Larks' Tongues in Aspic | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 23 March 1973 | |||
Recorded | January and February 1973 | |||
Studio | Command, London | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 46:36 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | King Crimson | |||
King Crimson chronology | ||||
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King Crimson studio chronology | ||||
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Larks' Tongues in Aspic is the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock group King Crimson, released on 23 March 1973 [2] through Island Records in the UK and Atlantic Records in the United States and Canada. This album is the debut of King Crimson's third incarnation, featuring co-founder and guitarist Robert Fripp along with four new members: bass guitarist and vocalist John Wetton, violinist and keyboardist David Cross, percussionist Jamie Muir, and drummer Bill Bruford. It is a key album in the band's evolution, drawing on Eastern European classical music and European free improvisation as central influences.
At the end of the tour to promote King Crimson's previous album, Islands , Fripp had parted company with the three other members of the band (Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace). Collins has stated that he was asked to stay on with the new lineup of the band, but that he decided not to continue. [3] The previous year had also seen the ousting of the band's lyricist and artistic co-director Peter Sinfield. Fripp had cited a developing musical (and sometimes personal) incompatibility with the other members, [4] and was now writing starker music drawing on influences such as Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix and free improvisation. [5] [6]
In order to pursue these new (for King Crimson) ideas, Fripp first recruited bass guitarist/singer John Wetton (a longstanding friend of the band who had lobbied to join at least once before but had become a member of Family in the meantime). The second recruit was Jamie Muir, an experimental free-improvising percussionist who had previously been performing in the Music Improvisation Company with Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, as well as in Sunship (with Alan Gowen and Allan Holdsworth) and Boris (with Don Weller and Jimmy Roche, both later of jazz-rock band Major Surgery). [7]
On drums (and to be paired with Muir) Fripp recruited original Yes drummer Bill Bruford. Another longstanding King Crimson admirer, Bruford felt that he had done all he could with Yes at that point, and was keen to leave the band before they embarked on their Close to the Edge tour, believing that the experimentation-oriented King Crimson would be a more expansive outlet for his musical ideas. The final member of the new band was David Cross, a violinist, keyboardist and occasional flute player.
Larks' Tongues in Aspic showed several significant changes in King Crimson's sound. Having previously relied on saxophone and flute as significant melodic and textural instruments, the band had replaced them with a single violin. Muir's percussion rig featured eccentric instrumentation including chimes, bells, thumb pianos, a musical saw, shakers, rattles, found objects (such as sheet metal, toys and baking trays), plus miscellaneous drums and chains. The Mellotron (a staple part of King Crimson's instrumentation since their debut album) was retained for this new phase and was played by Fripp and Cross, both of whom also played electric piano. The instrumental pieces on this album have strong jazz fusion and European free-improvisation influences, and some aggressively hard-hitting portions verging on heavy metal. [8] [9]
The band's multi-instrumentalism initially extended to Wetton and Muir playing (respectively) violin and trombone on occasion at early gigs. Wetton and Cross contributed additional piano and flute respectively to the album sessions. Larks' Tongues in Aspic is the only studio album with this particular lineup, since Muir left the group in February 1973, shortly after the album was completed and before they could embark for touring.
"Easy Money" was composed piecemeal, with Fripp writing the verse and Wetton later adding the chorus part. [10]
The name of the album came from Muir, who thought that the title aptly described the music. "It may or may not be an actual dish available at your neighborhood delicatessen," Fripp stated. "But what it means to me is something precious which is stuck, but visible. Something precious, which is encased in form." [11]
The album spawned the concert staple "Exiles", whose Mellotron introduction had been adapted from an instrumental piece called "Mantra" which the band's original line up had performed throughout 1969. At that time, as well as in late 1972, the melody was played by Fripp on guitar. In addition, a section of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One" was reworked from a piece entitled "A Peacemaking Stint Unrolls", which was recorded by the Islands-era band and finally released in 2010 as a bonus track on that album's 40th anniversary edition.
The album peaked at number 20 on the UK charts and at number 61 in the U.S. [12] In 2012 Larks' Tongues in Aspic was issued as part of the King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series, including the release of an expansive box set subtitled "The Complete Recordings". This CD, DVD-A and Blu-ray set includes every available recording of the short-lived 5-man line-up, through live performances and studio sessions.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
All About Jazz | [13] |
AllMusic | [14] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B− [15] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [16] |
The Great Rock Discography | 8/10 [17] |
Mojo | [18] |
MusicHound | [19] |
Record Collector | [20] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [21] |
In his contemporary review, Alan Niester of Rolling Stone summarized the album saying "You can't dance to it, can't keep a beat to it, and it doesn't even make good background music for washing the dishes" and recommended listeners to "approach it with a completely open mind." He described the songs on the album as "a total study in contrasts, especially in moods and tempos – blazing and electric one moment, soft and intricate the next." While not fully appreciative of the music on the record, he complimented the violin playing as "tasteful [...] in the best classical tradition." [22]
Bill Martin wrote in 1998, "[f]or sheer formal inventiveness, the most important progressive rock record of 1973 was... Larks' Tongues in Aspic", adding that listening to this album and Yes's Close to the Edge will demonstrate "what progressive rock is all about". [23]
AllMusic's retrospective review was resoundingly positive, marking every aspect of the band's transition from a jazz-influenced vein to a more experimental one as a complete success. It deemed John Wetton "the group's strongest singer/bassist since Greg Lake's departure," and gave special praise to the remastered edition. [14]
Robert Christgau's retrospective review gave a more ambivalent view, saying of the band's instrumental work, "not only doesn't it cook, which figures, it doesn't quite jell either." [15]
In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came number 22 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums". [24]
Larks' Tongues in Aspic comes in at #20 in Rolling Stone's "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time" list. [25]
The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [26]
The progressive metal bands Dream Theater and Murmur [27] both covered "Larks' Tongues in Aspic Pt. II". Dream Theater's version is featured on the special edition of their album Black Clouds & Silver Linings .
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One" (instrumental) | David Cross, Robert Fripp, John Wetton, Bill Bruford, Jamie Muir | 13:36 |
2. | "Book of Saturday" | Fripp, Wetton, Richard Palmer-James | 2:53 |
3. | "Exiles" | Cross, Fripp, Palmer-James | 7:40 |
Total length: | 24:09 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Easy Money" | Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James | 7:54 |
2. | "The Talking Drum" (instrumental) | Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford, Muir | 7:26 |
3. | "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two" (instrumental) | Fripp | 7:07 |
Total length: | 22:27 |
Chart (1973) | Peak position |
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Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [29] | 56 |
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts) [30] | 15 |
Italian Albums ( Musica e Dischi ) [31] | 8 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [32] | 26 |
UK Albums (OCC) [33] | 20 |
US Billboard 200 [34] | 61 |
Chart (2012) | Peak position |
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UK Independent Albums (OCC) [35] | 35 |
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC) [36] | 19 |
King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London. The band drew inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, blues, industrial, electronic, experimental music and new wave. They exerted a strong influence on the early 1970s progressive rock movement, including on contemporaries such as Yes and Genesis, and continue to inspire subsequent generations of artists across multiple genres. The band earned a large cult following.
Starless and Bible Black is the sixth studio album by English progressive rock band King Crimson, released in March 1974 by Island Records in the United Kingdom and by Atlantic Records in the United States. It carries over most of the same lineup which appeared on the preceding album, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, with only percussionist Jamie Muir not returning, and is the band's final album with violinist David Cross. In order to more faithfully capture the band's live energy, much of the material on this album was tracked in concert and edited together with studio recordings. The album includes multiple fully improvised pieces, alongside "Fracture", one of King Crimson's most challenging pieces to perform.
Red is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band King Crimson. It was released in October 1974 on the Island Records label in the United Kingdom, and Atlantic Records in North America and Japan. The album was recorded at Olympic Studios in London in July and August 1974, and produced by the band themselves. The track "Providence" was a free improvisation recorded at their 30 June 1974 concert at the Palace Theater in Providence, Rhode Island. Parts of some of the pieces were conceived during previous improvisations performed by the band live. "Starless" was originally written for their previous album, Starless and Bible Black (1974), but was considered too primitive to be released at the time. The lengthy version included on Red was refined and performed during concerts throughout 1974.
The Beat Club, Bremen is a live album by the band King Crimson, released through the King Crimson Collectors' Club in February 1999. It was recorded on the German programme Beat Club, in Bremen, West Germany, on October 17, 1972 and first aired on November 25. The video of this performance is included in the deluxe "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" box set.
The Night Watch is a live album by the English rock band King Crimson, recorded in Amsterdam in 1973, and released in 1997.
B'Boom: Live in Argentina is a live album by the band King Crimson, released in 1995. All songs were recorded between 6 and 16 October 1994 at the Broadway Theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, except for "Heartbeat" which was recorded in Córdoba.
USA is a live album by the English progressive rock band King Crimson, released in 1975. It was recorded at the Casino, Asbury Park, New Jersey, on 28 June 1974, except “21st Century Schizoid Man”, which was recorded at the Palace Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island, United States, on 30 June 1974. Violin and electric piano overdubs by Eddie Jobson were recorded at Olympic Studios, London in 1975.
Live in Central Park, NYC is a live album by the band King Crimson, released through the King Crimson Collectors' Club in April 2000. It was recorded at the Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park, New York, USA, July 1, 1974. This was the last performance by the 1970s incarnation, and the last by King Crimson before reforming in 1981.
Live in Mexico City is a live album by band King Crimson, first released as a free Windows Media Audio download in 1999. Some tracks later appeared on the live albums Cirkus: The Young Persons' Guide to King Crimson Live (1999) and Vrooom Vrooom (2001), and as part of the expanded "THRAK BOX" in 2015. The album was recorded at the Metropolitan Theater, Mexico City, Mexico, 2–4 August 1996
Frame by Frame: The Essential King Crimson is a 4-CD box set by the band King Crimson, released in 1991.
Jamie Muir is a Scottish painter and former musician, best known for his work as the percussionist in King Crimson from 1972–1973, appearing prominently on their fifth album Larks' Tongues In Aspic.
Cirkus: The Young Persons' Guide to King Crimson Live is a live album compilation from King Crimson. It was released in 1999 through Virgin Records.
"Starless" is a composition by English progressive rock band King Crimson. It is the final track on their seventh studio album, Red, released on 1 October 1974.
"Fallen Angel" is a composition by English progressive rock band King Crimson. It is the second track on their seventh studio album, Red, released on 1 October 1974.
"Larks' Tongues in Aspic" is a musical suite by the English progressive rock band King Crimson. Spanning thirty years and four albums, the series comprises five parts, all of which carry unifying musical motifs. Parts I and II were released as the introductory and final tracks on King Crimson's 1973 album of the same name, part III was featured on their 1984 album Three of a Perfect Pair, part IV appeared on 2000's The Construkction of Light, and the final part, "Level Five", was included on the 2003 album The Power to Believe. Despite breaking the naming convention, Robert Fripp, King Crimson founder and only constant contributor to the suite, insists that "Level Five" is part of the pentalogy.
The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume One – 1969–1974 is the first of two 4-CD sets of compilation albums, showcasing the entire production of the British progressive rock band King Crimson. This set of discs contains both studio and live performances ranging from the beginnings of the band in 1969 to their first dissolution in 1974.
The Great Deceiver is a 4-CD box set by the band King Crimson, consisting of live recordings from 1973 and 1974, released on Virgin Records in 1992. In 2007, it was reissued on Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile label as two separate 2-CD sets, each featuring new artwork. The box set is titled after a song from the group's 1974 album Starless and Bible Black.
Live at the Orpheum is a live album by the band King Crimson, released by Discipline Global Mobile records in 2015. The album was recorded on 30 September and 1 October at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, California on the band's The Elements of King Crimson US tour of 2014.
Larks' Tongues in Aspic is the second of the major box set releases from English progressive rock group King Crimson, released in 2012 by Discipline Global Mobile & Panegyric Records. The set is devoted to all existing recordings associated with the 1973 album Larks' Tongues In Aspic.
... an untitled piece with riffs that later turned up on the 1973 avant-metal killer Larks' Tongues in Aspic.
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