King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

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).

Fripp has such a narrow comfort range anymore that I wouldn't see him live unless he personally invited me into his living room to hear him play. I don't need the grief while he tries to figure out whether he can midwife any music.

Mentioned it before, but the last King Crimson tour I saw - Levin, Belew, Fripp, Mastelotto and the drummer from Porcupine Tree - really was awesome. There was a Fripp-less Crimson that toured with Dream Theater a couple of months ago. Believe it was basically Belew and his all-kid band, plus Levin and Mastelotto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wpTOxb1nFw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGJ_IC8OZMo&feature=relmfu

Looks like every one in a while on tour the drummer from Tool sat in for a few songs as second (third?) drummer.

Why have Belew, Lake, Levin, Gunn, Wetton & Mastelotto never toured together? All of them seem quite happy to tour Crim material sans Fripp.

Straightforward q: what do you guys reckon the best live version of 'Fracture'? I remembered the Asbury Park one killing it, but I just listened to it and was kinda not feeling it so much. Haven't dug out the live box in a while.

The Central Park show the from the folloeing day is to my mind the best, followed by the one of the 2 versions on the Great Deceiver, can't remember which one.

Thx

Central Park = one of the KCCC releases?

i would totally go see any lineup, even without fripp, again. missed the belew/levin retrospective lineup thing last time it went though. I would have loved to have seen 21st century schizoid band also (who jakko was in). I think jakko was the wrong person for fripp to bring in for that last release, he's too much of a follower; he's fine, but not distinctive in any way.

I dunno, any approximation of KC without Fripp seems kind of missing the point. I did see 21st Century Schizoid Band and I thought it was fairly pedestrian

I have a hard time believing Fripp is truly retired.

Retired and working harder than ever. He reminds me of a border collie patiently working the livestock (UMG, Sanctuary, etc) into a corral to be taken to slaughter.

Considering Fripp often lead guitar schools and workshops over the past few decades whose main point appeared to have been indoctrinating students in his precise methods and reshaping them in his (musical) image, it's actually really easy to imagine Crimson without him. Send in the clones!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_in_Central_Park,_NYC
xpost to Jon Lewis

yes but according to him they are all hopeless!

xp

League of Hopeless Guitarists

Does anyone think Vai looks a bit fragile, or is that just how he looks in general? I was getting latter-day Mick Mars vibes from his stage presence on the YT clips I've been watching.

It's from decades of making funny guitar hero faces.

Also, honestly, he's probably focusing pretty intently. This ain't no arena spandex goof.

longest mens room line i've ever seen at the NYC show, strangely no line for the ladies' room...

― adam

i was surprised when i went to see crim in '13 how many women there were. not in a "my partner dragged me here" sense either, hipster nerds. and '13 was before the whole "i found a new way to get more women into king crimson concerts" thing became... i'll say before it was possible, in practical terms, for most people.

mostly dudes at the show outside philly

regardless, anyone remotely interested in checking this show out should treat themselves. it's one of the best concerts i've ever seen, and i'm not even the hugest crimson fan. even channeling fripp, vai is infectiously deferential to belew (who it's impossible to believe is 74!), while levin has finger extensions tapping along to danny carey's killer bruford impression. it's astonishing, no joke

Had to miss their DC show, anyone here go?

Seeing the Montréal show tomorrow. I couldn't be more excited to see this band at work.

Belew is an ageless wonder - I have the Gizmodrome live album (which is Belew, Stewart Copeland, and a couple other prog guys), Belew not only somehow sounds *exactly* like he did in the 80s, he also does a really good Police-era Sting impression, better than Sting himself could muster at this point

Spent the last week or so revisiting live stuff by every line up, after being reinspired after the Beat show. It’s interesting to track songs played by multiple line ups and compare, particularly how the 80s session treated Red era tracks be how they dealt with them in the 90s and 00s; and how the most recent incarnation treated Belew era songs (probably the most controversial thing the band ever did as far as the fan base is concerned)

One reason I'm glad Beat is touring and doing so many of the weird instrumentals from those records is because they never got live outings much after that period; which is weird because both the 00's and the most recent version would have done a great job with stuff like Sheltering Sky and Industry.

Which of you nerds will be at the Madison show Monday?

Whoops, Sunday.

I really should and I will probably regret not going (like I regret not seeing KC's final show here), but I've got an early morning flight to Japan the next day. Have fun!

myself and my top two Krim nerd buds went to Red Bank NJ two weeks ago to check this shit out…it's like our yearly prog loser outing, '22 Roxy, '23 peter Gabriel, both at MSG, but since I am so sick of the Beacon and MSG, we went to Jersey. And thus, there were probly incrementally more Rick Beato, "this is real music" rock mooks at this show than would have been at the Beacon, but only just. I do wish that people who would go to This Heat or Gang of Four or Godspeed or Hard Quartet would attend this band's shows in appreciable numbers, and not quite so many Steve Vai and Tool shitheads. And yeah, it is great to experience this music, which was shunted away by Jakko, who does indeed represent the interests of "KC IS A EUROPEAN BAND" dead enders.

Now this is bonkers. I was listening to "Red" (that new "elemental" mix) while waiting to take off. It was getting to the end, so I took out a book. "Starless" was still playing, and literally right after Wetton booms "starless ... and bible black!" I looked down and that exact phrase was in the book I was reading! Wasn't sure how to interpret this message from the prog gods.

Speaking of said "elemental" mix, apparently it is a new mix blending different takes of each song, so ... same but different. It's been a while since I listened to "Red," but I was really reminded that despite that band/lineup famously being a trio there is all sorts of stuff on there. Cello, trumpet/horns, lots of guitar overdubs. I guess I had just gotten used to listening to the live versions.

Jordan, I think there are cheap tix on secondary, it would be easy to pop in and listen to an hour!

yeah the mixes on there are interesting. Starless is particularly impressive, great brass and reeds parts.

The "elemental" mix of Red is extremely cool

Beat was a ton of fun. I never expected to enjoy Steve Vai so much, but it was kind of fascinating to watch his approach to Fripp's parts, some replications, some adaptation and some imprinting his own style. A lot of the fast picking on "Frame by Frame," for example, Vai did by tapping, but it still sounded cool. The only downside of the whole show was trying to watch everyone at once, because they're all up to something dope at any given time.