I am suuuuper excited to see what they do with eight people onstage. The Double Quartet!!
I am suuuuper excited to see what they do with eight people onstage. The Double Quartet!!
I was thinking the other day that (not a slight to Mr. Lake in any way) this is my favorite version of "I Talk to the Wind"
I've loved this version ever since I heard it on the Young Person's Guide to King Crimson anthology. However, the flute playing on the In the Court LP version from a year later is unsurpassed and the little arrangement variations also make it that much more compelling.
And that'd be the work of Ian McDonald, everybody. Simply beautiful. Here's an early live version with that LP lineup, before they nailed down the final 'duet' vocal approach:
It really is a spellbinding track. Here's another excellent instrumental version, recorded at Wessex Studios in London during the In the Court... sessions, late July 1969: just Fripp's acoustic guitar, Lake's bass, Michael Giles on drums, and McDonald's divine flute.
Fine stuff, indeed.
I've been delving a little bit more into the various USA editions we discussed on the last page. I have copies of:
USA: 40th Anniversary Edition (with all the various mixes contained on the DVD now ripped to my hard drive), and
The Elements 2014 Tour Box (containing "Schizoid Man" from Providence '74, which closes the original album, as remixed for The Road to Red in 2013)
Using a little bit of beat-matching technology, I was able to sync up all existing versions of the tracks to compare against each other. It gave me quite a bit of insight into how they prepared the original album. Turns out that the 30th Anniversary remaster from 2002 isn't exactly true to the LP configuration; aside from the two additional bonus tracks, they edited the gaps between songs differently. But otherwise, the original syncs up with the remaster pretty well. This tells me that the '75 mixes, those including Eddie Jobson's violin and keyboard overdubs, were subjected to additional editing at the LP mastering stage. Essentially, they excised a couple of seconds of audience noise between each track, and also cut the final cheering into a 'locked groove' looping at the end of the LP rather than fading it out.
The one real exception where the original differs significantly is on "Easy Money", where additional vocal effects exist on the LP version that do not appear on CD at all. To me, this sounds like an old-school flanging effect: the original vocal track in isolation could have been fed back into the 'dry' stereo mix at the mastering console, where the difference in tape speed would create this fluttery effect on the LP. Why doesn't it appear on the 30th Anniversary remaster? I suspect they either:
a) declined to include it, perhaps on the grounds of some aesthetic objection,
b) tried to re-create it with digital manipulation, and decided that the result was inferior to simply living with the 'dry' mix, or,
c) forgot that the effect was created in mastering at all, searched the cupboards in vain for a missing alternate mix that never existed before giving up.
It'd be interesting to go back and see if Fripp specifically commented on the remastering process for this album. This is usually the sort of thing that doesn't slip past him. I have a feeling he decided the effect was simply not necessary, particularly since he declined to add it on the 2013 remix.
Last edited by botley; 01-09-2017 at 12:38 AM.
Fripp's solo at 4 minutes in, OMG! I do like the Scarcity of Miracles stuff, but it still seems weird to see them play these moody, ruminative pieces under full-intensity stage lighting, haha.
A 12-inch single is coming out in April, according to Fripp's latest diary.
Rest in peace, John Wetton.
https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=8Nam8vl8his
RIP...
"Red" is an awesome album...
I just ordered Starless and The Road To Red box, saddened by the death of John Wetton.
And thus my King Crimson "box" collection is complete. Looking back I don't know why I shouldn't have done it sooner.
RIP John Wetton. You will be missed.
I think it was @define earlier who was asking about Robert Fripp's spiritual beliefs and whether they affected his music. Perhaps this interview (conducted during a King Crimson interregnum, while the group had effectively ceased to exist) will shed some light on that question. Boffomundo!
Heard this last night and was pretty spellbound by it. Features the late Ian Wallace, former KC drummer.
As I mentioned before, a modest part of my 'boxes' collection that is now complete KC-wise.
I don't see The Great Deceiver box set. You gotta get on that, son.
Last edited by Lerxto; 02-06-2017 at 08:17 AM.
ahahahahahahahahahaha oh my god. yeah, did anyone actually hit play on this? @henryeatscereal are you trollin'?
I noticed it right away but didn't want to call him out on it lol
Good one, henryeatscereal.
And since you guys are bumping the thread, I just wanted to see what people thought of Lizard and Islands. I love most of all of KC incarnations, but goddamned if I just can't get into those two. I don't really blame Fripp, because I see what can be accomplished when he's in charge.
I think Lizard is great, but it's a very dense mix and consequently can be hard to sit through without getting fatigued by the sheer amount of musical information. A lot of people seem to prefer the 5.1 surround version mixed by Steven Wilson for the 40th Anniversary CD/DVD packages. The original is fine by me. How about that awesome artwork??
As far as Islands goes, I do think it's good (nudge nudge) but the second side is a little less interesting to me than the first three tracks, which are all bonafide epics.
agreed on all fronts.
lizard, to me, is like a cool experiment, and it works. is it the best KC album? hell no, but it's really cool. the more i listen to it, the more i like it (nudge nudge).
islands is definitely stronger on side A than side B, but as a whole, it's still pretty cohesive. the letters has been slowly moving up as one of my favorite KC tracks, especially after the version on live in toronto.
Mexico City dates too, henry!