King Crimson’s gig at Watford Town Hall is significant for several reasons. They are playing material that had only recently been composed. For example, Formentera Lady is still so new that Boz tells the audience that he will have to read the lyrics off a cue card. Elsewhere, is an early version of The Letters which they had been tentatively aired during the UK tour in May, and an enthralling workout around the themes that would later be repurposed during the Larks’ Tongues era.
At this point, the fast cross-picking motif really only acts as a head that sets up a groove for Mel’s electrifying solo that seems to channel Coltrane’s ‘sheets of sound’ and momentary flashes of Muscle Shoals-style funk and soul. There is also a Ian Wallace’s celebrated drum solo that variously includes a Carl Palmer skit and Pete Sinfield’s VSC3-derived modulations on the drums in the climax. Oh, and there’s Ian’s beloved duck call rearing its ugly beak - a holdover from his pre-Crim time as a member of Viv Stanshall’s band.
And speaking of peckers, there’s a mad, slightly unhinged version of Ladies Of The Road, again reprised from its earlier unveiling in May. Of course, the other reason that this great-sounding gig is important lies in the fact that among all those audience cheers is an enraptured 13-year-old Jakko Jakszyk, having the course of his life’s trajectory altered forever.
