Another great episode, always something to learn. I credit my son Mike for opening my musical pallet to this band, enjoyed the listens and the live shows we went to!
It's my understanding that Gordon Haskell was a childhood friend of Fripp's. Charig, Evans, Miller, Tippett were in Fripp's circle of British jazz friends at the time. He even produced some albums on which they participated.
Interesting to hear other people's opinions. In the Wake is a brilliant album, better than Court in my opinion but obviously it doesn't have the historical importance. It is transitional as it has Tippett and Collins, half original band half the Lizard lineup. Lizard is the first example to me, of Rock in Opposition. It contains a style that bands like Henry Cow and Univers Zero would run with. The acoustic guitars on that album make it sound very different for Crimson as well as the horns and Fripp's electric guitar solo at the end of The Battle of Glass Tears that pans across the speakers is to die for. Definitely one of my favourite albums of all time. Gordon Haskell played with Fripp when they played in dance hall bands long before Giles, Giles & Fripp and was a friend, that's why Fripp asked him to join the band. The idea was that they would perform live but unfortunately, the band disintegrated while the album was being recorded. Fripp produced Tippett's albums during this period and Matching Mole so jazz was a big thing for Fripp at the time along with him playing in Van Der Graaf Generators albums. I can't agree about Islands, it's a beautiful album, the most beautiful Crimson ever did. The band went on to play live but the music took on a completely different feel because Boz, Wallace and Collins performed it from a blues/swing/groove perspective. This can clearly be heard on Earthbound. They went on to perform as Sayle's backing band. Some ideas that Fripp was playing with in the live Crimson later turn up on Larks Tongues in Aspic, especially the title track but Fripp was also listening to a lot of classical music, especially Bartok and that changed it drastically, bringing in the violin. You really need to get the box sets that cover all their history. For this period obviously In the Court box and the big one Sailor's Tale that covers the other three and has a lot of live stuff from the Islands band. I'll definitely watch the companion videos to this but here's my personal list: 1. Larks Tongues in Aspic 2. Red 3. Lizard 4. Starless and Bible Black 5. Discipline 6. In the Wake of Poseidon 7. Islands 8. In the Court of the Crimson King (overfamiliarity breeds contempt maybe) 9. Thrak 10. Power to Believe 11. Three of a Perfect Pair 12. Beat 13. Construction of Light The box sets however show a very different side. 1. Heaven and Earth (because of all the Projeckts stuff, which I love) 2. The Road to Red 3. Starless 4. (On and off) The Road 5. Thrak 6. Sailor's Tales (live band just not to my tastes) 7. Larks Tongues in Aspic (low because the quality of the live shows are poor) 8. In the Court of the Crimson King (see above) It's very much worth getting Exposures box, get first solo album by Fripp with a lot a great live Frippertronics stuff.
The Exposures box is also worth it for the follow up solo albums and The League of Gentlemen stuff. Replace the big Larks box with the 4 disk 50th anniversary one that came out last year just for the 9+ hours of studio session tapes.
@@steverickenbacher7110 Replacing the Larks box is probably a good idea as live quality is poor, I haven't got the anniversary set, Fripp's had enough of my money.
@@stuartraybould2574 I guess I'm foolishly loyal ;) Live quality is poor because bands still weren't recording the shows themselves, for the most part. That's the only reason the Mike Millards of the world have gotten so much love. As a jazz fan who has heard much worse, I can live with the sound quality of those shows just to be able to hear the music.
@@steverickenbacher7110 True, I'm glad I have the box sets but that's it for me now however, if they bring one out for the Sylvian/Fripp stuff I'll definitely have to get that, we'll see.
