Until February, when I had a couple of King Crimson albums on here, and also went through most of the other albums I have of theirs while reading Sid Smith's book on them
It's a live album from their third phase. This was when the band was a 'double trio': two guitarists, two on drums and percussion, and two on bass/stick. It's a configuration that seems to have been more interesting in theory in practice. For me the new material isn't as distinctive as the old, and the performances of the old material aren't distinct enough from previous versions to draw me in. At least on the surface — I admit I haven't listened that closely. In his diary recently, Robert Fripp was talking about audiences being exhausted by this band in live performance, and I feel a bit of that just listening to the recording.
How many live King Crimson albums are there? Since the bootleg amnesty and King Crimson Collectors' Club initiatives. According to this page, about 50, so far. How many people have them all? You might be surprised: I suspect the number may be in three figures. So I'm a dilettante. But I'm a curious one. This is where a subscription service would be useful: I don't want to own even 10% of these recordings, but I'd pay for a year's access to the full catalogue so I could hear most of them at least once.
 MusicBrainz entry for disc 1disc 2 |
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