King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

Red is ace, and has been discussed here before. The instrumental tracks are the ones that sound less dated - especially the title track and its 'devils interval' backstory.

But I think Wettons vocals on Starless and Red are lovely and I disagree that the placid quietness of them is just 'static' - there is a line on one of the tracks on Starless... 'My Home... was a place by the sea' which I just adore and I've never known why - but it kept popping up in my head when I had my Steve Erickson reading binge a couple of years ago and it has that same mesmeric Erickson quality of difference and strangeness but not different and not strange (ooh thats a hopeless description: Somebody save me here!).

There are three formulas involved in the Larks/Starless/Red tracks - and I think I like them all.

There are the dream-like songs I've already mentioned - all playful repeating echos of other things, and that strange wailing sound which I always imagine is one of them corrugated tubes you wave around your head - but presumably is just frippertronics (it turns up on evening star too). I always thought they were an influence on Nirvana on Nevermind's quiet moments but haven't seen it confirmed that Cobain knew this stuff.

Then there are the agressive ones - Red, the loud bits in Larks part one - the bit in Fracture where it suddenly changes speed. For a prog band they sure conjure with an magikal energy - that stuff sounds great - its a shame that neither the post rockers like Mogwai / Aeorgramme / etc or the Nu Metallers studied that stuff to avoid making their mistakes. Its not just a feature of that period of Crimson though, 21st C on the first album, the bit nicked from Mars on the second have that feel too.

The bits that are left form a third grouping, mainly instrumental and much more passive - but definately not static. The quiet bits of Larks pt1, Trio, Night Watch. Larks overtly references Vaughn Williams and thats a good suggestion of what's going on, Debussy and Satie too. But there is a lack of optimism in those tracks that doesn't sit well with the grace of those influences. They are bleak and hopeless feeling too.

"Easy Money" has this (on the live versions, not the studio version, alas) great (for prog rock, mind you) bit of lyric:

"So I argued with the judge, But the bastard wouldn't budge, 'cause they caught me licking fudge, and they never told me once, you were a minor..."

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?"

idk like i said this has nothing to actually do with robert fripp haha

You know Beato is in his imperial phase because he keeps getting all these great interviews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbQM09t5E2c

I don’t know much 80s KC except the instrumental to “sleepless” sounds cool as hell slowed down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcNe8cDbpWE

I ended up buying tickets to see them in Chicago and again in Madison. I figured you know, this music has given me so much joy over the years, and Belew is 74 and Levin is 77, and both of them are one of a kind talents and can't do this forever. And then there's Carey and Vai, who are about the same age (62 and 63, not young, either), and while I don't care about Vai, he and Carey are incredibly gifted. Factor in other commitment schedules (Carey with Tool, Levin with Gabriel, Vai with whatever it is that Vai does), and honestly I don't know how easy it will be to get these nerds together again after this run.

I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but David Cross is touring with a band that's doing all of Lark's Tongue and some Starless and Red material too.

lol my first thought was the comedian.

And they're both touring, so I can imagine lots of disappointed KC and comedy fans.

Well I'll see you at the Madison show Josh, why not.

Yeah! yolo, etc

Steve Vai looks like The Baron in What We Do In the Shadows

does everyone know this except me: "up until the age of eight, [peter sinfield] was raised largely by his mother's german housekeeper maria wallenda, a high wire walker from the circus act the flying wallendas" ??

it reads like the notes towards a richard palmer-james lyric lol

loool @ the Baron

it reads like the notes towards a richard palmer-james lyric

...or an inspiration for "Cirkus"?

doesn't mention any high-wire work!

tho tumblers is i guess a name for acrobats (quite a funny one too, like calling the goalkeeper "the guy who lets them in")

I just looked up tickets for Beat at their Boston show and the ones remaining are ... >$200?!? The hell?

I suspect those are resale.

now this is the kind of content the internet was made for

https://www.threads.net/@tonylevin/post/C5g8-KfyEs6

some of these Beat shows are being moved to bigger venues, including the one I'm going to. its kind of wild how much demand there is for this...was 80's King Crimson itself ever this popular?

don't underestimate the Tool factor here

Goldmine report on those talks Bill Bruford gave recently.

Apparently he was asked to join what is possibly the last King Crimson line-up ever, then later asked by Adrian Belew to join the upcoming Beat tour. Pains me that he declined both offers, but also completely understandable why he wasn’t interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guW-ApBbpOU

He's retired! Gotta respect it, one of the few prominent musicians I can think of who decided to step away and mean it. Him and Bill Withers.

that Progject band seems pretty cool, hope to see them some day

onbce again subjecting myself to KC's unrelenting parade of fvck-awful singers (all of them) in order to make notes on the music in between them

You need to hear

"Groon Soundcheck", which is actually Giles, Giles and Fripp playing "Brazil" with Fripp singing

controp: all of King Crimson's singers (including Jakko) were good and perfectly suited their respective iterations of the band

You need to hear

_"Groon Soundcheck", which is actually Giles, Giles and Fripp playing "Brazil" with Fripp singing_

We should do a least-worst KC singer poll

Why, that would be Jakko. Late period live KC was the best KC.

jakko is the correct answer, but speaking as a girl with a speech impediment, god i can't help but be fond of john wetton's highly questionable diction. shit, i think i'm gonna go listen to "danger money" now.

Given that I've only heard Live in Toronto from his tenure, I think Jakko is a colourless singer. He hits the notes and that's it. He's better than Haskell but I'd rather hear even Boz Burrell (if he doesn't try to do scat singing).

He also came across as sullen in the recent documentary, like he was above it all. Maybe allowances should be made since he was going through a divorce at the time.

Michael Giles and Ian McDonald wouldn't have been the worst singers Crimson had if they had ended up singing lead on Crimson albums either.

Whoa whoa whoa, are we saying Greg Lake wasn’t amazing in his stint with the band???

i'm saying lake was extremely terrible everywhere, have i not said how much i hate him?: i hate greg lake and i am right to do so

hate him

But he believed in Father Christmas!

Lake and Wetton were good soft rock singers, but I can't stand that choirboy prog style unless they're warbling up in the stratosphere like Jon Anderson. I vote for him as the best KC singer actually, probably a good thing he was only a guest on one album though. Imagine him and Fripp in the same band!

the Belew erasure here is egregious

unrelenting parade of fvck-awful singers (all of them)

☝️☝️☝️

the Belew erasure here is egregious

― Paul Ponzi

the problem with belew's singing is that he's singing lyrics he wrote

you know they're aliens because they got lint on their dicks. my dick never had no lint on it, i can tell you that for damn sure.

Earthbound, indeed