February 21, 1973 - London - Command Studios
Context
We finally jump out of the winter tour of 1972 and into Command Studios the following year where the line-up of Bruford, Cross, Fripp, Muir, and Wetton are working on the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic album.
After a summer spent extending his producer credits with Matching Mole and palling around with the Wiccan artist Walli Elmark Fripp began assembling a new band to reclaim the moniker of King Crimson. He poached the drummer phenom Bill Bruford from Yes, enlisted schoolhood pal John Wetton on bass and vocals, and corralled two other relative unknown players. David Cross was principally a violinist but also played flute and keyboards. Jamie Muir was a member of the London avant-garde free jazz scene primarily as a percussionist bordering on performance artist.
The band convened for rehearsals in the fall of 1972 and then booked a tour around England as King Crimson performing new material extended free improvs and tossing 21st Century Schizoid Man in as a bone for the faithful. In early 1972 they moved into Command Studios to produce an album to take on the road.
This was the album that “blew the top of my head off” when I first heard it in a dorm room in Kenosha, WI in the fall of 1995.
Here we have an isolation track of David, Robert, and John that DGM credits with being from the date of Feb. 21 working on Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part II. This is just a little more than a month from when the album would eventually be released.
Listening Notes
What a musical jump from the realm of jazz-driven Groon improvs to this! It feels like I’ve jumped sideways by a decade as opposed to just 12 months from the Islands line-up of Burrell, Collins, Fripp and Wallace.
It’s unclear whether this is an isolation of the non-percussive tracks that make up the final cut on the last track of the album. If it’s not it’s awfully close.
The track begins with a hi hat count-in and a false “start” from Fripp. I had the pleasure and privilege of attending an Introduction to the Guitar Circle course in Hope, New Jersey in the summer of 2015.
Amongst the many lessons conveyed during that time was Robert’s lecture on the distinction between a start and a beginning. With a start there is a lurching/stammering where 80% of the energy and opportunity of a thing is lost.
With a beginning there is a potential that is carried through the action. As with so many lessons presented during the course this seemed like a pedantic distinction at first. But as I reflected on it in my practice on the guitar and in other aspects of my life I saw the wisdom in this distinction.
The difference in quality is between when an action is started (full of error and risk) and begun (carrying a quality of intention which may give it resilience.) So… it’s interesting to hear Robert “start”. Not as a gotcha moment, but more as a recording of a minor event which would go on to form the wisdom that 40+ years on I would benefit from.
It has become for me a telling indicator of my presence and ability in almost anything I do an almost indispensable tool that when Robert shared it with me I did not understand its usefulness.
Back to the piece at hand.
In the ascending section the rich tone of the distorted guitar and violin is so…. comforting. It feels remarkably peaceful and contemplative here. It’s very different from the rising power of the full performance.
The staccato accents from Cross in places are wonderful to hear. Delicacy and wood. That’s what Cross brings to this album that gives it a balance of tone that is so essential.
In the final flourish there is this sustain line from Fripp which I don’t think is in the final cut. If it’s there I’ve never really noticed it until it surfaces in this mix. The ending bass sustain with Cross’s bowing is wonderful and there’s a reverse piano chord thrown in at the end a little reminiscent of A Day in the Life which never made the cut to the final album.
This is a wonderful little treat for admirers of the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic album.
Purchase King Crimson Command Studios February 21, 1973 from DGM Live