Larks', followed closely by Red, then Starless - the live USA if you're a completist.

That's pretty much it. The earlier stuff is fun/interesting in parts.

I cannot fathom how people voluntarily listen to music that has that 'stick' bass thingy on it.

cgarges wrote:I love the mid-nineties incarnation. The stuff they were doing was interesting and entertaining and a great experiment in terms of sort of having two bands available at the same time. I saw them in Miami in 1996 and it was astounding. I really dug the double-trio approach to the older material as well.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Ditto. I saw Project II(?) w/ Fripp, Trey Gunn, and Belew on Drums at the Park West. It was astounding. This band, way more than most, seems creatively oblivious to the "in your prime" cliche.

I guess they're kind of like the anti-Stones.

Sid Hartha wrote: I cannot fathom how people voluntarily listen to music that has that 'stick' bass thingy on it.

Ya can't fathom someone else's affinity for a particular sound? Really?

thyklopth wrote:Ya can't fathom someone else's affinity for a particular sound? Really?

Yes, that is correct.

Sid Hartha wrote:

thyklopth wrote:Ya can't fathom someone else's affinity for a particular sound? Really?

Yes, that is correct.

Well then- maybe it's high time you left the kiddie pool. I think there's poop in it.

trilonaut wrote:the double trio didn't really sound like a double trio to me.

instead of guitar, bass, drums, guitar, bass, drums,

it sounded like guitar, guitar, bass, drums, drums, plus trey gunn on stick/warr relegated to doubling fripp's parts or maybe doing a little ambient noodling.

Headphones/Earphones - can't remember if it's the studio record or the live recordings that have each trio fairly seperated into L/R:

Belew / Levin / Bruford and Fripp / Gunn / Masteletto

if I'm not mistaken.

It takes a little getting used to, but golly, it gets furious.

Sid Hartha wrote:

thyklopth wrote:Ya can't fathom someone else's affinity for a particular sound? Really?

Yes, that is correct.

The trouble with these Stick thingies are that there are a lot of people who play them who like to wank hard with them.

Trey Gunn and Tony Levin are not so.

Though the Larks through Red period is my favourite, the strongest album all around is Discipline, IMO. If Red had "Fracture" instead of "Providence", then it´d win. If "Fracture" was a one-off single, it´d probably win as well, that track is just the best.

90's / 00's Crimson, not so good.

I find what i really like is live off-the-cuff insanity, for instance "Absury Park" live on USA, I beleive a bit of jam can be found in "Starless" on the album recording.

It seems that the studio recordings were templates to jump off into space, and its fun when Crimson gets a new lineup right after making an album. The occasion and the challenge make for very unexpected and inspired performances. I find the live tour behind Power to Beleive animated those tunes to life. The album sounds like it was recorder in a titanium bomb shelter, so on a nicely mic'd stage with weird blue horns it finds its home.

For all those turned off by "exploring the limits of (whatever ticks you)" i think Crimson is really about taking the road less traveled.

Mr. Chimp wrote:1980's Absent Lovers Live 2CD

Last day of the tour, tight as shit, and still exploring the songs. This is one
of the best live records I've listened to. Industry is just amazing. And it's
mostly the trilogy records - some older stuff; a must have.

Sid Hartha wrote:I cannot fathom how people voluntarily listen to music that has that 'stick' bass thingy on it.

Yeah. Any old schlub can play stick. It's like a fake bass or a really arrogant
guitar.