King Crimson - The best live albums…but which ones do i buy? Please help!

[KELLY WELSH]

Can anybody help? Have got all of the studio albums,but having trouble trying to pick the best live albums that are currently available! I have these in my collection: USA, Earthbound and The Great Deceiver Vol.1/2.Which other live albums do you think I should investigate in ? Recommendations gratefully accepted!

[calyx]

"The Great Deceiver" has the best from the multitrack-recorded 1973/74 shows - so if that still isn't enough for you (it wasn't for me), clearly the recent "Starless" and "Road To Red" box sets are for you. I would recommend the former over the latter as the "Road To Red" shows are mostly shortened sets where KC were supporting other groups, whereas "Starless" focuses on the Spring 1974 European tour which were headlining shows (although frustratingly a significant number of them are incomplete - i.e. the tape running out). Some of these shows (a.k.a. the "blue tapes") were initially available in the KCCC series or as DGM Live downloads, so if the big boxes sound too extreme you might want to select the best of those. John Kelman's reviews on All About Jazz are detailed enough for you to select what seem the superior performances among those.

The "Larks' Tongues" box mostly has bootleg-sourced tapes (apart from the - very wonderful - studio outtakes from the "LTIA" sessions), so clearly that one's for the hardcore fan.

Moving on to other line-ups, the original KC also has some good soundboard-sourced shows (Fillmore East/West) and the Hyde Park in its latest improved sonics is really excellent too. There's also quite a lot of soundboards for the 1971/72 line-up. I would recommend the Marquee Club shows from August 1971, the Zoom Club shows from May 1971 if you want to hear that band at its very earliest, and "Summit Studios" from 1972 is an excellent recorded-for-broadcast performance, which focuses on the non-Mellotron material (for some reason they were unable to use the 'trons that night) and has more improv/jamming than a typical KC gig from the period. The "Ladies of the Road" compilation uses some of it & other good quality recordings but 2CDs of that would have been preferrable to just one & a second CD with just "Schizoid Man" guitar and sax solos.

I am, I'll admit, far less interested in 1981 and beyond as far as live recordings are concerned - though I'm really looking forward to the upcoming live CD from the recent North American tour (& even more looking forward to the September '15 European tour !).

[zravkapt]

Just buy them all and stop eating...

But seriously, ya can't go wrong with The Great Deceiver (for the 70s) and Absent Lovers (for the 80s).

[Zeuhlmate]

To those you allready have I would add

The Nightwatch 1974
Absent Lovers 1984
Thrakattak 1996 - one of the most far out albums they made

[KGHofSF]

The Great Deceiver is fantastic but a lot to digest at once (more of a second wave purchase).
Go For
Absent Lovers (!)

The NightWatch

Others are probably better suited for speaking about the best performance of the first incarnation (I have a Wolfgangs Vault recording from the Fillmore somewhere). Another good second Wave purchase is Live in Detroit which covers the Islands era band

regards
KGH

[MissKittysMom]

Epitaph box sets (1969)
Vrooom Vrooom (1995-6)
Absent Lovers (1984)
At least one from each of the ProjeKcts 1-4
Eyes Wide Open (2003, DVD)

[JAMOOL]

Absent Lovers totally smokes, it's a must-have and IMO Crimson's best live disc period.

VROOOM VROOOM features one disc from 1994 and one from 1996 (if I remember correctly) - the '94 disc felt a little sloppy and underpowered but the '96 disc is killer.

I also like the 2000 3-disc set called Heavy ConstruKction a lot. IMO it relieves a lot of the issues with the TCOL album and the 3rd disc of improvs is really good - I feel they were nearly as good at improv then as they were in 73-74.

[bigjohnwayne]

The Night Watch

The Great Deceiver (which can be purchased as two double discs)

(If you still want more from that lineup, go for the Collectable King Crimson double disc where the first disc is Live in Mainz and the second is their Asbury Park concert which was edited into "USA" in the 70s)


I love 80s Crimson, but their live output doesn't scratch any particular itch with me. It's very good, but I don't find myself ignoring the studio version of, say, The Howler or Elephant Talk the way I think of the studio versions of many Larks Tongues era tracks as being superseded by subsequent live versions.

Live material from lineups other than the Wetton/Bruford/Cross group?

-Vrooom Vrooom is great. I think the Double Trio group sounded utterly monumental live. I consider this one essential. They turn Neurotica into a classic and blow the doors off Red and Talking Drum/Larks Tongues
-Ladies of the Road is kinda a curio, but I find myself listening to it more than I think I do. Disc one is a best of the Boz lineup live taken from DGM's mail order series. Disc two is a 21st century schizoid man megamix with a ton of solos from assorted dates. It's a fascinating listen once a decade. Meaning, I've listened to it twice.
-Epitaph is interesting. A great supplement to the first album.


At any rate, King Crimson is on a short list of bands that I think of as the best live band ever. (At least based on the recorded evidence)

[mellotron storm]

The Collectable King Crimson Volume 1 from Asbury Park and Mainz is one of my favourites along with Ladies Of The Road. The latter is incredible if your into the "Islands" album.

[GuitarGeek]

The various live recordings of the February/March 1972 US tour demonstrate how poorly Earthbound represents that particular lineup. Not just in terms of sound quality, but also musically. I think the Jacksonville one was the second of the Collector's Club releases, and I think it really puts that version of the band in a very different light, as far as presenting the band onstage. The Summit Studios recording is pretty good, and so is the Detroit 71 show (the one where they do the 12 bar version of In The Court...).

As for the 80's quartet, I still think the best thing is the Neal And Jack And Me DVD (I think that's the correct title). The Live In Japan show on that one I still think is fantastic. That's got my favorite version of Indiscipline. A highly edited version of that concert was shown on MTV way back in 1984 and that was my first real exposure to the band.

[arturs]

Absent Lovers totally smokes, it's a must-have and IMO Crimson's best live disc period.

I once asked Bruford to sign my copy of Absent Lovers, and he commented "that show is the best we've every played". I would tend to agree!

[KELLY WELSH]

The Collectable King Crimson Volume 1 from Asbury Park and Mainz is one of my favourites along with Ladies Of The Road. The latter is incredible if your into the "Islands" album.

There are a few "Collectable KC" volumes available by I understand that the quality on some of them is poor?True or false?

[Spiral]

There are a few "Collectable KC" volumes available by I understand that the quality on some of them is poor?True or false?

It varies. The V1 shows are soundboard tapes (one stereo and one professional multi-track), V2 has two audience boots (one pure mud and one pretty decent), and 3-5 are from the band's own direct DATs.

[flytomars]

(& even more looking forward to the September '15 European tour !).

SAY WHAT??

[gojikranz]

one more vote for absent lovers that is easily my favorite release of the 80's band period and one of my favorite releases in their entire history.

the collectable king crimson series is a nice way to get a good swath of shows and they are fairly available i believe.

[JAMOOL]

I once asked Bruford to sign my copy of Absent Lovers, and he commented "that show is the best we've every played". I would tend to agree!

Part of me finds it hard to believe there aren't any overdubs on it, but there's so much sheer talent in that lineup...

[Spiral]

I have these in my collection: USA, Earthbound and The Great Deceiver Vol.1/2.

Being a warts-and-all guy, I've always thought USA became superfluous as soon as the full Asbury Park show was released.* As mentioned, you'd be well-served by any of the 72-74 boxes if you truly can't get enough. On a smaller scale? Let's see...

Islands era: Earthbound may have one of the all-time greatest 21CSMs, but otherwise it's about the worst representation of that band out there. I'm on board with Guitargeek about Summit Studios and Detroit '71 (both are individually out on disc and download).

Larks' quintet: my favs are Hull or Oxford (both released as downloads, but only on disc as part of the big box), but really they're all exceptional. It'd depend how much you particularly like what Jamie brought to the table.

Post-Larks' quartet: see what calyx said. I'm partial to Toronto (although its most interesting middle section is already part of TGD). For earlier in '73, probably Zurich or Night Watch.

80s: Absent Lovers. Absent Lovers. Absent Lovers. Absent Lovers.

00s: I say the standouts are Level Five (cd) and Kingston '03 (download). That was a hell of a band.

It's too soon to tell about the '10s, but I'm hoping the second release from this year's tour will be a monster.



(*Edit. I was forgetting that the newest 40th Anniversary release of USA is the Asbury Park show as-is. I was referring to the previous editions that had edits & overdubs.)

[mogrooves]

Epitaph

[tallliman]

70's: Glasgow '73 especially for the extra bit in Fracture, the Massey Park show from '74 and the two Asbury Park shows (USA without overdubs)
80's: Absent Lovers, perhaps the best live album I've heard
90's: Shepherd's Bush shows from '95
00's: (Just), Heavy Construkction

If you like the Larks' quartet, buy the box sets!

[GuitarGeek]

Islands era: Earthbound may have one of the all-time greatest 21CSMs, but otherwise it's about the worst representation of that band out there. I'm on board with Guitargeek about Summit Studios and Detroit '71 (both are individually out on disc and download).

Have they released the show that version of Groon came from? Because until such time as that happens, Earthbound is still worth owning for Fripp's death rattle solo at the end of side two.

[Spiral]

Have they released the show that version of Groon came from?

No, just the earlier show from the same day. I guess I can see why some people enjoy the power of that particular "Groon" so much, but it's always been on the wrong side of noisy for me. Acually the lack of mellotron is also one reason I rank Summit so highly by contrast.

[GuitarGeek]

No, just the earlier show from the same day. I guess I can see why some people enjoy the power of that particular "Groon" so much, but it's always been on the wrong side of noisy for me. Acually the lack of mellotron is also one reason I rank Summit so highly by contrast.

For me it's the ring modulated drum solo and Fripp's guitar solo at the end are what make it essential for me. Yeah, I can sort of see the point that it goes on a bit, it's a bit noisy and the drum solo goes on forever before the ring modulator kicks in. I actually did my own edit in Audacity where I edited out most of the acoustic part of the solo. It was surprisingly easy, and if you weren't familiar with the track beforehand, you'd probably never notice that there was an edit there.

[jkelman]

You can find a list of all my King Crimson reviews at All About Jazz here (note the scroll bar at the bottom of each page as there are multiple pages. You'll find reviews of all 40th anniversary editions, some of the Collectable releases, The Great Deceiver and a number of other boxes, some DVDS and other odds and ends dating back a decade.

You can find the list here,

Enjoy!

[calyx]

SAY WHAT??

Had a brief chat with Jakko at the recent Henry Cow reunion gig & he confirmed to me there would be KC shows in Paris and London in September '15. (Not sure where else - those were the two I asked him about specifically).

[notallwhowander]

Here's may recs for the various incarnations:

Epitaph (At least the first volume, the sound has some flaws, but they are really good performances.)

Live at Summit Studios (Like many, this recording completely changed my opinion about the Islands line up.)

The Great Deceiver (Which you already have. The Mainz show by this line up is worth tracking down too.)

Absent Lovers (The repetition on this thread is because it is just that good.)

I don't have a strong opinion on the THRAK line-up yet.

The ProjeKcts are kind of their own animal(s). If you like that kind of thing, my faves have been ProjeKct Three, Live in Austin, TX, March 25 1999, and ProjeKct Four, The Roar of P4 - Live in San Francisco 1998. The best projeKct that never was a projeKct: Bruford/Levin BLUE Nights.

Level 5 (It's a live EP, but it has some of the best versions of the KC2K material.)