King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

Mark- Apparently Red is KC's favourite album ever. He also loved the raincoats, having written some brief notes for the reissue of their excellent debut. Even though nirvana sucked he had good taste (though I think that he only said that to piss off the metal fans that bought his music).

Agnes Moorehead, obviously. :)

Ladies of the Road and Formetera Ladies are the clunkers I refered to above btw. Though I think Sinfields worst lyrics are on Still.

Truly unfathomable, I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. However, it explains much. There's a site where I help write reviews for prog rock albums, and we once received a snippy letter for dissing the Wake of Poseidon album (or at least, not being fanboy-ish enough towards it), and the person, opening up by claiming we had "less wit and culture than an ant" (yep) used much of the material found in the Wake of Poseidon chapter as their defense of the album and its depth. Maybe it was even The Keeper of the onyx-embolden'd-husking-jewelled-warthogs website himself! :)

Cue your golf swing.

Wow... Mind = blown.

Very cool! thx ned

"that's some really wild stuff"

In The Lounge of the Crimson King

More on Belew's fourth-rate David Byrne impersonation - "I repeat myself under stress, I repeat myself under stress." Geddit? Hilarious, eh? Anybody who finds that remotely amusing in any way should be avoided.

Dave Q really killed it on this thread, huh? I like lots of KC but I hardly ever find myself playing them. When I do, it's either Larks' Tongues or Beat.

I think Belew's a pretty terrible lyricist but that was kinda the point, right? The lyrics weren't supposed to stand out. It was all about the music at that point.

Met this guy tonight who said he'd done tarot card readings with Adrian Belew, back in '83 or so

the story just got weirder from there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILSVAUjd5QI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Fripp speaks

excellent...wish it was longer

2009 Crimson, with Porcupine Tree drummer as second drummer, was awesome live.

so, who is buying the 13 CD, 1 DVD, 1 Blu-Ray of Larks' Tongue In Aspic?

http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=3916

Just registered for DJM live site just so I could hear a sparse guide track for "Islands" the song. Boz sounds like he's singing into a cheap condenser mike, but otherwise it's quite lovely.

'Islands' is the worst album ever made by anybody.
― dave q, Friday, February 15, 2002 7:00 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

NO.

its kind of weird to imagine that King Crimson only played a fixed amount of concerts when they were active. it feels like they're able to just create more and more live bootleg material at will, even if it was phyiscally impossible for them to have played that many dates.

So many of them are pretty dodgy quality though, aren't they?

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/lk/l/w/dd360157ea8e506661983ea7336800bc/4330188.gif

classic:

'released in three separate editions to satisfy the merely curious and the expectant collector'

so, who is buying the 13 CD, 1 DVD, 1 Blu-Ray of /Larks' Tongue In Aspic/?

http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=3916

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWaz8xfFjuE

Guess Fripperlips is done for good?

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/king-crimson-robert-fripp-quits-music-business/

Hope he enjoys retirement!

He's been retired for a while, I believe. Couple of years? Also, for what it's worth, he was semi-retired for pretty much the second half of the '70s, too.

Yeah, this is not new news.

Wait, hold up:

A multi-disc deluxe edition of the 1973 Crimson classic ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic’ is set for release in October and will include 13 CD’s, a DVD and a Blu-Ray disc.

13 CDs!?!?!

Disc details at the bottom of this page: http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm

So basically a bunch of live discs previously sold through the site. That's cool though. Band in the Muir era was neat.

Wasn't aware Kanye had sampled "Schizoid Man," which Fripp seems pissed he didn't get paid for. Wonder if he ever paid any royalties for quoting "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" in "Moonchild?"

I figured Fripp was done, but this is the first time I ever heard him say it (I know he said he wasn't going to tour anymore some 4-5 years ago), maybe I'm just not paying attention

Fripp got paid for Schizoid sample, but iirc only after going straight to Kanye and the two of them presenting a united front to the label. He was very careful never to criticize West, even though he could have for not clearing the sample ahead of time.

fripp did an album with mel collins and jakko jakwhatsit last year, so he hasn't been retired for 4 years. it was a bit disappointing, definitely not the new lease on KC I think they were hoping for.

Well it certainly wasnt the new lease on KC I was hoping for.

If the '72-74 lineup reunited I would buy a ticket in about 5 seconds flat. Anything beyond that, I don't really care.

Pretty sure Cross & Wetton are the only ones game for that.

I'd be up for another outing of any other combination that the last 2 though (the Jakko one or previous I mean).

"Absent Lovers" is the live album you're looking for.

I was a teen when I first heard "Three Of A Perfect Pair" and fell for it immediately. Maybe it's because I was already hanging out with nerds who thought puns were clever but I'm a big fan of everything Adrian was involved with until the mid-90s when his charm sort of wore off. But the three 80s Crimson albums are all gold.

I love "Three" and "Discipline," listen to "Beat" a lot less but still like it. Don't mind Belew the singer, who is basically like Byrne if he wished he was in the Beatles, and yet, still could play like Belew. Regardless, it barely needs to be said but the "Beat" tour a year or two ago absolutely ripped, one of the best things I've seen, and despite the different line-up and some slight deviations was pretty faithful to the studio versions of those three albums.

Me, I can't really get into the '90s/"Thrak" and beyond era of the band.

Absent Lovers is incredible, I agree on that!

I could have written your whole original post word for word. The phrase “shut up ‘n’ play yer guitar” may have been coined by Zappa but it was made for Belew.

there's a sort of neurosis present amongst all King Crimson's singers, it's part of what gives them a mystical quality, Belew I think tries to imitate that in his own way but it's not particularly convincing. that said most of his lyrics are fine, good even, plus he's a top notch guitar player who can actually keep up with Fripp, his voice is excellent, he's also the only one in the group actually writing songs, I don't think it could've worked without him. BEAT (the band) I think proves the point, you can swap out Fripp and Bruford (obviously Vai and Carey are no slouches) and it still sounds great, but the recent KC's lineup attempt to do some 80s material didn't quite come off right.

I should probably revisit those 90s/00s albums - THRAK did kind of drag but Belew's songs were always very good (especially "Dinosaur" and "Walking on Air")...TCoL I liked much less, though I am intrigued by the remix which apparently does away with a lot of that ugly thwack on the drums. TPTB I thought was solid. but kind of a strange final album since it felt like they were still going somewhere.

When you tangle it in with all the more or less concurrent ProjeKCts maybe it makes more sense. I've never spent much time with those, though I did see one line-up live that featured Belew exclusively on drums! Belew, Fripp and Gunn, maybe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0WC1C_kHBw

those were the first albums by KC I ever heard and I remain very fond of all three of them.

Discipline is prob my 4th fave after the Larks'/Starless/Red run

"The Sheltering Sky" remains a towering achievement, also perfect for Belew haters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T879-kGjRcY

yes I too saw a 10+ minute "Sheltering Sky" and it got a standing ovation, one of the coolest concert experiences of my life honestly

It's what sealed the deal for Vai for me, his expressiveness really added a lot to the performance. Plus his zoot suit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-BCHKT_250

She wasn't the one, Syd.

London beat gig tonight.

looking forward to it, but first time seeing a band in Hammersmith Apollo, not expecting great things from venue, hopefully musicians and vibe can overcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuJkx3xQUJ4

That's the same venue referenced by Motörhead for No Sleep 'til Hammersmith so think of it that way. Enjoy!

CLASSIC: The first three LPs and 'Starless and Bible Black', as well as, a tier or so down, the other Wetton/Bruford era albums, which are super, but not as great as the same material live (Or as Magma or Henry Cow). DUD? I don't know, as I don't acknowledge the existence of Crimson post-RED! But few albums were as important to teenage 1970s me as 'Lizard' and 'Starless' (and I still thank my often problematic late father for chaperoning me to see the 'Starless & Bible Black' lineup live in 1974, on the very same day that Schoolkids Records in Tampa FL got the album in stock!)

Fripp attended that Beat show last night, someone who was sitting behind him posted a very short video on Reddit of the back of his head.

was he sitting perfectly still and erect (in every sense)?

kind of!

https://www.reddit.com/r/KingCrimson/comments/1tzpbgy/back_of_robert_fripps_head_at_beat/

On a big King Crimson tip right now. I finally bought a copy of Red, which is probably my favourite KC album but I never owned a proper copy. I also just ordered S&BB off Discogs to complete my mid-period colleciton along with Lark's Tongues.

I also realised I'd never actually listened to Islands before - mostly because it has tepid reviews - but you know what, it's really quite good!

This all sent me reeling back to the late-90s when I was first getting into the band. I remember getting a CD out the library called "A Young Person's Guide To King Crimson" with a distinct hand-drawn picture on the front. Mysteriously, looking it up on Wikipedia, it seems the only CD version of this compilation was released in Japan, is very hard to come by, and has a different tracklisting to the CD I had. My version seemed to be a 2-CD comp with a tracklisting similar to the first two CDs of the Frame By Frame compilation - including One More Red Nightmare and an edit of the Bolero section of Lizard. I can't find any evidence of this comp existing anywhere on the internet. Strange!

Quite interesting to dip into the infamous Earthbound live album from the early era. It's poorly recorded, but provides an interesting angle on how KC might have sounded in their early days: Heavy extended rock jams for the most part - quite different to anything else they ever did

Also enjoying the Night Watch live album from which a fair few cuts were taken for Starless & Bible Black. Was never too interested in live KC recordings, but some of it is very welcome!

"I Talk to the Wind" on the Young Person's compilation was, I believe, the first release of anything from the Judy Dyble phase of Giles, Giles and Fripp.

Earthbound is basically Fripp held hostage by a jam band.

there's an archival recording called Ladies of the Road which I think is a bunch better snapshot of the 1972 band...it also contains a second disc full of stitched together Schizoid Man jams

Huh, that's got an interesting version of Get Thy Bearings on it

My desert island KCs are Night Watch, Absent Lovers, and Red.

Night Watch is great, as is the 4CD Great Deceiver live box of 73-74 recordings. Epitaph (live from 69) is pretty sonically rough in parts, but the band tears it up. Earthbound... I never heard the original version, but the expanded/remastered 40th anniversary CD/DVD version is pretty good. I can see why Acid Mothers Temple ripped off its cover art.

Earthbound is obv sub-VU boot sound quality but god I love it

How many other KG records have scatting?

"Formentera Lady", I guess?

Well, yeah

Beat pulled out Heroes with, allegedly, no rehearsal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-i76EEYi3E

Interesting, KC was encoring with that on their last tour or so.