Monday, April 20, 2020

Swiss & Italian Lakeside Memorials to Rock Stars: Songs by Freddie Mercury, Boy George, Emerson, Lake & Palmer



Armchair travel to a Swiss Lake in Switzerland, Lake Geneva, and travel back in time to the heyday of Queen, Boy George and Emerson Lake and Palmer.


Cover of Queen's last album showing Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux, Switzerland, and the Duck House where he often stayed.

In my earlier post I wrote about the Duck House which you can rent to stay in (before and after Coronavirus lockdowns which are in place now in April 2020) near the Montreux statue of Freddie Mercury in  Switzerland.

Emerson Lake and Palmer also stayed there. So did Boy George. Let's do a quick recap of their music from the nineteen seventies onwards.

I started wondering what were the hit songs of three famous musical acts which stayed there, Freddie Mercury, Boy George, and Emerson Lake & Palmer.


Freddie Mercury
Songs by Freddie Mercury and Queen include Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are The Champions.

Boy George
His songs include Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, and the grammatically correct, If I were you.



Emerson Lake and Palmer
The names were the surnames of the band members. On youtube you can watch them playing one of their greatest hits, Fanfare For the Common Man. Sounds familiar?  You will also find that under American Aaron Copland. When I typed it I could not remember whether the song was for or of. I checked back and it is alliterative (same initial letters), Fanfare For.

The band's rendition starts with heavy drumming and a close up of the drummer Carl Palmer.

The singer, songwriter was Lake.
Wiki sums it up:
Gregory Stuart Lake (10 November 1947 – 7 December 2016) was an English singer, songwriter, bassist, guitarist and record producer. He gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP).

Their other songs include I Believe In Father Christmas, C'est La Vie and Show Me The Way To Go Home. From The Beginning was a big hit in the USA.

Lake performing in Landudno, Wales

The Best of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, issued in 1994, included In the Beginning, Jerusalem, Fanfare for the Common Man, Lucky Man, and I believe in Father Christmas.
Lake died in 2016, from pancreatic Cancer.



Marble Plaque engraved for Greg Lake next to Castello Canevaro in Zoagli, Genoa, Italy.
Date18 June 2018
Sourceby my phone
AuthorDemetrio99

I know some people used to prefer non wiki websites. But other websites I looked at say in front of the link 'not secure'. I have given the wiki links because they are prefixed by the padlock sign.


Finally, listen to the Swiss national anthem.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Psalm

Bohemian Rhapsody
Biographical drama about Freddie Mercury and his band, Queen. Film made in 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson,_Lake_%26_Palmer_discography
See previous posts on Freddie Mercury

Intrumental of Fanfare For the common Man on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2zurZig4L8

Song Lucky Man by Emerson Lake and Palmer on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t-xorsgd8w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szFrHKoD1GE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_Emerson,_Lake_%26_Palmer

BBC readable roudup and obituary of Lake entitled 'Greg Lake Crimson and ELP Star dies aged 69
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38251936

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Lake

Swiss National Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-bxVdkLo-Y

Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.

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