King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

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

Anyway, Belew has really been the dominent component over the past three decades. Fripp is awesome, but other dudes are more than capable of doing what he's been doing.

Anyone ever see any of the ProjeKCts? I saw one configuration that was Fripp on guitar (sounding like a marimba), Trey Gunn on bass, and Belew on drums (the entire night!). It kind of sucked, but it was neat to see something different.

Never saw them, but I have the 4CD ProjeKcts box set and I have to say it's given me more listening pleasure than any KC album post-Red.

I'll be on the lookout for that - the whole ConstruKction of Light era is my personal KC nadir so I try to avoid that, though I admit the live recordings of this period are surprisingly good. The improv on Heavy ConstruKction (the three disc set that ends with Fripp snatching and eating some dude's camera) is the best since the Great Deceiver (or better), I'd say

He does that on one of the live albums in this ProjeKcts box as well, can't remember which one. The set is worth hunting down just for the liner notes, which as ever are a total hoot.

Are the liner notes in third person? Fripp is really into that. "At this point our stalwart hero Fripp set down his instrument of choice, took a sip of tea, then flung the remains of the boiling water at the hirsute man in the front with the camera pointed at his face."

I had the box for a while, but it reminded me of the Zappa quote: "why would a first rate guitarist want to sound like a third rate saxophonist?" Except Fripp sounded like a marimba.

holy shit, someone on discogs has uploaded scans of the entire box set, liner notes and all:

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=703298

Though I haven't listened to them all, for me the most satisfying Projekct release is P3 Live in Alexandria.

http://www.discogs.com/ProjeKct-Three-Live-In-Alexandria-VA-March-3-2003/release/3886963

Belew can't make the gig so they play a Crim set without him. Fripp overcompensates in a good way--everybody's ferocious, and there's a bit more space in the music than you'd normally hear from that lineup.

It gives me incredible melancholia that Fripp hasn't licensed any of this stuff to Spotify. I would never buy the ProjeKct stuff in a million years but would love to go through a few weeks obsessing over it.

I was lucky enough to see two shows the last time around and had a blast, so bought a couple of tickets for this one, too. Kinda getting into dangerous territories for my tastes, though. If you had told me I would pay for a project with both Vai and Bozzio I might have snorted, not because I don't think they're talented (duh, they're mutants) but because I often find their brand of virtuosity kinda tacky and distracting. But they are both utter one-off originals, and Vai acquitted himself incredibly in Beat, so now I am curious what Bozzio will bring the stage (beyond a 50 piece kit). Helps to have Belew, whose own virtuosity I find less flashy, and Levin, such a good team player/anchor. I never listened to them, but he and Bozzio recorded a couple of albums with Steve Stevens, of all people. I assume they are silly. Didn't know about this project, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V1TE6yv3lU

With three of the four players Zappa alumni, I personally really hope they don't play any Zappa. Keep it Fripp focused. In this vid they say a few songs will be dropped and they will add a few quartet versions of the '90s double-trio material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v9d2-FfG2g

I need to familiarize myself with the 90s material more, which I remember as strong. I’ve played the 80s stuff to death.

I liked Thrak, I remember buying it when it came out. Not heard any of the other 90s albums. Best one to start with?

The double trio was iirc just "Thrak" (surprisingly, the *only* '90s KC studio album) and the preceding EP, plus a few live documents, the highlight being the improvised cacophony of "THRaKaTTaK." The subsequent stuff, the next two studio albums, I could never get into. Maybe because they lack Levin? Trey Gunn is not my favorite King Crimson member/adjunct.

I'm interested in hearing the new remixed version of ConstruKction of Light. I thought the original was pretty bad but there's a live album called Heavy ConstruKction where they do most of it and it sounds a lot better there. Maybe just having normal sounding drums will help a lot. The Power to Believe I thought was pretty good. Curious what 90s songs they're gonna do. There's not exactly a lot to pick from. I'm guessing "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" will be one of them, hoping for "Dinosaur" too.

I would guess Dinosaur for sure, def. something with Belew singing. Maybe "One Time".

the remixed ConstruKction album is an improvement

The two post-Thrak albums are def arguably the least essential KC records, but they have some great tracks on them. Unfortunately they also have things like "ProzaKC Blues" "The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum" and "Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With", where Belew just gets to be too much.