King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

Mark- Apparently Red is KC's favourite album ever. He also loved the raincoats, having written some brief notes for the reissue of their excellent debut. Even though nirvana sucked he had good taste (though I think that he only said that to piss off the metal fans that bought his music).

Agnes Moorehead, obviously. :)

Ladies of the Road and Formetera Ladies are the clunkers I refered to above btw. Though I think Sinfields worst lyrics are on Still.

Truly unfathomable, I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. However, it explains much. There's a site where I help write reviews for prog rock albums, and we once received a snippy letter for dissing the Wake of Poseidon album (or at least, not being fanboy-ish enough towards it), and the person, opening up by claiming we had "less wit and culture than an ant" (yep) used much of the material found in the Wake of Poseidon chapter as their defense of the album and its depth. Maybe it was even The Keeper of the onyx-embolden'd-husking-jewelled-warthogs website himself! :)

Cue your golf swing.

Wow... Mind = blown.

Very cool! thx ned

"that's some really wild stuff"

In The Lounge of the Crimson King

More on Belew's fourth-rate David Byrne impersonation - "I repeat myself under stress, I repeat myself under stress." Geddit? Hilarious, eh? Anybody who finds that remotely amusing in any way should be avoided.

Dave Q really killed it on this thread, huh? I like lots of KC but I hardly ever find myself playing them. When I do, it's either Larks' Tongues or Beat.

I think Belew's a pretty terrible lyricist but that was kinda the point, right? The lyrics weren't supposed to stand out. It was all about the music at that point.

Met this guy tonight who said he'd done tarot card readings with Adrian Belew, back in '83 or so

the story just got weirder from there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILSVAUjd5QI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Fripp speaks

excellent...wish it was longer

2009 Crimson, with Porcupine Tree drummer as second drummer, was awesome live.

so, who is buying the 13 CD, 1 DVD, 1 Blu-Ray of Larks' Tongue In Aspic?

http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=3916

Just registered for DJM live site just so I could hear a sparse guide track for "Islands" the song. Boz sounds like he's singing into a cheap condenser mike, but otherwise it's quite lovely.

'Islands' is the worst album ever made by anybody.
― dave q, Friday, February 15, 2002 7:00 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

NO.

its kind of weird to imagine that King Crimson only played a fixed amount of concerts when they were active. it feels like they're able to just create more and more live bootleg material at will, even if it was phyiscally impossible for them to have played that many dates.

So many of them are pretty dodgy quality though, aren't they?

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/lk/l/w/dd360157ea8e506661983ea7336800bc/4330188.gif

classic:

'released in three separate editions to satisfy the merely curious and the expectant collector'

so, who is buying the 13 CD, 1 DVD, 1 Blu-Ray of /Larks' Tongue In Aspic/?

http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=3916

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWaz8xfFjuE

Guess Fripperlips is done for good?

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/king-crimson-robert-fripp-quits-music-business/

Hope he enjoys retirement!

He's been retired for a while, I believe. Couple of years? Also, for what it's worth, he was semi-retired for pretty much the second half of the '70s, too.

Yeah, this is not new news.

Wait, hold up:

A multi-disc deluxe edition of the 1973 Crimson classic ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic’ is set for release in October and will include 13 CD’s, a DVD and a Blu-Ray disc.

13 CDs!?!?!

Disc details at the bottom of this page: http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm

So basically a bunch of live discs previously sold through the site. That's cool though. Band in the Muir era was neat.

Wasn't aware Kanye had sampled "Schizoid Man," which Fripp seems pissed he didn't get paid for. Wonder if he ever paid any royalties for quoting "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" in "Moonchild?"

I figured Fripp was done, but this is the first time I ever heard him say it (I know he said he wasn't going to tour anymore some 4-5 years ago), maybe I'm just not paying attention

Fripp got paid for Schizoid sample, but iirc only after going straight to Kanye and the two of them presenting a united front to the label. He was very careful never to criticize West, even though he could have for not clearing the sample ahead of time.

fripp did an album with mel collins and jakko jakwhatsit last year, so he hasn't been retired for 4 years. it was a bit disappointing, definitely not the new lease on KC I think they were hoping for.

Well it certainly wasnt the new lease on KC I was hoping for.

If the '72-74 lineup reunited I would buy a ticket in about 5 seconds flat. Anything beyond that, I don't really care.

Pretty sure Cross & Wetton are the only ones game for that.

I'd be up for another outing of any other combination that the last 2 though (the Jakko one or previous I mean).

Fripp has such a narrow comfort range anymore that I wouldn't see him live unless he personally invited me into his living room to hear him play. I don't need the grief while he tries to figure out whether he can midwife any music.

Lol, when I looked at it earlier it had a bunch of dates. Midwest in November.

If KC had stopped after the '80s that band would seem like a big departure, but that music is firmly embedded in everything that came after, so it retroactively feels more natural.

Yah, rag on Belew or whatever, but he and Levin were pretty key to everything 1980 and on. Arguably essential, given the group never released any studio albums post-Belew.

I assume the website thing is just a hiccup, it even said tix went onsale this Friday.

Internerds indicating that maybe the site was supposed to go live tomorrow. Anyway:

9/12 - San Jose, CA San Jose Civic

9/13 - Napa, CA Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions at Meritage Resort

9/14 - Los Angeles, CA The United Theater on Broadway

9/15 - Anaheim, CA City National Grove of Anaheim

9/17 - San Diego, CA Humphrey’s Concerts

9/18 - Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre

9/20 - Austin, TX The Paramount Theatre

9/21 - Houston, TX Bayou Music Centre

9/22 - Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre

9/24 - Atlanta, GA The Eastern

9/26 - Fort Lauderdale, FL The Parker

9/27 - Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live

9/28 - Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall

9/29 - Charleston, SC Charleston Music Hall

10/01 - Charlotte, NC Knight Theater

10/02 - Durham, NC Carolina Theatre of Durham / Fletcher Hall

10/04 - Washington, DC Warner Theatre

10/05 - New York, NY Beacon Theatre

10/06 - Glenside, PA Keswick Theatre

10/08 - Richmond, VA Carpenter Theater in Dominion Energy Center

10/09 - Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Center

10/11 - Boston, MA Shubert Theatre

10/12 - Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom

10/14 - Halifax, NS Rebecca Cohen Auditorium

10/15 - Moncton, NB Casino New Brunswick

10/17 - Montreal, QC Theatre Maisonneuve

10/18 - Toronto, ON Massey Hall

10/19 - Rochester, NY Kodak Center

10/21 - Albany, NY The Egg

10/22 - Greensburg, PA Palace Theatre

10/23 - Reading, PA Santander Performing Arts Center

10/25 - Cleveland, OH Agora Theatre

10/26 - Cincinnati, OH Taft Theatre

10/27 - Royal Oak, MI Royal Oak Music Theatre

10/28 - Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium

10/30 - Indianapolis, IN Murat Theatre

11/01 - Chicago, IL Copernicus Center

11/02 - Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theatre

11/03 - Madison, WI Orpheum Theater

11/04 - Minneapolis, MN State Theatre

11/06 - Denver, CO Paramount Theatre

11/08 - Las Vegas, NV The Theater at Virgin Hotels

Belew is awesome, unperson, you are so committed to contrary takes sometimes.

Yeah, but other than his iconic contributions to Crimson, Bowie, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon, Nine Inch Nails and a few others, what impact has he made, really?

lol he even plays on this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBtTr2i8JXs

I assume that's him playing the "trumpet" solo around 4:30

Markus Reuter was my pick for a Fripp-stand in for ongoing post Fripp KC versions of the band.

lol Josh

it is so peculiar to me that anyone other than saddo weirdo prog deadenders are so against Adrian Belew and his influence what we agree to call to King Crimson. There evidently were or maybe still are extremely odd english guys who would insist that KC IS A EUROPEAN BAND, THERE CAN BE NO PLACE FOR AMERICANS! and shit like that, could not handle Belew's levity and outgoing charm, and were delighted by the final, all Englishman version of the band (which was the first that really was conservative and backward-facing, as very obviously Bob let Superfan Jakko take over and do Lizard and Islands songs all day)…

― veronica moser

lol at the idea that jakko "took over"

no idea _what_ happened with the belew band but that king crimson documentary (which i now only faintly remember, to be fair) was interesting on those grounds

one of the funniest parts of that movie was the filmmaker asking jakko in so many words if he felt like he was kind of only there to do what fripp wanted him to, to which fripp interrupted and said "don't be talking about jakko like that, he is an equal member of the band and has an equal voice, he's not just there at my behest"

regarding the lizard and islands songs my understanding is that it has a certain amount to do with conflicts between fripp and EG regarding the rights to those recordings, and that once those conflicts were resolved to fripp's satisfaction he was happy to begin playing them. he seemed happy enough to play the belew-era songs as well. belew, however, didn't seem particularly happy about that.

my thing about belew is... it's not that he's an _american_, it's that there was this sort of polymorphous nature to pre-'81 crimson. fripp had and has a "puppet master" role to varying degrees. he's fascinating guy, weird, brilliant, genuinely charismatic. i think you can see how charismatic he is in how eager so many brilliant people like belew are to work with him, despite how demanding and, i'll just say it, controlling his behavior often is. he could probably have made it as a cult leader except that he's not, like, sociopathic or whatever the hell it is cult leaders have going on.

i guess i'd say is that fripp's role in the group is that he makes sure that the group always has an _aim_, he's the one who ultimately determines what that aim is. aside from that, though, they could do goddamn anything. to me, there's a world of difference between march 1972 king crimson and august 1972 king crimson. nobody in those bands left a _mark_ on the band the way belew did.

belew comes in and there's this strange contrast, this light and dark thing they have going on. to me, belew as a frontman is kind of like a goofy "wife guy" uncle. he's good-natured, kind of corny, awesome to be around, really obviously incredibly knowledgeable and talented. gets tiring to be around after a while. whereas fripp is weird in a kind of scary way, but somehow safely scary? like this is a guy who could probably do some really messed up stuff, but he doesn't because he's too busy obsessively practicing a song he wrote about a mental breakdown he had in 1973 over and over and over again. i vibe with that in a way i don't really with belew.

I think what makes Belew so special is that he's game for anything, maybe one of the most versitile singer-songwriters out there. Obviously there are a lot of people willing to experiment with all sorts of things within their own solo career or band but Belew always seemed willing to fill in as much or as little as is needed without feeling the need to take things over. I'm guessing that's why Fripp liked him. I do agree that Belew is kind of an awkward fit when you hear the band's 60s and 70s stuff but it's a testament to his skill that he was able to make it work anyway.

Part of what makes KC so fascinating is the fact that Fripp really isn't much of a songwriter. That's why he never really had much of a proper solo career and that's why King Crimson always sounded like a musicians around them. Even on Exposure you can tell that most of the actual songs were probably written by the singers, not that Fripp doesn't come up with some great contributions to them anyhow. So I can buy this idea that there's a continuity from Red -> Discipline, as this is the band now, this is the year, we go where the music takes us. I mean its not like the Lake band and the Wetton band were all that similar either. But then the 90s incarnation rolls around, centered around this "double trio" idea, which ultimately sounds to me like they were trying to recapture the sound of the Wetton band, but with more grunge? You can tell it's King Crimson, which is kind of the problem. And still I can't help but notice Belew is the only one writing actual songs there. I dig THRAK and TPTB though.

I think it's always been curious to me that as divergent and distinctive Belew is as a player, you can still hear his allegiance to something as basic or conventional as the Beatles. Whereas Fripp was always about starting over, ignoring influences, doing his own thing. That both ended up in a band together for so long is pretty remarkable, given Fripp's unique presence, which doesn't really allow a lot of room for outside influence.

I've always wondered what Belew would have been like without the Talking Heads. Did David Byrne allow him to be himself, or was Belew so enamored that he couldn't help but imitate?

Fripp gives me a Bob Hoskins as a serial killer vibe

lol i was trying to figure out a way to talk about robert fripp's personality without using the words "serial killer"

"like don't get me wrong when i say 'serial killer vibe' i don't mean that in a _bad_ way"

like i could say "bob fripp is the kind of guy where you wouldn't be surprised to find out that he kept women chained up in his basement" but i feel like it's something i'd need to go into greater detail on. being chained up in weird guys' basements is kind of a special interest of mine and there are a lot of different sorts of people that sentence could describe

first off, he's not the kind of guy i'd _want_ to chain me up in his basement. i'm sure robert fripp is an extremely slutty man but he just doesn't have that sort of robert-pattinson-in-twilight energy about him. (make fun of that robert-pattinson-in-twilight energy all you want but that _is_ a thing and i don't _care_ how "bourgeois" you think it is.) at the same time it's not one of those "oh my god i'm not getting out of here alive am i" situations. like it would all be very decent and respectful and above-board, no hanky-panky, no fooling around. none of that. maybe he'd take a couple of (completely chaste) pictures, but what he'd do with those pictures later is his business and nothing to do with me.

what he reminds me of most are those guys with the private dungeons where i'm not really into them, but i'd scene with them just because it was a really nice dungeon with some cool gear. nothing _against_ him per se, but mostly i'm just there for the dungeon.

pardon me y'all, i very conspicuously did _not_ get chained up in a dungeon this weekend and i was _very much expecting to_ and i'm sort of working out some of my frustrations here.

If anything he strikes me as a sub. The stereotype of the control freak who gets off on totally relinquishing it.

he only subs to the _music_, maaaaaaaaaaaan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

lol my first thought was the comedian.

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

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

Yeah! yolo, etc

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

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

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

loool @ the Baron

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

...or an inspiration for "Cirkus"?

doesn't mention any high-wire work!

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

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

I suspect those are resale.

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

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