John Wetton sounds like such a poofter on "The Night Watch"

[Giuseppe Zangara]

THE THREAD

[Giuseppe Zangara]

This can be another general King Crimson thread, too.

[PLAGIARISM!]

poofter. Haven't heard that one much since I left school.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

They didn't know the real you.

 

I'm finding, re Wetton-era, that I have no real favorite between Larks Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black. It isn't Red, for, as high the highs are on that one, "Providence"—which eats up almost a third of the album's running time—is more interesting than good.

[The Man in Blak]

That's why I love the USA live album - it basically works as a best-of for that period and throws in "21st Century Schizoid Man" in there, just to top it all off.

[Slayer]

Are we gonna go over this again, Inc

[Giuseppe Zangara]

How do you feel about The Night Watch double album? It was recorded around the same time as USA.

 

edit: This was for Blak. THANKS SLAYER

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Are we gonna go over this again, Inc

Hey, I've warmed up to the guy's voice. And, to be fair, his singing isn't the only thing I dislike about that song.

[Slayer]

THANKS SLAYER

Haha

 

I enjoyed The Night Watch, btw

[The Man in Blak]

How do you feel about The Night Watch double album? It was recorded around the same time as USA.

 

Can't say, as I haven't heard it. I'll see if I can snatch that tonight, for a proper comparison.

[Guest Oedipus Rex]

Larks > Starless for me, by a fairly wide margin.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

My preference runs in their reverse chronological order.

 

"The Night Watch" (the song) is excellent. Fripp's subdued solo there is some of the smoothest guitar work I've ever heard. It floats.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Ranking the KC I have/heard:

 

1. Discipline

2. Larks Tongues in Aspic

3. Starless and Bible Black

4. Red

5. In the Wake of Poseidon

6. In the Court of the Crimson King

7. Beat

8. Three of a Perfect Pair

9. The Construcktion of Light

 

I put LTiA over SaBB because why not. I didn't include Absent Lovers, but that's top five material, easily. #s 1-7 are all good; 8 & 9 are so-so and utterly forgettable, respectively.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

What's your problem with Three of a Perfect Pair? Better versions of the good songs elsewhere, the weirdly placed atmospheric instrumentals, or a combination of the two? I like it, but it's not my favorite either. I'd rate above In the Wake of Poseidon, though. Fuck, might as well make a list.

 

Red

Discipline

Starless and Bible Black

Larks Tongues in Aspic

In the Court of the Crimson King

Three of a Perfect Pair

Lizard

In the Wake of Poseidon

Beat

Islands

The construcktion of light

 

And what the fuck with Red being that low on your list?

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Re: Three of a Perfect Pair

 

Production, mainly. Almost every song here is trumped by the live versions on Absent Lovers, thanks to the latter's rawer sound. That said, I do like the studio take of the title track and am quite fond of the Tony Levin mix of "Sleepless," though not so much any of the other myriad versions, including bonus tracks.

 

Re: Red

 

"Providence" just isn't that good. Everything else on the album is great.

 

And you didn't ask, but yeesh, The Construcktion of Light is dire. I'll likely never check out The Power to Believe because of it; it makes me a little nervous about THRAK, too, though I'm sure I'll get around to that one eventually, as Levin and Bruford are on it.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

I love "Providence." I can picture them in the studio shooting each other shitty looks while recording it and smoking lots of cigarettes.

 

No arguing tastes and that, so I can see liking Discipline more since it's literally a different band, but below Starless..?

 

I tried to get Construcktion on my good side, but there's just wayyyyy too much of a nouveau-prog kinda Dream Theatery sound to it. Plus that one song, Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum..puke.

 

I've only heard THRAK once all the way through, and I don't own it, so it wouldn't be fair to judge.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

I find whenever I get in a King Crimson mood, my opinion on certain albums changeâ€â€remember, I once stated in another thread that I preferred Beat to Disciplineâ€â€so the above list is liable to change in a couple of months (though Discipline is secure at the top, believe me). Every time I listen to a bunch of their albums, I discover a lot of things to like and appreciate that completely escaped my notice on earlier spins; that's exciting, as there aren't very many bands like that. I suppose it helps there aren't many bands with as wide and varied a discography as King Crimson. So, the day may come where I'll get over the hump that is "Providence" and truly love Red.

 

That said, what's your beef with SaBB? It has, for higlights, "The Great Deceiver," "Lament," "We'll Let You Know," "Trio" and "Fracture." So much good stuff.

[The Man in Blak]

THRAK has nothing on either of The Construcktion of Light and The Power To Believe, both of which are unbelievably bad, but it might not be as strong as either of their well known "album trilogies" either. "Dinosaur" isn't too bad, and there's a sequel/ripoff of "Red" in there as well.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

In the meantime, my five favorite KC songs of the moment. Only one song per album. (Otherwise, this list would be a little Discipline-heavy.)

 

1. Frame by Frame

2. Larks Tongues in Aspic, Part II

3. The Great Deceiver

4. Cat Food

5. Three of a Perfect Pair

[Giuseppe Zangara]

I'm weighing downloading THRAK instead of doing a blind buy, which is how I've mostly acquired my KC albums. (Really dodged a bullet when I pirated TCoL, ya know.)

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

My only beef is that Red and Discipline are better.

 

I do get iffy on Larks from time to time, since it builds so slowly, and doesn't have a mash your brain kinda moment.

 

The secondary percussion is something I have to be in a mood for.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

An aside: Not too long ago, I was rooting around Fripp's blog over at the dgm site. I found an entry where he stated that Tool are the only band that ever makes him want to pick up his guitar and rock out anymore. Considering that, we should all be grateful he hasn't found more inspiration to make another KC album.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Trio is actually one of my favorite KC tracks. It's just such a sad little lonely song that comes out of nowhere. Starless is like that; an album of songs out of left field. The first vocal line of the album "Health food faggot with a bartered bride" after leaping into the middle of the instrumental lead as soon as you hit play, a prog epic in "The Night Watch," a nod to boredom and obscurity in fame with "Lament," Fripp's guitar monster "Fracture."

 

That album doesn't start or end anywhere, but maintains this weird cohesion in being disjointed. No two songs are alike, but messing with the order of the tracks would be detrimental. That's a strange bird.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

An aside: Not too long ago, I was rooting around Fripp's blog over at the dgm site. I found an entry where he stated that Tool are the only band that ever makes him want to pick up his guitar and rock out anymore. Considering that, we should all be grateful he hasn't found more inspiration to make another KC album.

 

That's probably a tip of the hat to Tool's idolatry of KC, and their common producer in David Botrill.

 

Bottrill has really produced some dogshit though. Mudvayne? Ick.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

My first impression of THRAK: eh. Nowhere near as bad as its follow-up, The Construcktion of Light, but something feels off. Maybe it's the contemporary production. I'm not a big fan of the guitar sound here, either; Fripp sounds like Vernon Reid on most of it.

[The Man in Blak]

Like I said, it's a decent, if unspectacular, bridge between KC's glory days and their abysmal late period output. I actually don't mind the "early 90's rock" production, but it's definitely a bit of a departure from the extremes in their previous albums, so I can understand where it might not appeal to some folks.

 

The live albums for the tour to support THRAK are interesting, though - Vrooom Vrooom and B'BOOM are fun trips through their whole catalogue, with improvisations and a fairly decent mix of material from all of the incarnations of the band.

[Edwin MacPhisto]

The big four albums you guys have listed have taken over my metro rides.

[The Man in Blak]

Listening through The Night Watch at the moment and, while it's definitely a good live document, I think I still prefer USA overall. I like Starless and Bible Black as much as anybody and this album obviously leans heavily on that material, but the quality of the recordings are comparable with USA and I'd rather hear "Starless" and "Asbury Park" than the lesser SaBB tunes, personally. The cuts of "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Larks Tongue in Aspic, Part II" from USA are blistering offerings, in particular.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH!]

"Providence"—which eats up almost a third of the album's running time—is more interesting than good.

 

This kinda describes how I feel about King Crimson as a whole. I really respect their stuff and understand why a lot of people love it, but outside of a handful of songs ("Starless," "Trio," "The Sheltering Sky," some other ones) I don't really enjoy listening to it. Every time I sit down and try to listen to one of their albums all the way through I wind up getting bored at about half-way point and find myself either reaching for the skip button or moving on to something else entirely.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

I picked up Lizard a few weeks ago, but am only just now mentioning it. I really dig the horns and overall jazziness of this album, but the whole doesn't mesh as well as it should. There's a lot of fantastic moments here, but no fantastic songs. (However, the "Prince Rupert Awakes" movement of the title track comes close.) Though they ultimately went on to the holy Larks/Starless/Red trinity, I wish this line-up of the band had stuck around a bit longer, to see if they could've stretched those high marks across an entire album rather than sporadically. Still, Lizard gets a passing grade.

 

Even though its considered the worst KC album of that era, I'm gonna buy Islands, sound unheard, next. Then I'll have every studio album from In the Court of the Crimson King through Three of a Perfect Pair.