artwork in PDF format

I.
The Group.
There are currently 120 King Crimson bootlegs available in Japan
from throughout the group's history. The bulk of the bootleg catalogue centres on 1973 and 1974 So, I am persuaded of a wide and continuing demand
for live Crimson of this period. My personal collection of live KC recordings
is extensive, and generally much better in quality than available on the black
market, collectors' magazines, Japanese record shops or leather suitcases in
Amsterdam record bazaars.
Most of the bootlegs are pretty rough but present an interesting
perspective of what it was like to be in the audience - that is, the audience as
performer with group as backdrop. Some of the bootlegs are quietly hilarious, with discussions and arguments between die-hard Crimheads and innocent nouveau-audient over some Crim-voyage into "Uncharted Territory".
Those who saw the shows know the unnerving power of this uneven outfit,
but a younger generation has only the studio albums and bootlegs.
A monstrous live creature, it failed to convey its power on record
until the studio album Red in 1974, which only hinted at its intensity. The
live outfit, although a stomper, was flawed in several ways.
The formation of the group in 1972 included Jamie Muir, a wonderful, reflective and wise young nut and old egg who cheerfully bit on blood
capsules while releasing chains whirled around his head and which had, a
moment before, been flailing sheets of metal; then falling in an effusive and
bloody fashion upon his drums to propel the group and his co-drummer Bill
Bruford through the next piece of orchestrated mayhem. Or threaten large
pa cabinets on either side of the stage with demolition by shakers. All this
dressed in animal skins. He also took up 40-60% of group resources in space
and time.
Jamie was far too intelligent and well-balanced a human being to
stay with-the group for long. Confronted with the nonsense of life on the
road he opted for life. He fell ill and missed two gigs at the Marquee,
February l0-11th. 1973, when Bill assumed the role of drummer/percussionist for the first time. This was actually the debut of the four-piece Crimson
personnel on these records.
Although he completed the recording taking place during early
1973 - Larks' Tongues In Aspic - Jamie never returned to the group. I
received a postcard from him not long afterwards with a Muir-collage
mounted on the front - "All part of the rich tapestry of life" - and "Coo-eee,
love Jamie" written on the back. He was departing for a monastery in
Scotland, where he spent the next few years.
The four-piece which remained never settled in the 16 months of
live work which followed, and after which David Cross left. The violin is not
an instrument of heavy metal, even hard rock. As the group developed a
more muscular stance David's place in the band lost context and he became
increasingly an electric pianist and mellotronist (if such is possible).
The aim in presenting these live performances is to reflect the spirit
of the group in a moment of its appearance. Unsettled and unsettling, it went
into places dark and light; wildly unsympathetic, unbalanced and with
prodigal time, vigorous, searching, leaping and often missing the mark, at
moments achingly poignant, it moved into territory that was disturbing and
disturbed, and never arrived at where it was going: where it was going was
how it got there, sometimes tuning up as it went along. This music is taken
from the time when we no longer considered England our main working
base, even Europe, welcome more in America.
So he did. I'm not sure that Bruford/Wetton were a good rhythm section but they
were amazing, busy, exciting, mobile, agile, inventive and terrible to play over.
The violinist was placed in an increasingly impossible situation. A musical and personal distance began to open between him and the rest of the group.
The balance between David and Jamie, constructed in the original quintet formation, was lost. He added delicacy, and wood. But the front line couldn't match
the power of the rhythm section or their volume, and the guitar was stronger
than the violin. My own monitor had just bass drum and snare, and I relied on
my ears for the rest. It wasn't hard to hear the bass, and almost impossible not
to. At one point I put a sound screen between myself and the rhythm section.
They lead the group from the centre and I lead the group from the side. They
won.
So, King Crimson 1973/4 was not a balanced group, or perhaps it was
balanced in disarray. It was sometimes frightening, and not a comfortable place
to be. Inherently unstable, sharing differing aims and going in different directions, finally, it went there. After 16 months as a quartet it became a trio for
three months whereupon King Crimson "ceased to exist".
Hardly the stuff of an A & R man's dreams.
On these albums the dynamics of the music are pretty much the
dynamics of the group on stage. There are slight adjustments in places:
microphones didn't always work, or worked too well, or were placed too
close to the metal plates hanging behind the drummer's muscular torso and
within striking distance of his enthusiasm. The volume of the mellotrons,
electric pianos, guitar and violin were controlled mainly by footpedal. So, if a
foot slipped the "orchestra" lurched. JW generally altered the bass volume
by moving the volume knob on his Fender, not an exact operation even in
moments of equanimity, and the huge scrunch of his Foxx Fuzz/Wah pedal
was huge and scrunched.
The characters on stage were playing a live gig, and they went for
it. If one of them couldn't hear what was happening, they might play quieter.
Or they might not. They might not care that they couldn't hear someone else,
even might not want to. So, the onstage level at the time was what they had to
do and, failing that, what they were doing anyway.
Between 1973/4 KC had an increasingly loud bass player of staggering strength and imagination, arguably the finest young English player in
his field at the time. Whenever he went to The Speakeasy he was offered yet
another job with yet another famous English group. The drummer had the
temperament of a classical musician who wanted to be a jazzer and worked
in rock groups. He found in King Crimson a group which gave him the freedom to spread, experiment, grow, move about and hit things hard and often.
II.
The Recording.
Live recording is not a precise art. But then, neither is recording.
Recording balances limitation, compression and definition with freedom, dynamic range and release. In other words, recording balances sound with
feel.
For dynamic range read "hiss": the ambient level rises. Although ambience is not actually "hiss" (a low sound-to-noise ratio) to the listener it sounds
pretty much the same. If the musician holds themself in check the sound quality
"improves". If the musician makes the leap, then let's hear it for compression,
limiting and noise gates.
Here are some aphorisms culled from 23 years of experience in recorded live performances and particularly relevant to the music here:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
A soundcheck bears no relationship to what will
happen once the audience enters and musicians
walk on stage, other than both soundcheck and
performance take place in the same building.
Distrust any musician who gives you their maximum
level at soundcheck.
Microphones move from the positions they were put in.
Drum microphones record everything.
Vocal microphones record nearly everything.
Excited drummers sometimes hit their microphones with
drumsticks.
Feet slip on volume pedals.
Distrust any lighting person who tells you their lights can't,
don't and won't cause buzzes on the sound system.
A recording engineer will have to change reels; i.e. tapes
will run out while the band is playing. In time, this will
occur to them.
Tuning a mellotron doesn't.
Simply put, the Law of Maximum Distress applies in amplified form at
amplified performances.
Musicians become excited, audiences are excitable. Sometimes careful-
ly placed percussion mikes record the flying fury of an overdriven bass
stack, violin mikes collect cymbal smashes, mellotron mikes collect nothing,
guitar amps pick up buzzes from faders on the stage lights (which aren't
sound checked), monitors feedback, audiences banter with their favourites,
sometimes musicians banter with their audiences. All these are evidenced
and exampled on the performances presented here.
While the audience and group get underway, so does the recording
engineer: adjusting levels as they run, sending roadies on stage to change
microphones and their positions, dealing with breakdowns, and on occasion
changing reels or having two machines run simultaneously. It took a while
for the idea to catch on that if musicians were up and flying, burning, spraying, they weren't going to watch a clock telling them it was time to stop for a
reel change. So, bound by the Law of Maximum Distress, reels are more likely to run-out in a feeble take than a hummer. But they will run out.
III.
The Audience.
The audience were generally drugged. But then, so were many of
the musicians of the time, also managers, also record company executives.
The romantic notion of the rock musician as The Voice of God was
still widespread in 1973/4, although losing its power in the face of evidence to
the contrary. My own sense is that the atonement of the sixties' festivals and
gatherings never made it into the Seventies. In the Sixties, rock music could
change the world. In the Seventies and Eighties, politics and economics did
change the world, and the music business. A large part of the loss of innocence in music was connected to the increasing professionalism and unstoppable growth of the record industry. More of that below.
Meanwhile, rock performance in the early Seventies became an
arena event: more spectator sport than a door-to-hope. But audiences were
generally very generous and forgiving of their favourites, even profligate in
their giving. A foolish performer underestimates the intelligence of the audience at large, given a little time.
IV.
The Business.
The opinion of most musicians I have met is that the music industry sucks. This is because the music industry sucks.
The record industry in the period 1968-1978 was a seemingly
unstoppable growth industry. The early amateurism surrounding the rock
business had professionalised by about 1974, although this increased
throughout the Seventies and Eighties. Records became "product" and
"units" which moved, audiences became "consumers" whose "behaviour patterns" were charted by "demographics". Something went terribly, terribly
wrong in our sense of values. Pragmatics replaced Principle, Quantity
demonstrated Quality.
Live work was, in the conventional wisdom of the time, inseparable
from records. In the view of record companies and management, groups
toured to sell records. As a young musician touring endlessly, such an impoverished view of live performance was a clear indication of the direction business in music was going. The musicians in King Crimson at the time of these
recordings didn't get paid for live work: wages were not budgeted into the
tour accounts. The rationale was that album and publishing royalties generated from the sales of the records we had "promoted" was our payment.
Management deducted their percentage from the fees from live work, which
we didn't see, as well as from records and publishing, the companies of which
they owned.
1973
We hardly ever saw our management on the road. They turned up
at capital cities - New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Rome - but not
Hampton Roads, Virginia or the Sindlefingen Austellungshalle.
The pressure on young people thrown into the position of life on the
road is too much for most - a hard school from which not everyone graduates.
This life is characterised by constant movement, an absence of emotional supports and familiar signposts, disruption to business and personal affairs. It is
also a liberal education, an opportunity to experiment in living with relative
freedom from external constraints, a Grand Tour.
There are many weak moments from lack of sleep, poor diet,
remorseless travel every night to a new city, the demands of fans, the attacks
of critics, the acclamation of critics, the
interest of business. Some businessmen take advantage of these weak moments to present documents, the significance of which are not fully explained and the conditions of which may
be subject to verbal provisos and conditions not indicated within the lettering, and soon forgotten. While the musicians are on the road, management
remains behind to take care of business.
The Boston critic and music writer Michael Bloom, in a review of
The Essential King Crimson, suggested that in the Scrapbook to that set I
adopted a rather hard-done-by tone in terms of my dealings with musicians
and management. While not wishing to become a member of The Whine
Society, regarding the management position Mr. Bloom is uninformed and, as
might have been said by the Crimson members on these present records,
Clueless and Slightly Slack.
EG Management and King Crimson began together at the beginning
of 1969. "EG" was taken from the surnames of David Enthoven and John
Gaydon, the two founder-members of EG. John left in 1971 and David in
1977. The relationship established in 1969 between EG and King Crimson,
based on trust, mutual involvement, participation and sharing in the costs and
rewards of our work together, was unlikely, idealistic, remarkable and worked.
The quality of this relationship, in intent and practice, provided a sufficient
reputation and dynamism to launch and carry the company through into the
late 1980s. Roxy Music joined the EG office in 1972, and the bulk of EG
Management affairs revolved around the work of the main players from
Crimson and Roxy - Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Bill Bruford and RF - until the
end of the 1980s.
After David Enthoven's departure in 1977 the tenor of the office
changed. The two subsequent owner/directors, who joined in 1970 and 1971,
were neither parties to the original relationship. The joint interest between
managers and artists became increasingly a conflicting interest as managers
became record and publishing companies as well, supplying the services of
"their" artists to their own music outlets.
Originally EG Records served as an intermediary between an EG
artist and a major label so that, were a dispute to arise between artist and
major, the artist would remain free to work leaving EG involved in the litigation. But in time EG Records acquired its own interests.
EG Management supplied EG Records with product from artists
that EG Management handled. Royalties paid to these EG artists had EG
Management commissions deducted. So, EG Management took a percentage of
EG Records and EG Music royalties paid to the EG artists which it had supplied to them. All artist income went to EG Management from EG Records
and EG Publishing, which it received on behalf of its artists. This was not
always promptly paid. Actually, my royalties were cross-collateralised extensively throughout the 1970s with other EG interests. Like, simply collecting
interest on holding the royalties. In 1974 I bought a house in Putney, London,
as a means of getting my royalties paid over.
Records' catalogue to Virgin in April1991 (itself sold to Thorn EMI in June
1992) and the EG Music catalogue to BMG in July 1991. The EG Music
Group shrunk significantly in size during 1992, becoming once again mainly a
management company. Of the early artists only Bill Bruford now remains.
At the time of writing, I am seeking a resolution in my affairs with
EG. We currently have some disagreement over the size of interest payments
on the hesitant delivery of my income which followed the difficulties in their
property interests. I spent a large proportion of my time between April 1991
and April 1992 in dispute, during which time I wrote many letters to them
discussing in frank and open terms their actions. This correspondence is
somewhat critical of their behaviour, indicative and reflective upon their
character and ethics. These letters have been widely circulated within the
music industry. Some commentary upon EG in the Scrapbook to The
Essential King Crimson gave rise to threats of libel action, and the letters even
more threats.
During and following the collapse of EG, and my own search for
clarity in its aftermath, I have been in touch with nearly all the members of
KC from throughout its history. They have their own stories of dealings with
EG, none of them happy. Between the musicians there has been a sense of reconciliation, openness and amity, virtually all of whom have expressed interest
in working together again. I have no idea where this might lead, if anywhere
other than coffee and cake. But I am happy that this is so.
Supposedly, management approaches publishing and record companies to get the best possible deal for its artists. But what happens when the
companies are the same two people wearing different hats? Were any dispute
between EG artist and EG Record company to arise, the artist would have
had to approach the owners of the record company for money to sue them.
This is technically called "conflict of interest".
V.
Over a period of years EG changed course from its early stance of
partnership with artists to the exploitation of artists; at least, this is my perception and experience. This is a text-book example of how an impulse goes
off course and ends up as its opposite.
The first price the musician pays in order to play music is to endure
the ramifications of the music industry, at whatever level. The second is to
persist in failure. The third is to persist in success. The fourth is to endure the
ramifications of the music industry at a new level. The only reward the musician receives is music: the privilege of standing in the presence of music when
it leans over and takes us into its confidence. As it is for the audience. In this
moment everything else is irrelevant and without power. For those in music,
this is the moment when life becomes real.
During the 1980s the EG office became increasingly a business
office, with the directors moving into property and other financial interests.
Conflict of interest, on EG's change of position, a book could be written. And
it might be. This is a microcosm of our society during 1969-1992: the periods
of innocence, loss of innocence, self-interest, greed and the abuse of trust
which defined these years.
A Personal Note To Young Musicians.
Seasoned and professional commentators, reviewers and writers on
matters Crimson, may find little favour in my own continuing commentary on
matters of personal concern when a sufficient forum presents itself. Their
interest in music is primarily professional and commercial, and this is the
death of the spirit where music is involved. As is it for the professional musician.
The concern of the musician is music. The concern of the profes1974
The course of EG history exemplifies this, and largely lies outside the
period of these albums. But this was the time when the architects and primary
players who had power during the second half of the 1980s were coming of
age, and getting in place.
EG's property company ran into major difficulties during 1989 and
subsequently. There developed hesitations in payment from the EG Music
Group to its artists, and at the beginning of 1991 a complete and utter
hesitation. Royalty payments were resumed following the sale of the EG
(The day began in Detroit).
13.10
13.25
14.30
14.50
15.20
17.00
17.45
To car.
Airport. JW pulled last night - air hostess for TWA.
Take off (from Detroit).
Landed at Buffalo.
Take off to Cleveland, Columbus. Reading The Golem.
Long day.
Arrive Columbus. DC snappy re/luggage in boot.
Check in to Sheraton.
Restaurant for meal.
Feeling: Tired, irritated.
So many US men are bloated. One woman in tight, light
blue trouser suit in Rochester huge & fat; repulsive.
Coffee shop: red & black pattern, orange chairs, yellow
tablecloths. Eat meat - one should not scrimp on diet.
Los Angeles - “Midnight Special” June 12th 1973
sional musician is business. Only become a professional musician if there is no
choice.
May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse.
When all is impossible and seemingly without hope,
may we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse and listen
to its silent voice with a quiet ear.
Credits.
This is a companion set to "The Essential King Crimson: Frame By
Frame" (1991), a four volume compilation of KC in the period 1969-84, three
of which are taken from our studio work.
19.10 Practise.
19.40 Read.
20.05 Lobby. Big willy band - Aerosmith. Bad. Arrive late & play too long.
Dik & PW can't get them off. BB shouts at Dik. Lady security with gun, etc.
We have a good gig: first time we're as big as we can be. DC drops
violin. BB gets uptight and says "Get on with it". Announcement - survey of
audiences: ovation. Afterwards DC says "Don't call me a cunt onstage". BB
says "Ignore me".
24.00
1.30
Hotel. Watch "Mission Impossible".
Retired.
Dreams: 28-29.4.74.
The design work for "Frame By Frame", by Bill Smith, won the
American N.A.I.R.D. award for the year. When you work with someone who
excells in their field, best to give them carte blanche within the field of action.
All the credit for the package goes to Bill. The award was given to the record
company, Caroline, for display in their office. So, neither the group responsible for the box, nor the executive producer who commissioned the work, nor
the designer got awards. The record company in America (Caroline), who do
a grand job of selling the box, had no involvement at all, whatsoever, even-alittle-bit, in the design for which they exhibit the prize. This is only one example of the small ironies which inhabit the daily lives of working artists.
(4.42) In a kind of warfare. BB & I are on one side. We have a kind of submarine which consists of a flat-bottomed boat under which several people crouch
underwater; they seem to take a breath & hold it. We seem to hold an initiative. The roadies from the other side discover where our small chamber of
concealment lies & puts gunpowder in. They give us an opportunity to surrender - declined - & then blow us up. We hurtle, released, into a tumbling river,
the free ones released those still tied & being swept downstream.
The Players:
Notes on Diary Entries:
David Cross
Robert Fripp
John Wetton
Bill Bruford
violin, mellotron, electric piano
guitar, mellotron, electric piano
bass guitar, vocals
drums, percussion
Executive Producer:
Mixing:
Robert Fripp
RF, Tony Arnold & David Singleton
at The Courthouse, Cranborne, Dorset
Tony Arnold
Technical consultant:
Special thanks:
Excerpts From RF's Journal.
Michael Shore, ex-Peter Gabriel
drummer, for fan's-eye view
Driving with KC & DE in a situation where we shouldn't be.
1.
D.E. = manager David Enthoven, the "E" of EG. One of the two
founder-members of EG with John Gaydon, who left in 1971, David left EG
himself in 1977.
2.
Dik = Dik Fraser, one of the two original KC roadies from 1969 (the
other being Vic Vickers) and now tour manager. In words attributed to Harvey
Goldsmith: "the calm heart of every storm".
3.
PW = Peter Walmsley, our sound mixer.
Monday 29th. April, 1974.
(The day began in Columbus, Ohio).
Arose, with difficulty, 10.20 D.E. 'phoned from N. York: he'll stay
Sunday 28th. April, 1974.
there to work instead of joining us in Pittsburgh. Exercises and pack.
11.15
11.40
Restaurant. Stamp mail. JW joins.
Practise.
Room: crimson carpet; red patterns on curtains & bed covers;
fawn walls; 2 pictures of antique cars.
12.10 Lobby.
12.45 Airport. BB rushes off & leaves DC with cases (as I do!). DC gives
him the word. I begin to go through security at the wrong gate.
13.20 Take-off.
13.55 Land at Pittsburgh. Taxis to Hilton.
14.40 Shave.
15.15 Sleep.
15.30 Awoke & shower.
16.00 Snack & coffee. Uptight for leaving early - snap at Dik.
16.30 Lobby. Taxis to gig. Buy "Old Straight Track" opp. in cheap bookshop. Change strings & lose little screwdriver. Snap at Dik.
Barbara told me yesterday she carried a ouijii board in the back of
her car; crashing by pre determination. Today she offered me her board.
New music at soundcheck. I have doubts.
18.30 Return to hotel. Barbara cut my hair short.
19.40 Practise.
20.00 Prepare.
20.20 Lobby.
Recording for the King Biscuit Hour. I played v. badly. Brought
down - couldn't talk to anyone. Back to hotel with Barbara & PW I walked
to White Tower & had a big cheeseburger & coffee. KC went by in car as I
was returning. In lobby JW asked if I was OK I said it was the gig. DE
'phoned as I entered my room: 1.30. I told him I refused to do any recording
for radio or tv where veto didn't exist. Watched end of "Charge of the Light
Brigade" with Errol Flynn and "Mission Impossible" on tv.
2.40
Notes:
1973
(The day began in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and moved to Toronto).
Eat at hotel.
17.25 To room. Change strings while glimping "Swedish Fly Girls" (on tv).
18.25 Dik 'phoned for soundcheck.
18.40 Arrived Massey Hall. BB twitchy over his percussion. BB & I speak,
mainly over programme.
Feeling:
knees hurt; joints generally bad. Excited over gig.
20.00 Practice. Barry Hughes turns up. Told Dik I've been near to fainting.
Back? He agrees I need
a health farm.
Catch Golden Earring's bass solo - awful. List - JW & I'm snappy.
DC doesn't want to be called "Crint" but "David" or nothing.
Gig:
Recorded. Rather tense. Two blows: quite creative. The audience
was difficult - after one shout I announced a counterblast: insensitive crint.
Discussion in dressing room. JW didn't enjoy it. Second blow he was
hoping would go into "Easy Money". DC said he was playing anticipating a
fade out on record. He said I was still playing when he stopped. He didn't hear
me & "You can't blame me when I couldn't hear you". I told JW he played
well. BB enjoyed gig: real music played. The audience & group fought &
responded to/with each other. General verdict: hard work, not the kind of gig
one would want every day of the week, but a success.
Retired.
Dream: With BB & DC at a kind of volley ball game. I climb off the floor to
join BB with the spectators & am in danger of falling into a swimming pool
over the polystyrene fence.
1.
Monday 24th. June, 1974.
JW = John Wetton, DC = David Cross, BB = Bill Bruford.
Wayne took me to the hotel through several fans. One wanted me to
sign his arm so he could have it tattooed.
Notes:
1.
Barry Hughes is a fellow Wimburnian, and a guitar student from
when I gave lessons, aged seventeen, at my parents' house on Leigh Road,
Wimborne - just along from Poole Corner.
2.
Managers are seemingly always able to travel to capital cities, or
exotic locations, but prove too busy by far to visit the Pforzheim Jahnhalle.
2.
"Crint" - this one of the group's nicknames for each other. Other
examples: Daniel Crisp, Wilton Carpet, Bartley Butsford and The Beak.
3.
Thursday 27th. June, 1974.
Barbara was a friend of Peter Walmsley.
(The evening before, the 26th., we played with the second configuration of The Mahavishnu Orchestra at Cape Cod Coliseum, and this morning
drove to Boston airport en route to Washington, DC).
11.00 Leave (hotel). Sleep in car to Boston. At airport coffee shop John
McLaughlin called me over; remembers me from Queensway. Introduces me
to violinist & Michael the drummer. (RF asked how a vegetarian coped on the
road) Diet: egg salads & omelettes. Am I vegetarian? (No) Then I'm alright.
Said he enjoyed "your sound". I said I compromised: work my situation with
macrocosm in group. JM - provided you hold your ideal in your heart. I mentioned "No Pussyfooting" - out the top of my head. We have dynamics (says
JM). I express doubt. He said I'm too near to hear it. How did his outfit go on
the road? He was very pleased. It's two months old. Economics? All right.
With the other Mahavishnu this would have been the year of the big buck but
"we know where that's at". I say I'm repeatedly in the same situation with KC.
The M. Orchestra reminds me of Centipede. Ask after his wife: she's in
Newcastle, England, where he spent 12 years of his life. They are planning
some concerts later in the year. He's also working with a 24 year old violinist in a consort which he's also excited about. JW & DC arrives (sic). He
thinks JW was our drummer. I ask him if he heard about Graham (Bond).
Yes. You knew his interest? JM - yes. JM has to leave then - bad conversation
to part upon.
Michael the drummer comes up beaming. Do I enjoy working with
BB? It's hard work. He loves BB's drumming. He doesn't know the 'plane
flight so he has to leave. He has so much love for our music. Rushes off.
DC's nose is, I suggest, evidence of something else. Run down, he
That made an audience of seven, later swelling to twelve. We congratulated
John on the performance afterwards.
2.
Michael = Narada Michael Walden. I got to know him better during 1977, when living in New York. He played on Exposure, the RF solo
album. A superb drummer, and now also a recognised producer (Whitney
Houston, Aretha Franklin).
3.
Barbara's story of the ouiji board: since she had owned it, there
were continual problems with her car. It had been resprayed, and after five
months the paint was still wet. After I accepted ownership of the board,
although not carrying it with me, problems began with KC suitcases. They
arrived at baggage claim with handles broken off, with cuts in the fabric, or
just didn't arrive at all.
thinks.
to gate c. 13.15, to Washington. PW gives me cross from ecstatic
fan last night.
'Plane 13.55. Read New Religions (Jacob Needleman).
Arrive hotel (in Georgetown) 16.30. To bookshop on high street.
Bought an autobiography of Yeats. Then to Yes (bookshop). Eat there.
20.20 To gig (Kennedy Centre). Steeleye Span. My octaves are out. BB
shouts "Hurry up". I say: "Don't shout at me again, man".
Friday 28th. June, 1974.
(The day began in Washington).
8.12
9.55
10.15
11.15
Woke. Uptight over BB shouting hurry up. Uptight generally tired.
Lobby. Coffee gone. I am anti to the receptionist.
leave. Taxis to airport. FIrst coffee on 'plane.
To Philadelphia en route for Newark, New Jersey.
Feeling: tired & uptight.
Gig:
Finish New Religions, begin Ivan Osokin.
Next door to Watergate. Cold audience. Fade out at beginning of
"Fracture" changes things in our favour. "Part Two" goes a storm. Fuzz on
"Easy Money" solo - v. effective.
Shout at PW after gig for coming in with the tape.Misunderstanding
over the message. He's upset. So am I. Rolling Stone geezer there: he thinks
my Guitar Player interview self-opinionated. Guy tries to persuade me to do
an interview.
Barbara Barber arrives. She has two presents for me. One is her
ouijii board: wet paint for 5 months until she took it out of the trunk; on the
shelf - couldn't bake a cake. Put it in a black velvet bag & OK until tonight.
Car had flat battery & tyre, smells of gasoline. "Death" card in car.
I wonder whether to accept it. To hotel. Decide to keep ouijii board.
24.30.
1.15.
Walk & coffee. Journal (i.e. writing up this diary).
Packed books into case.
Dream:
Arriving at an airport gate & being given alternatives, but in an esoteric sense. The baggage all stood up.
Further notes:
1.
"Queensway" was the Porchester Hall, Queensway where John
Mclaughlin and his wife performed an acoustic duet. The advertising was a
small notice in the Melody Maker, and the time the end of 1970. John had
recently accepted Sri Chinmoy as his teacher, and the performance was on
acoustic guitar and autoharp, a different world to the superlative
Extrapolation, his first solo album. Ian Wallace (who had just become the
new drummer with the second live formation of KC) and I went together.
Richard Williams, then a main writer for the Melody Maker, was behind us.
14.10 Arrived Newark. Drove, uncomfortably in bad weather, to Asbury
Park. My suitcase handle was broken. I gave the baggage guy a hard time.
Checked in at the Horrorama. Cockroach eating food in lift; couldn't find the
rooms; mine had a table, painted, standing on newspaper. Relugging of the
suitcase, in the rain. By now laughable. Check in at Empress down the road.
16.00 To restaurant. Calming down.
17.10 Return to hotel. Bath & unpack case. Change strings.
18.25 BB uptight about late mikecheck for recording.
18.35 To gig. Dreadful blowy, wet weather. Give Harvey a suitcase to
repair. Funfair hall.
19.25 Return to hotel. Practise.
20.05 Coffee.
Feeling:
1973
3.
Packing case: experience of road life over many years, and seeing
the desperate attempts of working musicians to leave in the morning for
scheduled departures after a late night, has proved to me that however bad
you feel tonight, in the morning you WILL feel worse. So pack tonight.
Particularly if you have just eaten six clams from a sea food bar
on the front in Asbury Park. They had been alive sometime since the dawn
of creation, probably, although from which epoch I'm not sure. But they
had been dead a very long time. I woke the following morning with mild
food poisoning, and provided very bad company in the car for JW, driving
to the next city.
Saturday 29th. June, 1974.
(Day begins in Asbury Park - a place-name engraved upon my psyche).
1973 Romes
Pessimistic about the gig; tired; uptight a bit. Nadgers about BB
again.
Gig:
I enjoyed playing. Some v. fast solos, rather into my own trip. Good
crowd. "Starless" had me again. Harvey fixed my case.
Champagne & good nibblies afterwards.
24.00 To hotel. Curse of Frankenstein (on tv).
24.45 Walk to find coffee. Everything closed. To gig: food packed away. To
sea food bar: 6 clams. A mistake, but I eat them. To hotel. Pinball machine,
shower.
1.30
Pack case.
Pain from clams. Woke 8.15; to bed again. Feeling awful. To breakfast: double prunes & bad coffee. JW arrives: we laugh about the clams. I
feel numb. Drive to Newark; fly to Pittsburgh & then rubber band to
somewhere else & then to State College; arrive c. 16.00. To bed until 17.00;
eat.
Feeling:
Unwell; decided earlier I was freaked & should distrust my opinions. My body has been fighting hard to accommodate the clams. I'm tired.
'Phoned Sister on arrival. She may 'phone later.
18.10
18.50
Discharge clams & prunes. Shower.
To soundcheck. Tell Dik no handshakes or autographs:
adulation bad for others and me.
Notes:
Feeling:
1.
The Horrorama Hotel traded under a different name and was a
residential hotel for senior citizens, some of whom were geriatric. As soon as
we hit the lobby, we knew this was not a hotel for travellers. Even if it were,
we weren't those travellers. But we had to go through a facade of checking in
and carrying all our bags to the room.
The muscular roach pumping up, feasting, and jogging in the elevator was the next clue: it was in better shape, and certainly a lot fitter and better nourished, than either the residents or King Crimson. Then, reaching our
floor, we were surprised to discover there was no-one on the floor other than
us. In my room a newly painted table stood in the middle of the floor on
newspaper, with paint still tacky. Our floor was unused, and had been especially "renovated" for our arrival.
We met right back in the elevator going down, still carrying our
heavy suitcases. Band revolt: we simply told Dik Fraser that we wouldn't stay
there. Dik said he would, although actually he came with us along the front to
a cheap motel. It was ugly at the front and it was ugly at the front. And
although its air of simulated welcome had faded over the years, it was welcome to us.
2.
Harvey, one of the KC road team, wore a permanent six o'clock
shadow, even when he had just shaved. With a sturdy build, he presented a
formidable aspect to those unknowing of his gentle nature. It was suggested
that he wear a striped T-shirt, don a mask and carry a sack over his shoulder
marked "Swag".
A total wreck. Feel physically & mentally ill. Tell Dik. He's not so
sensitive: more robust constitution.
19.55
Practice.
Gig:
22.15. We play for 1 hour 07 minutes. Tired. Lifeless. Lacklustre. Two
recording machines. No encore. This upsets crowd & promoter-type guy.
He hustles. BB (asks promoter) Enjoy it? Yes. I ask him if he'd prefer 1.07
of good or 1.30 of bad music. He says shorter, but contract (says longer).
People used to encores. Dik sorts it out. Band agrees something's wrong
with planning. George says the (recording) truck's not good. I tell Dik never
again. Tell story of Chris K - People will do anything for $20.00. PW tells of
Tex's being frightened to turn down JW's Vega. Gets heavy: we knock it on
the head & drive to a pizza shop with pin table.
24.45. To motel. I leave a message on desk: I have freaked & wish to
remain incommunicado for the sake of my mental health. Watch "Fright
Night" - cliches galore. Shower. Boil in ear.
Notes:
1.
Rubber band = Crimspeak for propellor powered aeroplane.
2.
George = George Chkiantz, recording engineer who worked with
KC.
3.
Chris Kettle, one of the KC road team. He crossed over the dividing
line between music and management, and went to work in the EG
Management office. At the moment of writing, he is still there.
4.
Tex = Tex Read, another member of the KC road team, and a somewhat legendary character in the history of English roadying. He worked with
KC in the early 1980s, later disappearing from sight.
5.
Nick Bell = KC lighting man. He's not mentioned in the Journal,
but that's not a sufficient reason to miss acknowledging his lighting on these
performances. His contribution may also be heard on some of the recordings:
the distinctive buzz of a lighting fader in motion.
6.
JW's Vega. A particularly powerful bass cabinet John used. This
gave John about the most exciting bass sound I've ever heard. It was also so
loud that it overwhelmed the pa system. PW had to mix John out of the
house. Vega volume on 11, John still triumphed over us all, and he sounded
great. But very hard to accommodate in the overall group mix.
Rick Kemp of Steeleye well into group (KC). Would love a tape of his
blowing with us. Tell Barbara 3 handles have broken in the 3 days since I
accepted the ouijii board. Change strings.
21.05 Dik arrives with suitcase. DC emphasises giving the blowing a
chance. BB Don't announce improvisation.
Gig:
Good. Silly announcement: Journey to the centre of the cosmos, or I
merged with Atman. Two blows; more spacy than before. I stepped out on
"Starless".
Reaction good.
Harvey mends suitcase handle. This anti's JW - he thinks it's unfair. I
disagree.
Lost with JW & DC returning to hotel.
c.1.05 'Phone sister.
Notes:
Sunday 30th. June, 1974.
9.30
Sore throat. Coffee & double prunes. Drive to Philipsburg Mid
State airport. Lots of wildlife. Message - Sister 'phoned. Case handle has broken. Rubber band, minus George C.'s case, to Pittsburgh.
13.25 Board.
Feeling: uptight. (Write up) Journal.
1. The ouijii board continued to work its mischief. On the first leg of our
flights the handle broke on one case, and another went missing. At the final
destination, all the baggage was missing.
2.
Rick Kemp of Steeleye Span auditioned for King Crimson in 1970,
and actually joined the group - for three days. It was rather too much for this
excellent player. The audition and rehearsals were recorded, and are now part
of my personal KC archive material. This is the tape to which Rick refers.
Slept on flight & to Newark & to Providence.
16.00 Arrive but without baggage.
c.16.45 Hotel & to restaurant. Second in, last served. Waitresses & cooks at
union meeting. I have been eating on my own for some time. The three lads
are on another table.
Baggage not expected until 20.00.
Realise:
Situations are developing to an extreme. Wonder how much I should
take. Feeling like going off the road.
18.05 Cat nap until 18.15. Woke up refreshed. Shower &
(Palace Theatre, Providence) with JW 18.45.
Air Studios
London
1973
to gig
Monday 1st. July, 1974.
(Day begins in Providence, Rhode Island. Gig this evening in New York
Central Park).
9.15
Sam 'phoned, to talk re/DC.
11.05 Coffee. Vibe with Sam A. & Dik. They want to tell DC in England.
George C. joins us & we go to SA's room for a vibe. Agree to EG telling DC:
1.
Personality too insecure;
2.
Music not right;
on proviso that DC is told that I objected to me not telling him personally. JW is v. DC staying, BB for, & I regret that he has to go.
12.30 Leave. Drive with Dik & SA. SA suggests me phoning DC in
England: - No. Contrast with Atlantic re/consultation on personnel changes.
DE & Mark F. would prefer to tell DC in England.
13.00 Airport.
To Warwick.
To sound-check. Horrific buzz levels. Announcement toPW
re/blowing gig.
18.30 Walk to Carnegie (Delicatessen) for cheesecake & coffee. Sweaty.
Meet Barbara Barber on way to park. Tell Barbara about the ouijii. Arrive in
park as lads are breaking in under our caravan. Vibe with promoter over
buzz - tube & bad power. I vote against it, but will see what the others say.
They arrive, we check it out. Seems OK Vote taken to do it.
Change & tune. Go on c. 20.30.
Gig:
Buzz lessened - no trouble. Tremendous energy surge. V. strong.
Enjoyed playing. Nearly wept at one point, knowing this was the last time I'd
be working with DC. Lights at the end of "Starless" really blew the crowd.
Rapturous reception: “Talking Drum” & “Part Two” for the encore.
Everyone pleased with the gig. Conversation with JW - lighting
effects like that make all the difference. Trouser Press & tapes: underground
tapes in NY. Pledges not to.
To Carnegie for cheesecake & coffee.
Notes:
1.
Sam A. = Sam Alder, the junior member of EG's three directors at
this time. He joined EG's accounting department in 1971 from Whinney
Murray, the accountants, and became a director when John Gaydon left later
in 1971. He was increasingly the prime architect of EG's financial strategies
and diversification of business interests outside music. Also, a leading force in
establishing Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy as a major charity supported
by the music industry.
2.
Mark F. = Mark Fenwick, who joined EG in the Spring of 1970,
came from the sock department of Bentall's Department Store and bought
himself an apprenticeship in management.
The first professional contact I had with him was in May 1970 when
he had the job of getting me to Heathrow and on board a 'plane to America. It
took three taxis to get me off: one for me, one for my passport, one for the
ticket. Unimpressed with these, his early efforts, I told David Enthoven:
"Never let this man have any involvement with my affairs at all".
He was closely involved with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who were
managed by EG following Greg Lake's departure from KC in early 1970. ELP
left EG in 1971, and Mark F. took responsibility for Roxy Music and Bryan
Ferry, who joined EG in 1972. Bryan Ferry auditioned for KC in late 1970
and, although not the right singer for us, was clearly a character who would
go places. So, one of the places I suggested he go was 63a, Kings Road, the
portals of EG Management.
began at the top and then disappeared. This team took two years to get to the
same point of being-out-there-ness. As the sun went down and we moved into
the ominous bass riff emerging from the "Starless" vocal, red stage lights faded
up from behind the band. For me, a stunning theatrical moment
highlighting the tension within the piece and the group: a moment of
resonance.
Tuesday 2nd. July, 1974.
Throw away oujii in East River. Temperature today v. hot. Reached
There are many bon mots associated with Mr. Fenwick. One line
precipitated Eno's departure from Roxy Music when Eno was "encouraged to
leave" with the words: "We think you're ready for a solo career".
98.
He is currently the chairman of Fenwick's, the family department
stores, and managing Roger Waters from within the EG portals.
Background to the Journal extracts.
3.
The issue under discussion was this: it had been decided that David
Cross was to leave the group. Bill wanted David to stay, John and I thought
he should leave. It seemed proper to tell David immediately and one which I
felt I should take on. There was one show left: Central Park, New York. EG
wanted the news broken to DC upon return to England. Dik was concerned
that David might do something silly if given the news at the end of long and
harrowing touring, and that the music would suffer.
I agreed to this on condition that David was told immediately upon
his return to England (I was flying back later) and he was informed of my
objection to not telling him personally. These conditions were agreed, but it
didn't happen like that. When I arrived back David had still not been told,
and the news wasn't finally broken by EG until just before the recording for
Red began. This is not the way to become ready for solo careers.
4.
nasty.
The promoter was Ron Delsener. The buzz at soundcheck was very
5.
This was the first gig since the 1969 Crimson where the bottom of
my spine registered "out of this world" to the same degree. The 1969 outfit
RF returned to England on the Fourth of July.
The journal was written as an exercise, to throw light on the nature
and characteristics of this creature I inhabit, and a piece of work to develop a
practice and discipline. The journal records details of that practice, and my
dreams. Much of it touches on other people, their actions, opinions and ideas
expressed confidentially to me. All of it is personal, and was not intended for
publication.
Once written, it was put away with the other volumes of Journal.
Reading this now, for the first time since it was written, I am surprised at how
clearly it succeeds in its primary aim, and revealing the earnest young man
pursuing his desperate intent. I can now forgive him many of his misdemeanours but he still makes me wince.
John Wetton kept a diary for the same period. Extracts would be
included side-by-side with mine were the diary not on a different continent
from John as the deadline for this scrapbook approaches. His notes are available for future KC Scrapbooks.
The band is revealed as exhausted and irritable, its internal tensions
exacerbated by road fatigue. Poor Dik Fraser seems to have suffered the brunt
of our disease. The dominant current within King Crimson at the time,
detailed in the Journal, was uncertainty regarding our future. It seemed likely
that David Cross would leave the band, although this had not been discussed
with him. I was not sure of my future within or without King Crimson, nor of
Crimson itself. Various formulas for King Crimson were discussed: taking a
break for two years, or working for 3-6 months with a replacement for David
and then taking a view. Robin Trower and KC toured together a lot at this
time, and Robin and I were discussing working together in a group. So,
change was in the air but we were unaware of where it might lead us all.
On my return to England, I had a major experience and insight
which lead me to leave the music world for three years. This is recorded in
the Journal for Sunday night - Monday morning, 7/8th. July 1974, at 01.55:
Idea:
my year's sabbattical could be at Bennett's Institute.
So, after Red, when the choice had been made to go to Mr. Bennett's
school (The International Academy For Continuous Education), I called Bill
and John and told them. These events in Crim-history are recorded in the
Scrapbbook to The Essential King Crimson.
KING CRIMSON 1972-74
"Thankyou, Mr. Wetton, here's your credit card." I looked at the badge on his
pocket. Howie Epstein. I was shopping in Sherman Oaks, California, and
Howie Epstein was serving me. I had never heard of, or seen, Howie before,
but he had seen me. "Central Park, King Crimson, wasn't it? AWESOME. Do
you remember?" "Yes, I do remember, - it was a very powerful show." So,
another soul who had been there. I keep running into the odd person who
witnessed a really good Crimson gig. It might have been Amsterdam, Zurich,
New York or Hamburg. There were a lot of shows. No-one has ever come to
me and expressed dissatisfaction. There were some shows that were not as
special as others, but twenty years later, it's wonderful to meet people who
saw Crimson on a great night. Four intense young men, three Taureans and
one Gemini, playing hard music, working hard. Hard and fast. Adventurous
music. Some loved it, others didn't. Some didn't understand it, but few could
deny the power that it possessed when it was good, and I, for one, would not
trade that experience for anything.
John Wetton, May 1992.
KING CRIMSON 1972-74
I know Robert Fripp has an understandable soft spot in his heart for the very
first Crimson, and the 1980s version had its own very definite innovative distinction and ethno-trance delights. But for me the 1972-4 lineup was the
greatest King Crimson. In fact, I confidently assert that it was one of the
greatest bands of the rock era, period. Here, after all, we had what was essentially an intelligent (non-fans might say intellectual) heavy metal band, that
was as fluent in free-form improvisation as it was in tautly constructed songs
and extended suites, and that seemed as intoxicated by the stimulus of controlled dissonance as I - a big fan of Captain Beefheart, and free-jazz from
Albert Ayler to Sun Ra. Indeed, this unit not only seemed attracted to dark
harshness - it veritably tapped into some atavistic blackness that runs as deep
as our DNA, and that camp-satanic pop-metal bands would shit their
drawers to confront. This Crimson did not fool around; in no way was its
music kid stuff.
Certainly the 72-4 Crimson, like no other rock band aside from the Grateful
Dead, consistently demonstrated the ability to navigate the perilous waters of
free-improv at a jaw-droppingly high level of telepathic togetherness; I've
heard loads of Crimson bootlegs and I still have yet to hear the band merely
puttering around aimlessly. The word gripping applies to virtually everything
this band did, and that most definitely goes for its "ventures into uncharted
territory" (as Fripp once introduced a particularly inspired 14-minute workout, over a rhythm-box beat, in a stunning September, 1973 Boston show).
And where the Dead, epitomized in the classic "Dark Star," specialized in lyri-
cal, consonant free-form flights, the early 70s Crimson explored dark, jagged,
harsh terrain - and fearlessly conquered it. And yet, on the fabulous Starless
and Bible Black album, only a couple of tracks after the awe-inspiring "We'll
Let You Know" lurched from pterodactyl-screams-in-the-paleolithic-sunset
through spastoid skronk to fractured funk, this line-up could also come up
with the poignant delicacy of "Trio " (within the daunting territory they'd
staked out for themselves, they had range, alright).
But as great a ‘jam band’ as the 72-4 Crimson was, it was also equally
remarkable at composition. No, not all of their tunes were gems, but "Exiles,"
"Easy Money," "Book of Saturday," "The Great Deceiver," "Lament, " and "The
Night Watch" all remain vivid and memorable, nearly 20 years after being
first recorded: each bristling with wit, invention and the sheer joy of quality
craftsmanship; each tight and to the point (okay, maybe the middle jam in
"Easy Money" meanders a bit...), like "Great Deceiver" and "Lament"; and,
especially in tracks like "Exiles," "The Night Watch," and "Lament, " there is a
poignant emotion that no other Big British Progressive Rock Band ever came
close to matching. Again, as I noted in comparing the disparate free-form
excursion of "We'll Let You Know" and "Trio," in its songs, too the 72-4
Crimson had range to spare: from the stately melancholy of "Exiles" to the
hurtling metaphysical kiss-off of "The Great Deceiver. " Of course, like any
great rock outfit, this band also knew when to simply grab hold of a killer riff
and ride it for all it was worth, as in "Red."
And speaking as I just was of Big Brit Prog-Rockers: when it comes to the
extended pieces for which the genre is famed and reviled, well I don't think I
need to go on at any length to anyone reading this about the sheer overwhelming perfection of "Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 2" and "Starless," the
astounding scope of "Larks Tongues Part One," and the sheer imposing force
of the towering, impenetrable edifice that is "Fracture." So I won't. What I
would like to mention is that, like any truly great ensemble, the 72-4 Crimson
really shone live. In fact, a lot of people don't know that most of the Starless
album was recorded live in Amsterdam (that includes, believe it or not,
"Fracture" and "We'll Let You Know"). These guys could really, really play,
and they not only never played a song the same way twice (not that I ever
heard, and I have heard a lot of 72-4 Crimson), but they dramatically
changed their approach to most numbers over the course of their too-brief
time together. On the group's first U.S. tour in spring 73, "Easy Money" had a
fairly steady funk-rock pace all the way through and went right into a killer
9minute instrumental jam. A year later it sounded completely different:
tighter, more concise, harder-rocking. "Larks Tongues Part 2" became much
more sharply defined and detailed over time, as did "Exiles" (if you are reading this, you probably already know this from comparing their original studio
versions to those on the "USA" live album). At that fall 1973 Boston show I
mentioned, the mid-section of "Lament" sounded almost like... yes, Beefheart,
full of abrupt choked-cymbal stops and starts, trap-door twists, and scurrying reptilian guitar runs - completely different from the more straight-ahead
fullfuzz chording-and-handclaps version recorded on the Starless album.
And I think they're both equally great!
At this writing, I have no idea exactly what selections Mr. Fripp in his wisdom
will make for the box set you now hold, so I hope I'm not teasing you, dear
reader, with tantalizing references to music yet-unhearable. Having said that,
I must draw to a close by showering praise on the men responsible for the
frighteningly exhilarating music that flowed like a beastly, atavistic force
through this version of Crimson. For it is ultimately the personnel and their
remarkable individual talents and ensemble chemistry that made it all happen.
Robert Fripp is, of course, one of the most brilliant and innovative guitarists
in rock history - and frightening technique aside, he's always been able to
reach into your chest cavity like a faith healer and rip your guts out with one
of his patented laser-beam infinite-sustain solos (i.e. "Night Watch"), with just
as much elan as he could churn out coruscating fuzz-chords. Crimson has
always been, in my mind, Fripp's peak vehicle for both composing and playing - though I admit his solos with Brian Eno are uniformly outstanding; at
any rate, with the 72-4 Crimson Fripp seems to have taken "conventional"
chords-and-solos rock guitar as far as his prodigious abilities and singular
muse would let him; no wonder he subsequently turned to the auto-orchestral pointillism of Frippertronics, and the 80s Crimson's guitar gamelan.
John Wetton was competent vocalist at best, but his bass guitar playing in the
72-4 Crimson was no less remarkable than Fripp's lead work: a musician's
musician at home, adept and powerful no matter how daunting the setting, )
Wetton was particularly good at stepping out in free-form situations with
monstrous, lurching notes and lines that seem to rise like great beasts from
some primordial swamp, dwarfing mere humans; the sheer size and weight of
his sound were hard to believe. Like the rest of the band, Wetton could also
be inventive: check out his elastic slow-motion blurps under his vocals in
"Great Deceiver,"
David Cross (whatever became of him?) is probably thought of as the weakest
link in this unit by most people, if only in comparison to the better-known
and more widely accomplished company. But you know what? His contributions on violin and mellotron were always perfect, and surely this magnificent
band would not have sounded the same without him. Though never a commanding soloist, Cross could step to the fore and hold his own when need be
(i.e. the tense violin signature in "Larks Tongues Part 1," and many memo-
rable moments in free-form jams I've heard).
And then there's drummer/percussionist Bill Bruford - who, already respected for his crackling accuracy in handling tortuous odd meters with Yes,
matured in this Crimson into The Complete Rock Drummer, performing at
the leading edge of the form with an awesome command and inventiveness.
The intelligence, agility, taste and restraint that were already hallmarks of his
distinguished style were enhanced by added fury and muscle - the sort of
exultant warrior-like wielding of power that comes with thorough enjoyment
of one's musical company, and the music they are making. Bruford's distinctive drum vocabulary - the bright, jazzy drum timings, the impeccably clean
cymbal-work, and of course the crisp whip-crack of his signature snaredrum
rimshots - expanded to include the sundry auxiliary implements left behind
by percussion whiz Jamie Muir, who departed for parts unknown after indoctrinating Bruford in the Larks’ Tongues period. Bruford's ingenious, rhythmelodic deployment of woodblocks, bells, ratchets and gongs in "Lament,"
"We'll Let You Know," "Fracture" and "Starless" is easily as memorable
as his justifiably legendary tom-tom-and-chinese-cymbal fusillades in
"One More Red Nightmare." And how about the panache with which he
parcels out the dumbfounding, wrist-cracking trap-door beats beneath
the vocals in "Great Deceiver"? The taut, panther-like stealth of the
Brufordian pulse in tracks as diverse as "Easy Money," "The Night Watch,"
"The Mincer," and "Asbury Park"? In the presence of Muir on the Larks’
Tongues album, Bruford's playing is still a bit tentative; but on Starless and
Bible Black, Red and USA, Bruford is a virtuoso, perfectly poised between
control and abandon.
Finally, the 1972-4 Crimson had an oft-overlooked secret weapon: lyricist
Richard Palmer-James. Pithy, rueful and ribald, worldly and witty and
always quite adult, his words were a world away from typical rock sentiments
and from the cosmic hooey endemic to the prog-rock genre; without
exception they held up equally well printed on the page or sung by Wetton
(indeed, no slight towards John intended but I do believe the words made the
singer in this case). He was exceptional- and in that sense, he fit the 1972-4
King Crimson perfectly. . .
June 1992 - Michael Shore
THE EGGHEAD FACTOR
By C.D. Omorosi .
Philadelphia City Paper - October 19th 1992
First off, The Essential King Crimson, a three-CD chronological package that
includes the never-recorded fan fave "Groon" (left off 1970's "Wake of the
Poseidon"), plus a fourth C~D of live stuff from the deleted "USA" and
countless rare bootlegs. The main attraction here is the sound and the packaging. No fat on these guys, not a lot of "unreleased gems" or if it's so good,
you don't leave it off. My fave phase, 1974: the "Starless and Bible Black/Red"
phase that featured then running-from-Yes-as-fast-as-he-could percussionist
Bill Bruford and soon-to-be-dinosaur kingpin John Wetton. Raw, depressive,
impressively 20th Century Schizoid. This stuff make Primus sound like
Michael Bolton. Want better? Try the last incarnation of KC, the almost new
wave version. From 1981 to 1984, Fripp teamed up with Bruford, progenitor
of the Stick bass Tony Levin, and the then babe-in-the-woods Adrian Belew
(still wet from gigs with Bowie and Talking Heads), It is the T-Head connection that made this new KC go into overdrive, the choppy, chatty, chanty NYC
white guy shuffle, Together they made "Discipline," "Beat" and "Three of a
Kind," all notorious for their animal ogistics, blabbering witness vocals, and
fun, YES, they're fun. "Discipline" is enriched by two sonorous, melodies
"Frame by Frame'" and "Matte Kundesai."
ENTERTAINMENT
Sunday, October 27, 1991/Detroit Free Press
Title: "The Essential King Crimson: Frame by Frame" (Caroline).
Format: 45 songs on four CDs or cassettes.
Rarities: The obscure "Groon." a fourth volume of mostly unreleased live . .
recordings and an assortment of abridged and remixed tracks. The King's
court: From the art of rock of 1969's "In the Court of the Crimson King" to
the modern methods of the group's early '80s incarnation, the Robert Frippled King Crimson has always ridden on pop's cutting edge, striking a balance
between progress and indulgence. "Frame by Frame" offers an admirably
thorough representation, pruning King Crimson's out-put into a definitive set.
Fripp's humorous notes in the booklet also make for fun reading. Extra
frame: Collectors also may want to grab "The Abbreviated King Crimson," a
novelty release that includes edited versions of six songs and a one-minute,
20-second medley - honest - of several Crimson songs.
Translated by Hernan Nunez
(Tip): (Germany)
"An epoch making masterpiece lies before us. Fripp succeeds at putting 15
years of KC work together in the most tasteful, interesting aand detailed way
possible."
"The live disc gives us a taste of what kind of dynamite dynamics this band
was able to display on stage."
"The booklet is excellent."
Translated by Hernan Nunez (Audio):
"CD of the month" (Nov. 1991)
(Stereoplay) (Germany): "KC belongs to the most brilliant appearances of the
British underground/progressive rock of the 70's and 80's - always good in
surprises, this 4-CD-Box presents the listener with all of the most fascinating
(hands) chapters in rock history."
HITS Novemher 25, 1991
King Crimson, "The Essential King Crimson: Frame by Frame" (Caroline):
From the band that shaped so many styles and sounds of today comes one of
the most brilliant boxsets in years. For all you Frippophiles, the 63 page booklet gives you all you ever need to know about the guys and more, including a
family tree dating hack to 1969. This set would make' an amazing PoMo Xmas present for those you need to suck up to (especially important in these
tenuous times), so get off your arse' and get Ivana a copy so she doesn't steal
mine! (NB).
Air Studios
London
1973
GUITAR WORLD/January 1992
By Alan Paul
The Essential King Crimson may well he the best-packaged box set of those
described here - most likely because guitarist Robert Fripp, a noted control
freak, put the box together himself. The liner notes include virtually every
article ever written about the band, pro and con, as well as a listing of every
concert King Crimson ever performed and extensive commentary by Fripp.
Though the inclusion of negative reviews is a brave touch, Fripp insists that it
was perfectly natural decision.
"By and large, the positive and negative press balanced each other," he says.
"So I thought it was valid and interesting to include as much of it as possible.
And there was just so much negative commentary written about the band, I
thought it was absurd to ignore it. One reason that people may not have liked
King Crimson is it didn't always succeed - and I don't have any trouble admitting that. We' often had rather lofty goals and played pretty risky stuff." The
box set wonderfully captures the band's extraordinary struggle to combine
their European classical heritage with the energy of rock and roll and tie
improvisatory freedom of jazz. Scaling to such lofty heights is a process
entirely dependent on group interplay, a point, says Fripp, often overlooked
by people who view Crimson as "The Robert Fripp Band."
"The group is an entity apart from the individuals, and capturing that essence
has always been my primary' concern," he says. "I focus first and foremost on
the music being played, and the relationship between the members of the
group. My guitar playing comes after that - which is why my best guitar playing is on other people's records. They tell me what they want and I come in
and do it, without being concerned about whether the drummer likes my playing or the producer is going to bury me in the mix."
BOX MANIA
His protestations not withstanding, Fripp certainly played some pretty
inspired guitar with King Crimson, a fact well documented on the box set particularly on the fourth, live, album. Included on that disc is 1969's "Get They
Bearings," the earliest recorded example of two-handed tapping on a Crimson
record (and one of the earliest anywhere), as well as three Eighties songs
which feature some practically telepathic guitar interplay between Fripp and
Adrian Belew.
And for you King Crimson fans who are sickened at the thought of a box set,
or develop shingles in the presence of multi-CD collections, Fripp has made
available the perfect solution. The single CD The Abbreviated King Crimson
includes "drastically" edited four-and-a-half minute versions of "In The Court
Of The Crimson King" and "21st Century Schizoid Man" as well as a one
minute-twenty second medley of everything the band ever recorded.
"It's perfect," says Fripp, "for people with rather short attention spans."
ROLLING STONE
December 12th-26th. 1991 ,
The Essential King Crimson: Frame by Frame (EG/Caroline), King Crimson:
The self-importance of Crimson's early incarnations renders much of Frame
by Frame a period piece, though the experiments in tempo and texture paid
greater dividends in the band's Eighties regrouping. The four discs trace the
development of the various Crimsons, risking stretches of tedium for moments
of transcendence, while the detailed booklet shows the self-deprecating wit of
Robert Fripp that surfaces too rarely in the music.
NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS
7th December 1991
KING CRIMSON: Frame by Frame: The Essential King Crimson (Virgin CD
only)
Whilst the Rick Wakemans of this world fannied about in capes singing about
King Arthur thereby forever crediting the genre a handful of English (wait for
it) "progressive rock acts" actually did something more useful than just
provide good jokey copy for pop writers throughout the next 20 years. One
such band were King Crimson, or "Crimso," as their admirer's would have it.
Now, sadly, thought of as archetypal finger-cymballed dorks, they were
actually one of the most subversive bands of their times, expanding pop's tiny
vocab with their deranged experimentalism and grim patina of menace.
'Frame By Frame' is a four-CD anthology assembled by Crimso's Mr Big,
Robert Fripp, which chronicles the band's various stages.
Disc One encompasses the early years ('69- '71), when their ambitious,
eccentric albums thrilled and bemused the rock community. The drippy
Mellotron, ridiculous lyrics and general air of bombast have not aged well, but
Fripp's masterful, idiosyncratic playing and some bonkers tunes ('21st
Century Schizoid Man' ahoy!) remain gripping. Leaping the years for reasons
that will soon become apparent, Disc Three showcases the final Crimso of the
early '80s when they had become neurotic third world jazz funkateers taking
their template from Talking Heads 'Remain In Light'. And what can you say?
It's mildly interesting, if a little smart-alecy.
Disc Two is the real essential stuff from the 'Red' and 'Starless And Bible
Black' period, when they had mutated into a viciously avant-garde heavy
metal band. Rock music has rarely sounded so cold-hearted and violent, or so
bleakly melancholy. Buy these two albums and ignore the laughter of your hip
friends.
Also included is a real teeth-gritter of an all-periods live disc, and a ridiculously
informative booklet wherein Bob gets a little crotchety about the music press
and drummer Bruford has the best line - "King Crimson was one of the few
gigs for a rock drummer where you could play in 17/16 and still stay in decent
hotels". Neuro-surgeons scream for more at paranoia's poison door, in a very
real sense.
Stuart Maconie
VOX
December. 1991 .
Not History Of, Best Of or even Young Person's Guide To, but the essenee of
Crims in nice new, but mot totally definitive, remastered digital format The
Definitive Edition is available in Japan and the US, but we poor deprived
Euros have to make do with this compromise, spread over four volumes, part
straight remaster, part abridged, part remixed. The 'abridged' versions of
'Aspic', 'Fracture' and co will gall many -wicked uncle Bob Fripp and crew
always were knocked for going on (and on) a tad, but, hey up, lads, I thought
the point about CDs was you can shoehorn more material in. And why bung an
Adrian Belew vocal on 'Cadence And Cascade' 20 years after the event?
Confusion will indeed be this collection's epitaph.
Alternatively the live material is fresh, angry, intense as only his Weirdliness of
Wimborne crouched on his stool surrounded by the ghosts of yesteryear could
be. As you move from '69 and Greg Lake's exhorting the crowd at Plumpton to
get stoned, to John Wetton's monster-mashing bass on 'Asbury' in '75 which
segues seamlessly to the Belew driven 'Sartori in Tangiers' (why only an
excerpt?) in '84 you know you are a witness to a very special band,
Please not, naughty Penguin Encylopaedia of Popular Music. Why give Fripp
and not Crimson an entry? Fripp the benevolent dictator, Fripp the fulcrum
maybe - but a king needs his courtiers and this collection at least reminds
you. for better or worse, of how much Sinfield, Tippett, Muir, Bruford, Levin
and Belew gave the band. Great stuff which captures the essence - but unless
the pit bull's chewed your vinyl, not essential.
Andy Robson
Q December 1991
KING CRIMSON
The Essential King Crimson - Frame By Frame
EG KCBOX 1
Documentation of even the most flippant ephemera has always been a crucial
part of Robert Fripp's outlook, so those' who thought 1984's Three Of A
Perfect Pair album was the last word on King Crimson were fooling
themselves big-time'. Frame By Frame is a 45-track, four-CD box set
spanning 15 years and countless line-ups of the band people really did call
Crimso: four hours plus of music that aims to be, and probably is, the
ultimate statement of the much-maligned progressive rock genre. From
1969's still arresting "21st Century Schizoid Man", through dark, orchestral
noodlings like Groon, Bolero and the superior "Larks' Tongue's in Aspic"
stuff (not forgetting the cerebellum-gnawing 29-minute live version of "The
'1a~lking Drum"), this set is encyclopedically thorough. There are re-mixes
where the existing sound was found wanting; and an accompanying sheaf of
notes that detail the band's often traumatic career by means of Fripp's
professorial diaries and press clippings - pro and anti. The lyrics, need it be
emphasised, are Category A pretentious tosh throughout - step forward Pete
Sinfield and Richard Palmer-James - but the music is frequently brilliant and
the method to Fripp's madness is now a little clearer.
David Cavanagh
INTERNATIONAL MUSICIAN
December 1991
ROBERT FRIPP
OK, so Robert Fripp has been making King Crimson compilations for years.
But after The Young Person's Guide and The Compact Crimson, now we have
Frame By Frame - The Essential King Crimson. At nearly four and a half
hours, this 4-CD boxed set with illustrated diary is intended to be the last
word on a band that defined the boundaries of progressive rock over three
decades. With at least ten different line-ups over the years, tie guitarist from
Dorset strove to capture an ideal of "energy, intensity and ecleticism". Volume
1 of the new collection captures the band around 1969-70, arguably at their
peak, with tracks from "In The Court Of The Crimson King" showing off Peter
Sinfield's evocative lyrics and a conclusively "60s blend of folk, symphonic and
electronic elements. The highlight is clearly "21st Century Schizoid Man", the
track that placed Fripp firmly among the guitar heavyweights of the era. A
jazzier early '70s Crimson featured Mel Collins and Keith Tippett, represented
here by the single "Cat Food" and a remix of "Bolero". Volume 2 charts a more
changeable period from 1972-74. A core of Fripp, Bill Bruford and John
Wetton experiment with ear-bending 17/8 time signatures and rambling
improvisation on such tracks as "Fracture" and "Red", although memorable
forays like "Starless And Bible Black", or "Trio",are sadly omitted. We get a
clear picture of the '80s Crimson in Volume 3. with Messrs Bruford and Fripp
teaming up with Adrian Belew and Tony Levin and carving out ditties like
"Discipline", "Beat" and "Three' Of A Perfect Pair", all recreated with an editfree respect for the originals, The final volume is a collection of live, mostly
unreleased, material such as "Travel Weary Capricorn" and "Mars", written in
1969 "to establish an improvisory basis for rock players".
WINSTON-SALEM,N.C.
Sunday, December 8th, 1991
King Crimson was never so much a (democratic rock '11 roll band as
a fraternal means to express the ideas and attitude of guitarist Robert Fripp.
To Fripp, music was neither recreational nor diposable, but an all
encompassing ideal, an anarchic discipline of religious dimension designed to
provoke change and jolt dulled senses to new heights of awareness.
Although Crimson's sound changed through the years, Fripp's original intent
to use technique, melody and rhythm to create a bold new means of
expression - remained true.
Frame by Frame tracks Fripp's Crimson vision through the band's myriad
changes in personnel, instrumentation and approach. Focused and definitive,
it smartly illuminates Fripp's ability to sustain his ideals with challenging
compositions that rarely surrendered to bombast and trend.
The first three' discs divide the band's career into phases: Disc one, 1969-71;
disc two, 1972-74; disc three, 1981-84. The song selection is first-rate,
flawed only by Fripp's inexplicable decision to edit several or the band's most
effective songs.
Disc one illustrates the early interaction between the band's pop aspirations
and its art-rock aesthetic - a fanciful quest defined by such songs as "21st
Century Schizoid Man" and "In the Court of the Crimson King."
Disc two is dedicated to Crimson's sweeping metallic-jazz experiments of the
'70s: These largely instrumental compositions were distinguished by their
orchestral detail, intriguing melodies. harmonic invention and jarring shifts in
meter, tone and mood.
Disc three examines Crimson's final incarnation: an adventurous No Wave
quartet that combined sonic and lyrical abstactionism with danceable' grooves
to produce a warped-pop collage or hypnotic minimalism, textural noise and
global funk.
A fourth disc is a collection or previously unreleased live tracks that span
Crimson's career. All the songs are of interest, but the early cuts are too
abrasive and tedious to warrant repeated listening.
In this striking package - which includes a Crimson family tree and an
illustrated booklet filled with critical reviews and Fripp's contrary comments
Frame by Frame is an invaluable addition to any collection.
THE RECORD EXCHANGE MUSIC MONITOR
December, 1991
King Crimson were always ahead or their time, That is to say. King Crimson
isn't for everybody, This 4-volumme box set offers a balanced look at the
musical history of the band.
My only complaints is the book, which is essentially a mammoth daily dated
collection or portions or record reviews, articles and interviews. It took longer
to read than it took to listen to the 4 + hours of music! Typographical errors
abound as well. I would rather have a thoughtful discography, more technical
notes and some reflections.
(Brad Bennett, Winston-Salem)
extraordinary solo both anchors and decorates a sublimely controlled . .
arrangement.
Whatever jazz or 'composed elements may have seeped in, King Crimson
were always a rock band. The live 1969 tracks on the fourth CD are only of
bootleg quality, but they expose' a group of bloody ambition, Ian McDonald's
'Tchicai-like sax giving way to Fripp's raging improvisation, which might stand
as an answer to McLaughlin's Extrapolation. The 1972-74 Crimson was
systematically pared down from the swarming ensemble of "Larks Tongues In
Aspic" to the butchering power-trio of "Red" and "Fallen Angel", a
memorable transfiguration. If he'd had any jazz ambitions, Fripp would haw
then tinkered with the group forever; instead he destroyed it. The 1981-84
comeback is neatly celebrated by the third disc, which sounds alien by dint of
the neurotic yin-yang of Fripp and Adrian Belew and the pneumatic, squeezed
textures which the band aspired to. Some of it sounds too wound up, But
"Requiem" and "The Sheltering Sky" suggest. perhaps. how Fripp's horizons
were expanded by his associations with Eno.
The packaging is a bit much: excessive annotation threatens to overpower. just
as daft sleeve art and surrounding pomposity did for so many would-be
Crimsons. Fripp's inquiring mind - and his guitar - ensure that the music
fares better in this valuable in memoriam.
Richard Cook
MUSIC CONNECTION
December 9th 1991 - .January 5th, 1992
One of the more handsomely produced sets, The Essential King Crimson does a
good job of encapsulating the essence - energy, intensity and ecleticism, according to leader Robert Fripp - of this pioneering progressive rock band, from its
early days featuring Fripp and Greg Lake ("21st Century Schizoid Man," "I Talk
To The Wind") to the trio of early Eighties albums (Discipline, Beat, Three Of A
Perfect Pair) featuring Fripp and Adrian Belew. This 45-track set, supervised
meticulously by Fripp, showcases the fine, intricate musical interplay that was
this band's forte. - KB
THE WIRE
New Year 1992
KING CRIMSON - The Essential King Crimson: Frame By Frame EG KC
BOX 1 4CD
Robert Fripp has antholgised his work more than once, and this set comes
almost in lieu of the "Definitive Edition" of remastered Crimson albums,
available in Japan and the US but not Europe. Instead, we have three CDs of
studio and one of mostly unreleased live material, spanning 1969-84. Another
monument of bourgeois rock art?
Actually, the music confounds the received idea of King Crimson as Pretentious
Hock Gods. The temptation to compare this set with the similarly-inclined Yes
retrospective is irresistible - Bill Bruford does play a major role on both, after
all - and Crimson's investment in noise and sharp edges beats out Yes's many
tiered classicism from moment to moment and disc to disc. If you erased all
the vocals - 01r, at least, all the words - it would hardly be an 'art-rock'
collection at all. Even then, in "Fallen Angel" and "The Night Watch" and
"Heartbeat", Fripp's lyricists manage a feasible counterpoint to his harsh,
insidious, dense music
The early tracks hold up astonishingly well "21st Century Schizoid Man" is as
brutal and reduced as "Gary Gilmore's Eyes", if you will, and "Bolero" is a
more convincing rock-jazz chart than anything Mike Ratledge was doing at
the same moment. One could complain that the single version of "Cat Food"
omits too much of Keith Tippett's inimitable waywardness - intriguing to
speculate on what might have happened if he'd joined full-time - but the
masterpiece on the first disc is "The Sailor's Tale", where Fripp's
GAZETTE, ROCKLAND, MAINE
Saturday,January 4th, 1992
The fourth disc is a stunning collection of live tracks (only one previously
released) covering most lineups of the hand and is well worth the price of the
set alone.
GOLDMINE
January 10th, 1992
By Michael P. Dawson
Professional guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp sits at a sidewalk cafe in San
Francisco sipping caffe latte in the dense late afternoon fog. Pausing as he
does before each utterance, to organize his words into the most precise
possible reflection of his thoughts, he describes the nature of the remarkable
musical entity that is King Crimson.
You see, Crimson doesn't play by numbers. It's not painting by numbers.
Crimson was a process. It still is a process. It doesn't operate through
demographic research. It's an evolving, organic outfit. Crimson is for people
who are prepared to take risks in their listening, knowing that the musicians
are taking risks in their playing. So there's always the possibility that
audience, music and musicians can come together and just move into an
entirely different space together. Or we can all fall flat on our faces. And
all points in between those."
The risky nature of King Crimson includes a refusal to stand still. Each edition
of King Crimson has had its own distinctive set of fingerprints, from
the symphonic/jazz/proto-metal pastiches of the early lineups, to the brooding
improvisations and crushing, angular instrumentals of the Larks' Tongues In
Aspic era, to the skewed, polymetric funk and cutting-edge use of electronics
of the '8Os band. What the as-yet-unheard 1992 model Crimson will sound
like we can only guess. Yes, that's right - the Crimson King will soon be
holding court once again.
Although Fripp has always disavowed his role as the leader of King Crimson
he is the only person to remain constant throughout the convoluted history of
the band t hat produced what many consider the first art -rock masterpiece
with its 1969 debut, and that has pushed the envelope of rock's musical
vocabulary with each of its succeeding incarnations. Diverse as they are,
however, Fripp asserts that all the variants of King Crimson are united by
three factors: energy, intensity, ecleticism.
The band signed with Island in the U.K. and Atlantic stateside. October 10,
1969 saw the release of In The Court of The Crimson King.
In The Court also introduced King Crimson's habit of giving separate, fanciful titles to instrumental breaks and subsections of longer songs. As it happens, this was done for quite practical reasons: "We were informed that
American publishing on records was paid on titles. In other words, if we put
on three titles on side one, we would get three-eighths or the publishing available for that side. So we were told to have the full number of titles." Thus,
mouthfuls like "'Epitaph,' including 'March For No Reason' and 'Tomorrow
And Tomorrow'" "We came up with titles for each of the main sections. I think
in the early days Pete Sinfield came up with most or them. Effectively, the
prime title is the accurate title for each piece."
Fripp on Earthbound: "It was a bootleg album years before bootlegs. I think
it presented the reason for that band breaking up. I had to work for quite a
few years to get it deleted."
Jazz band arrangements of portions of "Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part Two"
were used, without permission, in the X-rated film Emmanuelle. Two excerpts
appear on the soundtrack album (Arista AL4036), under the title
Emmanuelle Theme (Instrumental Variation)" and "Rape Sequence,"
credited to composers Pierre Batchelet and Herve Roy. Fripp, not amused,
took legal action.
In The Court of The Crimson King was released on compact disc in 1983.
becoming one or the very first rock albums to appear in the new format.
Within a year, Discipline, Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair were also available on CD. The remaining Crimson studio albums followed in 1986, but the
sound quality left something to be desired. "Wben the catalog first moved
onto CD. time transfers were appalling. I was not involved in them. However
the artists were charged with the cost or transferring it. I had 5,000 pounds
deducted, without consultation, from my royalties as my share pro rata for
the transfer - for a piece of work which was appalling." Islands in particular
was plagued with crackling sounds and hiss, which has also afflicted Editions
EG's vinyl and cassette reissues or tbe album earlier in the decade.
The two live sets have yet to appear on CD, and Fripp would prefer that they
remain unavailable. "I have better recordings available from both those periods. Given time, budget and necessary consents, I can do much better versions of both or them now. Bear in mind that with both Earthbound and USA
time was very limited." Meanwhile, Fripp and engineer Tony Arnold have
remastered all 10 studio albums and issued improved versions of the CDs
under the "Definitive Editions" rubric. "In 1989 I remastered it (the CD
Catalog). I said I would like to be paid for this, and suggested a fairly nominal
charge, which EG were very put out about. However, the cost of me doing the
work to remaster it was deducted once again from my royalties!"
More recently, Fripp has compiled the four-CD boxed set The Essential King
Crimson: Frame By Frame, which includes a disc of otherwise unavailable live
material. "In putting together the unreleased live album in the boxed set, I
went back to all the Japanese recordings from the videos, the live recordings at
the final two gigs in 1984 in Montreal, performances from the video at Frejus
in the south of France in '82, as well as lots of recordings made by the band
from '82 through to '84, The selections on this fourth volume are only a very
small portion of the available live material. The selection for that one album is
governed by quality of sound, quality of performance, and overall
programmatic flow, and then the degree to which the pieces are representative
of that particular incarnation of the band,"
A seven-song sampler issued to accompany the boxed set, titled The
Abbreviated King Crimson: Heartbeat, includes shortened edits of some King
Crimson classics. The disc was originally intended for promotional use only,
but it was decided to release it to the public. "I hope that this wonderful
promotional tool which is such a superb piece of fun, will reach as many
people as it deserves to. The idea was, well, look, it's made available to the
radio stations, and sooner or later collectors will collect it, so why not put it out
straightaway? It's done with a sense of fun." In the spirit of fun, the sampler
includes a spliced-together King Crimson "medley."
Fripp is considering the possibility of releasing more vintage Crimson material
from the archives. "One suggestion I've made to Virgin/EG, because I'm now
catalog supervisor of the King Crimson catalog for Virgin, is to do The
Essential King Crimson Live and do a thorough retrospective of all the extant
live recordings of all the different incarnations of the band. King Crimson did
a lot of live recordings which are the property of the group. If you said where
are they physically located, I would say close my hands.
But nevertheless, they are the property of the group and the phonographic
copyright is assigned to the group, In terms of collectors' editions, Heartbeat is
King Crimson Collectors' Edition Volume One. Now what you could have, for
example, is an album purely of "Schizoid Man" - alternative live versions
from 1969 through to 1974, I don't know how many people would play it,
but the point is there is now a vehicle for rarities items in which it's stated
fairly clear ahead of time, look, these are for collectors. The criteria which one
applies to normal standard releases may be suspended in terms of rarities."
Fripp let slip that he also plans a collection of The Concise King Crimson, but
he's keeping mum about that one for now.
King Crimson came close to being reactivated in 1987. "At one point in 1986
into '87, I was asked to do the music for a film version of Neuromancer, the
William Gibson book. I met with the producers on several occasions - went
out to Shepperton (Film Studios) for meetings. As part of doing the music for
the film, I was intending King Crimson to do some of the music "Larks'
Tongues In Apsic, Part Four" was part of that. However, the film dropped
through. The musical ingredients of "Larks Four' are still present, although
when they appear, the title may be different."
"It's a collector's dream. It carries all the conviction of the original recordings.
As a project, it sets a standard. I seriously doubt whether any other boxed set
will reach the same standard. They might just - you might get one which gets
to be as good - I don't think it will be improved upon."
Robert Fripp's description of this four-CD distillation of the history of King
Crimson is couched in pretty strong terms. At a time when we've come to
expect lavishly boxed multi-CD sets to pop up like mushrooms every fall, The
Essential King Crimson is up against some stiff competition. Prog-rock fans at least those who still have some cash left over after shelling out for the
uneven Yes set that came out earlier this year - will be delighted to learn that
Fripp's boast is, for the most part, justified. There aren't many boxed sets on
the market that can beat this one.
When Fripp first gathered together Crimson's best work, for the 1976 The
Young Persons' Guide To King Crimson (back in the days when you got no
more than two LPs for such a project), he included a fascinating scrapbook
full of rare photos (only two previous Crimson albums, Islands and Red, had
pictured band members) and densely printed text detailing the day-to-day
minutiae of the band's history, largely as seen through the eyes of the press.
The booklet that comes with The Essential King Crimson is a stunning 64page expansion of that one, with an update gig list, reviews covering the '80s
edition of King Crimson, notes on the recordings, and a brief essay by Fripp
lambasting the rock press (well, excuse me!), whose misinformed
pronouncements and thoughtless abuse - and sometimes equally thoughtless
praise - of King Crimson are copiously documented in the preceding pages.
Many of the same photos that appeared in the Cuide reappear here (alongside
dozens of previously unseen ones), but now they are much better reproduced
and more imaginatively laid out.
Once past the beautiful graphics and the absorbing booklet the listener finds
~ 0, that the music does not disappoint. The song selection makes no secret of
which Crimson LP is Fripp's favourite: the set begins by reprising virtually
the entire In The Court Of The Crimson King album, with only the rambling
improvised section of "Moonchild" excised. The remainder of the first disc
consists of tracks from "In The Wake Of Poseidon" (the same ones that were
chosen for Young Persons' Guide, including the single mix of "Cat Food" and
the non-LP "Groon"), Lizard (a single instrumental extract) and Islands.
Oddly, the two tracks to which Gordon Haskell contributed (singing "Cadence
And Cascade" from Poseidon and playing bass on "Bolero" from Lizard)
appear here with Haskell's parts replaced by current Crimsonites Adrian
Belew and Tony Levin. Why Haskell was singled out for this treatment is
unclear - certainly his performances were not that bad.
The second disc is drawn entirely from the three studio albums made by the
1972-74 band with John Wetton and Bill Bruford. Three of the tracks are
abridged. "Larks Tongues In Aspic Part One" loses little by curtailing David
Cross's violin cadenza, and even "Fracture" survives drastic pruning, but eliminating the lengthy tension-and-release instrumental section from "Starless"
was a mistake.
Disc three is devoted to the '80s quartet of Belew, Bruford, Levin and Fripp.
Again, Fripp shows his partiality to the first album made by this band when
he includes every track but one from Discipline. (And the one that he left off
turns up in a live version on the next disc.) In addition to the restored mixes
of "Sleepless" and "Matte Kudesai", this disc includes Tony Levin's hilarious
one-man barbershop quartet ("We're the King Crimson band/We don't do
encores... No photos, please!").
Aside from "The King Crimson Barber Shop," and the indicated tamperings,
all of the material on the first three discs is familiar. The fourth disc is the one
that collectors will treasure: over an hour of live Crimson, with "Asbury Park"
(from the long-out-of-print USA) the only previously heard track. Each of the
three main phases of King Crimson's history, as represented on the first three
CDs, is allotted three live tracks. (There's something distinctly Frippian in the
rigorously symmetrical structure of the program).
First up are three jam-oriented pieces from 1969, two of them never before
released by Crimson: Donovan's "(Get Thy) Bearings," the Michael Giles-sung
original "Travel Weary Capricorn" and Gustav Holst's "Mars" (aka "The
Devil's Triangle"). After the sparkling fidelity (brilliantly mastered) of the
preceding three discs, the level of sound quality takes a considerable dip for
these archive tapes, but the tracks are still perfectly listenable. There are no
such problems with the two tracks from a 1973 concert in Amsterdam (which,
besides being one of the sources for Starless And Bible Black, was aired on
radio and was subsequently widely bootlegged) or the previously released
"Asbury Park", from one of the last shows before the band's 1974 dissolution.
The '80s band is represented by "Larks Tongues In Aspic Part Three" (sadly,
only the plodding second half), "Sartori In Tangier" and "Indiscipline." Like
all of the material on the live disc, these tracks are chosen to emphasize the
freer, improvising side of King Crimson.
So does The Essential King Crimson "set a standard" for boxed sets? In terms
of rare musical content, the answer is that it very likely does - although snazzy
packaging is the norm in the boxed set arena the answer is no-something like
Dylan's Bootleg Series would set the standard. In terms of presentation, and in
terms of celebrating the boundary-shattering essence of one of the most
intense and innovative groups in rock history, the answer is a resounding yes.
Michael P. Dawson
KERRANG
January 25th, 1992
As suitably described by their most pivotal and eccentric member Robert
Fripp, King Crimson were a band that appealed to the head as well as the foot.
Now sadly overlooked their heyday of the early '70s saw them as equal opponents in the battle for space on the denim jackets of yer average proggie, along
with Floyd, Yes et al.
Lovingly packaged and remastered, this four-CD box-set is just as much of a
musical timepiece as recent sets from Zeppelin, Clapton and Dylan. Hours of
material- including a whole CD of unreleased live takes - and a typically
eccentric booklet from Fripp make this an ideal (if expensive) beginner's guide'
or the ultimate' treat for the already committed fan.
Crimson were equal parts sheer genius and pretentious shite. Early
firebreathers '21st Century Schizoid Man'. 'Cat Food' and later prog
masterpieces like 'Red' and 'Fracture" therefore sit comfortably next to
moments of ill-advised whimsy and over-indulgent pompous twaddle.
The reformed '8Os version of the band even made a credible stab at being the
modern intellectual rock band, scoring high with 'Sleepless' and 'Discipline',
but low with 'The Sheltering Sky' and 'Three Of A Perfect Pair',
When King Crimson take their place in memorable musical history, their
position will be higher than many once thought they'd deserve,
Colin Reed
Love Is Older than Death
Greg Tate
VOICE Januarv 28, 1992
There's another guitar legend box set in town. King Crimson's Frame By
Frame (Caroline). If you're a fan of the original Crimson maybe you can dig it,
but as someone who was not down with King Crimson until the Adrian
Belew/Tony Levin /Bill Bruford version, I wouldn't advise spending 60 beans
on it if you have Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair. Belew. Levin.
and Bruford were what Fripp had been sorely lacking: players with enough
GUITARPLAYER Best Of The Boxes
King Crimson, Frame By Frame, Caroline (114W.26th St., New York, NY
10001). Four CDs document the band's many incarnations, with great sounding remastered album cuts and an hour of unreleased live material. The collection also boasts superb art direction, hilarious photos, a Pete Frame-style
family tree and annotation so copious that it borders on the anal-retentive. A
shining example of how retrospective packages ought to be done
BOSE February 1992
Express Music
King Crimson The Essential King Crimson: Frame By Frame
Frame By Frame is the ultimate collection from one of the most important and
one of the most seminal rock groups of all time, led by one of the most respected guitarists, Robert Fripp. Includes classics from King Crimson's 10 studio
albums, an entire CD of rare live material and 8 never before released tracks.
CD ON 3~CDs $69.99 (659)
pump and personality to syncopate pop-slang around his static if hypnotic
four finger exercises. The polyrhythmic sophistication of the group far
outstripped any white rock unit this side of Zappa's and their multi-culture
weave of musics never came off contrived. The twin-guitar team of Fripp and
Belew was also remarkably fluid given how crazed with experimentation both
these techno-freaks are.
The downside of this box is that CD remastering has done little to improve the
thin, highly compressed sound of those' Fripp/Belew/Levin/Bruford records,
and the live cuts included from that period, while kinda hype, contain no
revelations. If you're interested, the booklet does contain excerpts from nearly
every piece of Crimson press written in English on both side's of the Atlantic.
included by Fripp as incriminating evidence against muckleheads who've
written about his band. Where is Alfred E. Neuman when you reallv need
him?
In memory Crimson was from that British bombast school of progressive rock
that Rob Reiner loved so well. Surprisingly, the 1969-74 Crimson had it going
on in the way of dissonance and cosmic debris. Pieces like "Larks' Tongues in
Aspic" aspire to the Art Ensemble of Chicago's studied amorphousness and
aleatoric lyricism. Granted "21st Century Schizoid Man" will never rise' above
being fodder for Spinal Tap, but yo, give Fripp and company their due, They
were trying to put a humbler sense of dynamics and a dicier improvisational
flavor into the prog-rock program than many of their contemporaries.
Unfortunately their material sounds like it's being held down by lead weights
ill till' groove' area and what they call melodies are just a vacant series of notes.
The saving grace is Fripp's guitar playing. He's possibly the least blues
influenced heavy-hitter in rock, substituting licks borrowed from North
African vocal music for the emotional connection other mugs resort to blues
clichés to conjure. As early solos like "21st Century Schizoid Man" make
undeniable, Fripp has always been his own guitar prophet, the proto-punk
John McLaughlin long before Dr. Know or my brother Mr. Reid arrived to
prove crazy fusion chops and pop songs could gracefully coexist. What keeps
Beck and Fripp vital points of reference for modern guitar heads is their
capacity to contaminate slick and infectious pop-rock ditties like David
Bowie's "Fashion" or Mick Jagger's "She's the Boss" with stick, ill, out-thebox guitar riffing. Kurt Cobain and Hank Shocklee are on the beam, so why
not you?
By Bruce Pilato
When one thinks about heavy metal, a boatload of standard names usually
gets thrown around: Motley Crüe, Metallica, Led Zeppelin... Now, here's one
more to add to the list: King Crimson.
"King Crimson," you ask? That stuffy, esoteric, British prog-rock institution,
led by eccentric guitarist Robert Fripp? Yes. While they may not come to mind
when you think of metal bands, among their peers they were one of the greatest heavy metal bands to ever blast out a bombastic power chord from a
Marshall cranked at 10.
From the ominous 1969 FM classic"21st Century Schizoid Man," to the
subtle metal power behind the climax: segment of 1972's "Larks' Tongues In
Aspic," to the pure crunch of 1974's Red album, King Crimson has continually
released some of the best metal ever to reach these shores. And they did so .
with no intention to work within the confines of that particular genre.
Now, the recorded history of King Crimson has been assembled, remastered
and released with Frame By Frame: The Essential King Crimson, a four-CD
box from Caroline Records, featuring all the best material from Fripp and the
various versions of the band.
The stylishly designed and painstakingly assembled set from the group that
Fripp has spearheaded on and off since 1969 features over four hours of
groundbreaking music, some of which has never before been released
"For anyone who is interested in Crimson, this is all they need," says Robert
Fripp, sipping coffee in the lounge of New York City's Marriott Marquis hotel.
Fripp, who fronted several completely different versions of the band between
1969 and 1984 has reassembled yet another version to be launched this .
spring.
"For me, personally, it's very painful to go back (and assemble this collection).
When you listen to it, you hear the music. But when I listen to it, I also hear
the music, but I also remember the situation in which the singer or the
drummer were in a really bad mood. Or something happened, and there is an
error. Or I listen to it and I remember why the drummer refused to do
something and the other guys in the band were pleading with him.
Everything is very emotionally charged."
Putting together the incredibly expansive booklet for the boxed set was no
easy task.
"If you ask me if I'd like to go through 22 years of press cuttings, I'd say 'no!'
If you ask me if I'd like to spend three months to assemble the scrap book,
(and) then play music, the answer is 'no!' However, if it is available to the
public, they deserve the best shot at it that is going And there's only one
character that can give -them the complete outline, and that's me... so, I am
glad to do it."
Fripp himself acknowledges working within King Crimson is usually a
struggle for all of the musicians.
It was the 72-74 John Wetton/Bill Bruford version of Crimson that is generally regarded as the heaviest or all the Kings.
"Our last studio album," says Fripp. "Red was really a heavy metal record.
He recently left EG his management and record company of 22 years over a
royalties dispute.
Although many have tried to categorize the band, true Crimson fans will
always fee1 the group's music is in a genre all its own.
"King Crimson is always the same," adds Fripp, "and it is always different." "I
think one would have to say that a musician acknowledges that music is a
power." says Fripp, reflecting back on all the various styles of music that King
Crimson has played.
"You don't have to believe in God, but a musician believes in music as if it
were God. And one would have to say with this band something took place
outside of the band... and the words I would use is that music leaned over and
took us into its confidence."
LISTENER & TV TIMES Feb 24 1992
New Zealand
"Wagner kicking Nietzsche through a meat grinder."
by Gary Steel
THE ESSENT1AL KING CRIMSON: FRAME BY FRAME, King Crimson
(EG/Virgin)
It's just not on. Reviewers of that which is commonly called "Rock" music
expected to tow the line. This involves an investment in the misconception
that all great rock must perform open heart surgery on our emotions.
Consequently, any blalant displays of musicianly virtuosity have been
unanimously battered to death by the music press.
Progressive rock is the most despised and ridiculed rock genre, but I'm here
to admit, at considerable risk to whatever credibility I may have left, that
many of my all-time favourite groups function in its orbit. Developing in the
late 60's. progressive rock came about just as technology was moving ahead in
leaps and bounds, and musicians were looking for ways to expand the limiting
vocabulary of rock. It started with the innovative explorations of Frank
Zappa, Pink Floyd, the Soft Machine and Can, but soon had many adherents,
including Yes, Genesis, ELP and more interesting, offbeat examples, like Faust
and Henry Cow.
But the first - and best - full-blown progressive outfit was King Crimson, a
hugely influential unit that persisted (off-and-on) until 1984 and is now
immortalised with a digitally revamped four-CD boxed set complete with
lavish and extensive booklet and family tree.
The group was led by the extraordinarily dextrous guitarist Robert Fripp,
whose discipline was stamped on its many line-up permutations, including
such musical heavyweights as percussionist Bill Bruford and former Bowie
guitarist Adrian Belew.
The King Crimson experiment necessarily carried with it the risk of failure,
and one of the downfalls of its formative stage was its unintentionally
hilarious, apocalyptic lyrics. Like other progressive groupsC Crimson's music
is full of complex playing and brain-twisting time signatures, but they never
perform this way as mere show-offs. At its best (1972 to 74), the group used its
skills to create scary sonic sculptures that were often ugly and psychotic but
always effective.
In pieces like the aptly titled "Fracture" and "Red", the group almost achieved
(he impossible by combining tautly controlled collective improvisation with
avant -garde sensibilities and orchestral dynamics. On top of which they were
one hell of a hammering heavy metal band. Unlike most, however, all the
power was in the sound and the structure of their rives, not just in a puerile
stance.
"Loudly but artfully, they created a wall of synthesised electric thunder which
sounded something like Wagner kicking Nietzsche though a meat grinder as
the bombs exploded on the last day of the Russian Revolution,"' wrote one
befuddled reviewer.
For me, as a thirtysomething, banging one's head to King Crimson is a juvenile
pleasure that can no longer be kept secret. For Fripp, the demise of King
Crimson represents today's repressive commercial environment killing off all
innovation and confining it to cult status, thereby denying its ability to influence the future.
Virgin NZ have decided not to release this album, but you can order it (or any
of the King Crimson catalogue) through your specialist record store.
BOSTON ROCK February
King Crimson
Yes it's real strong stuff, even removed from its original context and
surrounded by this mystical miasma.
Or most of it is. The first band was the absolute antithesis of the Summer of
Love's sweetness and light a sinister yet intelligent outpouring of anger and
rejection. There was a certain amount of blues and jazz lurking in its violent
geometries, as there was in the original psychedelic vibe, but here it was
almost accidental - Fripp had to study jazz to acquire his technical mastery of
the guitar, and the blues scales grew increasingly abstract. What it really is is
heavy metal's aesthetic progenitor: the hell-for-leather riffing. the brooding
minor chords, and most especially the cauterising distortion.
The first disc includes all of the songs (less one callow jam) from the terrifying
debut "In The Court of the Crimson King", plus suitably nasty songs from the
next three meandering albums, and the rare B side "Groon."
The second band built on all of the above, at a stratospheric level of virtuosity
and invention; plus this band could really improvise, miles ahead of the earlier
band's fumblings - a goodly amount of this lineup's recordings were
spontaneous events, and it wasn't always easy to te11 them from the
compositions. The second disc draws equally from the' three studio albums,
but it ignores all that improv (although one rhythm riff and one completely
free piece appear on the live disc} and splices out some of the strange cryptominimalist excursions that might have prefigured the last band, the post-punk
repetitive beat group.
Here's where the set starts to wane. Unlike the '60s and '70s bands, the third
Crimson restricted itself with a set of rules and algorithms which now sound
forced and / or dated. It becomes increasingly difficult, as the musical patterns
politely work themselves out (and the composers tried ever harder to craft a
hit) to think of this Crimson in the same spirit. All the music on "Discipline",
the album where the rules were' codified appears on the third disc - except for
the live take of the most surprising song, "Indiscipline." The live disc is
interesting but ultimately disappointing; the earliest stuff is wretchedly
recorded, the latest stuffy to coy - and the middle band is too predictable, if
you know what they really used to sound like.
The essential question is, does this set really capture the essence of King
Crimson? But then, to answer that question is to presume that I know what
the essence is, or that my fan-orientated perception is more viable than the
insider viewpoint of Robert Fripp, who has shepherded King Crimson
throughout its turbulent existence. Fripp even dug into his private stash of
unreleased tapes and he promises to release more in the future.
On the other hand, he tries so hard in the elaborate booklet to paint an
obviously unrealistic, masochistic picture of himself - as put upon by his
bandmates, vilified by the press, led down the primrose path by his
management. After hearing all that superlatively conscious music, and
mindful of his translation of King Crimson as "the man with the aim", this
revisionist notion of the exploited Fripp is clearly bogus. I think if you want
the real story, the essential King Crimson is the twelve original albums, the
way they were originally recorded - no splices or dance remixes allowed - and
the opinions of the other 15 exemplary musicians who've been in this band.
Michael Bloom
STEREO REVIEW FEBRUARY 1992
King Crimson made its uncompromising art through a variety of personnel
changes. All the lineups included Robert Fripp, who painstakingly compiled
this box. Including an entire volume of live performances may not have been
the commercial thing to do, but it must have aesthetic sense to Fripp
(Editions EG/Caroline, 4 CD's or cassettes: 45 tracks, 9 previously
unreleased).
MUSICIAN February 1992
The past: There were four working live versions of King Crimson: 1969,
1971-72, 1972-1974 and 1981-84, three world-class and two of them - the
first and last - arguably the best live rock outfits in the world. For a short
time.
The early groups supplied founding members to Emerson Lake & Palmer
(Greg Lake), Foreigner (Ian McDonald), Bad Company (Boz Burrell) and UK
and Asia (John Wetton). Bill Bruford left Yes to join King Crimson in 1972
and is the only musician to have played in the English progressive triumvirate
of King Crimson, Yes and Genesis. Robert Fripp is the only musician to have
played with King Crimson, King Crimson and King Crimson, said no to Yes
and no to Genesis.
The fourth King Crimson (1981-84) was the first Anglo-American Crimson,
and more song-based than the earlier Crimsons. It could also rock out and
shred wallpaper at three miles.
The present: This is a four-volume boxed set with a 64-page scrapbook of
photos, press cuttings, reviews, information, chit -chat and commentary, four
hours, 22 minutes and 26 seconds of music - an average of 65 minutes and
37 seconds per CD. The first three volumes arc comprehensive compilations
of the studio albums from 1969 to 1984. The fourth volume is of unreleased
live material from the entire period of Crimson's life to date, save for one
track ("Asbury Park" from the deleted U&\). Every track is remastered
and/or remixed for CD.
This is the music Fripp, the executive producer, considers necessary to convey
the essence of King Crimson, which he defines in the Scrapbook as "energy,
intensity, ecleticism." But then, he always had a pile of words.
Some might complain that "Islands" is not here, "Starless" is only the song
version, or "Fracture" is abbreviated. For them the complete catalog is
available, remastered for CD, on Caroline. Here, Fripp worked to a technical
deadline of 72 minutes per CD with the aim that each volume work in its own
right, as well as belonging to the set.
For anyone new to the world of King Crimson, this is all you need to know.
For anyone whose emotional life in rock involves one of the Crimson incarnations, this is a must. If only for the music, if only for the scrapbook, if only for
the artwork.
Some diehard Crimheads figure 1969 was the Crimson classic period. Others
go for 1973, and a few prefer the transitional period of 1970 when Keith
Tippett was de facto Crimson pianist. But a genuine Crimhead knows you
can't limit it that tight: each period worked in its way, or not. You may like it
or not, but classic Crimson is timeless. With Crimson you knew you were getting their best shot, whether it flew or crashed, whether it succeeded or not.
Here it does and here it is.
This sets the standard for reissues in quality and commitment. The work in
the scrapbook alone matches the work in the records. And the design work
for the package, by Bill Smith, is stunning. This is not repackaging by numbers. The abbreviated King Crimson is a tasty, humorous 25-minute little
sucker of a CD released in tandem with the box. Conceived originally as a
radio-friendly promotional tool for the set, Fripp liked it so much he persuaded Virgin to release it as the first in a new series of Crimson specialist issues.
For those who like a good song in the mainstream of rock life, here arc edited
short takes of "Schizoid," "Crimson King," "Heartbeat," "Elephant Talk" and
"Matte Kudesai." A barbershop chorale by Tony Levin introduces the classics
and a strange medley finishes it off. Recommended.
Robert Fripp
AUDIO/FEBRUARY 1992
Sound B+ Presentation B+
As on Guide, Fripp has edited some of the studio material. A few remixes
comfortably add new bass and vocals. More important, Fripp nips and tucks
on four "abridged" tracks. The results are usually sensible, although I would
have preferred keeping the midsection of "Fracture." Inexcusable, however, is
Fripp's surgery on "Starless," the finale of Red, which stops dead after the ballad intro; gone are eight minutes of some of the most exhilarating, most progressive rock the '70s generated. this truncation is like halting "A Day in the
Life" after the first orchestral crescendo.
The gorgeous 64-page booklet (accompanied by a separate family tree of the
band's myriad progenitors / offspring) provides discographical credits, a list of
the band's gigs, plenty of rare photographs, and an updated reprint of Guide's
massive chronology. In addition to remarks by Fripp, that chronology gathers
ads, articles, reviews, and interviews - followed by a rebuttal of sorts in '~
Personal Note from Robert Fripp," which is sometimes literate and sometimes
pedantic.
Aside from the remixes, all studio tracks are the remasters from Caroline
Records' "Definitive Edition" CDs of 1989. For the most part, the sound is fine
and certainly a great improvement in depth and detail over the original
Crimson CDs released in 1987. If the live recordings from '69 strike your ears
as rudimentary, think of them as relics of an age and be glad that they exist at
all. And take heart that in these increasingly conformist times, Frame by
Frame reminds us how wonderfully schizophrenic rock can be.
Ken Richardson
GOLDMINE
March 20th, 1992
King Crimson Trivia Contest Winner Announced, And It's... Bruce S. Mulle of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Congratulations, Bruce! You've won a copy of the Caroline/EG Records King
Crimson boxed set, The Essential King Crimson: Frame By Frame,
autographed by nearly every member of the band!
The King Crimson trivia contest was one of the most successful contests in
Goldmine's history, with hundreds of replies received. Most contestants
answered at least a few questions correctly. But only a small handful answered
all of the questions correctly (the correct answers were provided by Robert
Fripp of King Crimson, who designed the contest). Of those, Bruce's entry was
the first chosen.
Here, now, are the questions and the correct answers, according to Fripp, who
explains why and how he arrived at the answers he did.
1. Name the musician who has been a member of King Crimson, Genesis and
Yes.
Answer: Bill Bruford
Robert Fripp explains: There is a point of view that Bill was never an official
member of Genesis, but that he only toured with them. My own view is that
Bill's involvement anticipated a relationship which did not develop further
than the tour itself. But, whatever the detailed arguments on that one, he was
the only member of King Crimson and Yes that could reasonably have been
considered as the answer to that question.
2. Name four major groups started by former members of King Crimson that
released charting albums in Billboard and name the ex-Crimson members in
those groups.
Answer: Any of the following:
Emerson Lake and Palmer/Greg Lake
Bad Company/Boz Burrell
Foreigner/Ian MacDonald
UK/Bill Bruford and John Wetton
Asia/John Wetton
Robert Fripp explains: Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe was unacceptable as it was not a major group and was technically just Yes under a different
name. Earthworks, League of Gentlemen, League of Crafty Guitarists and
Sunday All Over The World are not acceptable.
3. How many King Crimson gigs were there in the period 1969-74?
Answer: 365,366,367,368 and 369 were all accepted.
Robert Fripp explains: The primary source on this is the gig list in The Young
Person's Guide To King Crimson. The number there, for anyone to count, is
368. However, originally this was miscounted and presented as 365. For the
scrapbook of the Essential King Crimson a "missing" gig from East Anglia in
1971 is mentioned, bringing up the official (but mistaken) count to 366
(miscounted) or 369 (counted). So, either of the four numbers are acceptable.
This means that there were actually 367 gigs in the period. But an informant
has just told me that there was another gig missed from this period, in
Worcester!
So, the possible answers allow for the different possibilities.
4. How many members of King Crimson, in all, appeared on stage at King
Crimson live gigs throughout the period 1969-84?
Answer: 13: Fripp, MacDonald, Lake, Mike Giles, Collins, Wallace, Boz,
Bruford, Wetton, Cross, Muir, Belew, Levin.
Robert Fripp explains: Peter Sinfield appeared offstage at live gigs he mixed
from the wings and the house. Peter Giles and Keith Tippett, who mimed on
Top Of The Pops TV show, never played live with King Crimson. Eddie
Jobson replaced some live violin lines in the studio. Rick Kemp rehearsed for
three days. Haskell and McCullough rehearsed for live work but never got
that far.
5). How many double drum lineups did King Crimson have during its history, and who were the drummers in each pair?
Answer: Two: Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir: Bill Bruford and Adrian Belew.
Robert Fripp explains: Some answers contend that Adrian only played percussion. He did play percussion, but there was touring where he played full
traps alongside Bill on some tunes.
Little known fact: Adrian began musical life as Stevie Belew, drummer of
Cincinnati, who also toured hotel lounges. He kept his guitar as sacred for
real music,. and drums for cover tunes in lounge work.
Tie-breaking bonus question: What was the most influential King Crimson
album? (This question did not count toward determining a winner).
Answer: There is no one answer. Whatever King Crimson album was most
influential for you is the most influential King Crimson album.
(Editor's note: For the record, the first Crimson album, In The Court of the
Crimson King, was the overwhelmingly favorite answer to this question.)
Note from Fripp: Personal thanks to all those who took part in this
competition. My own contribution to the competition was the huge,
enormous, monumental and endless amount of work compiling both
scrapbooks to the YPG and the Essential. Thanks to you all.
Note from the editor: And our thanks to all who entered as well. A11 of the
entries have been forwarded to Mr. Fripp, and those of you who added
personal notes to him can be assured that they will soon be in his hands.
we at Goldmine appreciate that there were many contestants whose answers
to the above questions did not precisely match Mr. Fripp's. However, all
decisions regarding this contest are final. and further mail relating to the
questions and answers will not be forwarded to Mr. Fripp nor answered by
Goldmine.
Davis and Can, and also paved the way for the likes of A Certain Ratio,
Defunct and The Gang Of Four.
Crimson was a kind of Eggo The Egghead equivalent to the provocative
multi-cultural group experiments of Velvet Underground, Roxy Music and
Talking Heads. The problem always being that the band never had a convincing vocalist who could give the music a more characteristic and emotionally
committed flavour (eg Bowie, Byrne, Holliday, Ferry.)
If a Crimson does exist in the nineties it should certainly combine aspects of
the modern dance revolution with its own uniquely pioneering spirit ie avoid
the nostalgia trip!
Yours,
T.J. Bowness
P.P.S. Do I win the box set, then
Well?
PULSE!
March 1992
With another incarnation of King Crimson reportedly in the works for this
year, the four-CD The Essential King Crimson: Frame by Frame
(EC/Caroline), serves as a reminder of the vision and virtuosity of the group's
founder and constant Robert Fripp. As this box bears witness, in various
lineups from 1969 to 1984, Fripp and company boiled classical tonality and
dynamics, rock's electric ferocity, the exploratory joy of improvisation and,
occasionally, the amicability of pop songwriting into an extremely potent mix.
At its peak, the band seemed to have a limitless sonic palette and a sense of
invention bound only by the limits of the members imaginations. Hearing
these Fripp-conducted remixes and remastering is a considerable pleasure
even for fans well-versed in the material. The hiss that plagues the earliest CD
reissues of old Crimson is nearly wholly absent, and every wrinkle of
spontaneous full group playing in selections like "The Sailor's Tale" is set in
deep detail. That number and several others ("Larks Tongues in Aspic: Part
One," "Fractured") are abridged, but only seem to cut to the chase more
effectively. A promising fourth CD of live material disappoints with spotty
sound quality. But overall, Fripp has presented the virtues of his life's most
exciting work as a musician (accompanied by a thoroughly annotated booklet
filled with photos, tour dates and historical minutae) in a manner as efficient,
practical and dazzling as his precision guitar technique.
Ted Drozdowski
1st April, '92
Dear Robert,
I thought you might like an unsolicited response to your Goldmine
questionnaire. So, putting on my best sweaty and sexless Berkeley rock-hack
frown, here goes.....
The most influential Crimson albums to my mind still remain the criminally
uncelebrated pair Starless and Lizard.
I always felt Starless was a looser-limbed, harder-hitting extension of its more
revered precursor. Larks Tongues In Aspic always seemed potentially thrilling
but actually restrained, whereas Starless took on similar themes and
explorations with far greater intensity and enthusiasm. Less care. Less polish.
Less less.
A fascinating fusion of rock energy, jazz spontaneity and minimalist funk
discipline, Starless mirrored concurrent developments in the music of Miles
GUITAR
April 1992
Performance: Definitely progressive; Hot Spots: Discs A, B, C & D; Bottom
Line: Excellent, colossal summation of 20th century's most schizoid art rock
band.
Through parts of three decades and 10 line-ups, l<ing Crimson, under
leader/guitarist Robert Fripp, became synonymous with progressive art/rock.
Frame by Frame is an awesome summation of his band's schizoid life-thrilling,
esoteric, inventive, studied and pretentious. The set, immaculately selected,
tinkered with and packaged by Fripp, includes a 62-page historical diary that
is as excessive, self-indulgent, odd and compelling as the music. Each of the
first three discs contains music from a distinct era - the late- '60s British jazzrock period (see also ELP, Soft Machine, Family), the compact power improv
spirit of the early- '70s, with drummer Bill Bruford and bassist John Wetton,
and the early- '80s quirk-and-jerk intellectual pop experiments with guitarist
Adrian Belew. Most fun, maybe because it's most forgotten, is disc two, full of
loud, roaming, rock-strength playing. But disc one contains the early classics
like "In the Court of the Crimson King," while three exposes Fripp's guitar in
its most angular, sawtoothed forms, tangling with Belew's twangy flights on
intricate, circular' structures. The fourth disc contains live tracks from all
eras, appropriately pulling together one of the best in the wealth of boxed
sets.
CD REVIEW
April 1992
King Crimson: Frame By Frame - The Essential King Crimson
Caroline/EG CAROL 1595-2 (AAD) 1969-1984 (91)
Disc Time: 262:29 (4 CDs)
8/8
Content: King Crimson was a decade-plus-long, on-again/off-again
experiment started by high-minded guitarist Robert Fripp in 1969. The
group's first album, In the Court of the Crimson King, is an unqualified
masterpiece of progressive rock that literally championed the cause of a new
music scene. Instrumental virtuosity and lofty lyric themes soon became the
norm, not the exception, and by the time the group "officially" disbanded in
1974 (after five years of constant personnel changes, save for Fripp), bands
like Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and countless others
had overrun the music industry. Fripp did solo and collaborative work for the
rest of the 70s, then Crimson returned in 1981 as a four-piece outfit, released
three albums, and called it quits (presumably for good).
Frame by Frame really does live up to its subtitle (The Essential King
Crimson). Over the course of four CDs (one all-live), every incarnation of the
band - essentially a new grouping for each successive album - displays its
wares. Disc 1 emphasizes the earlier, Mellotron-heavy stuff (with extra weight
given to "In the Court of the Crimson King" and "In the Wake of Poseidon").
Two tracks are featured from Islands (including "Ladies of the Road," a
brilliant Beatlesque number with a great sax solo), and one from Lizard. Disc
2 highlights King Crimson's ultra-experimental phase from '73-'74 - "Larks'
Tongues in Aspic", "Starless and Bible Black", and the phenomenal "Red". Disc
3 - my favorite - is the early- '80s King Crimson that featured Fripp, guitarist
extraordinaire Adrian Belew, bassist extraordinaire Tony Levin, and the only
other holdout from Crimson's early days, drummer Bill Bruford. In little more
than three years, this quartet forged a unique sound based on polyphonic
rhythms, terse, contortionist guitar melodies, and incisive lyrics, all in a very
song-oriented pop framework (something new for a Fripp-related project; this
seemed more Belew's doing). "Discipline" and "Beat" are the featured albums;
thankfully, only two songs (the best two) from the group's disappointing third
album, 'Three of a Perfect Pair", are evident. Disc 4 is comprised entirely of
live material and spans five different versions of the band from '69-'84.
Sonics: Fripp himself supervised the production of this boxed set, and admits
to any existing flaws that might exist as a result of faulty masters, original
recording glitches, or whatever. You'd be hard-pressed, though, to distinguish
those "errors" here. You've never heard King Crimson this good.
Packaging: Two things make Frame by Frame stand out from the rest of the
boxed set pack. First of all, the artwork on the front of the box and on each
individual CD is beautiful. This is one smart, classy-looking collection. Second,
the 63-page liner booklet is quite an accomplishment. Hordes of recording
information are featured, including technical notes by Fripp. There are also a
ton of photos of the band's different phases and members, along with a
chronological "calendar" of King Crimson gigs, reviews in the press, band
happenings, and a family tree.
The Compact King Crimson, released in '87 on EG Records, is a one-disc
best-of CD that mixes both early and late-period tracks. For the uninitiated, I
recommend starting there. Otherwise, Frame by Frame is the only choice to
make, especially as it overlooks much of King Crimson's drek - of which there
was a considerable amount.
Edward Murray
ART + PERFORMANCE
The Arts Magazine for Northwestern and Beyond
1865 Sherman Avenue, Suite 214, Evanston, Illinois 60201
708 492 0866
King Crimson The Abbreviated King Crimson: Heartbeat Caroline Records.
In the late '60s and early '70s, the music world was suddenly saturated by a
swarm of what were known as "art rock" bands. Whether you loved it or
loathed it, the art rock phenomenon championed a unique blend of
experimental modern music with classicly-inf1uenced instrumentation. Groups
such as Genesis and Yes lead the pack commercially, but the granddaddy of
them all, King Crimson, remained relatively underplayed and unappreciated.
Now, The Abbreviated King Crimson: Heartbeat gives listeners the chance to
re-explore their past, or delve into the unknown.
Heartbeat is a follow-up release to 1991's Frame by Frame, a four-disc
retrospective. Frame by Frame contains the original King Crimson songs
which usually topped the eight minute mark. Heartbeat, originally slated as a
radio promo disc, contains edited versions of Crimson classics that arc much
more suitable for airplay.
The EP opens with "The King Crimson Barber Shop," a melodious, but
ridiculous, a capella promo plug. "We're the King Crimson band, and we
know you think that's grand," they sing in (our-part harmony - an
appropriate opener from a band that you never know when to take seriously.
The first edit, "21st Century Schizoid Man," is about half the length of the
original horn and noise monstrosity. Greg Lake's (recently of ELP)
unmistakable voice sound more neurotic than ever, thanks to guitarist Robert
Fripp's skills at remastering the 1969 classic. .
"In the Court of the Crimson King" also appears at roughly half-length, but
this time, some of the most interesting interludes have been removed, leaving
five minutes of mellotrons and mellowness.
The album continues with Crimson's 1980s totally revamped lineup, which
included Adrian Belew on vocals, Bill Bruford on percussion, and the
incomparable Tony Levin on bass. This King Crimson is nothing like the old
one; they employ countless echoes, f1angers, and reverbs, giving them an
almost ethereal quality.
"Matte Kudesai," Adrian Belew's masterpiece, remains untouched. Possibly
the most mystical track they ever recorded, "Kudesai" stands as it was
originally intended; haunting and beautiful.
"Heartbeat," one of King Crimson's catchiest tunes, has been reduced to
under three minutes. This was totally unnecessary; the original was a
powerful and unique love song. The new version may seem fine to the first
time listener, but to Crimson fans, it is quite a disappointment.
Heartbeat is a fascinating album for King Crimson devotees, but its tracks
lack the spirit of the originals. If anything, go out and buy "The Compact King
Crimson," a two-disc retrospective from a few years back. It contains the
originals of these songs, plus many other wonderful tracks.
Heartbeat makes a great collectors item for those who already know the songs
by heart. Otherwise, for new listeners, it does not convey the intensity of a
band that was years ahead of its time.
MUSICIAN - Letters
May 1992
Whoever decided to allow Robert Fripp to review his own record (Recordings,
Feb. '92) ought to win the Pulitzer Prize, or at least some award for bravery.
Giving R.F. any sort of soapbox is hazardous behaviour (which you folks used
to do, and should consider doing again) and raises the possibility of interesting
reading.
Scott R. May
Berwyn, IL.
How could you let Robert Fripp review the King Crimson boxed set? Was it
just a coy way to generate some indignant mail?
Budde Larose
Los Angeles, CA.
I find it incredible that a review of Frame by Frame mentions Adrian Belew
not at all. I find it fascinating that someone intimately involved in the band
did the review.
G.P. Morgan
Middletown, 0H.
STEREO REVIEW
June 1992
The Fripp Side
The guitar luminary and King Crimson kingpin Robert Fripp didn't like what
he heard on the CD reissues of his back catalog. So he took matters - and
masters - into his own hands.
by Glenn Kenny
"None of the mechanics of reproducing music interest me at all," Robert Fripp
admits midway through a conversation on that very subject. "What interests
me are the rare moments when music leans over and takes you into its
confidence." But the composer/guitarist's altogether reasonable belief that
such moments as have been documented on vinyl should make the transition
to a new music-storage medium intact has forced him to take an active
interest in those mechanics.
For Fripp, a particularly pressing case in point - although not the only one,
since his work over the past two decades and more has generated a wide
range of reissued recordings - is the catalog of his band King Crimson, one of
the most controversial and influential of the so-called progressive rock bands
that began popping up in the late 1960s. As the compact disc took off in the
mid-1980s, record companies began reissuing items from their back catalogs
on CD. Since the new format boasted "perfect sound forever," and since it
could replicate highs and lows that were effectively unreproducible on vinyl
many assumed that CD reissues would sound at least as good as their vinyl
forebears, if not better.
But, as a legion of professionals and consumers have learned, and are still
learning, it's not necessarily that simple. One early example of that was the
initial batch of King Crimson CD reissues. Fripp was not even aware of what
was happening to some of his most famous recordings until he received a
royalty statement from EC, which at the time was both his management firm
and his record company.
"When EG first released the Crimson catalog on CD," Fripp recalls, "it was a
straight transfer from copy masters in the 15-ips [inches per second] quarterinch format done by people I'd never met, probably assistant engineers in
various studios. In other words, it was done badly. The [band] paid for the
cost of that transfer. I remember quite well receiving my royalty check and
discovering £5,000 had been deducted from my royalties for the CD transfer;
although I hadn't been involved in it at all."
Complaints about the noisy, muddy CD versions of such albums as King
Crimson's legendary 1969 debut, "In the Court of the Crimson King," began
showing up in the press and at EG's offices - "sentiments with which I
heartily concurred," says Fripp, "My view was... if that material were to be
available on CD, it should bc in the best format and best condition reasonably
available." The fruits can be heard on a dozen individual reissues of Crimson
and Fripp albums and on the recently released four-disc box set "Frame by
Frame: The Essential King Crimson."
It wasn't easy. In most cases, particularly with the earliest King Crimson
recordings, the original master tapes - that is, the tapes used to create the first
vinyl version - were unavailable. Fripp and Arnold had only "copy masters"
to work with, second or third-generation masters supplied to companies
releasing the record outside of its country of origin.
"When 'Court' was cut in America from the quarter-inch copy masters, there
was a fault in the right channel. What we did to balance it at that time was to
add lOk [10,000Hz] and let the right side break up... And when we
remastered it in 1989, instead of using a fixed-band EQ we used dynamic
equalization with an Aphex. The currently available remastered 'Court' has
things on it you can't hear even on the original vinyl. But the master [we had
to use] was flawed, probably because the original two-track machine at
Wessex Studio in 1969 that made it had either a worn or damaged head on
the right channel, or else there was dirt on the head which wasn't recognized
at the time. The original master -I have no idea where it is. I'm only working
from the best copy masters I can get. The eight-track of 21st Century Schizoid
Man was stolen from the Wessex tape stock, which in those days was a
cupboard that anyone could go into and lift a tape out of. You see, [pop]
recording in 1969 was by and large not a professional concern."
The difficulties Fripp describes arc not unusual ones. What is shocking is the
music industry's apparent tendency to overlook such difficulties when
preparing back -catalog recordings for CD reissue. A recent Billboard article
reported that Roger Nichols, the ace engineer behind Steely Dan's sound,
made digital transfers of the already deteriorating masters of the Steely Dan
albums for MCA's use in the early 1980's, but MCA ran off only one pressing
from those transfers and then reverted to second or third-generation masters
for subsequent runs. Another calamity revealed was the use of equalized
masters for CD transfers. Such masters arc intended solely for use on vinyl,
with equalization on cuts near the end of a side to compensate for potential
groove-tracing problems. Under the microscope of digital recording and CD
playback, such equalization can sound gruesome.
Fripp is familiar with all these horror stories - he's been embroiled with his
former label and management firm over CD transfers and much, much more.
After detailing a litany of fairly outrageous music industry abuses, he says,
"I'm not cynical about it. What it comes down to is this: In a democratic
society the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. I've got to be eternally vigilant
about my catalog."
Although Fripp is far happier with his own King Crimson reissues than with
the initial batch, he insists that, given more time and money, he could do even
better. Fripp and Arnold arc continually looking at both analog and digital
equipment that will enable them to improve their efforts.
Not that Fripp is completely pleased with the CD format to begin with. In the
vinyl vs. CD debate, he falls into the vinyl camp, but only in ideal terms: "I
accept that people with real ears probably would prefer vinyl to CD's.
However, if you use vinyl, you've got to have a virgin vinyl, you've got to have
a superb pressing plant, you've got to have superb metal work. And you're not
going to get it.'
THE BOSTON PHOENIX
December 6,1991.
ORGANIZED ANARCHY?
New King Crimson box suffers from Frippery.
By Michael Bloom
The Essential King Crimson: Frame by Frame (Caroline) has a great
deal more personality than most of these giftware multi-disc boxed sets, but
beware the personality is that of Robert Fripp, the band's mentor and
emminence grise. Fripp personally compiled the four discs, editing, remixing
and sometimes re-recording the music to his taste. lie has also collected and
annotated Crimson's intellectual development in the 64-page booklet, from
their originally stated goal," to organize anarchy, to utilise the latent power of
chaos and to allow the varying influences to interact and find their own
equilibrium," to Fripp's later marketing mumbo-jumbo about "active listening
while dancing" and "the Incline to 1984."
King Crimson were well-endowed with character anyway, a
grandiose and often malefic presence that was almost exclusively responsible
for English progressive rock (both Yes and Genesis have claimed them as a
major inspiration) Art rock before King Crimson consisted of very little else
besides Sgt. Pepper and a passel of hazy psychedelic ambitions. The band
who wanted to organize anarchy incorporated various elements the
psychedelic era made fashionable-jazz licks, symphonic arrangements, 12-bar
blues structure, anachronistic and vaguely mystical lyrics, and a Victorian aura
that Fripp has never shed.
Yet Crimson didn't sound like any of the above. Crimson were harsh,
splintery, and discordant, technically adept but seething with passion, full of
violent contrasts and abrasive dissonances born (Fripp admitted) of frustration
and animosity. They hit the fragile hippie consciousnesses of two continents
like the proverbial ton of bricks. Fripp's fuzztone guitar was as vicious as the
choleric screaming face on the cover of their debut, In the Court of the
Crimson King (1969) ; other instruments - even vocals - sometimes had
equally severe processing. Even their use of the Mellotron, the pre-digital
keyboard "sampler" appropriated from the happy-go-lucky Moody Blues, was
consistently grim and foreboding. They improvised extensively and fearlessly,
in pure unstructured form or off riffs like the Mars movement of Holst's The
Planets (included in the box on the disc of live performances-curiously, Fripp
has exercised much of the improv from the album cuts, limiting it to the live
disc).
Although the band were extremely influential in England, they were
also inherently unstable - something that was due in part to Fripp's
perfectionism and/or fractiousness.
Each three-year phase of Crimson is represented on its own hourlong disc, but the extremes of the early bands didn't make the cut, whereas
the late repertoire tends to sound too similar:
One of Fripp's biases here is to make the King Crimson name stand
for a more consistent body of work than it actually represents. The selections
from the early albums emphasize the song forms and the cynical lyrics, plus
the riffs and epicycles, and omit the most experiments as well as the
improvisation.
Another bias is evident in the way Fripp cops the attitude of
wounded elitism that has made English progressive rock an object of
contempt among non-devotees. Much of the book consists of what seems to be
every bad review King Crimson has ever received. (Two previous articles I
wrote for the Phoenix arc included. One from 1974 when I thought Fripp
could do no wrong, appears as a single-sentence excerpt. A 1982 story, when I
was more circumspect, goes on for a column and a half.) He also omits big
chunks of Crimson history, so that much of the commentary refers to
unexplained events.
All this makes Fripp look like Frank Zappa: an unquestioned genius
who can't be trusted with his own legacy. But not without a sense of humour:
the title he chose, Frame by Frame, comes from a lyric-guitarist/singer Adrian
Belew wrote for Discipline to chide Fripp for over-intellectualizing. Frame by
Frame may not be the best overview of King Crimson, but it's the best one
we're likely to get.
David Singleton, our co-engineer and co-mixer, was too young to hear this
music at the time it appeared and has only become familiar with it through
working on the cataloguing projects. These are his comments on the music in
this set:
I have come forward in response to a request from the band that I win you
over with a few well chosen and personable words. Have I, the heathen
responsible for wielding the knife that cut the middle of "Fracture" and the
end of "Starless" from the last box set, been converted to the world of large
scale guitar solos and ten minute improvisations?
I can confess to finding the opening of "Starless" almost "achingly beautiful,"
and the journey presented by the second half of the song well worth the travelling in order to arrive at that moment where the guitar finally sinks back
into the main theme. I have come to enjoy the way the band seem to tease you
as the piece twice seems to be on the verge of resolving before it again veers
off. I find "Fracture" more appealing with each new listening. There are many
small lines waiting to be discovered, such as the way the violin and then the
mellotron play the opening theme during the moto perpetuo section. There
are also small variations from night to night, as at Providence where the guitarist appears to be playing a tune by Nat King Cole in the middle section! In
fact, the variation in the performance from night to night, in the written tunes
as much as in the improvisations, is for me the main strength of this collection. Compare the slow, staccato version of “Larks Tongues Part 2” at
Glasgow, complete with almost comic bass trills in the second verse, with the
sprightly, skipping (if slightly untuneful) version at Zurich, or the uptempo
stomp at Pittsburgh, where you can almost hear the guitarist's annoyance as
he comes back in with all guns firing at the start of the second verse after the
tempo has slackened in the quiet section. Listen to the guitar fills in the verses
of "Easy Money," which at Providence clearly succeed in bringing a smile to
the singer's face, or the different improvisations which each culminate in the
"Talking Drum."
There are nights, such as Pittsburgh, where the main strength of the band lies
in "playing the tunes" (although ironically the improvisation before "The
Night Watch" is my personal favourite), and other nights, such as Glasgow,
where many of the tunes are at their nadir, but the improvisations, such as
that in the middle of an otherwise substandard "Fracture", are very good.
The band had a reputation for living "close to the edge" and inevitably they
sometimes fall over it. Both in "Fracture" at Zurich and "Starless" at Penn
State the guitar lines stumble, the violin not infrequently seems to have drifted away from "any normal mode of tuning" and the mellotrons are occasionally at least a quarter tone apart, but the possibility that the band may fall
from their tightrope if anything makes the listening more exciting.
Had I been in the crowd, I am sure I would have been exercising my lungs
with the best of them, booing at Penn State over the lack of an encore,
chanting "Crimson" football style at Glasgow. I might even have joined the
cries of "shut up" which accompany some of the quieter pieces. After all, I am
sure it would have been good to hear the first encore of "Peace - A Theme" at
Glasgow!
David Singleton, July 20th 1992
DC & KC
When I was fourteen all the pop stars were singers. My voice had broken at
puberty and seemed destined to stay broken, so no chance of fame and
fortune for me.
I resolved to be a spy.
Or a psychiatrist.
Or a detective; in fact anything at all that would impress women.
But, between then and when I came to leave school the world shifted. The
best pop group of all time moved out from its jangly teeny bopper rut and
was making use of classical and Indian Music. The electric guitar in Clapton's
hands was breaking loose from its chordal origins and creating a soaring 20th
Century counterpoint with bass and drums. Jazz had crystallised into a form
lit by inspiration and not hackneyed old chord sequences. The barriers were
down. I lost interest in Classics (had I ever actually been interested in
Classics?), studied music A level, wrote two string quartets, a couple of plays
and countless poems, and went off to study music drama and education in
Exeter. I came with my violin into rock from a
folk/Indian/improvising/classical background - that was fine in 1970. Today it
would be regarded as rootless.
Rock was then just one element in the picture. Fusion was the name of the
game (Fusion - Confusion snigger the jazz afficionados), and it didn't stop at
music. Groups like Principal Edwards Magic Theatre used sex (well, dancing), slides, lights, smoke, drugs, anything as part of their performance. I was
seeking the answer to the existential anomalies posed by Waiting for Godot,
and I played the violin; surely there was a chance for me somewhere here.
Somewhere between Bartok, Coltrane and the Beatles there had to be a million selling music that would change the world!
In the course of an abortive attempt to get a record deal with E.G. Records I
met Robert Fripp. He was an idealist who believed in the power of music. He
also was effective in the real world although he tended to shy away from it. It
was as though someone had once been very cruel to him, he carried his pain
with him.
We had a jam with a wonderful eccentric gentleman/musician called Jamie
Muir with a view to doing an Indian type album. This never happened, but
Robert did arrange another session, this time adding a rhythm section of John
Wetton and Bill Bruford.
The Monday that was fixed for this get together turned out to be the date of
my Grandfather's funeral in Plymouth. I thought very hard and came down in
favour of music rather than family; I suppose it was the right decision, but I
felt guilty about it for a long time afterwards.
Bill seemed very sulky to me at that first meeting as if he was saying "I may
look like a hippy but I'm really a high flier'; in fact he was probably more preoccupied with his imminent divorce from Yes.
John knew Robert already (from the Bournemouth area) and was very friendly but always kept something to himself; he wasn't going to get caught out.
Jamie was open to anything and everything reflecting all the good bits of
everyone else back again.
Robert was having a wonderful time, he was being manipulative, but in the
manner of a playful gnome; he was very excited.
The next Thursday's Melody Maker had our picture on the front cover under
the headline "Yes man joins Crimson'; we were off...
Jamie and I thought this was all quite amazing - one minute you're scraping by
and the next you're famous. All this without playing a note in front of an audience. And we were getting paid.
Well not exactly paid. We were borrowing money against future earnings, and
three months later we were £30,000 in debt! Was this what rock and roll was
all about?
Bill said I had to change my hairstyle - fringes were folk, I had to brush my
hair back. He was right of course so I got a haircut, some green stacked boots
and a cowboy shirt and I was all set for our first gig at the Zoom Club in
Frankfurt. Gentleman Jamie Muir was a sensation. Dressed in a prehistoric
bear skin with blood capsules dripping from his mouth he spent the evening
leaping or falling from his kit and careering around the stage like some
demented animal, charging in turn at musicians, equipment and audience.
He was oblivious to everything but his own vision, driven on by the sounds
around him.
The Frankfurt dream came to an abrupt end when the limousine
incongruously dropped me at my stinking (bad drains) blood-red (stupid
idea) bed sitter behind Olympia. The drug squad had visited while I was
away and left me a note inviting me down to Scotland Yard. They'd found
some unbottled sleeping pills left by a previous girlfriend.
The whole of our first UK tour was a time of experiment with everyone
searching for ways to play together. I spent most of my time tripping over
bows and leads in an effort to find a violin sound that was audible, bearable,
and didn't feed back. There was a kind of good-natured chaos to the
performances which clung tight to a core of well rehearsed songs and
instrumentals. At that stage I also played flute and sang - both activities I later
thought better left to non-smokers. John also played violin and we used to do
a jiggy duet (until one of his Family colleagues criticised him at a gig in
Leicester; he never played it again).
My understanding of the band's ethos was "anything goes' and I approached
the music with a lot of feeling (I was a sensitive soul) and a very broad musical
background. Even in the earliest rehearsals however it became apparent that
Robert, Bill and John shared a language which I had yet to learn. There were
rules and conventions clearly accepted as intrinsic to rock music. They were
good at it. Jamie was in there fighting with his pots and pans, gongs and
whirley pipes feeding off the energy like a musical whirlwind. Dynamism and
concentration carried him through. I took a very spontaneous approach, playing whatever came to mind, feeling the force...
When it came to recording the only thing I knew about was reverb, but since
Robert is a confirmed echo-phobic I didn't get much of that. Most of the violin
playing on Larks’ Tongues in Aspic was developed on stage; it wasn't until
Starless and Bible Black that I started to work on recording as a musical
technique. Jamie was oblivious to any tension and danced around the studio
with his thumb piano, dulcimer and baking tins. The most enjoyable part of
that album was sloshing our hands in buckets of wet clay to get the footsteps
sound in “Easy Money”. I never managed to get myself into the picture on
Larks’ Tongues, and although I liked a lot of the music I could never bear to
listen
to my performances.
Jamie left.
I was very sad about that. He was the band's link into a wonderful mad world
that I knew would disappear. It was time to get serious.
I was very excited about the new responsibility and the ambition that now
seemed to be crystallising within the group. I knew I had to get to grips with
rock. So I bought a gold suit.
We toured the States. It was a movie come to life. Fantastically stimulating,
vibrant, competitive; the place where rock was invented.
Playing in the USA pushed Crimson further and further down the rock road.
Increasingly, sensitive or exploratory ideas were ditched in favour of a riff or
groove. "Boogie man, boogie your fucking bollocks off" yelled a Texan
musicologist who happened to be in the front row. I joined the gang. I started
using an electric piano - put through a fuzz box it was good for riffs and
ominous lines. I was even starting to enjoy the mellotron at its weirder
moments.
My rock violin playing progressed steadily as I searched for sounds to match
the power of Fripp's guitar, but the Wetton-Bruford rhythm machine grew
more dominant gig by gig, and things were getting louder.
I would spend half my time with my head buried in an Electrovoice monitor
trying to hear what Fripp was playing, and the other half just reeling from the
sheer volume, wondering which out of all these horrendous sounds was me
playing the violin. From the outset my technique had deteriorated through
not being able to hear myself or the band properly. It was all too loud - good
for keeping in time, disastrous for keeping in tune. When I did get some space
my ideas were often ignored, Bill and John particularly seemed deaf to anything outside the rock or jazz/rock genre.
When we listened to each other the differences between us produced some
fantastic music; when we didn't it was awful.
Crimson was always exciting and sometimes exhilarating, and because of that
my frustration with the language and the volume would annoy me all the
more. After gigs I would drink and drown my anger. All the time I was making
progress within the group but my confidence was seriously undermined and I
often felt very lonely, even in the midst of 10.000 people,
I have some persistent memories: playing at sunset to an audience of 18,000 in
a natural desert amphitheatre in Phoenix, Arizona... the lights coming on at
an Italian sports stadium to reveal an army of police with machine guns
patrolling the balcony above us... Malibu beach parties... creating “Trio” in
front of a silent audience in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Bill not playing a note, his sticks held across his chest... Robert tumbling down the steps at
Milan Railway Station, so frail...
I was more satisfied with my contribution to Starless and Bible Black and by
this time had solved a lot of the amplification problems that had bedevilled
my earlier career. I knew a lot about rock by now. In collective playing it is
important to keep your ego out and let the music dictate its requirements; if
you do that in rock you disappear.
Familiarity with rock bred contempt. Countless bands all playing minor
variations on the same theme. Crimson had become very severe, very heavy,
always opting for the driving riff and demonic overlay. It was great, but it was
only one aspect of music.
The frustrations of touring were getting me down and when yet another USA
tour was pencilled in to follow the recording of Red I decided not to go. The
others decided to record the album without me.
David Cross 17/7/1992
Notes to the four volumes:
All the concerts represented within this set are taken from the period between October 23rd. 1973 and June 30th. 1974. As a consequence the
material is substantially the same repertoire. The surprise is the degree of
difference between the shows.
A good performer will be very careful about the beginning, very
careful about the end, and then very careful about the middle. Within these
nine months we experimented with different beginnings, different ends and
different middles.
In October 1973 the shows generally began with "Larks' Tongues In
Aspic: Part One" and ended with "Larks' Two". "Schizoid Man" was the
usual encore. Next, we tried beginning with "The Great Deceiver", dropped
"Larks' One" and continued using "Larks' Two" and "Schizoid" to end.
Then, the final set list was as Providence (Volume One) - beginning with
"Larks' One" (no "Talking Drum" to set it up) and having "Starless" close the
set.
The middles included "The Night Watch", which worked live only
with difficulty. The tempo on record was too fast for John to sing live, and the
slower tempo in concerts made the piece lugubrious. And Crimson ballads
should not be lugubrious, should they? "Cat Food" was a brave attempt at
one version of modem rock, but didn't belong to this particular Crimson.
"The Great Deceiver" failed to convince me live, and "Doctor Diamond"
never fell into place as a piece of writing.
The novelty in the music is in two areas: firstly, the continual reinvention of existing material, and secondly, improvisation on the spot. Or,
making it up as we went along.
Our policy at the time was to frequently include two unscripted
pieces, or what the English jazz world of the time called "free" - Crimspeak
for them was "blows" - and to turn around the written pieces. Providing
everyone knew the map to the pieces - what they would be playing if they
were playing their part, and where everyone else would be if they were
playing theirs - in principle anyone could play anything. Sometimes they did.
In practice "Fracture" was pretty set for the guitar, but the rhythm section
were free to move. The tension-and-release of "Starless" was a nightmare for
me. The bass/electric piano riff was an anchor, but the drums moved
backwards and forwards, within and without - Bill took the brief and ran
with it.
During this Crimson's life, and in the years between then and now, I
have seen the musical history of the period re-written. King Crimson, in its
various incarnations, has been
frequently linked-with and dismissed-as part of a movement oozing
pretention, pomposity, contrivance and grandiosity. Well, we had our
moments and they were surprisingly influential. But often in ways not
intended by us, and frequently reflected appearance rather than intent. For
anyone who considers, or accepts this strand of received opinion on Crimson's
place in its particular musical generation, may these four volumes contribute
to the flow of critical acuity.
This was a team of players that got up and played: no going
through the motions for this lot. The life was so hard to get as far as the stage,
and then climb on and play, why hold back when we got there?
A frequent criticism at the time was of "self indulgence". In practice,
when you let rip this is always a risk. In principle, to consider acting in
accordance with one's musical sense-of-rightness as indulgent is a terrifying
commentary upon the extent to which our culture has become aberrant in its
values and out-of-touch with its innate humanity. Young musicians of the time
who were self-indulgent were not, as far as my perception went, playing what
was true for them but what they believed to be in fashion.
And to step down from the soap-box, what is most remarkable for
me returning to this music after 17 years is the audacity of these young
suckers to get up and blast in front of audiences who were frequently Clueless
and Slightly Slack, as well as generous and frequently patient. The practice of
the time was to arrive at shows stoned, get more stoned, and then flop out in
seats and wait to die in a Wall of Sound. The audiential commentary during,
before, between and after this music is hilarious, tragic, instructive.
Meanwhile, despite this, on stage someone begins, someone joins them, and
then ....
Two continuing points of interest: the degree to which this King
Crimson (and its later incarnation) failed to be recognised in England to any
extent comparable with overseas; and has managed to irritate and upset
members of the English music press, whose continuing commentaries have
contributed an interesting if unwitting body of work to the King Crimson
Scrapbooks.
Some of these English writers would seem to have (what an
American might call) unresolved hostilities and deep-rooted problems. In the
United States anyone bold enough to project their nervosities onto artists, and
reveal their disturbances as clearly as the Scrapbooks present, would attract
suggestions that they go look for a good therapist. Or even a therapist, period.
But perhaps American readers should be informed that in England only mad
people would go to a therapist, and anyway it's cheaper to work out anger
and self-loathing by writing reviews.
Readers who are not English may be uninformed of a key tenet in
English life, inculcated in us from the beginning: know your place. This is in
sharp contradistinction to a key tenet in American life: make your place, and
it's anywhere you would like it to be.
King Crimson failed in respect to England: we were not mediocre,
neither did we affect to be so. We had aspirations, and did not keep them to
ourselves. And frequently we failed in them, while growing up in public.
The aim in making this selection is to give a taste, a sufficient flavour,
of being in these theatres with these people on these dates. I hope the
selections convey a sense of what it was like to have been involved. To remain
true to the mechanics
of the event we are working within the constraints of aural history. Were I to
have made the selection on musical grounds I should have done more editing
and re-assembling of the pieces. I have no hesitation in changing the form and
re-shaping the architecture of Crimson music. For example, in this decade of
faster living and limited attention span I would cut and snip "Larks Two".
Several commentators wondered why, on Frame By Frame, the
classic recordings were "tampered with" by overdubbing Crimsoids from a
later date - "Cadence and Cascade" and "Bolero". This is simple to answer. I
view the King Crimson repertoire as ongoing and available: not a sacrosanct
and final body of work but available, organic, malleable. And at different
times in different places to the music's origins, other choices may legitimately
be made.
But not when presenting aural history. So, I have honoured the spirit of these performances and mostly the letters as well. The show from
Providence is presented complete for this reason. The price of this approach
is to accept some wild moments of time, tuning, and the sensations of tone.
Accuracy was one of the considerations at the time, but only one of them. The
technical and emotional demands of making radical, swift shifts between
contrasting pieces and moods were beyond these young men. At the time of
the group's collapse we were only just beginning to get our chops around very
new material. May we be forgiving of their
errors, as they may also be of themselves.
Technical Notes:
We have used a combination of analogue and digital formats with
Ampex 2, 16 and 24 track machines with Dolby SR and SADiE Disk Editing
System.
SADiE Disk Editing System, designed and manufactured in the U.K.
by Studio Audio and Video Ltd., Cambridge, England, is a PC based disk
editing package with a graphical user interface running under Windows 3.1.
There is a stereo audio capacity of 1 hour 40 minutes at 44.1 kHz sampling
rate. Conversion between analogue and digital uses 64 times oversampling
delta-sigma devices with resolution of 16 and 18 bits in the ADC and DACs
respectively, with stereo input and two stereo digital outputs. Facilities will be
developed and extended shortly in editing and track capacity. We review what
is current and are happy that SADiE is available in time for this project. This
is a step forward from what was available for “Frame By Frame”.
Digital equipment remains in its infancy, and computers crash - not
if, but when. Digital is still not secure for storage. Both formats have
advantages - a properly balanced Ampex with Dolby SR is maybe unbeatable
for a sweet, true sound. But with the amount of compiling on this project, let’s
hear it for digital assembly!
1973
February
10
11
March
16
17
18
19
21
22
23
24
25
30
31
April
1
2
3
5
6
8
9
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
27
28
30
May
2
4
5
6
8
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
22
June
6
7
8
9
10
12
14
15
16
17
London
London
Marquee
Marquee
Glasgow
Sheffield
London
Birmingham
Newcastle
Leeds
Manchester
Bournemouth
Bristol
Hanover
Amsterdam
Greens Playhouse
Cityhall
Rainbow
Townhall
Cityhall
Townhall
Free Trade Hall
Winter Gardens
Colston Hall
Niedersachsen Halle
Concertgebouw
Dusseldorf
Sindlefingen
Darmstadt
Reggio Emillio
Rome
Zurich
Paris
Warren, OH
Fort Wayne, IN
Chicago, IL
Indianapolis, IN
Kansas City, KS
Witchita, KS
Oklahoma City, OK
Philadelphia, PA
New York, NY
Syracuse, NY
Rheinhalle
Austellungshalle
Staatstheatre
Palatza Delo Sports
Palatza Delo Sports
Volkhaus
Olympia
Packard Music Hall
Embassy Theatre
Kinetic Playground
Coliseum
Cowtown Ballroom
Henry Levitt Arena
State Fairground
Irvine Auditorium
Academy Of Music
State Fair Coliseum
Pittsburgh, PA
Boston, MA
Montreal
Waterbury, CT
Detroit, MI
Springfield, IL
St Louis, MO
Toledo, OH
Cleveland, OH
Columbus, OH
London, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Toronto
Sudbury, Ontario
Ottawa
Quebec
Alpine Arena
Orpheum
Forum
Palace Theatre
Masonic Temple
Armoury
Kiel Auditorium
Club Agora
Club Agora
Club Agora
Forum
Forum
Massey Hall
Arena
Civic Theatre
Pavilion De La Veunesse
Memphis, TN
New Orleans, LA
Houston, TX
Dallas, TX
San Antonio, TX
Burbank, CA
Phoenix, AZ
San Diego, CA
Berkeley, CA
Long Beach, CA
Ellis Auditorium
Warehouse
Hofheinz Pavilion
Majestic Theatre Centre
Municipal Auditorium
Midnight Special
Celebrity Theatre
Arena
Community Theatre
Auditorium
20
21
22
23
25
29
30
July
2
September
19
20
21
22
23
25
26
27
28
29
30
October
1
4
5
6
7
12
13
15
23
24
25
26
28
29
November
2
3
4
5
7
8
12
13
15
17
18
19
20
22
23
27
28
29
St Petersburg, FL
West Palm Beach, FL
Daytona Beach, FL
Atlanta, GA
New York, NY
Asbury Park, NJ
Portland, ME
Bayfront Centre
Auditorium
Peabody Auditorium
Richards Club
Central Park
Sunshine Inn
Exposition Buildings
Kent, OH
Kent State University
Quebec
Montreal
Providence, RI
New York, NY
Boston, MA
Williams Town, MA
Big Rapids, MI
Detroit, MI
Milwaukee, WI
Chicago, IL
South Bend, IN
Capital Theatre
Capital Theatre
Palace Theatre
Academy Of Music
Orpheum
Coliseum
Ferris State Comp.
Masonic Temple
Performing Arts Centre
Auditorium Theatre
Morris Auditorium
Kalamazoo, MI
Houston, TX
San Antonio, TX
Arlington, TX
Baton Rouge, LA
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, CA
Santa Monica, CA
Glasgow
Liverpool
Leicester
London
Birmingham
Bristol
Ice Arena
Music Hall
Municipal Auditorium
University Of Texas
White House Inn
Winterland
Winterland
Civic Auditorium
Apollo
Empire Theatre
University
Rainbow
Town Hall
Colston Hall
Hamburg
Frankfurt
Munich
Dusseldorf
Strasbourg
Saarbruegen
Turin
Rome
Zurich
Nancy
Lyon
Paris
Lille
Brussels
Amsterdam
Grenodiers Barcelona
Grenodiers Barcelona
Madrid
Audimax
Jahrhundethalle
Circus Kroner
Rhine Halle
Palais Des Fetes
A.S.T.V. Halle
Palatza Delo Sports
Palatza Delo Sports
Volkshaus
Parc Des Exposition
Palais Dhiver
Salle Playel
Salles Faches
Cini Marni
Concertgebouw
Poles Dela Sport
Poles Dela Sport
Cine Alcala
1974
March
19
20
22
23
Udine
Brescia
Paris
Marseilles
Palazsport Delo Sport
Palazsport Delo Sport
ORTF TV
Salle Vallier
24
25
27
29
31
April
1
2
11
12
13
14
17
19
20
23
25
26
28
29
30
May
1
3
4
5
June
4
5
6
7
8
9
13
15
16
18
19
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
July
1
Avignon
Besancon
Dieburg
Heidleberg
Pforzheim
Palais Paul Videl
Palais Du Sport
Halle Der Fachoschule
Stadthalle Elzer Hof
Jahnhalle
Kassel
Gottingen
Owings Mill, MD
Philadelphia, PA
Atlanta, GA
Gainsville, FL
Nashville, TN
Tampa, FL
Miami, FL
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Detroit, MI
Columbus, OH
Pittsburg, PA
Akron, OH
Stadthalle
Stadthalle
Painters Mill
Spectrum
Civic Auditorium
Jai Alai Fronton
Muthers
Curtis Hickson Auditorium
Hollywood Sportatorium
Music Hall
Auditorium Theatre
Ford Auditorium
Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Stanley Warner Theatre
Civic Theatre
New York, NY
Montreal
Hamilton Ontario
Detroit, MI
Felt Forum
Forum
McMasters University
Ford Auditorium
San Antonio, TX
Houston, TX
Fort Worth, TX
Oklahoma City, OK
El Paso, TX
Phoenix, AZ
San Francisco, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
Denver, CO
Tucson, AZ
Los Angeles, CA
Milwaukee, WI
Grand Rapids, MI
Toronto
Quebec
Cape Cod, MA
Washington, DC
Asbury Park, NJ
Penn State, PA
Providence, RI
Municipal Auditorium
Hofheinz Pavilion
Tarrant County Convention Centre
Fairground Arena
Civil Auditorium
Feyline Fields
Cow Palace
Terrace Ballroom
Coliseum
Community Centre
Shrine Auditorium
Performing Arts Centre
Aquinas College
Massey Hall
Municipal Community
Coliseum
Kennedy Centre
Casino
University
Palace Theatre
New York, NY
Central Park