Works Volume 2 is the sixth studio album by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on 25 November 1977.[3] Unlike Works Volume 1 (which consisted of three solo sides and one ensemble side), Works Volume 2 was a single album compilation of leftover tracks from other album sessions, similar to the Who's Odds & Sods or Led Zeppelin's Coda. While many derided the album for its apparent lack of focus, others praised it for showing a different side of the band than usual, with blues, bluegrass and jazz being very prominent as musical genres in this recording.
The remastered 2017 version of the album is expanded to a double-CD by the inclusion of the complete Works Live, an extended version of Emerson, Lake & Palmer in Concert.
"When the Apple Blossoms Bloom...", "Tiger in a Spotlight" and "Brain Salad Surgery" had been recorded at the 1973 sessions for the album Brain Salad Surgery but did not appear on it. The funk-fusion tinged "Apple Blossoms" first appeared as the B-side to "Jerusalem", "Brain Salad Surgery" had first surfaced as part of a 1973 BSS promotional flexi-disc before becoming the flip side to "Fanfare for the Common Man", and "Tiger in a Spotlight" was briefly considered as a 1974 single but held over until this album. All three are heavily synth dominated while two also feature electric guitars, much in the style of the rest of Brain Salad Surgery.
Two solo singles released during the group's sabbatical were also included. An orchestral version of Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas" had been released at the close of 1975 and hit #2 in the UK, becoming an annual Christmas standard there. The version on this album replaced the orchestra with new synth parts from Emerson. Meanwhile, Keith Emerson's cover of "Honky Tonk Train Blues" had been released as a single in April 1976, reaching #21 on the UK singles chart.[4] Its B-side, "Barrelhouse Shakdown", was also included.
The rest of the songs were outtakes from the 1976 sessions that produced Works Volume 1. "Maple Leaf Rag" was a faithful ragtime cover from Emerson, "Watching Over You" and "So Far To Fall" were guitar-based outtakes from Lake's solo side, while "Bullfrog" and "Close But Not Touching" were jazz-fusion instrumentals originating from Palmer's sessions. There is also a group cover of "Show Me the Way to Go Home" which closes the album.
The album was not as commercially successful as the band's previous albums; it reached No. 20 in the UK and No. 37 in the US. Three tracks from the album were released as singles: "Tiger in a Spotlight", "Maple Leaf Rag", and "Watching Over You".
In a contemporary review, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice facetiously remarked that it is "news" when "the world's most overweening 'progressive' group" makes an album "less pretentious than its title", but questioned whether it is "rock and roll".[9] In a retrospective review, AllMusic's David Ross Smith felt that it was "highly underrated" and wrote that the album's "brief pieces sustain interest; there really isn't a weak tune in the set."[5] Paul Stump, in his 1997 History of Progressive Rock, commented that "Even Progressive militants have trouble defending Vol. 2, although 'When the Apple Blossoms Bloom in the Windmills of Your Mind' does have a perverse charm. 'Tiger in a Spotlight', however, a cheesy plod, shows just how low the band's collective inspiration had sunk."[10]
The two Works albums were supported by North American tours which lasted from May 1977 to February 1978, spanning over 120 dates.[11] Some early concerts in 1977 were performed with a hand-picked orchestra and choir, but the idea was shelved after 18 shows with the band due to budget constraints.[12] The final concert with the orchestra and choir took place on 26 August 1977 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal that was attended by an estimated 78,000 people, the highest attended Emerson, Lake & Palmer concert as a solo act.[13] According to Lake on the Beyond the Beginning DVD documentary, the band lost around $3 million on the tour. Lake and Palmer blame Emerson for the loss as the use of an orchestra on tour was his idea.