Robert, congratulations on this beautiful beginning, hugs.

Listening to Keep That One, Nick, a compilation of session tracks, I think it's remarkable that Larks' Tongues in Aspic has turned out the way it has. Those session clips suggest it was a slog to get anything right. When I got to know the album, it proved to be a mixed pleasure. I felt that LTiA Pt 1 and Book of Saturday were very good, but the rest of the tracks left someting to be desired. The playing sounded tentative, the production was very dry and there was occasional distortion. Certainly, to my ears Starless and Bible Black and Red were far more successful recordings. I found a bootleg recording of the 1973 Amsterdam Concertgebouw gig, which featured all LTiA material, except LTiA Pt 1. On that recording, the LTiA material comes to life in a way the studio recording cannot manage. That is not to say that a studio recording is per definition a stale affair, but the studio environment, the ticking of the clock (expences) and the determination to get it note perfect, all conspire to quell any energy or intensity. There are exceptions - the Vrooom EP from 1994 is a rare example of a hot studio recording. The 2012 LTiA remix by Steven Wilson did show some improvement - better sound, more effective mix, no more distortion. Listening to this album has become more pleasurable, but for me the albums' chief achievement remains the quality of the compositions.

Not exactly by accident, but the 80s Crimson was the version I first saw live, and their 70s albums were the "old" stuff and pretty much only available on import vinyl. But my girlfriend bought a copy of Red on 8th Street and then SABB and then someone lent me a tape of Lark's Tongues and said, "Oh yeah: This one's good too"... I wasn't into the earliest Proggy records but LTiA wasn't proggy. Well, maybe it was but when I first listened to it on cassette and headphones I noticed all the quiet on the record and then the band kind of bursting out of that black space, though sprinkled with weird toy sounds..."Shit. This ain't bad" I said. I was right.

"Although groups such as The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Can integrated improvisation into their setlists, it’s hard to think of any other rock band operating at the time who took that blistering mixture of calculated risk and blind faith as far as it could go." Henry Cow's live performances were at least 50% improvised and, as much as I like Crimson, were far more radical and experimental than anything Crimson ever did.

Once I heard and had this album I was done for…..and I still am. The expectation and promise of SABB I was able to experience…and the wait was worth it.

It seems that Sailors Tales is impossible to buy. Is there any chance of a reissue? Any suggestions of how to get hold of a copy. There don’t seem to be any on Amazon or eBay.