1983 was a strange year for Crimson as they attempted to work on a third album.[endtease] In January they had worked in what was then Adrian Belew’s home town of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (released as KCCC21). Then in May they arrived at Arny’s Shack in Dorset for a brief stint before going on to Marcus Studio in London. However it wasn’t until November when they arrived at Bearsville Studios in New York state that things finally came together for what would become Three Of A Perfect Pair.
The provenance of this recording was called into question as it came from an Arny’s Shack cassette but musically matches up with the bootleg Bearsville Sessions releases. In any event the sound quality presented here significantly trumps those of the boot.
Mirroring the year’s wandering around, this jam comes to no firm conclusion as Belew and Bruford swap rhythmic grooves and offsets whilst Levin and Fripp try out various ideas along the top. Still, sometimes the journey itself is more important than the actual destination.
This track is available for download as part of a bumper collection of Mr Stormy's Monday Selections - his second year of random romps through the murky, cavernous DGM archives, torch in hand, fedora upon his head.
