loved everything else about this great song and this amazing band...but it really sounds to me like someone without much thought tinkering with some 'cool new sound' throughout the song. It doesn't really help convey the atmosphere they started in the beginning. Just really annoying and wish it wasn't in there at all. Just my humble opinion...bring it on folks....  So you think its a great song (I think its a very good song and Lake is a very good singer) by an amazing band (holding my judgement) that is ruined by the crazy ass synthesizer whooshes introduced late in the song. Well to me those whooshes are emblematic of what this band was and is, besides being inexplicably my wife's favorites, as led by the biggest show off of all Mr. Emerson, they are a bunch of talented and creative musicians who show off their skills for the very sake of showing off, and hardly, if ever in service of a song. |
| Giselle62 (many bear, big rock, estuary California) | Posted: Jul 28, 2012 - 22:39 it sounded good after Ween's the Argus as someone already pointed out. |
| Boy_Wonder (Bath, back in the UK) | Posted: Jun 27, 2012 - 11:58 It's a seven until the whooshing noises in the last minute or so.... so very 70's, not aged well but still good to have heard the rest. |
| (former member) (hotel in Las Vegas) | Posted: Apr 24, 2012 - 21:34 (former member) wrote:  I agree... love this song... |
| ziakut (Unmoon) | Posted: Feb 21, 2012 - 11:48 Ok, ok...I know this is a classic and all. I do like ELP very much...BUT those keyboard swells are just plain annoying. I've always loved everything else about this great song and this amazing band...but it really sounds to me like someone without much thought tinkering with some 'cool new sound' throughout the song. It doesn't really help convey the atmosphere they started in the beginning. Just really annoying and wish it wasn't in there at all. Just my humble opinion...bring it on folks....  |
| Boy_Wonder (Bath, back in the U of K) | Posted: Feb 21, 2012 - 11:47 DaveInVA wrote: I've seen them live twice. The first time was the Works tour and Heart played ahead of them at Soldiers Field in Chicago. What a great concert with a revolving drum stage, light show etc. They did about a 20 minute version of this song. My idea of hell!! |
| oldsaxon (Wales via Vancouver, BC.) | Posted: Feb 21, 2012 - 11:45 Kokoloco53 wrote: What a lucky man I am to have grown up in the era when music was in a renaissance of discovering new styles of music, crossovers of classical, jazz sitting on the shelves with hard rock like Led Zeppelin. Though new music today is great, it's still move vanilla in general compared to the mid 60's to mid 70's, before disco reigned. But it's stilla beautiful world for all to enjoy. Thanks RP for keeping the fires alive. The bass line in this is great. I love the cynical lyrics. "No money could save him"....when I was 16 that was cool, not so sure now having read more and written some.... mind you, those ideals still resonate a little.... |
| rtrudeau (Bay Area, California) | Posted: Feb 21, 2012 - 11:42 romeotuma wrote: You smell bad... everybody in my hotel room thinks you should bathe... we love this song... Touché |
| (former member) (hotel in Las Vegas) | Posted: Jan 20, 2012 - 18:20 rdo wrote: I gotta hand it to you. You stick to your guns. Still, I gotta ask you to spare my carpal tunnel syndrome. You smell bad... everybody in my hotel room thinks you should bathe... we love this song... |
| rdo (DC) | Posted: Jan 20, 2012 - 18:13 romeotuma wrote: Everybody in my hotel room loves this song... |
| (former member) (hotel in Las Vegas) | Posted: Jan 20, 2012 - 18:10 Everybody in my hotel room loves this song... |
| to_the_eleven (the groove) | Posted: Nov 18, 2011 - 06:53 "When danger reared its ugly head, He bravely turned his tail and fled." |
| Kokoloco53 (Safford, AZ) | Posted: Nov 18, 2011 - 06:53 What a lucky man I am to have grown up in the era when music was in a renaissance of discovering new styles of music, crossovers of classical, jazz sitting on the shelves with hard rock like Led Zeppelin. Though new music today is great, it's still move vanilla in general compared to the mid 60's to mid 70's, before disco reigned. But it's stilla beautiful world for all to enjoy. Thanks RP for keeping the fires alive. |
| helgigermany (Germany) | Posted: Sep 16, 2011 - 03:02 Very nice indeed! |
| (former member) (hotel in Las Vegas) | Posted: Sep 08, 2011 - 23:00 dmax wrote: Written way before 1970. Yes, we should have just said it was released in 1970... Greg Lake supposedly wrote it when he was 12... what a lucky lad he was... love this song... |
| Chumbawamba-1984 (West Chester, OH) | Posted: Aug 15, 2011 - 18:21 agkagk wrote: Absolutely right, dmax. I just looked it up on Wiki. Incredibly, this song was written by Greg Lake when he was 12 ! (1959) Very impressive! One of my all-time favorite songs. It blew me away when I was about 13 and started my lifelong love of house-shaking bass (thank you, Mr. Moog). +1 |
| agkagk (Ontario, Canada) | Posted: Jul 15, 2011 - 09:39 dmax wrote: Written way before 1970. Absolutely right, dmax. I just looked it up on Wiki. Incredibly, this song was written by Greg Lake when he was 12 ! (1959) Very impressive! One of my all-time favorite songs. It blew me away when I was about 13 and started my lifelong love of house-shaking bass (thank you, Mr. Moog). |
| RedGuitar (Iowa, USA) | Posted: Jul 15, 2011 - 09:29 sirdroseph wrote: When I hear this song, a part of me is firm in the knowledge that I am not supposed to like this, but then I find myself just singing along without a care of who hears me. Vatta u gonna do?? Love this song, there I said it. I don't care if I'm "not supposed to like it" - I think this is a great tune. I've been listening to music since '63 or so and "Lucky Man" is one of my all-time faves. I still remember the first time I heard it - driving home from junior college classes and listening to it. Then toward the end, this "sound" came out of the speaker in the van. I had never heard the Moog before and it totally amazed me. It's great to hear in surround sound if you can find the DVD-Audio disc of ELP's Brain Salad Surgery - it's included as a bonus track. OK, I'll shut up now. |
| DaveInVA (In a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA) | Posted: Jul 15, 2011 - 09:26 jagdriver wrote: This LP was quite a revelation when it was first released. I couldn't get enough of their collective sound. I've seen them live twice. The first time was the Works tour and Heart played ahead of them at Soldiers Field in Chicago. What a great concert with a revolving drum stage, light show etc. They did about a 20 minute version of this song. |
| (former member) | Posted: Jul 15, 2011 - 09:23 romeotuma wrote: This song was written and released in 1970 during the Vietnam War, but it is impressive how this song transcends one example and applies to war in general... this really is a great song... love it... Written way before 1970. |
| Proclivities (Carrboro, NC) | Posted: Jun 13, 2011 - 17:33 sirdroseph wrote: When I hear this song, a part of me is firm in the knowledge that I am not supposed to like this, but then I find myself just singing along without a care of who hears me. Vatta u gonna do?? Love this song, there I said it. I think I have a similar sentiment about this song. Once I actually started dating girls, bands like this were meaningless to me - The Stones, Lou Reed, or the burgeoning punk movement carried much more weight to me. I left this flavor of prog-rock with my friends who were still hanging around in their parents' basements, talking about comic books, Star Trek, and Tolkien. Still, it's a good song. |
| sirdroseph (Yes) | Posted: May 13, 2011 - 02:39 When I hear this song, a part of me is firm in the knowledge that I am not supposed to like this, but then I find myself just singing along without a care of who hears me. Vatta u gonna do?? Love this song, there I said it. |
| fredriley (Nottingham, UK) | Posted: May 13, 2011 - 02:32 This takes me back to the 70s, when I worshipped ELP. I passed out of that 'phase' soon enough after the refreshing purge of Punk, and now look back on most of ELP's work as highly pretentious baroque noodling, very much of its time. The few songs that Greg Lake was allowed to publish do, though, stand the test of time, and this is one of them. It helps that there's not very much egocentric keyboard wibbling from Keith Emerson to distract from the song. 8 from the Nottingham jury. |
| (former member) | Posted: Mar 10, 2011 - 23:44 smackiepipe wrote: Wasn't even a MiniMoog, but the ultra large Modular Moog that stood about 7 ft high. (takes off nerd-cap). |
| jagdriver (Just a nod and a wink south of Paradise) | Posted: Feb 07, 2011 - 15:44 DaveInVA wrote:  Correct artwork and it was released in 1970 not 1980.. Greg Lake wrote Lucky Man when he was 12! This LP was quite a revelation when it was first released. I couldn't get enough of their collective sound. |
| Painted_Turtle (Land of Laughing Waters) | Posted: Feb 07, 2011 - 15:44 DaveInVA wrote: Correct artwork and it was released in 1970 not 1980.. Greg Lake wrote Lucky Man when he was 12!  I much prefer this original cover. Amazing song. I've always considered Greg Lake a musical genuis. |
| Jelani (Home of the freak, land of the vague) | Posted: Feb 07, 2011 - 15:44 romeotuma wrote: This song was written and released in 1970 during the Vietnam War, but it is impressive how this song transcends one example and applies to war in general... this really is a great song... love it... Yes, and it's impressive how one's impressions change over the years when one finds they have something to lose. |
| Jelani (Home of the freak, land of the vague) | Posted: Feb 07, 2011 - 15:41 Brilliant! F'ing brilliant! |
| (former member) (hotel in Las Vegas) | Posted: Oct 04, 2010 - 10:40 absolutely magnificent... |
| Zocket (San Jose, CA) | Posted: Oct 04, 2010 - 10:37 This was played at my father's funeral. |
| osbyec | Posted: Oct 04, 2010 - 10:37 Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm love the harmonies here. |
| Jelani (Home of the freak, land of the vague) | Posted: Oct 04, 2010 - 10:35 Nice!!!! This whole album should be on the RP playlist. |
| DaveInVA (In a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA) | Posted: Sep 02, 2010 - 10:44 Correct artwork and it was released in 1970 not 1980.. Greg Lake wrote Lucky Man when he was 12! |
| (former member) (hotel in Las Vegas) | Posted: Sep 02, 2010 - 10:43 This song was written and released in 1970 during the Vietnam War, but it is impressive how this song transcends one example and applies to war in general... this really is a great song... love it... |
| DigitalJer (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) | Posted: Sep 02, 2010 - 10:42 On_The_Beach wrote: Most 12-year-olds know how to spell "you're". (still laughing) PS - big 10! |
| Rp10v3r (Gainesville, FL) | Posted: Sep 02, 2010 - 10:41 Never gets old. All time fave...  |
| Stingray (EUROPE) | Posted: Sep 02, 2010 - 10:41 Ask CLEO ODZER...! |
| On_The_Beach (Vancouver BC, Bud) | Posted: Jun 30, 2010 - 15:51 Papernapkin wrote: This is a great song... if your into renaissance pleasure faires. And 12 years old. Most 12-year-olds know how to spell "you're". |
| RedGuitar (Iowa, USA) | Posted: Jun 30, 2010 - 13:50 Remember the first time I heard this - driving home from junior college classes in the old Ford Econoline van. I was blow away by the sound of the Moog. It was such a different sound from what we were used to hearing. Still love it (even though I'm way past 12 years old). |