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LIVE AT THE MARQUEE 1969

King Crimson

Eclectic Prog


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King Crimson Live at The Marquee 1969  album cover
3.37 | 35 ratings | 3 reviews | 11% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, released in 1998

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. 21st Century Schizoid Man
2. Drop In
3. I Talk to the Wind
4. Epitaph
5. Travel Weary Capricorn
6. Improv (including Nola and Etude No 7)
7. Mars
8. Trees (bonus track)

Line-up / Musicians

- Robert Fripp / guitar
- Ian McDonald / woodwind, keyboards, Mellotron, vocals
- Greg Lake / bass, lead vocals
- Michael Giles / drums, percussion, vocals
- Peter Sinfield / illumination

Releases information

The 1st Collectors' Club release (October, 1998). Believed to be from the Sunday 6th July, 1969 performance at The Marquee Club in London, England. The bonus track, "Trees" is from Croydon, Fairfield Hall, October 17, 1969

Thanks to gboland for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
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KING CRIMSON Live at The Marquee 1969 ratings distribution


3.37
(35 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(11%)
11%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(31%)
31%
Good, but non-essential (46%)
46%
Collectors/fans only (11%)
11%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

KING CRIMSON Live at The Marquee 1969 reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Chus
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Bad Ian, bad Ian!!!

While I spent my KC reviews bashing Mel Collins over Ian McDonald I picked up the CD called "Live At The Marquee", in which I found the most horrifying sax improvs there could exist... Ian is very talented but sometimes he seems to lose control over his sax, the same way Mel Collins does with the flute, whereas Mel had some nice sax feeds in the "Live At Jacksonville" version of "Pictures Of A City" (even though his sax playing may not be technically flawless). However, the flute sounds flowing as always, especially on "Travel Weary Capricorn": a very jazz-flavoured piece, in which he pulls out a "Ian Anderson" if you know what I mean.

Fripp is absolutely marvelous on this record, and his harmonizations and arpeggios are flawlessly executed, as well as the occasional shreds. Greg Lake's vocals here are awfully forced and there's hardly any modulation in his voice, often just shouting. Giles is Giles as always, a very underrated drummer, although this album is probably not the best way to be introduced to his talents; I recommend the "McDonald & Giles" album and "In The Wake Of Poseidon": some of his best feeds.

This album has the worst bootleg quality you could find anywhere, but if you're not an audiophile or a sound quality freak, then this will present no problem. Proceed with caution though... this albums has as much flaws as virtues. 3 stars

Review by Evolver
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
3 stars I suppose that since there are very few good recordings of this original lineup of King Crimson, we must be thankful for whatever we can get. This one sounds like a very good performance, but the recording quality is poor. The entire recording is very distorted. You can barely discern what Michael Giles is playing on his drums. The bass is occasionally listenable, but usually distorts too much to hear as well.

The good points: There is a live version of I Talk To The Wind. This is the only live version I've heard from King Crimson. It is different from the studio version, as it has harmonized vocals all the way through. Nice. And Travel Weary Capricorn manages to wind its way through various styles (most of which I've heard on other recordings, but not all).

And there is another song tacked on as a bonus. Trees is another song with lots of harmonized vocals. But again, with all the distortion of the tape, It's hard to hear most of the song.

Three stars for the historical value of the recording. If the sound was better, the rating would be much higher.

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Much as a generation of neo-prog acts would do over a decade later, King Crimson honed their version of prog in part through a well-received series of appearances at the Marquee. Recorded the day after the band's historic supporting performance at the Rolling Stones' Hyde Park concert, this archival release finds them more able to stretch out and improvise than they were in Hyde Park, because when you're a new band who've been given a golden spot by the Stones you don't repay that favour by making them late for their set.

The recording quality is shaky - somewhat shakier than the Hyde Park recording, and since the Marquee was an indoor venue with its own in-house sound system rather than an outdoor festival I feel less generous about the recording quality here than I am about the Hyde Park stuff, but at the same time the additional improvisation and some intriguing sonic bits - like Drop In, an old Giles, Giles and Fripp number given a heavier spin here and which is recognisably an early version of what would later, with new Peter SInfield lyrics, become The Letters from Islands. It's a testament to the creativity of this version of the band that bits of music from this era would still be drawn on to fill out the running time four albums into their career.

Three and a half stars, round up to four stars if you are a big fan of the 1969 lineup of the band. If you have deep pockets and want the sound quality to be as good as it can be, this is in the Complete 1969 box set and has been given as much care and repair as can be expected. (Trees, a bonus track from a Fairfield Halls concert appended to previous releases on this, is relocated to the BBC Sessions disc on that set.)

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