(2020) King Crimson – The Complete 1969 Recordings


Review:
There will, inevitably, exist some cynics who will dispute the first comment about King Crimson’s long-awaited The Complete 1969 Recordings box set, but it’s difficult to imagine it being anything but the plain truth. This is, indeed, the definitive final word on the band’s first lineup, collecting multiple versions of its earth-shattering 1969 Island Records debut, In the Court of the Crimson King: An Observation by King Crimson, alongside sonically upgraded live shows, studio sessions, BBC recordings, various mixes/remixes, alternate takes and more into a whopping twenty-CD, two-DVD and four-Blu Ray box set. It’s what many fans have been waiting for since the band’s 50th anniversary year in 2019 and, at long last, it’s here in all its (relative) completist glory. The box collects, in one place, all three previous releases of the band’s groundbreaking debut, In the Court of the Crimson King: An Observation By King Crimson, each featuring different stereo (and, in two cases, surround sound) mixes. All “alternate albums,” additional takes, mixes, vinyl transfers and more, associated with each successive reissue, are also included. These include: In the Court of the Crimson King (Original Master Edition), a tape located after the turn of the millennium and first issued in 2005; the 40th Anniversary Series reissue from 2009, featuring Steven Wilson’s first new stereo and surround sound mixes; and the 50th Anniversary three-CD/one-Blu Ray edition from 2019, which features revised surround and stereo mixes from Wilson (including, for the first time, instrumental mixes that reveal much that might have been less clear with the vocals on top). The set also features a separate Blu Ray disc with a brand new Dolby Atmos mix, also courtesy of Wilson, for those whose systems support it, along with a new Quad mix of an early duo take on “I Talk to the Wind,” and David SIngleton’s 68-minute “fly on the wall” collage, “Let’s Make a Hit Waxing”, collected from various recording sessions, as the Crimson manager/producer did with the “Keep That One, Nick” disc, from the 40th anniversary box set for 1973’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. If that were all the box included, it might be enough. But The Complete 1969 Recordings goes much further. A full seven CDs of sonically upgraded live performances, some sourced from audience bootleg recordings, others from soundboard cassette tapes, span eight dates in six locations. The band’s “coming out” live show at a Hyde Park mini-festival, headlined by The Rolling Stones in front of 650,000 people on July 5, 1969, includes a relatively short, seven-song set (and, appended to the CD, a reunion meeting of the original band members in London, 1997). Seven tracks represent the group’s even more incendiary show from the following evening, at the smaller but nevertheless historic venue, The Marquee. Six songs are drawn from an August 9 performance at the Plumpton Festival, while a longer, ten-song set comes from Chesterfield’s Jazz Club on September 6, spread across two CDs and taken from a source at least one generation better than previous versions. Finally, eighteen tracks culled from two nights at New York City’s Fillmore East and two more at San Francisco’s Fillmore West, recorded on November 21 and 22 and December 13 and 14 respectively, both come from higher quality soundboard recordings. Five songs recorded for the BBC from two separate recordings/broadcasts are also included on a separate CD, taken from a few different sources. The same disc also includes a very low-fi but archivally important recording of “Trees,” recorded on October 17, 1969, at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls. Part of “Trees” would later be excised and reshaped into the thundering, jazz-inflected song, initially titled “A Man, A City.” Performed live by King Crimson during its fall, 1969 American tour, the song was ultimately honed further and retitled “Pictures of a City,” to be subsequently recorded In the Wake of Poseidon (Panegyric, 1970). That sophomore effort came out just seven months after In the Court of the Crimson King’s October 10, 1969 release date, when many musicians, fans and critics had their opinion of what music could be was well and truly shattered. There were also some significant changes afoot for Poseidon, but more about that later. The Complete 1969 Recordings also includes six full CDs of recording sessions from Morgan and Wessex Studios, laid down between June 12 and August 13, 1969, along with the “Let’s Make a Hit Waxing” CD.





Tracklist:

Disc 1: Live at Hyde Park
1 21st Century Schizoid Man
2 The Court of the Crimson King
3 Get Thy Bearings
4 Announcement (Incomplete)
5 Epitaph
6 Mantra
7 Travel Weary Capricorn
8 Mars
9 Band Reunion Meeting

Disc 2: Live at the Marquee
1 21st Century Schizoid Man
2 Drop In
3 Announcement (Incomplete)
4 I Talk To The Wind
5 Epitaph (Incomplete)
6 Travel Weary Capricorn
7 Improv (inc Nola and Etude No. 7)
8 Mars

Disc 3: Live at Plumpton Festival
1 21st Century Schizoid Man
2 Get Thy Bearings
3 Announcement
4 The Court Of The Crimson King
5 Mantra
6 Travel Weary Capricorn
7 Improv
8 Mars

Disc 4: Live at Chesterfield Jazz Club
1 21st Century Schizoid Man
2 Drop In
3 Announcement
4 Epitaph
5 Get Thy Bearings
6 Announcement
7 I Talk To The Wind

Disc 5: Live at Chesterfield Jazz Club
1 Announcement
2 The Court Of The Crimson King
3 Mantra
4 Travel Weary Capricorn
5 Improv
6 Mars

Disc 6: Live at the Fillmore East
1 The Court Of The Crimson King (Incomplete)
2 Announcement
3 A Man, A City
4 Announcement
5 Epitaph
6 Announcement
7 21st Century Schizoid Man
8 The Court Of The Crimson King (Incomplete)
9 Announcement
10 A Man, A City
11 Announcement
12 Epitaph
13 Announcement
14 21st Century Schizoid Man

Disc 7: Live at the Fillmore West
1 Mantra
2 Travel Weary Capricorn
3 Improv Travel Bleary Capricorn
4 Mars
5 The Court of the Crimson King
6 Announcement
7 Drop In
8 A Man, A City
9 Announcement
10 Epitaph
11 Announcement
12 21st Century Schizoid Man
13 Announcement
14 Mars

Disc 8: Album – Original Master Edition – expanded
1 21st Century Schizoid Man
2 I Talk to the Wind
3 Epitaph
4 Moonchild
5 The Court of the Crimson King
6 21st Century Schizoid Man
7 I Talk to the Wind
8 Epitaph
9 The Court of the Crimson King (Single A-Side)
10 The Court of the Crimson King (Single B-Side)

Disc 9: Alternate album – expanded
1 Wind Session
2 21st Century Schizoid Man (Morgan Studio Version with Overdubs)
3 I Talk To The Wind (Alt 2019 Mix)
4 I Talk To The Wind (Duo Version 2019 Mix)
5 Epitaph (Isolated Vocal 2019 Mix)
6 Epitaph (Alt Take 2019 Mix)
7 Moonchild (Take One 2019 Mix)
8 The Court of the Crimson King (Take 3 2019 Mix)
9 21st Century Schizoid Man (Trio Version 2019 Mix)

Disc 10: 2009 Album Mixes – expanded
1 21st Century Schizoid Man
2 I Talk to the Wind
3 Epitaph
4 Moonchild
5 The Court of the Crimson King
6 Moonchild [Full Version]
7 I Talk to the Wind [Duo Version]
8 I Talk to the Wind [Alternate Mix]
9 Epitaph [Backing Track]
10 Wind Session [21st Century Schizoid Man Intro]

Disc 11: 2019 Album Mixes & Instrumental Mixes
1 21st Century Schizoid Man
2 I Talk to the Wind
3 Epitaph
4 Moonchild
5 The Court of the Crimson King
6 21st Century Schizoid Man
7 I Talk to the Wind
8 Epitaph
9 Moonchild (Edit)
10 The Court of the Crimson King

Disc 12: Let’s Make a Hit Waxing
1 Let’s Make a Hit Waxing

Disc 13: Sessions, Disc 1
1 21st Century Schizoid Man (Morgan Studio Instrumental)
2 Epitaph Takes 1 to 3
3 Epitaph Takes 4 to 8
4 I Talk to the Wind Takes 1 to 4

Disc 14: Sessions Disc 2
1 I Talk to the Wind Takes 5 to 8
2 I Talk to the Wind Takes 9 to 12
3 The Court of the Crimson King Stereo Takes

Disc 15: Sessions Disc 3
1 The Court of the Crimson King Take 6
2 The Court of the Crimson King Take 1 and 2
3 The Court of the Crimson King Takes 3 to 7
4 The Court of the Crimson King Takes 8 to 10
5 The Court of the Crimson King Trailer Take 1

Disc 16: Sessions Disc 4
1 The Court of the Crimson King (Stormy Mix)
2 I Talk to the Wind Takes 3 to 6
3 I Talk to the Wind Takes 7 to 9
4 I Talk to the Wind Early Take
5 Drum Check
6 21st Century Schizoid Man Sax Sound Check
7 Ahh (Stormy Mix)
8 I Talk to the Wind (Stormy Mix)

Disc 17: Sessions Disc 5
1 Epitaph Takes 1 to 3
2 Epitaph Takes 5 to 11
3 Epitaph Take 2 (Stormy Mix)

Disc 18: Sessions Disc 6
1 Moonchild Takes 1 to 8
2 Moonchild Take 9 (complete)
3 Trailer Take and Take Overdubbed
4 Pipe Organ Takes
5 Wind Noise Takes
6 The Court of the Crimson King Takes

Disc 19: Selected Recordings 1968
Giles, Giles and Fripp
1 Tremelo Study in A Major (Spanish Suite)
2 Suite No. 1
3 Scrivens
4 Why Don’t You Just Drop In (i)
5 I Talk to the Wind (i)
6 Plastic Pennies
7 Passages of Time
8 Under the Sky (ii)
9 I Talk to the Wind (ii)
10 Erudite Eyes
11 Make it Today (ii)
12 Wonderland
13 Why Don’t You Just Drop In (ii)
14 She is Loaded

Disc 20: BBC Sessions and Trees
1 21st Century Schizoid Man
2 Epitaph
3 The Court of the Crimson King
4 I Talk to the Wind
5 Get Thy Bearings
Live at Fairfield Hall, Croydon:
6 Trees


Media Report:
Genre: prog-rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits