Larks' Tongue 50 Years Ago Today

[InhumanResource]

Larks' Tongues is 50

The debut album by the new lineup of King Crimson released Larks' Tongues In Aspic on this day 50 years ago.
It proved to be a great group of musicians who were especially powerful live.
I was buying their albums in jr high and high school as they were released and recall fondly a picnic on my parents roof with friends listening to the Starless And Bible Black album.
What's your relationship to Larks' Tongues and the great lineup of musicians who made it?
I almost described it as the greatest lineup which it would be except for the original lineup for In The Court Of The Crimson King

My favorite and the one that started it all is Starless and Bible Black. After that I have a soft spot for Discipline and Three of a Perfect Pair. I LOVE them when they are playing a tune, but some of those other albums are pretty hard for me to listen to when maybe only 20% of them are songs broken up by lots of uh, other stuff.

 

[Adagietto]

My favorite and the one that started it all is Starless and Bible Black. After that I have a soft spot for Discipline and Three of a Perfect Pair. I LOVE them when they are playing a tune, but some of those other albums are pretty hard for me to listen to when maybe only 20% of them are songs broken up by lots of uh, other stuff.

If you like Starless and Bible Black, may I suggest the album The Night Watch? It's a live '73 performance from which Trio, Starless and Bible Black, and Fracture were extracted for the Starless and Bible Black album. It also has a version of Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part I) that supposedly wasn't available elsewhere at the time of release, including bootlegs. There's more to like, including good sound quality, which make it (IMO) an essential KC album, particularly of that line-up.

 

[Pauly 4001]

If you like Starless and Bible Black, may I suggest the album The Night Watch? It's a live '73 performance from which Trio, Starless and Bible Black, and Fracture were extracted for the Starless and Bible Black album. It also has a version of Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part I) that supposedly wasn't available elsewhere at the time of release, including bootlegs. There's more to like, including good sound quality, which make it (IMO) an essential KC album, particularly of that line-up.

Let's not forget the epic but maybe discontinued 4 CD set The Great Deceiver which shares some of the same performances as The Night Watch and will scorch your hair off.
I once spent a little too much time listening to it over and over at Christmas time and it made for a dark and intense holiday with Wetton and Bruford thrashing the bejeesus out of everything in their paths.
Edit:
The Great Deceiver IS discontinued and was re released in two sets one of which is The Night Watch.

 

[BassBrass]

Choosing a "best" Crim lineup is a little like choosing a "best" Zappa lineup. It hurts my brain a little.

Choosing a "best" Crim lineup is a little like choosing a "best" Miles Davis band lineup. While I'm most influenced by the band I saw in the early 70s, the quintet with Shorter-Hancock-Carter-Williams is the peak point of American jazz improvisation as an abstract art form. Strangely, by pure chance Larks Tongue is the only Crimson album I didn't own!

 

[ToneMonkey]

I saw that band (sans percussionist Muir) the following year. Strawbs opened. KC absolutely killed that night. Wetton was especially powerful and dynamic that night. Still a top 10 mountaintop concert.

 

[Isaac_James]

If you forced me to pick a favorite... well, first of all, shame on you. But second, I guess it would have to be Discipline. Levin/Belew era had something to it that just tickles my brain the right way.

This one's up there too though.

 

[Mickey666]

Welton is one of the reasons I became a Bass player... Red is my favorite KC album...

I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like Tony Levin, or Adrian Belew.

 

[pbass2]

I once spent a little too much time listening to it over and over at Christmas time and it made for a dark and intense holiday with Wetton and Bruford thrashing the bejeesus out of everything in their paths.

I was a mega prog kid in the 70's, but in particular I was a Yes superfan--totally obsessed. I wanted to go live in some Roger Dean world with fairies floating about. But, Crimson was the yin to that yang for me - they brought me back from being too Close to the Edge like a splash of cold water in the face.

 

[WG Plum]

Welton is one of the reasons I became a Bass player... Red is my favorite KC album...

I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like Tony Levin, or Adrian Belew.

Discipline I love, and I dig Thrak, which was the first KC album I ever bought (just turned 50 least year and came to Crimson when Thrak was released and I heard a review on NPR), but overall I'm much more of a Wetton-era fan. I love Tony Levin, he's one of my biggest influences, though more so via his work with Peter Gabriel.

 

[Michedelic]

In case you don't know, for all things merch and media…
Link Removed
I mean, who wouldn't want this, it sends a message…

Link Removed
I'm on the email list.

Then the main historical/archival site(from whence that article came)…
DGM Live

There really is no "best", just your favorite. There are those people that I've met that are stuck in the Greg Lake era and couldn't handle the Belew years for being too 'new wave' or something, and the Wetton/Bruford line-up was too heavy and weird for them. Others didn't get the latter day three drummer band. Whatevs. Time marches on.

Then there are the near-Crimsons…the Trios, Sunday All Over The World, and the David Sylvian album/tour, as well as the Fripp-less 21st Century Schizoid Band.

 

[pbass2]

Welton is one of the reasons I became a Bass player... Red is my favorite KC album...

I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like Tony Levin, or Adrian Belew.

I never got into the later KC that much either. The Wetton years were it for me as well. But I appreciated how Fripp reinvented KC--it really was a completely different band and sound.

 

[Chrisk-K]

Wetton + Fripp + Bruford = pure magic.

I always thought Bruford should have recruited Wetton rather than Jeff Berlin for his solo projects.

 

[Londo Molari]

Fell in love with KC and the Mellotron in 1969 with the Court LP.
Saw the LTIA band 3 times on the tour that year.
My favorite line up of all time.
Got to spend some time with Mr. Fripp when he did the Frippertronics non-tour.
Got to spend some time with Mr. Wetton when he did the first UK tour.
Started using LTIA pt. II as a bench mark for any of my prog / ambitious projects in 1975.
Here is a poor boom box recording of my 1977 band covering LTIA pt. II. My first recording of a LTIA tune live with a band.
It took a few years to digest all that new way of thinking about what was really cool.

Larks Tongues In Aspic pt. II | Vasil Zook

 

[jerry]

Court will always be special because I remember what an impact it had when it came out out in my very young mind, but my favorite era of Crimson is the Wetton period. I'm partial to Red and the live stuff from that period, they were really going for it.

 

[getbent]

Let's not forget the epic but maybe discontinued 4 CD set The Great Deceiver which shares some of the same performances as The Night Watch and will scorch your hair off.

Seconded! The Great Deceiver box got me into KC in the mid 90's and I was very fortunate to pick up a copy in the early 00's. Same line-up as LTIA, minus percussionist Jamie Muir, and it's just crazy good music. Wetton was a beast.

The Great Deceiver (King Crimson album) - Wikipedia

 

[ajkula66]

I listened to that very album two hours ago - being completely unaware of the anniversary - and yes, it's still my favourite KC album, with Red being an extremely close second...

 

[Patrice B]

Wetton + Fripp + Bruford = pure magic.

I always thought Bruford should have recruited Wetton rather than Jeff Berlin for his solo projects.

I think their relation went a little bit sour after the U.K. adventure…

**Edit: I was wrong, sorry. Bruford did solo with Berlin before joining U.K. for only the first album. Still, I've read somewhere that there was some bitterness between them (Bruford and Wetton) after U.K.

 

[Patrice B]

Not thread related but the first U.K. album is really good too. Wetton, Bruford, Holdsworth and Jobson. I have it in digital format and a Live album of them too (Bozzio on drums).

 

[Pauly 4001]

I think their relation went a little bit sour after the U.K. adventure…

**Edit: I was wrong, sorry. Bruford did solo with Berlin before joining U.K. for only the first album. Still, I've read somewhere that there was some bitterness between them (Bruford and Wetton) after U.K.

In this interview Mr Wetton while touring with the second version of UK says he doesn't consider Bruford to be a good jazz drummer, sort of brags about severing ties with Bruford and Holdsworth and outright slags Holdsworth as a performer.


Bloody edit:
search for this:
John Wetton (King Crimson, U.K., Asia): The Complete Boffomundo Interview

 

[Michael Milner]

I think In The Court of the Crimson King was probably the best record the band has ever released. That being said, the version that recorded Lark's Tongues was very good. I think that version of KC had to be heard live to appreciate just how incendiary the band was. I had a bootleg back in the day titled "The Heretic" (I think it was a copy of a King Biscuit Flower Hour concert broadcast) that was just outstanding. I actually preferred it the live album "USA", which was related after Fripp broke up the band. I have acquired several good live KC cd's from that version of the band that were released over the years. I was fortunate to see KC when the were touring to support Discipline (they played the old Masonic Temple in Toronto). Fripp, not unlike Miles Davis, has always tried to have his bands evolve, so each one is its own unique version. I have Lark's Tongues on vinyl (Japanese Import).