King Crimson live recordings: where to start?

I've been a pretty big King Crimson fan for a while now, but I've never bothered to get any of their live recordings yet, although I have heard they are very good. I think I'm mostly interested in the Wetton era, but I'd love to hear something from the original lineup (if any such recordings exist) or from the 80's incarnation. I'm more interested in shorter collections than large, expensive box sets since I am just getting started. Any recommendations?

 

Go to dgmlive.com. There are literally hundreds of shows to download for less than $10 each. Or join the 1000 Club.

 

Since you mentioned being primarily interested in the Wetton era, I'd suggest "The Collectable King Crimson: Volume One"
It includes two live concerts - one from Mainz, Germany and the other from Asbury Park, NJ - the latter is the source for the 70's release USA. If you like this, there's so much more to chose from.

 

You could try
Cirkus: The Young Persons' Guide to King Crimson Live

 

USA is a good start

 

In addition to "konoyaro"'s suggestion of Collectable KC Vol 1, if it's Wetton era that you dig most, "The Night Watch" set from Nov. '73(released 1997) is most excellent. To answer your question about the original KC lineup with Greg Lake, the "Epitaph" collection(also released in '97) is a good set as well. Despite it being a 4 disc compilation and while some of the recordings are a bit of a bootleg quality, its most likely the best overview of this short-lived lineup.

 

Great Deceiver 4CD set is a great place. Nightwatch is excellent, though familiar if you have the SBB studio album.

Absent Lovers is a great 2CD from the Below era, if that's your thing.

 

Just buy all the 27-disc boxed sets and be done with it. It's where you end up anyway.

The Road to Red is particularly good.

 

Yes. This. This is what turned me from a casual fan into a lunatic.

 

As above from Wayne Davis USA ( expanded) is a great starting and finishing point for the 73/74 line up. KC have been great at putting out live material via the DGM set up. Nightwatch is super and should be easy to pick up at a good price.

 

You can't go wrong with this one, particularly in its fully expanded form. You could also try the Collectible King Crimson Vol. 1, which includes that Asbury Park show (a.k.a. USA, though with a different mix here) along with the Mainz show. I'm partial to some of their shows from the fall of '73, like Zurich or Glasgow--both of these are expanded double disc sets with plenty of great improv action. And yes, The Great Deceiver is still a great starting point for a novice, though I haven't gone back to it in some time since it's been superseded by other releases.

Another Wetton era release that is really excellent despite suboptimal sound quality: The Olympia Paris show (4/9/73) available for download. This was shortly after Muir left, but his ghost still haunts the proceedings. Things are a little looser and more freewheeling still at this point, so we get lots of fascinating extended improv pieces, some which feature ideas that were later fleshed out into complete songs on Starless & Bible Black. It's an audience recording but pretty listenable. This may not be the best choice for a beginner, but it's well worth checking out for devoted fans.

I could go on and on. There's so much good stuff to choose from from this line up, an embarrassment of riches. I just wish that there were some professionally recorded shows from the Muir period.

I would also recommend the Ladies of the Road collection which compiles some of the best performances from the Collector's Club Island era releases. This set really opened me up to the charms of this band--saxophonist Mel Collins really shines throughout here. Also, the Epitaph set is a good starting point with the original line up, compiling some of their better sounding early performances. And of course, Absent Lovers is an outstanding document from their final performance in '84.

You're in for quite a ride here. Have fun and let us know which ones you like best.

 

Thanks for all the information. So far, I'm leaning towards The Collectible King Crimson Vol. 1 as a first purchase. It appears to be an improvement over USA and will likely have less overlap in my collection than The Night Watch.

 

Yeah, not understanding why The Great Deceiver keeps getting mentioned in threads. It's understood that the OP is just trying to get his feet wet at this point, but the Starless and The Road to Red box sets have rendered The Great Deceiver obselete.

 

Presumably he can use the set as a mild taster. It might be easy to get cheap secondhand copies of TGD nowadays thanks to the very fact that those gargantuan box sets exist. Or he could go for those Collectable King Crimson twofers, too.

Let me be the first to mention the 90s band, too. The Double Trio is well-represented in its early stages on B'BOOM: Live in Argentina, and its more developed days are documented on VROOOM VROOOM (NYC and Mexico City). Of course, these two sets have also been rendered redundant since their contents are all on the THRAK box.

 

You'll be making the right decision. Was going to recommend U.S.A. until I realized that this "Collectible" set included the Asbury Park show (which is, minus "Schizoid Man," the U.S.A. album). The Mainz show is an excellent bonus, and in fact an interesting demonstration how different KC could sound playing mostly the same repertoire a mere three months apart.

KC from 1972 to 1974 is one of the most transcendent live groups in the history of modern popular music. Very, very different from every other live iteration of the band (and I'm copiously educated in all of them). As others have said, once you've gotten this set, the next step might be either The Night Watch or even, if you dare, the dgmlive download of my favorite show of theirs, a semi-good audience recording from the Paris Olympia in April 1973, back when they were still transitioning from "full freak-out improv outfit" (as per the Muir era) into something a little more organized.

P.S. The live version of "Exiles" from the 6/28/74 Asbury Park show you'll be acquiring here is IMO the single finest live performance of anything King Crimson ever accomplished. I can't wait until you hear it, just so you'll get a sense of how radically (and for the better) the song evolved when played live.

 

Do those later boxes have better sound quality or is it more about the material?

 

Both, actually. Many of the shows included on The Great Deceiver were remixed for release on dgmlive/Collectors Club or inclusion on the boxed sets.

Also, it's quite fair to say that, once you've spent a certain amount of time with live Crimso from this era, you tend to become obsessive about the band even if you don't much care for the material they did before or after. It's such a singular combination of talents. Those three boxes really do contain a multitude of magnificent shows unavailable elsewhere.

 

Oh yeah. Hi rez (DVD-A and Blu Ray audio). Quite a bit of additional material too.

 

A number of shows on the Starless box came from the 'legendary Blue Tapes', a particularly good sounding set of soundboard reels for 1973.

 

Buy them. Buy them all and devour them before they devour you. That's how insane the playing is.

Admittedly, the Lark's box suffers from pretty poor sound quality, but the playing is absolutely over the top nuts. The Starless box and the Road to Red box are like clean air and clean water. Necessary by any definition of the word.

So, get Starless or Road to Red and see what you think. Don't dabble in the 2-CD formats. Dive into the vat of concentrated sulfuric acid and come out clean on the other side.

 

Another vote for The Collectable King Crimson: Volume One. I listen to that one more than any other Wetton-era release.

 

The Epitaph box set is great for the original band, The Great Deceiver box set can be bought in two separate volumes so you can buy one and see if you like it, Absent Lovers is great for the 80's, and the Mexico City concert is quite incendiary as well.

 

Live is where KC excelled. some of the improvs from the Wetton-era band are so tight that you wonder if they had some form of musical telepathy. They really took chances live and rarely stumbled.

I had the good fortune to chat with John on his website years ago and he said that playing live with KC was a transcendent experience, and that it almost always worked when they headed into uncharted territory.

There's a definite common texture when I look at what Crimson, Mahavishnu and Miles Davis were doing around this time.

 

Well, maybe dabble once or twice. Decide whether you prefer sulfuric acid or hydrochloride acid or even if you like bathing in acid at all. But, if you feel the hook set, dabble no longer, all hope is lost for you.

 

A DVD is the best way to start with KC live IMO.

I know you are mostly interested in the Wetton era, but I highly recommend the DVD "Neal and Jack and Me". It's reasonably cheap, still available on Burning Shed, and you get two different shows: Live in Japan 1984 and Live in Frejus 1982. Belew is quite an entertainer. I love several live versions of the 80s repertoire (Indiscipline and Waiting man for instance), but I rarely play these on CD. Part of the love comes from what I saw on TV, with my eyes. Deja Vrooom is another possibility. With the double trio, at the beginning is difficult to pick who is playing what, and the video can definitely help on this matter.

Sound and video quality are acceptable in both DVDs.