1969: King Crimson’s Annus Mirabilis, Or – –
Why You Really Do Need To Buy This Box Set Even Though You’ve Already Bought This Album At Least Twice Before
By Jim Dwyer
I told myself I wouldn’t write about this newish box set until I’d listened to the entire collection of 27 (yes, 27) discs. But then I kept playing disc 7 over and over. And louder and louder. And I’ll tell you right up front that you need these live versions of “Mars” (from Gustav Holst’s The Planets) more than you realize. Especially if you like music that crosses the line over and thrusts deep into evoking true chaos and terror from time to time. Only “L.A. Blues” by The Stooges or vintage Wolfeyes live can equal the utter sonic ferocity in the attack that King Crimson Mach 1 was able to stir up with their peformances of this particular piece.
I have since moved on and made my way through more and more of this content and it bears repeating: this is one of the tightest bands that has ever existed. Precise, yet fluid. As ready to drift into atmospheric meanderings as they are poised to attack, their dexterity is most impressive. There’s even a moment on one of the earlier live recordings where you can hear an audience member gasp, “Oh my God!” during that brief pause after Fripp and drummer Giles rip through the first buzzsaw-fast-interwoven-drum-and-guitar run that is the centerpierce of “21st Century Schizoid Man.” That means a lot to me, because it’s exactly what I shouted to my friend Jeff about a minute into “Discipline,” (the first thing they played upon taking the stage) at Ann Arbor’s Second Chance in early 1982. That was only the fifth or sixth concert I’d seen, and the first smallish-venue (SC had a capacity, it is said, of 649) and it’s still the best live music performance I’ve ever seen.
Another “little” moment that caught my ear in this new package is when Fripp casually whips off the little Spanish guitar note cluster which precedes “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” on The Beatles White Album as a lead in to the “Improv – – Travel Bleary Capricorn” number at the Fillmore West December 13th show, deftly curtailing itself with a lounge pastiche. Then, “Mars” creeps up!
Regarding the mutliplicity of versions of the legendary debut album (2019 mix, 2012 mix, alternate mix version, instrumental version, etc.) I have to say that I was most pleasantly surprised with the instrumental version. In a group that never really had an ideal singer, and with lyrics that sometimes seem to over-reach, to hear these songs with no singing whatsoever was strangely refreshing. Not only did it allow me to become the King Crimson vocalist I’d always dreamed of being (ha-ha, though I did nearly rush the stage when Adrian Belew, exhausted I suppose with singing while having to play rough time signatures, jokingly called from the stage for “someone out there to come up here and sing this thing” as they tipped into “Thela Hun Ginjeet” at Pine Knob in 1984) but even better it gave me the chance to really head-phone it up, sit in a (yes) darkened room, and savor the sublime interplay of this most remarkable ensemble. That being said, Greg Lake is really quite good here, on all of the live stuff. I might dare say, never better, in fact.
And regarding Crimson lyrics: it’s powerful strange how apt & relevant the lyrics are from this first record to our present-day 21st century schizoid world.
So, though Lark’s Tongue in Aspic and Discipline are my particular favorites by this mighty group, this densely packed overview of King Crimson in 1969 is a watershed moment in Rock History. Certainly, if they’d never made another record beyond In The Court of the Crimson King, their place in the books would be secure with this mighty salvo alone.
There might be a handfull of discs here that you might only ever play once, but I’m telling you, the live stuff is thrilling, gut-wrenching, exquisite and abrasive. Loud, assertive and persuasive, there had never been anything like it before. And very few groups in rock have ever approached this level of play ever since…
The Cuttingsville Times 