Sourced from a venerable audience recording, it’s just possible to make out that Crimso are turning in a varied performance despite the gnarly sonics. Mel Collins’ sax work on Pictures and Sailors Tale continues to amaze. His flute solo towards the end of Tale, as Fripp plays the ‘Mantovani’ licks on the ‘tron, is a non-stop flurry of invention.
After the serious subject matter of The Letters (and this is a pretty good rendition with a smouldering middle section), Fripp sweetens the pill by appending a sugary coda that ends with a jokey flourish and in doing so punctures the mood which Crimso have spent the last five minutes or so building up. It sounds odd now but it was for a while his standard operating procedure when they played the track. It’s Collins who once again steals the show on Get Thy Bearings, delivering a torrent of twisting choruses that touch on Charles Mingus and a bit of rock ‘n’ roll. After a rather perfunctory Ladies of the Road, and a bit of bicker/banter with the punters, an impatient crowd get an angry-sounding Schizoid Man. Difficult to listen to but there’s some gems to be found lurking in the aural murk.
Sourced from a venerable audience recording, it’s just possible to make out that Crimso are turning in a varied performance despite the gnarly sonics. Mel Collins’ sax work on Pictures and Sailors Tale continues to amaze. His flute solo towards the end of Tale, as Fripp plays the ‘Mantovani’ licks on the ‘tron, is a non-stop flurry of invention....
I must start my review by saying that, alas, the sound quality is pretty crummy. Not completely unlistenable, but murky and indistinct. This is a shame because the performance itself is very interesting, containing some surprises and details which would disappear from the setlist in later dates of the tour. For instance, the extended Sailor's Tale has a peculiar middle section in which Fripp plays lyrical, clean lines and arpeggios, trading sweet licks with Mel's flute, in stark contrast to the ...
I must start my review by saying that, alas, the sound quality is pretty crummy. Not completely unlistenable, but murky and indistinct. This is a shame because the performance itself is very interesting, containing some surprises and details which would disappear from the setlist in later dates of the tour. For instance, the extended Sailor's Tale has a peculiar middle section in which Fripp plays lyrical, clean lines and arpeggios, trading sweet licks with Mel's flute, in stark contrast to the ultraviolent guitar solos we have come to expect in the song. The ending slightly overstays its welcome and I'm certainly thankful the composition became narrower in focus in later months, but it is still a unique performance. We also get versions of original line-up standards "The Court of the Crimson King" and "Get Thy Bearings" which were soon to be dropped from the setlist. Boz does an excellent and very faithful job with both tracks, and in fact the singing throughout is truly excellent, particularly on "The Letters". So, a very nice performance, but the sound quality prevents me from recommending this to any but the truly fanatical.
