King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

"It's funny, I'm always bracing myself for the "other", reputely lesser Yes albums being kinda crap but I always end up being really impressed by them (still lots of 80s-90s albums to get)."

well you will be disappointed by those. I don't think any albums they did after 90125 were across the board good until Fly From Here. There are some individual tracks here and there and entire albums that should be deleted from the universe.

Sorry I overlooked answering your question about VDGG, Wimmels. I have never heard a note of them!

VDGG are amazing but early solo Peter Hammmill is just as important if not more.

7 Yes albums is kind of a lot to me.

looks like Crim will be selling a ghastly looking picture disc 12" EP for this slate of shows. No word content.

It's too bad Fripp has stopped updating his online diary -- I'd love to see his reasons for being willing to go back to older material after many many years of refusal.

My guess:

His advanced years have provided some measure of wisdom and perspective absent from his youth and middle age. In addition, while he has rarely indulged the instinct to please the fans with older music in concert, I think the exercise of not simply remastering these records but remixing them with Steven Wilson has likely given him a vantage hitherto unexplored. Lastly, I think he playing with Mel Collins played a big part in it.

It = revisiting older material.

There's some good stuff on the DGM youtube channel as to why -- basically, he's no longer paying bad guys when he plays those songs, and they are songs that they can play as if for the first time every time.

My guess:

Promoters offer more money if you agree to play back catalogue.

Their UK tour started last night -- anybody see them in Cardiff?

Anyone else catch the European shows? I saw them in Paris and was like wow.

Caught the last show of the tour in Utrecht. First time KC for me. I only know and own Red and am familiar with the debut so am not very knowledgeable but found the show very impressive. Thought the music was a bit too dense at some points but there were also moments where having three drummers really was of additional 'value'. "Starless" was amaaazing, though I expected nothing less. First gig I attended in a long while where I was part of the younger half of the audience ;)

'Red' is 41 years old today, Oct. 6

Happy Halloween! This is an awesome mask idea.

http://pix.avaxnews.com/avaxnews/42/2c/00022c42_medium.jpeg

Thinking about taking up tenor sax just because of Crimson. So inspiring.

Back to Europe next September, 12 dates.
http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=5372

"Cadence and Cascade" is one of my favorite songs ever.

Curious lack of reports from the 2015 dates - anybody see them this year or have any thoughts on the new material?

Just wondering if not picking up the KCCC 46 Live at the Marquee 10th August 1971 was a mistake or not. It was one of the cds that were in HMV before it closed down for good yesterday.

Or to expand on that what volumes of that KCCC series are thought of as essential. I'm far more interested in the early 70s stuff than the 80s reunion.

71 is the islands/"earthbound" band, so you should base it on how much you like that group. most '70s people (myself included) for the 8/72 through 7/74 lineup with cross, bruford, wetton (and muir on '72 dates); the zurich, central park, and zoom club concerts are all very good, with the best quality being zurich (the source for "the mincer" on starless and bible black, with an audience patch). but ultimately the great deceiver box set is still the best statement on the era...

yeah I love that incarnation of the group but 4 discs of live material spanning less than two years is about the limit

all the KCCC content, reworking of past material, and Fripp diary entries are just distracting them from working on a new album, imo

i used to feel this way but then realized king crimson hadn't done anything i really like since around 1981, so i'm ok with them just going on tour and playing "starless" and "schizoid man" until fripp dies.

Too soon

yeah I agree, at least they're revisiting material that hasn't been played to death (recently) and doing it in a new way.

i don't need to hear deception of the thrush part XVII

i hate thrak era more than anything so this latest iteration is exactly what id like to go see.

thrak itself is a great song

well I wasn't complaining that KC is on tour

I never gave up on them choosing a new direction after the samesyishness from the last 20 years which has been a steady decline

there's nothing utterly thrilling about the post-thrak albums, certainly. there are highlights here and there, but for the amount of stuff they did (two full albums and a huge number of live releases) of this time, only a small portion of it is at all 'great'. I'm not counting the last album which didn't really have a KC name of it (Scarcity of Miracles)

agreed. but thrak is still my theme song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I784J-xM1Ak

Wanna make an official KC video?
http://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=5464

http://www.dgmlive.com/archive.htm?&show=2011

"Easy Money" is one of Wetton's dumber lyrics (and that's saying something), but boy howdy, the guitar solo on this version...

Robert Palmer James wrote those lyrics. I've always enjoyed them – particularly the line that didn't make the studio version.

You're right -- if Wetton had written them, there'd be a "eyes/rise/thighs" rhyme. But the "judge/budge/fudge" verse -- ugh.

I bought the download of this show Monday when it was announced and have given it one good listen-through so far. It's a little sanitized-for-my-protection, imo. I don't feel any real sense of danger or high stakes like I do with Absent Lovers or USA. It's a crack band running through a well-oiled repertoire, but I don't think Music enters the room, as Fripp would put it.

Please note a 2-disc Collectors Club Special Edition of this show (identical to this download) will be available mail order from March 17th

Thinking of buying this one...

I'm waiting for the 2CD live album, culled from multiple shows and featuring every song performed on the tour, which is coming in the fall. I might check this one out just as a tease, though.

So are these physical versions only available on the dgm site, or will they be available elsewhere, like the Collectable series?

But the "judge/budge/fudge" verse -- ugh.
this is hilarious

My favorite verse.

crimson to that point had been so poncy in their lyrics that easy money sticks out as kind of refreshing to me

also like the 'zipper' sounds in it

Stone headed Frisco spacer
Ate all the meat I gave her....

So poncy.

i forgot about that song
(for some reason)

the toronto show download is wonderful, everyone should check it out. loved the show last year, good reflection of it, really ties all the different eras together, though sadly ignores the 80's (no belew, no good or respectful way to represent those I imagine)

Heard "Elephant Talk" on the radio today as the lead-in to a piece on the GOP debate.

also, didn't realize they'd played a 'new' song (meltdown) last fall

wish they'd just do a studio record