KING CRIMSON — The Great Deceiver (review)

KING CRIMSON — The Great Deceiver album cover Live album · 1992 · Proto-Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Warthur
An embarrassment of riches, the Great Deceiver box set - whether bought in its original format or as two 2-CD sets - is a treasuring of King Crimson live material ranging from the wake of Larks' Tongues In Aspic to the cusp of Red. The set opens with a full show - a Providence set from 1974, from which the version of 21st Century Schizoid Man was extracted for use on the USA version. I actually prefer the sound here to the one on USA, since the Eddie Jobson overdubs on that one seemed to have been calculated to bring the track closer to its original studio version, whereas here the aura is more definitively of the mid-70s unit.

The rest of the set contains extracts from other shows of varying sizes - some quite substantial, some only snippets. On the whole, I'm not going to give this essential rating simply because I don't think it is essential through and through - shows and tapes inevitably vary in quality, after all, though the cream of the crop is represented here, and furthermore I suspect the package here presents rather more live King Crimson than most people will ever need. I still think that the essential Crimson live album from this era of the band has to be the incomparable Night Watch, which ought to be your first stop in any exploration of live Crimson; this one is great value, but is really for those who simply cannot get enough of them Larks' Tongues.
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