King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

Ian McDonald’s 74th birthday today. Sid Smith reminds me how wonderful the McDonald and Giles record is.

The Complete 1969 Recordings box is available for preorder - only $195!

https://cdn.nexternal.com/dgm/images/KCCBX9111_packshot%20resized.jpg

Contents:

CD 1: Live at Hyde Park, July 5th 1969
CD 2: Live at The Marquee, July 6th 1969
CD 3: Plumpton Festival, August 9th 1969
CD 4: Live at Chesterfield, September 9th 1969 (new master) disc 1
CD 5: Live at Chesterfield, September 9th 1969 (new master) disc 2
CD 6: Fillmore East, November 21st/22nd 1969
CD 7: Fillmore West, December 14th/15th 1969
CD 8: Original master edition expanded
CD 9: Alternate album expanded
CD 10: 2009 mix plus additional material
CD 11: 2019 mixes expanded
CD12: Let's Make A Hit Waxing (this is described as "'in the studio with the band' mixed & compiled by David Singleton")
CDs 13- 18: Complete Recording Sessions
DVD 19: Complete Recording Sessions, Let's Make a Hit Waxing (24/48 stereo) Stormy Selections (16/48)
DVD-A 20: 2019 stereo, 5.1 & instrumental mixes. Original master edition album mix (24/48)
Blu-Ray 21: Complete Recording Sessions (24/96 stereo), Chesterfield, Giles, Giles & Fripp (24/192)
Blu-Ray 22: 2009 mixes in stereo & 5.1, Additional Material & alternate album (2009 stereo mixes) (24/96)
Blu-Ray 23: 2019 mixes in stereo, 5.1, original master edition, alt. album, additional material (24/96)
Blu-Ray 24: 2020 Dolby Atmos Mix by Steven Wilson, I Talk to The Wind (Duo version, Surround mix), Let's Make a Hit Waxing (24/96)
CD 25: Giles, Giles & Fripp (new master)
CD 26: BBC Sessions, Trees

A disc for every other week of the year

In a shop earlier today I was informed that the they didn't have a KC section because entire KC catalogue had been deleted and recalled. What's up with that eh?

I'm pretty sure I'd have heard about that.

Yeah no chatter in the usual places. They didn't know why except to guess there might be a rights issue, but that seems most unlikely as it's all on Fripp's own label isn't it?. I'm thinking maybe it's that the shop hasn't paid the distributor or something like that.

If anyone seems like the type to vindictively delete and recall releases on their own label it's Fripp. But as far as I can tell everything seems to be up and running.

Yeah, I just went to the webstore and clicked on a couple of albums - they're all still for sale.

FB reporting that Gordon Haskell has passed away.

Yep. Someone on ILM described his voice as sounding like his balls hadn’t dropped but I love his singing on those two records.

RIP

That's all of the 70's Crimson vocalists gone (except Jon Anderson). Haskell had a weird unpleasant tightness in his voice which fits in with the unpleasant loose weirdness of Lizard. None of his solo records are progressive rock, apparently, which makes sense as he notoriously disliked KC's pretensions so much.

has ILM ever done a KC poll?

perhaps the least-loved of all KC vocalists from within the band and from the audience, but it's very hard to imagine those songs sounding any other way

had no idea they re-recorded the entire ConstruKction of Light album (called, of course, The ReconstrucKction of Light)

it's really good. I never liked the original much but this takes care of a lot of the gripes I had with it, to the point where I think it's about as good as THRAK and Power to Believe. many times I've thought about an album "this could've been so much better" but I can't think of many other times when the band actually made it so

Yeah it’s a big improvement; nothing really fixes how dumb Prozakc Blues is but over all the album sounds much better. Lars, frakctured, and the title track are all really great songs.

the one thing that redeems that song (somewhat) is the performance on the Heavy ConstruKction live performance...turns out Belew can do the voice just fine

Yknow, I really like the original ConsKCruction! New metal production didn't bother me… I think "Into the Frying Pan" is poignant in a manner never previously achieved by this band, and the playing is much much better than Thrak…but i'll check the re-recording…

The ReConstruKction of Light is somewhere between a remix and a reconstruction, as Pat Mastelotto redid the drums and partially some other tracks by necessity (ADAT-taped sessions were worked further in ProTools and the computer files then had got lost). This is detailed quite extensively in John Kelman's review of the Heaven & Earth box set (skip to "The Terrifying Tale..." chapter of the review): https://www.allaboutjazz.com/heaven-and-earth-live-and-in-the-studio-1997-2008

It's a King Crimson 50-year-copyright-protection-palooza! Every extant session reel from In the Wake Of Poseidon and Lizard is now downloadable. Hearing all 15 takes of "Groon" is the best thing that's happened to me in 2020: https://t.co/9otOpsfbwP

— Andy Zax (@andyzax) December 23, 2020

Def. a commentary on 2020.

Seriously, was coming here to the post the same thing. Unfortunately I won’t be satisfied until I hear two dozen takes of Boz singing Ladies of the Road.

Listening to the samples, the most unexpected segment is "Groon Soundcheck", which is actually Giles, Giles and Fripp playing Brazil with Fripp singing?

how on earth are there 15 takes of Groon that didn't end up somewhere on a 44-disc boxset

That would have required a 66-disk boxset.

I dreamt last night that Fripp and I were hanging around on the set of a Clint Eastwood film about country music. I played a few chords on an acoustic guitar; "That's utter bullshit," says Robert calmly.

lol

they're going on tour and coming here next month!! I just got tickets. so excited.

what should I expect?

listening to Thrak for first time now in preparation

(I am a huge fan of the 70s and 80s stuff, but just haven't gone further than Three of a Perfect Pair)

ooooooooh I really love the opener, why did I never listen to this

they're going on tour and coming here next month!! I just got tickets. so excited.

what should I expect?

I saw them in 2017 with more or less the same lineup (Bill Rieflin has subsequently died).

This was my conclusion:

He’s made statements to this effect many times in the past, but it was glaringly obvious from this concert that Robert Fripp is only interested in playing King Crimson music when he can find a way to make it interesting for himself. He has no interest in pushing his fanbase’s nostalgia buttons—yes, he seemed to say many times throughout the evening, you know this song, but it sounds like this now. Compare that with other prog rock bands, who do everything they can to re-create their albums onstage, even when they’re not just playing them front to back, and it’s hard not to admire the guy, whether you’re a fan or not. I like a lot of King Crimson‘s albums (basically, I ride with them from the debut up through 1974’s live USA, and have no use for anything after except for Radical Action), but even as I walked through the door of the Basie, I wasn’t sure I really needed to see them live. I came away very glad I’d gone.

yes, go, I feel like ever opportunity now is possibly the last one. the run of shows since 2014 have been some of my favorite concerts ever. I'm bummed they are splitting time with the Zappa Band at the show I'll attend, but what can you do.

Ugh I would go but I don’t want to sit through Zappa music nor near Zappa fans.

I saw Zappa's final US tour and enjoyed it at the time, but a Zappa revival/cover-band show is a nightmarish prospect.

(basically, I ride with them from the debut up through 1974’s live USA, and have no use for anything after except for Radical Action)

― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, June 12, 2021 10:49 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Radical Action the song or the live CD set? Because if the former, there are a lot of later KC songs that sound similar you would probably enjoy!

The live CD set. I can't listen to any KC albums after USA because of Adrian Belew.

Oh, gotcha. Valid, even though I kinda like AB sometimes

where do we fall on Lizard? I used to get shit for loving that one, but other than Haskell's "I just came from dental surgery" vocals, I think it's fabulous.

Lizard is the transition between the early, heavily arranged and overdubbed records and the looser, jazzier sound of Islands. Partly because of the vocals, to me it's by far the most grotesque KC album. Also, I feel like Fripp was chafing against the practise of setting Sinfield's words to music; I don't think he saw himself as a "songwriter" in those terms.

At their show rn. Outdoors. Boxed. Social distanced

Crying. This is amazing

They're playing here in a few days, but not outdoors, kind of a bummer

I saw them a few months before lockdown at Radio City Music Hall, right in the middle and only about ten rows back, and it was awesome. I thought my chest was going to explode from the dual kick drums pounding away.

god it was magical last night.

I see meme'd versions of the Schizoid face all over social media these days, how crazy is it that some random 24 year old computer programmer painted this thing that would become a part of internet culture 50 years later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6l5Iksj2UY

That was far more satisfying than it really had any right to be.

Sometimes a piece of cultural ephemera comes out that fits so closely to my very niche interests I can't actually believe it exsits

Never mind Taylor Swift, here's the remake of Red we all were waiting for.

I am actually kind of shocked Fripp never tried to re-record his catalog.

he's got a real archivist mentality so I don't think it's that surprising. can't really re-record albums which feature improvs recorded on a specific day

But he's also absolutely fanatical about his masters and feuding with his labels. Doesn't matter now, of course.