A gig that is not only an iconic moment of the sixties but one that announced Crimson’s presence on the international stage.[endtease] If you think about the rest of the music on the bill at Hyde Park that day, you get a sense why tracks like Schizoid Man and the solos on Get Thy Bearings were so powerful and utterly shocking. This is a band playing far beyond their years; nothing and nobody else sounded like it. Faced with a daring display of vibrant styles and influences compacted into a hurtling musical express, the assembled hippies had to make a choice and make it quick; get on board or get out of the way. If the boys sound a little hurried in places or the vocals a touch brittle at times, who can blame them; gigs don’t get much bigger than this one. When RF wrote in his diary “Mammoth success, of importance which will take time to appreciate. We’ll look back to see this day in years to come and fully realise its significance.” He was right on the button.
A gig that is not only an iconic moment of the sixties but one that announced Crimson’s presence on the international stage.[endtease] If you think about the rest of the music on the bill at Hyde Park that day, you get a sense why tracks like Schizoid Man and the solos on Get Thy Bearings were so powerful and utterly shocking. This is a band play...
As someone who's been listening to Crim for a good 4 years now, I don't know why it took me so long to get to this. I'm surprised by the audio quality here and I really wish Get Thy Bearings would have made it to a studio album. This first performance is definitely a must-listen for any KC fan.
Written by Phoenix Wright Guy
Wonderful Performance
There are some things I wish were still known to exist, but, BBC being what it is, that's probably impossible. I saw somewhere that there WAS a soundboard recording, but nobody knows where it is. Also, it's pretty obvious, if you look at the pictures, that it was broadcast on Television, in color, nonetheless. However, it's very probable that, as the "Colour Me Pop" and "Top Of The Pops" performances were wiped, it would be no surprise it it was wiped too. For me, the rankings are as follows: Se...
There are some things I wish were still known to exist, but, BBC being what it is, that's probably impossible. I saw somewhere that there WAS a soundboard recording, but nobody knows where it is. Also, it's pretty obvious, if you look at the pictures, that it was broadcast on Television, in color, nonetheless. However, it's very probable that, as the "Colour Me Pop" and "Top Of The Pops" performances were wiped, it would be no surprise it it was wiped too. For me, the rankings are as follows: Setlist: 4.5-5 only because of the occasion, being that Mars is shorter, and there's no large Improv. Performance: 5.5-5. Sound: 4.8-5, only because it's an audience recording.
Written by Samuel Langer
Fantastic
Fantastic! The audience recording really doesn't sound that bad, it just kinda sounds like a subpar soundboard recording. I love Travel Weary Capricorn. Simply an amazing show, they really outdid themselves.
Written by Andi Warren
Undeniably Iconic Show, Not Entirely Honestly Presented
One of the things I really appreciate about DGM is the way they tend to be very transparent about the shortcomings of any recordings they make available and... unfortunately with this particular recording that is not the case.
For instance, there's no mention in the description of the apparent gaps in the recording that have been crudely patched, most noticeably in the second verse of 21st Century Schizoid Man (where the three-note ascending pattern of the riff has been duplicated from its fir...
One of the things I really appreciate about DGM is the way they tend to be very transparent about the shortcomings of any recordings they make available and... unfortunately with this particular recording that is not the case.
For instance, there's no mention in the description of the apparent gaps in the recording that have been crudely patched, most noticeably in the second verse of 21st Century Schizoid Man (where the three-note ascending pattern of the riff has been duplicated from its first iteration in this recording and the first few lines have been dubbed in from the much later Fillmore West recording with the addition of a cassette click sound effect) and the opening verse of Get Thy Bearings (which has been copied and pasted in from near the end of the song, again cutting in and out with the same cassette click sound effect).
While editing like this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and does help restore some semblance of the musical experience (I'm reasonably certain there are some other patches in here well-hidden enough that I haven't spotted them), it does feel uncharacteristically dishonest to present this as a completely true and accurate representation of what the crowd heard at Hyde Park that day. The 21st Century Schizoid Man edit is particularly jarring given how different to the rest of the recoding Lake's growling end-of-tour vocal tone is in that clip, to say nothing of the way the pitch and timing jolt and make it feel as though the band collectively stumbled for a moment.