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The 1973/4 touring version of Crimson was, at the time, mistakenly considered to be part of the musical arena defined by Yes, Genesis and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. These three groups were all hugely successful commercially and all influenced by the first King Crimson, but the live Crimson in 1973/4 was on its own territory. It drew mainly on a European vocabulary both for its writing and improvising. Increasingly it needed improvisation to stay alive: this was its life blood. But that didn't show much in the studio albums. In concert, it stepped sideways and jumped.
It went places where other musicians of that rock generation mainly avoided. This team looked into the darker spaces of the psyche and reported back on what it found. The 1969 Crimscapes were bleak and written; the 1973/4 Crimscapes were darker, and mainly improvised.
The formation of the group in 1972 included Jamie Muir. Jamie was far too intelligent and well-balanced a human being to stay with the group for long, although he completed the recording taking place during early 1973 - "Larks' Tongues In Aspic". The four-piece which remained never settled in the 16 months of live work which followed, and after which David Cross left. The violin is not an instrument of heavy metal, even hard rock. As the group developed a more muscular stance David's place in the band lost context and he became increasingly an electric pianist and mellotronist (if such is possible).
Between 1973/4 KC had an increasingly loud bass player of staggering strength and imagination, arguably the finest young English player in his field at the time. The drummer had the temperament of a classical musician who wanted to be a jazzer and worked in rock groups. He found in King Crimson a group which gave him the freedom to spread, experiment, grow, move about and hit things hard and often. The violinist was placed in an increasingly impossible situation. A musical and personal distance began to open between him and the rest of the group. The balance between David and Jamie, constructed in the original quintet formation, was lost. He added delicacy, and wood. But the front line couldn't match the power of the rhythm section or their volume, and the guitar was stronger than the violin.
So, King Crimson 1973/4 was not a balanced group, or perhaps it was balanced in disarray. It was sometimes frightening, and not a comfortable place to be. Inherently unstable, sharing differing aims and going in different directions, finally, it went there. After 16 months as a quartet it became a trio for three months whereupon King Crimson "ceased to exist".
| New Release |
Posted: 16 August 2010 |
Fairground Arena
Oklahoma City, OK
Jun. 07, 1974
An interesting Crimson gig this one. We’re deep down into the dark heart of a very long American tour and this is Crimson slogging it out rather than letting it
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Technical College
Hull, England
Nov. 10, 1972
Wow - the DGMLive debut of Jamie Muir era Crim!
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| Random Blast |
Robert Fripp's Diary
Thu., Jun 27, 1974
Leave (hotel) 11.00. Sleep in car to Boston. At airport coffee shop John McLaughlin called me over. Introduces me to violinist & Michael (Narada Walden) the drummer.
To gate c. Read more
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| Spotlight Review |
Olympia Paris, France
April 09, 1973
Posted by: Radiolux
I’m surprised we only have a bootleg cassette source for that one. Why ? Because that show was professionally recorded. It was part of the "Musicorama" concerts, broadcasted in France every sunday night by a radio (Europe 1), and I Read more
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