after "In The Court of..." , this is easily my favorite album of theirs'

"Dude, that sucked."

one of the few prog bands I actually like.

With Jamie Muir, no less. Good find, subby.

That was the most stupidest stupid that ever stupided.

Eddie Jobson's new band UKZ played LTIA2 on their one-venue "tour".

WARNING!

If you are a young impressionable person only just learning about music and playing an instrument --

STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THIS!

This will mess your head up as a musician/songwriter.
This must be worked up to and only gradually.
Begin with The Stooges and work up to The Velvet Underground first.
When you get ready for "prog" and "fusion" start slowly with Roxy Music and or maybe Soft Machine and Brand X.

King Crimson must be approached with caution and patience.
"In the Court of the Crimson King" is the most common entry point.

I listened to way too much dense prog and complex fusion as a teen and it totally ruined my sense of musical balance.

I've never found Crimson to translate well live. Listening to Lark's Tongue in a quiet room while stoned is a galactically more amazing experience than watching this video. Fripp's guitar sounds like mud and fails to lead the parade. Jamie Muir look like a chimp. The timing is sloppy from all involved. Compare that to the album, where the violin and guitar veritably cut the air like knives.

/Quote from Fripp: "Performance is inherently unlikely".
//More so for some than others, Robert.

Ah, the John Wetton bass sound. Awesome.

I agree with Wetton's assessment of LTIA--the album sucked, because it never approached the danger level of the live performances. The album is spineless but pretty, and easily the most overrated album the major prog bands did in the 70s (except for ELP's whole catalogue). Only "Book of Saturday" is better on LTIA.

The performances of the same material from the Great Deceiver live set are vastly superior.

craigdamage: "In the Court of the Crimson King" is the most common entry point.

I loved that album the first time I heard it.

"I Talk to the Wind"...

LTIA, not so much.

Great stuff. As a long-time fan, I'd like to point out my favorite Crimson albums: Red and Starless and Bible Black.

It's too bad that Starless and Bible Black tends to get overlooked being sandwiched between the greatness of Larks' Tongues and Red.

Did stsanders make this?

I remember getting the Great Deceiver box set. Even in the throws of my prog-head days I found it hard to take, but when it clicked, it was awesome.

That was thoroughly weird in the best possible way. Carl Stalling on acid.

This is pretty awesome. It must had sounded better live. I can think of few things better than being stoned, laying on the floor, cranking King Crimson and boggling out to the cacophony. Good shiat.

Fripp isn't getting paid for this so I'm really getting a kick out of this video.

HA HA FRIPP!

I've bootlegged everything you ever played, how does it feel?

/approves!

i think i tried submitting this once, but got rejected.

So i say YAY to subby! good for you! :-)

great video. ah the crazy jamie muir. i heard he fractured his foot [on stage?] and then quit the music buisness to become a monk.

Also very good is the Black Oak Arkansas [spelling?] footage of "Easy Money" and "the improv after easy money", which used to be on youtube. that improv is easily one of the best i've heard from them [and i own "The great deceiver" and "USA"].
when wetton and bruford kick it into high gear, it's amazing.
plus fripp's guitar lines/fills in the beginning of that improv are sublime.... then his and cross's parts become even more discordant and wanky and stuff... it's nuts.

mud_shark: Fripp isn't getting paid for this so I'm really getting a kick out of this video.

HA HA FRIPP!

I've bootlegged everything you ever played, how does it feel?

I take his photograph every chance I get.

This is so metal. Probably my fave Crimson album too.

Third_Uncle_Eno: i think i tried submitting this once, but got rejected.

So i say YAY to subby! good for you! :-)



Thanks ;) ... I was a bit conflicted between this one and the awesomeness of this one: Elephant Talk (new window) The song is a bit too obvious, but man... seeing Levin play that chapman stick is always amazing

I feel kind of bad because I got to see them play in the mid-80's and thought they sucked. Apparently they were just too awesome for me to appreciate.

Friend had an extra ticket. I'd never heard of them, but thought "WTF?" might as well.

I guess this is a case of different strokes/folks, because I don't get this AT ALL. I'm a musician, have varied tastes, but just don't understand the appeal. Not a troll. Everyone has their own tastes, this just isn't mine. My head hurt while watching that.

One of my all-time favorites (the song and this video). I can never get enough Crimson!

I always enjoy threads that give me the opportunity to favorite people as Crimheads. :)

Secret Agent X23: With Jamie Muir, no less. Good find, subby.

And David Cross

DoctorCal: I always enjoy threads that give me the opportunity to favorite people as Crimheads. :)

Any album, any lineup...they're just so goddamn good!

I highly recommend this live recording from last August. It was the best of the dozen or so KC shows I've attended over these 25 years.

people hate LTIA? Granted, I prefer the more instrumental moments (the vocals seem to translate better live), but it's still really good.

DoctorCal: I highly recommend this live recording from last August. It was the best of the dozen or so KC shows I've attended over these 25 years.

Yeah! I saw them in Nashville a few days before this. Breathtaking. Literally -- as in, I could barely breathe for the duration of the performance. Belew makes me want to toss my guitars on a fire and beat my knuckles with a ball peen hammer.

Ravijn: Did stsanders make this?

LMAO! It sounds like it, doesn't it???

FeedTheCollapse: people hate LTIA? Granted, I prefer the more instrumental moments (the vocals seem to translate better live), but it's still really good.

This video was on the M television one time about 10 years ago, mostly as something for the VJ to bag on. I laughed.

Third_Uncle_Eno: i think i tried submitting this once, but got rejected.

So i say YAY to subby! good for you! :-)

great video. ah the crazy jamie muir. i heard he fractured his foot [on stage?] and then quit the music buisness to become a monk.


According to Sid Smith's book, that "injury" was a hoax. Muir had told the managers that he needed to leave the band, and they concocted the injury story as a cover for him to get out. Muir himself was baffled by the secrecy, and Fripp was also scratching his head when the truth came out. (Muir claimed that he sprained an ankle or something almost every night, but was never injured to the point of missing a rehearsal or a gig.)

Muir and Michael Giles did an album together a few years back, but Muir has since quit music for good, to go into painting (a la Captain Beefheart).

FeedTheCollapse: people hate LTIA? Granted, I prefer the more instrumental moments (the vocals seem to translate better live), but it's still really good.

I don't hate the material; I don't care for the weak production. "LTIA, Part One" survives OK, because the intricacy of the composition comes across well in the studio, but the live takes have more energy. "Book of Saturday" is better in the studio, because of its delicateness. The rest of the tracks are just superior on the live recordings (especially "Exiles" and "Easy Money," the latter which is feeble on the studio recording).

My two cents; your milage may vary.

GypsyJoker
According to Sid Smith's book, that "injury" was a hoax. Muir had told the managers that he needed to leave the band, and they concocted the injury story as a cover for him to get out. Muir himself was baffled by the secrecy, and Fripp was also scratching his head when the truth came out. (Muir claimed that he sprained an ankle or something almost every night, but was never injured to the point of missing a rehearsal or a gig.)



WOW. I never knew that! thanks :-)
did he say why he needed to leave the band?

seems like from 69-74 the only constant member was fripp...
maybe he was the problem lol. maybe he couldn't get along with people or vice versa.

or, maybe it was just as Fripp said,
that King Crimson was "a way of life".

Third_Uncle_Eno: GypsyJoker
According to Sid Smith's book, that "injury" was a hoax. Muir had told the managers that he needed to leave the band, and they concocted the injury story as a cover for him to get out. Muir himself was baffled by the secrecy, and Fripp was also scratching his head when the truth came out. (Muir claimed that he sprained an ankle or something almost every night, but was never injured to the point of missing a rehearsal or a gig.)



WOW. I never knew that! thanks :-)
did he say why he needed to leave the band?

seems like from 69-74 the only constant member was fripp...
maybe he was the problem lol. maybe he couldn't get along with people or vice versa.

or, maybe it was just as Fripp said,
that King Crimson was "a way of life".

Actually, Muir was having a "spiritual transformation" at the time; he was reading Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi--the same book that inspired Jon Anderson to create Tales From Topographic Oceans--and felt he needed to let go of his material(ist) life. In a way, it mirrored Fripp's Bennett experience, the one that led to KC being dissolved after Red. Muir said that he was embarrassed about what was happening, but couldn't stop it, and he didn't think any of the others in the band would understand. So he went to management, and they told him to leave without explanation; Fripp didn't find out until the time of the Great Deceiver set what the whole story was.

I was happy with it.

/It's what I had to be happy with.

DoctorCal: I always enjoy threads that give me the opportunity to favorite people as Crimheads. :)

Well, feel free to add me to your tag-and-release program!

Rush > King Crimson

halmot:
Yeah! I saw them in Nashville a few days before this. Breathtaking. Literally -- as in, I could barely breathe for the duration of the performance. Belew makes me want to toss my guitars on a fire and beat my knuckles with a ball peen hammer.

I was at the second Nashville show in August. I'm 21, so it was my first chance to see Crimson live (something I never thought I'd get to do.) Easily the best show I've ever seen. And the great Victor Wooten of the Flecktones was in the seat next to my brother making the whole thing even more surreal.

Mappy: halmot:
Yeah! I saw them in Nashville a few days before this. Breathtaking. Literally -- as in, I could barely breathe for the duration of the performance. Belew makes me want to toss my guitars on a fire and beat my knuckles with a ball peen hammer.

I was at the second Nashville show in August. I'm 21, so it was my first chance to see Crimson live (something I never thought I'd get to do.) Easily the best show I've ever seen. And the great Victor Wooten of the Flecktones was in the seat next to my brother making the whole thing even more surreal.

That's the same show I saw. Wooten was about four rows behind me.

GypsyJoker
Actually, Muir was having a "spiritual transformation" at the time; he was reading Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi--the same book that inspired Jon Anderson to create Tales From Topographic Oceans--and felt he needed to let go of his material(ist) life. In a way, it mirrored Fripp's Bennett experience, the one that led to KC being dissolved after Red. Muir said that he was embarrassed about what was happening, but couldn't stop it, and he didn't think any of the others in the band would understand. So he went to management, and they told him to leave without explanation; Fripp didn't find out until the time of the Great Deceiver set what the whole story was.

way cool. way interesting.

you see, i borrowed "the great deceiver" from the library, and the big booklet [or two?] were missing.
and the library accused me of "not giving them back" when i handed it back in. except i the booklets were never included when i borrowed it in the first place. lmao. bastards.

me thinks i'm missing out on vital information.

Third_Uncle_Eno: GypsyJoker
Actually, Muir was having a "spiritual transformation" at the time; he was reading Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi--the same book that inspired Jon Anderson to create Tales From Topographic Oceans--and felt he needed to let go of his material(ist) life. In a way, it mirrored Fripp's Bennett experience, the one that led to KC being dissolved after Red. Muir said that he was embarrassed about what was happening, but couldn't stop it, and he didn't think any of the others in the band would understand. So he went to management, and they told him to leave without explanation; Fripp didn't find out until the time of the Great Deceiver set what the whole story was.

way cool. way interesting.

you see, i borrowed "the great deceiver" from the library, and the big booklet [or two?] were missing.
and the library accused me of "not giving them back" when i handed it back in. except i the booklets were never included when i borrowed it in the first place. lmao. bastards.

me thinks i'm missing out on vital information.

Actually, that info was in Sid Smith's "In the Court of King Crimson," which was given the Fripp stamp of approval. I just checked it out on Amazon, and it's gone up to an outrageous price (I think I got it for $20 two years ago). Well worth the read, if you can find/afford it.

The GD box book has some recollections by Fripp, Cross, and Wetton, a gig list, some of Fripp's typical diary entries and commentaries on the state of the business, some reviews of the Frame by Frameset, and a few added bits by people who saw them in concert. Fun, but not essential.

craigdamage: I listened to way too much dense prog and complex fusion as a teen and it totally ruined my sense of musical balance.

Noooooo kidding. I'd already gotten hooked on Zappa, then I heard "Pictures of a City" at a friend's house and I was wrecked. Pretty soon I'd found the first Shakti album, then it was Mahavishnu Orchestra, and then pretty soon after that I discovered National Health. Crimson was just re-forming into the double-trio around this time (mid 90s), and I was lucky to catch a few shows in small venues. The whole thing warped my musical sensibilities. I was in a band at the time, and we went from having big crowds where girls danced to our music to extremely small crowds of guys who stroked their chins and asked us questions like, "How did you modify your Mutron Bi-Phase to work with a control voltage pedal instead of the standard foot controller?"

Logweasel: craigdamage: I listened to way too much dense prog and complex fusion as a teen and it totally ruined my sense of musical balance.

Noooooo kidding. I'd already gotten hooked on Zappa, then I heard "Pictures of a City" at a friend's house and I was wrecked. Pretty soon I'd found the first Shakti album, then it was Mahavishnu Orchestra, and then pretty soon after that I discovered National Health. Crimson was just re-forming into the double-trio around this time (mid 90s), and I was lucky to catch a few shows in small venues. The whole thing warped my musical sensibilities. I was in a band at the time, and we went from having big crowds where girls danced to our music to extremely small crowds of guys who stroked their chins and asked us questions like, "How did you modify your Mutron Bi-Phase to work with a control voltage pedal instead of the standard foot controller?"

Awesome.

HappyHarryHardOn: Third_Uncle_Eno: i think i tried submitting this once, but got rejected.

So i say YAY to subby! good for you! :-)

Thanks ;) ... I was a bit conflicted between this one and the awesomeness of this one: Elephant Talk (new window) The song is a bit too obvious, but man... seeing Levin play that chapman stick is always amazing

I got to see Tony Levin sing and play Elephant Talk sitting on the arm of my sofa. Easily one of the most memorable experiences of my life (right up with 3 trips on the Vomit Comet!). He was rehearsing with the California Guitar Trio. Talk about a time when you have to pinch yourself. I have a little video of that day somewhere, shot by Tony. I'll have to dig it up now that I've thought about it. What an amazing musician- watching him learn new parts and improvise is one of the things that changed the way I think about music. Between these guys and following Crimson around for a while helping with merch, I really gained a deep connection to the music that I already loved.

Always happy to see these really wonderful gentlemen getting the recognition they deserve.

"It's oooooonly talk!"

I think Achewood's take on Robert Fripp was the best.

/Likes the double Trio version the most of all the KC incarnations.

The whole Starless and Bible Black CD was a major turing point in my taste in music. Loved Fracture, The Mincer, that odd polyrythm for The Great Deciever.

I liked a lot of fusion/progressive stuff. I just bought a Gentle Giant concert dvd as well as Allan Holdsworth live at Yoshi. Some of the progressive scene, maybe got too full of itself back in those days, but then the people who thought rock should be about being a dumbass ended up winning the day. Did King Crimson even get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Was a band like Kiss better than any band back in this era? I wish it all would all come back. I love progressive rock music

Olympus Mons: I love progressive rock music

my only problem with the term is that I think people associate progressive with "able to play a dozen chords in 11/4 time" and not progressive as in expands rock's sonic palette. I've heard plenty of post-rock (another bullshiat term) bands that are technically much simpler than progressive rock, yet seem to be more progressive, overall.

King Crimson, at their best, seems to encompass both parts: technically brilliant, but also boundary pushing.

I can agree on that. At times progressive can seem like athletics more than music, but overall it gets too much back of the hand. I love odd time signatures though. Fripp to me though does seem a bit stuck in his own box at times....kind of that whole tone scale, angular sound. Love the guy though. Love that he still does his thing, his way.

Weird thing is I was into David Sylvain, especially his brilliant Secrets of the Beehive. This is very slow music. Later he worked with Fripp. Its just funny that I seem to be listening to someone totally outside progressive and they gravitate toward each other somehow.