This weekend coming up will be just plain crazy. I won't be around at all tomorrow, and I doubt I will be able to do much more than scan headlines on Sunday, but I wanted to put up a music post anyway.
Last week, I highlighted one of the quintessential British Progressive Rock Bands of the 1970's. This is another. There are quite a few King Crimson videos available on YouTube, but I like this one because (a) it is of the third incarnation of the band, which included, along with Fripp, John Wetton on bass, David Cross on violin, Bill Bruford on drums, and the wonderfully manic yet frightfully sane Jamie Muir on percussion; and (b), because Muir left the band before the finishing touches were put on its initial release, this video of him with the rest of the band is a gem. It doesn't have the whole of "Larks Tongue, Part 1", but it does give the uninitiated a glimpse of who and what King Crimson were, and what they were capable of doing. My own preference is for later songs, including "Fracture", "Starless and Bible Black", and even the somewhat lugubrious "The Night Watch". I just wish there was a long-form video which captured the ensembles' attempt at group improvisation, such as those captured on the now out-of-print four-CD set, The Great Deceiver. One on the first CD, which for some reason Fripp gave the name "Is There Intelligent Life In the Universe, or My Mate Atom", has an opening bass line that would make plates rattle four houses over.
