Trilogy (song)

"Trilogy" is a song by the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It was released on their 1972 album Trilogy. At almost 9 minutes long, it is the longest song on the album. The song has received positive reviews.

Casey Elston said that "Trilogy" was one of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's best songs, especially the "hard-hitting coda".^[1]

Rolling Stone magazine named "Trilogy" one of the band’s 10 essential songs, and said that the song’s intro "is almost a conventional, straightforward, even Zombies-esque love ballad – that is, until the monstrous riffs and baroque synth workouts that hold layers upon layers of intricacy".^[2]

Michael Gallucci of Ultimate Classic Rock put the song at number 10 on his list of the Top 10 Emerson, Lake & Palmer songs.^[3]

Title

When asked about why the song's title is "Trilogy", Greg Lake said:

I don't know. I mean, Trilogy was the title of the album. We used to retrofit our titles. Certainly the album concepts were retrofitted. We made the music first, you see. And really, it fitted together, just because it was in the order that it was written and created. The word 'trilogy' never occurs on the whole album, but it is the title. So we would title things sometimes in retrospect.^[4]

Other appearances

"Trilogy" is also included on the compilation album The Essential Emerson, Lake & Palmer, as well as the box sets From the Beginning and Gold Edition.

References