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Monday 12 November 2012

King Crimson: Larks' Tongues in Aspic (40th Anniversary Series Box)

King Crimson
Larks' Tongues in Aspic 40th Anniversary Edition Box Set
DGM Live
2012 (1973)

The idea of a 15-disc box set to commemorate the release of what was, in 1973, a single vinyl LP clocking in at a mere 46 minutes might seem a tad excessive, but when you're talking King Crimson and the seminal Larks' Tongues in Aspic, it's a whole other story. Beyond being an important addition to the legendary progressive rock group's 40th Anniversary Series of new stereo and surround sound mixes from Crimson cofounder/guitarist Robert Fripp and guitarist/keyboardist/singer Steven Wilson-a bandleader in his own right, first with Porcupine Tree and, more recently, with solo projects including the recently released Get All You Deserve (Kscope, 2012)- Larks' Tongues in Aspic represents a particular paradigm shift from a group whose In the Court of the Crimson King (DGM Live, 1969) was one of those rare debuts that literally shook the rock world.

Chapter Index

    Some Context
    Forming a New Band From the Ground Up
    A 15-Disc Box Set? Really?
    Beyond the Live Music...


Some Context

By 1972, Crimson had released four records-in addition to In the Court, there was 1970's transitional In the Wake of Poseidon and nightmarish, utterly unique and too-often-overlooked Lizard, as well as 1971's Islands (all already reissued in 40th Anniversary Series editions by DGM Live and Panegyric)-and had already seen more players come through the group than most see in a lifetime. The original lineup disbanded following a successful American tour on the heels of In the Court, leaving just Fripp and lyricist, lighting engineer and occasional sonic manipulator Peter Sinfield to carry the torch forward. Neither Poseidon nor Lizard) had lineups stable enough to hit the road, but Fripp and Sinfield finally hit the jackpot with the Islands band, a live juggernaut (initially, at least) that included saxophonist/flautist Mel Collins (who'd joined Crimson for Poseidon), bassist/vocalist Boz Burrell (taught to play by Fripp) and drummer Ian Wallace.

But despite significant touring on both sides of the Atlantic, all was not well with Crimson, something made crystal clear by the post-breakup live album, Earthbound (1972)-a soundboard cassette recording of such poor sound quality that its North American label, Atlantic, declined to release it, leaving only Crimson's UK label, Island, to put it out...and on its budget-line imprint, to boot. By the time Earthbound was released, Crimson had well and truly fractured, with Burrell, Wallace and Collins more interested in blues-based, occasionally funkified rock jams, a significant difference to Fripp's more sophisticated predilections. Since the formation of the King Crimson Collectors Club in the 1990s, which began releasing live recordings from Crimson's various lineups, it's become clear that this was not how the group began, though with the exception of Collins (and, long after he left Crimson, Wallace), this was not a band whose improvisational prowess matched the players that Fripp had recruited from the jazz and classical worlds to augment studio recordings from Poseidon to Islands -artists like pianist Keith Tippett, bassist Harry Miller, cornetist Mark Charig and trombonist Nick Evans.

And so, Collins, Burrell and Wallace left to hook up with British bluesman Alexis Korner in the group Snape. Irreconcilable artistic differences also created a permanent rift between Fripp and Sinfield and so, by the summer of 1972, there was only Fripp left to carry the name forward. But if Crimson's first four recordings represented something of a quadrilogy, what Fripp had in mind for a new King Crimson was something completely different.

While Fripp's guitar work was fundamental to those first four recordings, it was rarely the primary voice; on In the Court, only his silkily sustaining solo on the hard-edged, jazzified opener, "21st Century Schizoid Man," gave any overt indication of just how talented and distinctive a player he was. Elsewhere, while his guitar work was just as fine, and just as harmonically sophisticated, Fripp was far more of an ensemble player. Even when he emerged as Crimson's de facto leader (a role he has publicly eschewed in the ensuing decades), his playing rarely dominated, though he began taking a greater role on Islands, including a career-defining solo on "A Sailor's Tale," and his acoustic work on the first side of Lizard was equally compelling, even if it was often buried in a dense mix that has only since been opened up by Steven Wilson's revealing remix.


Forming a New Band From the Ground Up


Still, Crimson was an improvising band from its inception. It may have been labeled a rock group, but with drummer Michael Giles on In the Court and Poseidon, Collins' broader scope on subsequent recordings and Fripp's ever-present jazz-centric vernacular, there's little doubt that it was a rock band with a jazz heart. And so, as Fripp pieced together a completely new lineup for King Crimson, he was looking for players capable of both challenging compositional constructs and open-ended improvisational forays.

Cutting his teeth with Yes-another progressive group that was on the ascendancy during the same period as early Crimson, and whose relatively stable lineup and impressive musicianship had, in fact, resulted in the group leapfrogging Crimson in terms of sales and popularity with the triple-punch of 1971's The Yes Album and 1972's Fragile (with its radio hit, "Roundabout") and Close to the Edge (all on Atlantic)-drummerBill Bruford shared Fripp's taste for jazz and improvised music. But by 1972, he'd reached a crossroads with Yes: continue on to even greater commercial success, or look for other opportunities that might not be as lucrative, but would be more artistically fulfilling. Fripp knew Bruford, the Islands band having toured in support of Yes earlier that year. "Bill's a lovely drummer," Fripp describes thinking, in Sid Smith's liner notes, "but he's perhaps too straight for some things...Then I thought of this nut Jamie Muir, whom I'd just met, and I thought, well, Jamie's a great drummer but he's really not straight enough for some of the things I'd like him to do...I suddenly had this vivid idea to use the two of them...and it seems so right."

Muir's background was in free improvisation, rubbing shoulders with players like guitarist Derek Bailey and saxophonist Evan Parker-even appearing on a very early (and as-yet-unreleased-on-CD) title, The Music Improvisation Company (1970) for Manfred Eicher's then-nascent ECM Records. What Muir brought to this new Crimson was a degree of unpredictability it had never before experienced, with a percussion rig that took up more floor space than any of the other band members, and included everything from laugh boxes to metal sheets and from chains to mbira (African thumb piano), all played by a roving madman as likely to use a zipper as he was a cymbal or a snare drum. It was Muir that turned this band-and its one and only recording as a five-piece-into another sound that shook the rock world, albeit, perhaps, on not quite the same commercial level as In the Court of the Crimson King (though still selling very, very well).

Fripp's new lineup also included violinist David Cross-a relative unknown who came to the guitarist's attention through his then-management company, E.G. and one of its titular owners, David Enthoven. John Wetton was already a known entity for his work with Family, a quirky and eclectic group, to be sure, but one that simply didn't allow the bassist/vocalist the opportunity to grow as a singer/songwriter. Wetton also connected Fripp with Richard Palmer-James, a lyricist with whom the bassist had worked in a number of Bournemouth groups and who, as Richard Palmer, was a founding member of Supertramp, though he left before the group gained traction.

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