Talk:Greg Lake

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A news item involving Greg Lake was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 9 December 2016.

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Untitled[edit]

Controversy: Greg Lake's Birthday - In my opinion, the most reliable sites (IMDB, All Music Guide, Music.com), give his birthday as 11/10/1947. I was about to change it back, and then I started finding 1948 reports. His website autobiography does not address the issue directly. Most of the visitor postings credit it as 1947, but a few claim 1948.

I'll leave it an open question until I can get a more definitive answer. Catbar (Brian Rock) 11:58, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There is a Gregory S Lake birth registered in Volume 6B, Page 288 of the Oct-Dec Quarter 1947, in the Bournemouth Registration District, which covers Poole. Mother's maiden name was Parsons. This would suggest the October 1947 date may be accurate. BarryDRees (talk) 15:30, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I also have a copy of Greg Lake's birth registry received from the Registry office in Poole, UK and his birth year is 1947.--Lrheath (talk) 20:39, 5 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Copyvio[edit]

Moved from Wikipedia:Copyright problems

Greg Lake - from [1], reverted to previous version Catbar (Brian Rock) 17:16, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

End moved text

As the article cannot be deleted to remove the copyvio revisions due to a technical limitation, the copyvio is just going to have to remain in the history for the time being. -- Cyrius|✎ 03:50, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Prokofiev[edit]

That "Father Christmas" musical quote from Prokofiev... is that "Troika" from the Lieutenant Kije suite? -- The Anome 07:29, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

After a bit of clicking around, yes it is: we even have a MIDI available. -- The Anome 07:31, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

facts pleeze[edit]

"Lake became further well-known for his Christmas hit, "I Believe in Father Christmas" (Works Volume II) in 1975". It was a hit in 1974 I believe (in the UK at least) as well as in other later years. Also, the way this is phrased almost makes it appear that Works II came out in '75 and this was much later.

"sharing with John Lennon the peculiar role of a rock star who wrote a very popular Xmas tune". Other rock/pop stars have made very popular Xmas tunes inlcuding Slade, McCarney, Rea. The sentence is a bit misguided, PoV and just needs cutting.

Candy 23:55, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pruning[edit]

Sorry, I re-read the article and couldn't let it lie. I removed a lot of POV words which just seemed to be gushing about Lake (not that I don't feel that way myself but this is an encyclopaedia). I pruned a graet deal out, rephrased some parts and added basic headers. They need a lot more fleshing out but that's all you'll be getting from me tonight folks!

Candy 00:35, 11 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Clean up[edit]

Cleaned this up some more. I removed some of the more PoV words where I could. A number of spelling mistakes were corrected (and no doubt a few added ;=) ) as well as gramatical errors. Some parts were deleted such as where there was tautology in the intro. Removed the term Grade School as it is a US term and inapproprate here - he's British dontchaknow! 8) Candy 11:26, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'll be honest... this is a pretty poorly written article. I've contributed to it before, but it's just a bit of a mess...--h i s s p a c e r e s e a r c h 03:10, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

POV[edit]

This article is way much partial. Greg Lake is a great artist, but talking about "greatest legacy" seems overkill. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.234.22.163 (talk) 04:39, 29 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed! I wonder which editors here spend time on this biography, or whether it's edited in a "hit-and-run" kind of style over what appears (from earlier discussion here) to have been built upon a foundation of a pure copyright violation. Is this an accurate guess? If so, please leave me a note on my talk page! We should honestly do our best to catch this stuff early, esp. on BLP articles for musicians who have played such a pivotal role in so many early 1960s-1970s rock and roll bands. Consider: he is still alive and still playing, which requires fixing this problem NOW, else any hopes of developing this article beyond B-rank will be far harder after all the additional biographical information (not to mention references) from his current and future contributions are added. --Leahtwosaints (talk) 19:28, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree a lot of the article is 'gushing' but Leahtwosaints I have no idea what you are on about! What "stuff" do we need to catch? Are you talking about quality editing? I wrote virtually the entire article, and of course it is very one sided and lacking in references (I am very knowledgable about Lake, but I only edit for fun, and referencing isn't). Nothing about his instruments, virtually nothing about his personal life or early projects (especially details about The Shy Limbs is lacking). However the article is readable and informative and its coverage of the last 20 years (when he has done extremely little in the public sphere) is very good. Anyway, please go ahead and improve the article as best you can. It needs a lot of references, for a start. And as for the OP, the only reference to "greatest legacy" is to the band, not Lake. And its Fanfare. Would anyone dispute that? I'm sure a reference for Fanfare being their greatest legacy could be found. --DreamsReign (talk) 05:27, 8 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

On top of all that, most of this was about ELP and their drama and trivia - not Lake. I've removed most of that unsourced crap and puffery. The Dissident Aggressor 22:28, 12 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Guitars and instruments[edit]

I'm puzzled as to why the article had a C-level rank for the guitar group when virtually nothing is mentioned about Lake's sound both on bass guitar, and guitar. Some information about his instruments would be helpful for a start! --Leahtwosaints (talk) 19:28, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Date of birth[edit]

I found Greg's DOB listed as 10 November 1948 in a respected publication and gave the reference <ref>Clarke, Donald (ed.) ''Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' 2nd ed. 1998 Penguin Books, London</ref>. As the above discussion conclusively found the year was 1947 I have removed that reference. Doug butler (talk) 06:30, 14 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Greg Lake has died of cancer. Facebook post from Emerson, Lake and Palmer official facebook page[edit]

https://www.facebook.com/EmersonLakePalmer/posts/1181042181932351 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.50.63.173 (talk) 11:38, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

So what is the date of death? The source I have been going off, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38251936 says "He died on Tuesday after "a long and stubborn battle with cancer", said his manager." Tuesday just gone is 6 December, not the 7th. On what grounds are people citing the 7th? Is the BBC source wrong? (See also Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Semi-protection of Greg Lake) Ritchie333 ^(talk) ^(cont) 13:47, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The BBC article seems to have changed it to Wednesday. 201.80.34.63 (talk) 13:54, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Guardian is also now showing Wednesday, so I have added it as a source and unprotected. Ritchie333 ^(talk) ^(cont) 14:00, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

[Pancreatic] Cancer[edit]

"citation needed" has been added to this claim. Citation given says only "cancer" and does not specify cancer type. Since it has been left as such for over a month and I cannot find any sources mentioning the exact type of cancer, I am removing it. If someone more skilled than I could please remove the citation needed tag that would be great.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.235.188.9 (talk) 06:38, 4 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Main photo[edit]

Why is the main photo in the article showing Greg as an old man? This is not how history will remember him. Just because this is the most recent photo of him performing does not mean it is the most illustrative image for the article. Surely it would be better to show him in his prime - performing with ELP in the 70s? Point of Presence talk 01:07, 13 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Extravagance in ELP[edit]

The section said: "In addition, Lake would change his guitar strings after each show on tour." ref name=recordingworld1976/. I have taken this sentence out, because it's not really noteworthy. Many top class guitarists use fresh strings for every show. --BjKa (talk) 13:10, 4 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]