RA#30 An Evening With King Crimson

At Left: Bruford and King Fripp from RA's most beloved era of The Crim, with Mellotron and lots of cymbals. But enough "whittering", let's then be on with the essay, shall we?










And now Radio Anthrocide gets down to serious business, with The Crim all night long on what was an eventful (and exhausting) RA#30. There is, of course, very little I can possibly add to the mountain of literature extant upon what is, quite obviously, my favorite band ever. I can start by saying this: thanks to the efforts of Robert Fripp, we have an invaluable resource for live Crimson, spanning the entire history of the band- almost all of this show was taken from concerts I purchased from DGM Live which is probably the finest resource of its kind for any band on the entirety of the Internets. Peruse this site and have your credit card ready- it is very easy to spend a couple hundred dollars adding to your library from this amazing archive. Of course, you can sample the sounds of the various concerts from RA#30, below, and then decide which ones suit your fancy...yet another bit of giving and altruism from your friend, DJ Timothy of Radio Anthrocide.

As for the particulars of the show, it is very hard to screw things up when drawing from a library of such estimable worth as the King Crimson archives. While the two best shows ever remain the "official" CD-release at Asbury Park, NJ and the DGM-live download from Glasgow, Scotland, this hardly begins to delve into the complete genius these shows comprise. Particular highlights include the concert-only track "Doctor Diamond", here from a rollicking show in Columbus, OH and featuring a very impressionistic violin from David Cross. The version of "Mars" (from Holst's The Planets, sometimes known as "The Devil's Triangle" in Crimson hands) is particularly malevolent, and features what must be the most extreme Mellotron playing in the history of the instument; no wonder the band had such trouble keeping those things in tune...

Something that was a lot of fun for me was assembling the "Crimson Family Tree Segment" which followed. From the truly great Mogul Thrash LP of 1971 (again, there's that year again...) we heard "Elegy", featuring splendid guitar work from James Litherland, late of Colosseum and sounding very much in that style here. Mel Collins with Circus did a very fine version of The Fab's "Norwegian Wood", from an absolutely superb and jazzy S/T release in 1969. ELP ripped the fucking place apart with "Blue Rondo ala Turk", an astonishingly bombastic and frenzied performance, proving once again what an amazing waste of talent this bunch turned into when they entered their sad and boring Tarkus years. And while I could write all night about this segment of amazing music, I'd pay particular attention to Peter Hammill's strenuous vocals on the David Cross track "Tonk", and David Bowie's rich and tremulous crooning with Adrian Belew on a typically shredding guitar rocker from the era for AB, "Pretty Pink Rose". Special kudos also to Trey Gunn for his new album Modulator, from which I played two tracks- this is a monster of an album, just out last year and one of the great perks I've had from my work writing for Progression magazine.

While I am, quite obviously, more of a "classic"-era Crimson devotee, there is also a horde of great music from the modern incarnation of the band, and RA accomadated those fans with a solid set of live performances from the 1980-2010 mark of the band. A particular highlight for me is the music from the Frejus concert video, one of the most beautifully-shot concert movies I've ever seen. These are definitive versions of the more limpid, pristine ballads of that Discipline era, and of course it is worth watching just to see Tony Levin handle his Chapman Stick- the man is as adept and mesmerizing a player of any instrument as I have ever seen.

RA then closed with a medley of live "hits" and improvs- the thing the Crimson did better than any band of its era. This is largely why it truly is worth it to go out and collect 47 concerts; from night to night, it literally was a different show that the band presented, and while not every improvisational piece clicked to perfection as they two tracks did, only rarely was the band completely marooned in Spinal Tap-type "space jazz"-noodlings; what makes the Crim so very special to me is their ability to completely free-form their tracks and the willingness to explore avant-jazz type arrangements. I think you will agree that these two pieces, with a particular emphasis on "The Talking Drum" from an original bootleg I have had for many years, shows the classic band at the delirious heights of their powers. All in all an amazing evening, and one I hope that all of you will download and listen to time and again. And yes, sometime maybe later in the year...I'll be doing this again. After all, I only have about 20 continuous days of material to draw from for my very most favorite band of all time... - TKR

Setlist For Radio Anthrocide#30 An Evening With King Crimson

Part The First: In The Court Of The Classic Crimson King
1) Robert Fripp Chastises the Audience to Be Less Raucous/"Easy Money" from Glasgow, Scotland 10/23/73
2) "Larks Tongues In Aspic, Part II"- Asbury Park, NJ 6/28/74
3) "Dr. Diamond"- Augsburg, Germany 5/27/74
4) "Fracture"- Columbus, OH 4/28/74
5) Improv: "Asbury Park"- Asbury Park, NJ 6/28/74
6) "Formentara Lady"- Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI 3/28/72
7) "Pictures Of A City" / "The Sailor's Tale"- Zoom Club, Frankfurt, Germany, 4/15/71
8) "Book Of Saturday", The Night Watch- Concertgubouw, The Netherlands, 11/23/73
9) "Exiles", Last Live Show- New York City, 11/14/74
10) "Lament"- Columbus, OH 4/28/74
11) "Mars", Epitaph- Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh, PA 1974
12) "Starless"- Asbury Park, NJ 6/28/74


Part The Second: The Crimson Family Tree
13) Mogul Thrash- "Elegy" (John Wetton)
14) Circus- "Norwegian Wood" (Mel Collins)
15) Emerson Lake And Palmer- "Blue Rondo a la Turk" from the Isle of Wight Festival, 1970 (Greg Lake)
16) Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band- "The Equstrian Statue" (Ian Wallace)
17) Giles, Giles And Fripp- "She Is Loaded"
18) David Cross featuring Peter Hammill- "Tonk"
19) Adrian Belew featuring David Bowie- "Pretty Pink Rose"
20) Tony Levin- "Shraag"
21) Trey Gunn and Marco Minnemann- "Fall Time +/-" / "Fall Time -/+"
22) Fripp & Eno- "Tanscendental Music Corporation" / "Swastika Girls" Live in Paris, 1975
23) Peter Sinfield- "Envelopes Of Yesterday"
24) McDonald & Giles- "Suite in 'C'; Including Turnham Green / Here I Am And Others"

Part The Third: Apres le Deluge, An Older Person's Guide To The Modern King Crimson
25) "Entry Of The Crims" / "Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part III" - Absent Lovers, Montreal, Canada 1984
26) "Waiting Man" / "Sheltering Sky"- Audio ripped from The Noise: Live At Frejus, concert movie, 1982
27) "Elephant Talk"- Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo, Japan 1995
28) "Red"- Greek Theater, Berkeley CA 8/13/82
29) "Discipline"- Absent Lovers, Montreal, Canada 1984
30) "Dinosaur"- Warsaw, Poland 2000
31) "Three Of A Perfect Pair"- Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo, Japan 1995

Part The Fourth: The Hits, The Improvs, More Classic Crimson Et Al.
32) "Sharks Lungs In Lempsip" / "Larks Tongues In Aspic Part I"- Glasgow, Scotland 10/23/73
33) Improv: "Mincer: The Talking Drum"- At The Concertgabouw, The Netherlands (original bootleg) 11/23/73
34) "Larks Tongues In Aspic Part II"- Rainbow Theatre, London, England 1973
35) "In The Court Of The Crimson King"- The Fillmore East, New York, NY 11/21/69
36) "21st Century Schizoid Man"- Milwaukee, WI 3/28/72
37) Improv: "The Mincer"- Rainbow Theatre, London, England 1973
38) "The Great Deceiver"- Pforzheim Jahnhalle, 3/31/74
39) "Cat Food"- Encore, Glasgow, Scotland 10/23/73


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