THE GREAT DECEIVER: LIVE 1973 - 1974

KING CRIMSON! WOW! It is hard to write this review without letting my emotions overtake what writing ability I may have left to me in these, my "getting more elder" years. In fact, I don't care....I am overtaken with emotion over this box set!

First: the personnel of Jamie Muir (or David Cross at times), John Wetton, Bill Bruford, and Robert Fripp are one monster with four heads...or four monsters with one head....or just four incredible musicians who are monstrous when plugged in and recorded live! From the opening sounds (you have to listen really hard) of the introduction (Walk On ... No Pussyfooting) into the first strains of Larks' Tongue In Aspic II, any question as to whether these guys came to play, is settled. One is immediately put in mind of those days when a concert was ALL about a band taking the stage and ripping the collective head of the audience completely off by simply playing! These were the days when the music took center stage. A band lived or died by their reputation as players, individually and collectively. The arrival of Mssrs. Wetton, Bruford, Fripp, and Muir (or Cross depending upon in which stage of life Crimson was captured at the time) into a town or concert venue was likened to Billy the Kidd and his Posse (I reckon Billy to be Fripp in this case) riding into town, garnering the awed stares of the aware but not yet initiated, and the envied respect of their fellow "gunslingers" ( I figure the fellow "gunslingers" to be the other musicians who would flock to a King Crimson concert to witness that which was reported by those from other towns, who had already seen these guys "get to work").

I love the four piece ensemble work that was representative of King Crimson during these concert years (1973-1974). The sound is clean. The listener doesn't have to work at discerning each instrument's contribution. Words like 'balance' and 'dynamics' are reintroduced into the vocabulary. The energy with which this music was played is astounding. The complexity of the music never overtakes the pure emotion that seems to spring forth from the inner core of this four headed monster. Even the more esoteric pieces aren't difficult to love. What a joy it must have been to participate, either from the stage or as an audience member, in a King Crimson concert in those years.

There really isn't any glaring element of this four cd box set upon which a true critic might set his sights to denigrate (although we all know somebody that could find something to criticize regarding the weather even on the most perfect of days - unfortunately, many so called critics are the same). I suppose the fact that some songs appear more than once as they were captured at different venues over the course of a tour or two, could be one of those elements, but I consider these points of interest. Since most of us never get to follow a group from one town to the next, we don't get to see how certain songs and performances are varied by the musicians who play them night after night. When the group of musicians are as talented as these, even the same song heard more than once is interesting because the ideas born within the performances are fresh and exciting.

In closing, I put CD One on my sound system as I lowered the top to my convertible yesterday. As I drove down the road listening to Larks' Tongue in Aspic II loudly, I found myself swept up and at one point, cruising at 70 MPH screaming at the top of my lungs. Call it primal, call it crazy or spontaneous combustion kindled unexpectedly by some strange unseen force.........as for me, I call it good music!