King Crimson - November 14, 1972 Town Hall, Watford, England FLAC

King Crimson Prog Rock 2015

Tracklist

1-1	Larks Tongues In Aspic Pt I	10:38
1-2	Book Of Saturday	3:37
1-3	Improv I	25:46
1-4	Exiles	7:16
2-1	Easy Money	7:58
2-2	Improv II	11:52
2-3	The Talking Drum	5:04
2-4	Larks Tongues In Aspic Pt II	7:55
2-5	21st Century Schizoid Man	7:51

Companies, etc.

Phonographic Copyright (p) – King Crimson
Copyright (c) – King Crimson
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Credits

Bass Guitar, Vocals – John Wetton
Drums, Percussion – Bill Bruford
Guitar, Mellotron – Robert Fripp
Percussion [Allsorts] – Jamie Muir
Violin, Viola, Mellotron – David Cross

Notes

Five gigs into a 28-date tour and Crimso are on fine form in Watford on this decent quality audience recording. LTIA provides plenty of thrills and spills with the extraordinary interplay between Fripp and Wetton just before the whole band comes back in for the main theme and wind down into the violin and dulcimer duet between David Cross and Jamie Muir. With the coda still to be written, David Cross’s beautiful solo gracefully gives to way to Daily Games, as Book Of Saturday was still known at that time.

The extended improvisation begins with the ascending theme that will be familiar to listeners of the Bremen recording, splurging out into a funk-spattered workout whose violent stop-start build-up is given greater urgency as Bruford breaks out one of his trademark shuffles.

The second, though sadly truncated, major improv of the night opens and immediately the listener will recognise the arpegio that would be recycled into Fallen Angel. The assertive soloing from Cross against the motif places Crimson in a territory that wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Mahavishnu Orchestra album. Though Muir’s visual theatrics are obviously absent here, his thrashing of his kit and rig with chains comes over loud and clear in a superb Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part 2.

Ian Wildman was at the gig and was indeed responsible for ensuring the recording eventually found its way into the archive offers this eye-witness account. "One thing I remember about the concert is the power of the band and how the audience reacted at the end-totally won over! I also recall Jamie taking most of the stage with his kit, thrashing his metal plates during Larks II. I also seem to remember he did most of the drumming during Schizoid, Bill seemed to take a back seat."