THE GREAT DECEIVER: LIVE 1973 - 1974

King Crimson is one of those bands who are better live than in the studio. Live they sound far more heavy and vibrant than on their studio releases. For me the best incarnation of KC was the '72-'74 version and the best way to experience them live is to listen to the 4 cd box "The Great Deceiver". On this box there is music from six performances from 1973 and 1974. This means that many songs appear several times, but since KC improvised a lot this is not a negative thing. In fact it is very positive because you can hear the differences in solos and structure between the songs. The songs that are performed come from the two albums that were recorded in this period: "Larks' tongues in Aspic" and "Starless and bible black" and some tracks would appear on the album "Red", that was recorded after these performances took place. Only three songs from an earlier period are performed: "Cat food", "21st century schizoid man" and "Peace - a theme". In between all these well known songs there are a lot of improvisations. And most of them are excellent.

The first CD contains music recorded in Providence on June 30th 1974. The show opens with the Fripp/Eno tune "No pussyfooting", which was used a lot as music while the band entered the stage. This is an excellent performance. Of extra interest are two improvs. The first "A voyage to the centre of the cosmos" is announced by Fripp as a new song where they were working on for some times. It is a great instrumental, space rock song with a heavy guitar solo and some eerie mellotron play. The other improv, "Providence", will sound familiar because this one can also be found on the 1974 album "Red". Crimson followed the same procedure as they did on the album "Starless and bible black" where they used a live recording in Amsterdam (released on cd as "The night watch") as a basis for several tracks.

CD two continues with the encore of the Providence show, a fantastic version of Schizoid man. The next part of the cd is a concert in Glasgow, recorded October 23rd 1973. "Sharks lings in lemsip" is a nice intro to "Larks'". This is followed by great versions of well known songs. Then comes a strange improv, "Tight scrummy". It starts with Bruford sounding like a cheesy rhythm box, Fripp plays a few bars from "Fracture" and then, over the rhythm box, violin an guitar solos are played. There is also a good version of "Cat food". The end of the cd brings us two tracks from a concert recorded at Penn State University on June 29th 1974. They are "Easy money" which evolves in the improvisation "..It is for you, but not for us". This would have been a good second part of "Easy money", with a nice violin part.

The third cd is compiled from a show performed in Pittsburgh in April 29th 1974. Next to the better known songs there are a few improvisations that were named after the nicknames of the band members. "Bartley Butsford" is an intro to "Exiles" with mainly mellotron. "Daniel Dust" sounds a lot like "Trio". "Wilson Carpet" is just a typical Crimson sonical experiment. "Doctor Diamond" is not an improve but just a great track, which they performed a lot, but it was never recorded on a studio album. This album also ends with a track from the Penn State University. It is an improv called "Is there live out there?". This track resembles "A voyage to the centre of the cosmos" from the first cd. This one is however even better, a great spacerock exercise with heavy guitar and strange mellotron sounds.

The last cd starts with a few tracks from Toronto, June 24th 1974 and tracks from a performance in Zurich, recorded in November 15th 1973. The album opens with an improvisation called "The golden walnut" which starts as a fast metal song. Then the pace slows down, where you can hear some nice mellotron lines, but also some heavy riffs. "Cluesless and slightly slack" is mainly a song for Cross where he plays some quiet parts. After a while the band begins to play to make the song a heavy monster. It is a shame there where problems with the recording during "The law of maximum distress", because when they got to the part where they were really smoking, the tape ran out.

What else can be said about this box set? The sound is excellent, the playing is excellent. It is beautifully packaged and comes with a book with notes from Fripp. King Crimson was at it's creative peak. And they were playing together just long enough to sound very tight, fresh and inspired. This box is the best document about KC live during '73/'74 and is highly recommended.