Origin of the "Easy Money" alt. take on the PROG sampler?

**ItalProgRules** · 02-15-2013

I don't have the bazzilion-disc Larks' Tongues in Aspic set but I'm assuming that's where the trio version of "Easy Money" on the PROG sampler came from? At least it sounds like only a trio, Fripp, Broof and Wetton. Or was this recorded during the RED sessions, hence the absence of Muir and Cross?

PROG doesn't say where the track came from or why Muir and Cross aren't on it. Can anyone fill me in?

For the record, the softer parts seem just too sparse without a violin or keys to color it in, and I miss the wordless vocal part...but getting to hear Fripp get down with his bad self, and only his own bad self, for an extended period of time, is always a treat.

Fripp f'ing SMOKES there when he fires it up. This track sounds to me like an attempt to do a studio version of the way they did it live with the improv at the end ("Easy Money/Blow") but I don't see why it was done as a trio?

While the song part is too sparse to compete with the album version, that Fripp jam is a keeper, so in the end I'm glad to have this track, just curious as to the circumstances behind its recording.

**ItalProgRules** · 02-15-2013

A KC thread up for 7 hours without a single response? C'mon PE, we have a reputation to uphold here!

**MudShark22** · 02-15-2013

I dont have the PROG issue (and not likely to buy it either) but I do have every Easy Money version released officially!

Could be this verison from the box set:

The disc ends with an alternate edit/mix of "Easy Money" by David Singleton and Alex R. Mundy, taken from the session reels, that removes both Muir's curious contributions and Cross' Mellotron and violin, leaving Fripp to take the lead and deliver a massive solo that includes part of the studio album's take, but others as well, before ending without a return to the final verse.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=43168