Richard Fraser was a lyricist for the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 band Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...

 (ELP).

He is notable for receiving credit for their 1970 debut album

Emerson, Lake and Palmer (album)

Emerson, Lake & Palmer is the eponymous debut album of British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released in 1970.As a first album from the newly formed supergroup, the album clearly demonstrates the variety of influences the artists brought with them, in the mix of instrumental and...

's third track, the hit "Knife Edge" and for his lyrical contributions to Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition (album)

*The material on the second disc was recorded at the Lyceum Theatre in December of 1970.-Personnel:*Keith Emerson - Pipe Organ, Hammond C3 and L100 Organs, Moog Modular Synthesizer, Ribbon controller, Clavinet*Greg Lake - bass, acoustic guitar, Vocals...

. Fraser and bassist Greg Lake

Greg Lake

Gregory Stuart "Greg" Lake is an English musician, songwriter and producer, best known as a vocalist and bassist of King Crimson, and the bassist, guitarist, vocalist, and lyricist of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.-1960s: King Crimson:...

 wrote the nightmarish lyrics together while Keith Emerson

Keith Emerson

Keith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...

 added some improvisations on the Hammond organ

Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...

. (Lake worked with non-performing lyricists before and after, notably Peter Sinfield

Peter Sinfield

Peter John Sinfield is an English poet, lyricist and artist, most famously known as the lyricist and co-founding member of early incarnations of King Crimson, whose debut album In the Court of the Crimson King has been regarded as one of the most influential progressive rock albums ever...

.)

Most of the music to "Knife Edge" was "borrowed" from the first movement of Leoš Janáček

Leoš Janácek

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...

's Sinfonietta (1926), except for the organ solo section, which is a note-for-note quotation of the Allemande

Allemande

An allemande is one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite...

 of Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

's 1st French Suite in D minor, BWV 812. On the original Cotillion Records USA release of the Emerson, Lake & Palmer LP, Knife Edge was credited entirely to Emerson, Lake and Fraser without any mention of Janáček or Bach; However, on the British Manticore LP re-release, Sinfonietta and Janáček were listed in the album credits, including on the back cover (also listed was "The Barbarian" by Bartók - arranged by Emerson, Lake and Palmer), and Keith Emerson has often mentioned the French Suite quote, including in the 1977 Keyboard Magazine

Keyboard Magazine

Keyboard Magazine is a magazine that originally covered electronic keyboard instruments and keyboardists, though with the advent of computer based recording and audio technology, they have added digital music technology to their regular coverage, including those not strictly pertaining to the...

interview. Unfortunately, record companies that have re-issued the Emerson, Lake & Palmer LP on Compact Disc, have to this day failed to use the updated information, including from the Manticore LP release's back cover.

Greg Lake had this to say about Fraser in March 1972: