The King Crimson studio album poll

Sparkle Motion, I'd love to hear the results of your KC mix attempt!

(also thought the use of KC in Children of Men was kinda awesome)

Well, uh, sometimes iTunes can be very useful for sampling shit before you buy. So, uh, fuck Fripp. It'll save me money.

(joeks btw)

well, you already bought this, right? http://www.amazon.com/Court-Crimson-King-Box-Set/dp/B002M3GPOI
$150!

I did! Except the used vinyl version that only contains the original album. That's all the KC I've been exposed to and I'm considering diving in.

yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. It's funny because I feel like I have a ton of Robert Fripp (either his own stuff or guesting on other people's albums) ... but barely anything by his "main" band. not sure who else i could say that about.

I started trying to list essential songs of King Crimson but then I realized that a greatest hits is way too subjective. For instance, on Lark's Tongue in Aspic I think 'Book of Saturday' and 'Exiles' are great *especially exiles* but I care a lot less for 'Easy Money' and 'Talking Drum'. But I imagine many people who love most all the jammy King Crim stuff would include 'Easy Money' and 'Talking Drum' - and maybe even specific live version. 'Book of Saturday' is a turn off to people who don't like Wetton's voice I suppose. I like the complex singing melody on that song (and instrumentation) and I have no qualms with Wetton's voice. 'Exiles' is also a pretty, non-jammy Crimson tune. I think 'Exiles' is essential to a greatest hits cd but some might leave it off. All this subjectivity is making me say "go ahead and listen to everything King Crimson did starting with the albums we already mentioned". I realize that may be harder to do if you can't find a way to hear the songs before you buy them (assuming you are not a pirater).

I can actually say that before I started pirating music I bought every King Crimson studio album except In The Wake of Poseidon and maybe a couple eps from the 90's era on. So Fripp has no reason to hate me (I think)

BTW, here's a pretty wacky Fripp song if you haven't heard it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCADnoAHli8

yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. It's funny because I feel like I have a ton of Robert Fripp (either his own stuff or guesting on other people's albums) ... but barely anything by his "main" band. not sure who else i could say that about.

Yep, pretty much my position exactly.

My first KC album was a compilation, the 2LP Young Person's Guide to King Crimson. It was a great starting point to the extent that it whetted my appetite for more and eventually I succumbed and got them all. Plus, it had a great booklet with loads of diary entries, contemporary reviews and sarky Fripp comments on them. Well worth picking up if you can find it. Failing that the most recent 2CD comp The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson does the job.

I used to have Young Person's Guide. It's a pretty eccentric collection; many abridged versions, the "Cat Food"/"Groon" single, alternate "Talk to the Wind" with Judy Dyble singing, and no "Schizoid Man"?!?!

Each album seems to me so much its own entity, the calm bits balancing the bombast, that it's hard to extract highlights.

The Frame by Frame box did it for me (which I found at the public library back then). It still holds up as a pretty good representation, plus the booklet was massive, including a gatefold diagram of every band that every member of the pre-80s Crim was ever in, and how they were related.

Subjectivity is clouding my judgement in my rapidly expanding compilation (currently at 4 discs worth)... I just hope I can finish it before everyone loses interest or I get lost in Bible Blackness.

yeah, the frame by frame box set was the only way I ever got into In The Wake of Poseidon - because of the live tracks on disc 4. somehow I own this because I never gave it back to my friend before he moved

I look forward to criticizing your compilation (you don't have this! blah blah blah)

alternate "Talk to the Wind" with Judy Dyble singing

!!! I did not know this and now I have to find this 2LP.

It's really Giles, Giles and Fripp, so predates the debut KC LP. It's, I think, the same version on that GG&F Brondesbury Tapes collection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1aPE9CdQX0

Ah, while we're at it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN1TX0Eobig

Didn't Frame by Frame also feature a wierd version of Lady of the Dancing water with Belew singing?

i think it was cadence and cascade - gordon haskell's vocals were replaced, i think he and fripp have a long-standing feud over money

Oh that's right. I barely remember as I was just getting into them at the time and couldn't really tell why it mattered to begin with. The perverse thing is that Fripp considers Belew his favorite of all of KC's vocalists... a position I'd like to try and talk him out of.

is it possible to have a King Crimson thread/revive without complaints about vocalists? lol

In my comp research I've been revisiting Lizard, specifically mp3s of the new stereo remaster from late last year. It's pretty amazing, much more layered and nuanced than I remember it. I've always thought it was a really dense sounding record, but this version has so much space that it puts all that musical information in a context I never heard before. Of course, my previous copy was an Editions EG cassette that I bought out of a cutout bin at Sam Goody nearly 20 years ago.

Anyway, I think Lizard is probably better than either of the albums surrounding it.

I don't own any surroundsound hardware, but yeah, from everything I've read Lizard is a state-of-the-art remaster done right. Want to hear.

And I wish they would do this to Islands. It's actually my second most listened to KC (had that and the debut for YEARS before filling in the gaps with Poseidon and Lizard), and I really do love it.

He worked on stereo mixes of Poseidon and Islands early this month.

http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm?artist=&show=&member=3&entry=16492

Diary entries for the 6th-8th.

Surround mix for Poseidon, but just stereo remaster of Islands? (If I'm reading that correctly...)

Backing up a day to the 5th --

Our intended work this week is to mix / re-mix Poseidon in 5.1 & stereo, and re-mix Islands & Larks’ in stereo; both of the latter have already been mixed in 5.1. Poseidon has the disadvantage that we have not been able to find the original pre-bounce tracks. So, we can’t access the original individual mellotron parts. The main mellotron parts on Poseidon – the song is mixed together with acoustic guitar on a stereo pair; drums & bass are also on a stereo pair. Devil’s Triangle is missing lots of its constituent parts. Nevertheless, we have been able to significantly improve Peace, Pictures of a City, Cadence, Cat Food & Groon

Awesome, thanks. As I said, I'm a surroundsound Luddite, but this interests me!

Fripp's been talking about surround mixes since Thrak came out. It's cool that it's finally happening. I only wish I had a setup that could accomodate.

I now humbly present for your wonderment and ridicule, Volume One of SOMETIMES GOD DIES, A Subjective Inquiry into the Peculiar Nature of the Music of King Crimson, and Any Appeal Attendant Thereto.

V1 is titled "Get Thy Bearings" and covers material from the first 4 albums. Any and all are welcome to webmail me for more info until hosting can be arranged or I get the go-ahead to post the link here.

BTW, I have decided to title each Volume (there will be 4) after a song that does not appear on the comp.

Suffice to say I have completely geeked out on this since getting the notion to do it.

sounds great!

as for hosting... how about mediafire or a site like that?

Yeah, I had a snag last night, will re-up to mediafire. I guess I didn't know after the whole YSI thing whether it was still cool to post links to downloads here or not.

since it's a mix instead of full albums... I would think it's fine?

no idea about other mods, but I wouldn't have any objection.

Very good, I'll post the link when I get home this evening.

In the meantime, enjoy this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liWGp37npZU

OK, here's the link to part one.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dm35lolrnjm/V1_Bearings.zip

I own most of the KC catalog. Big fan of Court and Red. But the only two I spin all the way through with years of regularity are Starless and Thrak.

wow, loving the attention to detail you put into this comp (detailed liner notes! high bitrate mp3s! live versions!). this is awesome and I'm totally psyched for the rest. thanks!!

awwwwesome. thanks! this is exactly what i need!

This is the tracklisting BTW:

Vol. 1: Get Thy Bearings (1969-1972)

1. Peace, A Beginning - In the Wake of Poseidon, 1970 (Issue: Editions EG CD)
2. 21st Century Schizoid Man - Epitaph Volume 2, rel. 1997, rec. 14th December 1969 at the Fillmore West, San Francisco (Issue: DGM CD)
3. The Court of the Crimson King - In the Court of the Crimson King, 1969 (Issue: DGM 30th Anniversary Remaster)
4. Peace, A Theme - In the Wake of Poseidon, 1970 (Issue: Editions EG CD)
5. Cat Food - In the Wake of Poseidon, 1970 (Issue: Editions EG CD)
6. A Man, A City (aka Pictures of a City) - Epitaph Volume 2, rel. 1997, rec. 14th December 1969 at the Fillmore West, San Francisco (Issue: DGM CD)
7. Happy Family - Lizard, 1970 (Issue: DGM 40th Anniversary Remaster)
8. Cirkus - Lizard, 1970 (Issue: DGM 40th Anniversary Remaster)
9. Groon - Live at Summit Studios, Denver, rel. 2000, rec. 1972 (Issue: DGM KC Collectors Club CD)
10. Peace, An End - In the Wake of Poseidon, 1970 (Issue: Editions EG CD)
11. Formentera Lady - Islands, 1971 (Issue: Editions EG CD)
12. The Sailor's Tale - Islands, 1971 (Issue: Editions EG CD)

In my research for subsequent volumes I've been listening to the Central Park show from '74, aka the last KC show ever (until the 80s). It starts out pretty standard but gains in intensity until a truly blistering finale. The power is sufficient to overcome the bootleg recording for sure. Some of it will definitely find its way on there.

Just listened to Cirkus. What a weird, disturbing piece of music (esp. to hear at work!)

Yeah, this project has made me really dig into Lizard and Cirkus in particular.

I own it, but it's a beat-to-death LP I inherited from a friend and I almost never play it. Definitely the one I've spent the least time with of the first 4.

so, apparently I have to get epitaph vol 2. love the two live tracks off of it.

Epitaph Vols 1&2 is just the name for the 2-disc set...it's pretty sweet.

Tracks:
Volume One:
BBC Radio Sessions
1. 21st. Century Schizoid Man
2. In The Court of the Crimson King
3. Get Thy Bearings
4. Epitaph

Fillmore East, New York:
22 November 1969
5. A Man, A City
6. Epitaph
7. 21st. Century Schizoid Man

Fillmore West, San Francisco:
15 December 1969
8. Travel Weary Capricorn
9. Mars

Volume Two:
Fillmore West, San Francisco:
16 December 1969
1. In The Court of the Crimson King
2. Drop In
3. A Man, A City
4. Epitaph
5. 21st. Century Schizoid Man
6. Mars

From an (evidently Babelfished) review of Earthbound:

About the recording's quality, my view is comfortably indisposed by the general flash cleanse miss, which makes music to be as sophisticated as it wants, but of minimal, chopped beauty. The recordings is badly scratching the ears, making out of a hard-listening default pleasure a fight to resist the album.

In my research for V.2 (BTW V.1 got 19 downloads-to me that's an impressive number), I'm listening to stuff from the Beat Club and Zoom Club releases, looking at Muir's contribution to the band. Anyway some of the material is tantalizing, but on the whole the recording quality ranges from bad to terrible. So my question is this: is the recording quality a sufficient enough distraction to cancel out the interesting properties of the material. I know as a fan I like hearing this stuff even if I'm listening through a massive layer of fuzz, but I do feel like newer listeners may just not want to bother.

in the king crimson epics poll, I listed a lot of improvs that are really long as shit and easy to find on soulseek so it is worth checking out