My old pal Buddy Belew telephoned yesterday: mutual excitements over the forthcoming Crimson adventures. Ade is doing an online interview today (Sunday). I gave him my recent quote - "King Crimson is alive and well and living in the ProjeKcts" - then added - "and is now moving out of the ProjeKcts back into King Crimson".
Earnest commentators & adherents to binary logic may find contradictions in this, as they are likely to discover in all Crim commentaries. And in other facets of a worthwhile life being lived. Audients with a sense of humour, perhaps a background in Zen or the martial arts, perhaps even some modest reading in quantum computing, will find nothing contradictory in any of this, other than those statements which clearly contradict each other.
The next stage of Crimson will not appeal to those single men who currently lovingly, devotedly, fondle their cherished 12" gatefold covers in the privacy of their retiring chambers. Theirs is a moment frozen in time & vinyl. I offer no criticism of their choice. Those times of Crimson were outstanding, and (with the exception of ITCOTCK) significantly & numerically unrecognised while that particular Crim was working, and prior to Crim's cyclical return to non-existence.
The band would be better named "King Crimsonising". Crimson was always in process, and continues in process. The next Crimson (group & album) will be greeted by disappointment, approval, approval & disappointment. After ten or fifteen years, the next step will be seen in the perspective of what went before and what follows afterwards. Enthusiasts will continue to have their favourite periods, players & repertoire. In time, all this will make more sense then than it does now, even though Crimson's history (to anyone who cares) isn't available to easy generalisation or simplistic assessment.
The key is this: be there when it flies. Look at the flying, not the flight plan (although there will be framed flight plans hanging from bedroom walls). And the standard advice, to those generous enough to take an interest: when Crimson comes to your town, see it now rather than wait until next year.
Always the same, always different, always the same, always...
"Be very careful about the beginning.
Then, be very careful about the end.
Then, be very careful about the middle."
