I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: KING CRIMSON-The Elements Of King Crimson – 2014 Tour Box (2014).

When King Crimson reunited in 2013, they prepared to tour as a seven piece behemoth the following year.  There would be three drummers, two guitarists, bass and horns.

And they were totally reinvigorated.

To celebrate this tour, Fripp and his minions created this Elements Tour Box, a 2 -disc set dedicated to displaying the elements that made up the band from the beginning until now.  It was made up of alternate takes, excerpt (lots of excerpts), live recordings and rehearsals from the entirety of the Crimson canon, including some of the 2014 shows.

It is a treasure trove for Crimson fanatics.  But it is also an excellent resource for anyone looking to explore the Crimson underworld without buying $150 boxsets.

The discs follow a vaguely chronological overview, starting in 1969 and moving on through 2008.  But there are 2014 takes of old songs thrown in as well–some sound better than others, but overall the quality is quite good.

The first disc covers 1969-1974.  It opens with
“Wind Extract,” which is the sound of Fripp’s mellotron being turned on back in 1969.
“I Talk To The Wind” is an instrumental version of the second song on ITCOTCK.  Purists will be able to tell how many things are different between this version and the actually-released product, but in a nutshell, this is the album version with no vocals.  It’s really interesting to focus just on the music and not the words for a change.  The song is quite pretty, with lots of flute.

“Cadence and Cascade” is from In the Wake of Poseidon and no one involved in the recording remembered Greg Lake singing a version of it.  Guest vocalist Gordon Haskell sang the album version.  Then someone recently found this “guide vocal” version of Lake singing it for apparently the first and only time.

The boxes often contain brief excerpts like this one–fifteen seconds of Fripp’s classical sounding guitars from “Cirkus.”  This is kind of an acoustic bridge before we hear the full song recorded in 1971 on the Lizard tour.  This song in particular sounds very dated live and the middle “circus sounds” sections are 70s crazy.
“Hoodoo (extract)” is a 2014 rehearsal that’s all of 20 seconds which segues into a raucous recording of Fripp playing a wild guitar solo for “Sailor’s Tale.”  It’s wild and really shows Fripp throwing everything he can at the song.
“The Talking Drum” is an early alternate mix which sounds great to me.  It gets really crazy by the end.

The “Lark’s Tongues in Aspect I” excerpt is from 2014 and is just Mel’s flute for 2 minutes.  It’s followed by a 1972 extract that’s just violin and dulcimer and harp.

This turns into a great new mix of the 11 minute “Fracture.”
After a minute of gorgeous harmonics by Fripp from “Fallen Angel,” we get a full, gorgeous 6-minute instrumental version of the song.  Because Crimson songs are so complicated and so carefully constructed, they are one of the few bands whose songs can have lyrics removed without them falling flat.
There’s a weird-sounding version of “21st Century Schizoid Man” from 1974, which sounds so very mid-70s in the recording style.  It seems somewhat slapdash compared to the utter tightness of the 2014 band.  The disc ends with Mark Charig’s cornet recording for the end of “Starless.”  On the proper release they use Mel Collin’s saxophone, but the cornet sounds delightful.

Disc two covers 1981-2008.

  This is pretty much the Adrian Belew era.  Belew was not invited back for the new incarnation, so that’s a little awkward.

It begins with an alternate take of the instrumental “Discipline.”  After a 45 second drum intermission, there’s a track called “Manhattan (Neurotica)” which is an instrumental version of “Neurotica.”  I love that the opening guitar sounds like sirens and car horns.
A minute and a half of the middle of “Neal and Jack and Me” is followed by the Steven Wilson mix of “Sleepless (Bearsville)” with an incredibly 80’s sounding slap bass from Tony Levin.

Then there’s a recording session of “Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream.”  We hear lots of stops and starts, bass only, guitar parts and someone repeating “this is tough, tough shit.”
There’s a live version of “THRAK” followed by a minute of Fripp soloing around “Larks Tongue” called “Venturing Into Joy.”

This is followed by two tracks from Fripp’s side ProjeKcts,  “The Deception of the Thrush” is performed live by ProjeKct Four in 1998 with big thumping almost splatting-sounding drums.  Then there’s a trippy and ambient early version of “Heaven & Earth” by ProjeKct X.

After a scorching “Level Five” from 2008, there’s a minute long drum solo which would ultimately morph more fully into “The Hell-Hounds of Krim” and then two tracks from A Scarcity of Miracles.  “Separation” is an edited version of the bonus track (the disc label calls it something else).  And there’s an alternate take of “A Scarcity Of Miracles”–still long and a little too jazz-lite for me.

This is a really solid collection of all eras and styles of Crimson.  And it also showcases the various parts coming together.  A great production all along.

[READ: January 19, 2018] Monsters of the Ivy League

This book collects a series of Ivy League graduates and puts them in context with a they have a lot of support for all of their declarations.  Each entry gives a brief (biased) biography that highlights their flaws, outrages and downright unforgivable behavior.

So, rather than rewrite summaries of these assholes, I’ll present a grid with the shortcut (and some choice tidbits).  You can find the book and read the details for why our Ivy leagues have bred so many shitheads, including current miscreants:

Samuel Alito, Ben Carson, Ann Coulter, Ted Cruz, Laura Ingraham, Henry Kissinger, Dr. Oz, trump, and many more.

The introduction says that the term Ivy League refers to a bunch of football teams. (That’s why it says “league”).  The League was formed in 1954 to formalize the sporting relationship between eight teams: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Univ of Penn, Princeton and Yale.

Of course, no one goes to these schools for sports, they go to find the best future contacts for your budding careers.

But read this book and remember:

An ivy education doesn’t force you to become a hideous person, but it doesn’t necessarily prevent it, either.

What follows is a smart-shopper warning to those applying, a count-your-blessings consolation to those who have been rejected and a watch-your-back caution to those already attending.

Abbreviation	play the match game	Monster
AS Anti-Semite		Dr. Keith Ablow (Brown): DN, Dpr, RWN
A Authoritarian		Louis Agassiz (Harvard, Cornell): AS, DPo, Dpr, R, RL
B Boob		Samuel F. Alito (Princeton, Yale): D, RWN
BU Bully		Amy Bishop (Harvard): SK
CP Classification Pending		William Bradford Bishop, Jr. (Yale): DPr, M
DN Dangerous Narcissist		Jason Bohn (Columbia): M
DoE Defender of Evil		Gary Bremer (Dartmouth): KP
Dg Demagogue		The Brown Family (Brown) GB, R, Slv
DPo Disgrace to Position		William F. Buckley, Jr. (Yale): A, RWN
DPr Disgrace to Profession		George W. Bush (Yale, Harvard): B, D, DPo, RWN, SL, WC
D Douche		John C. Calhoun (Yale): R, Slv, WS
EB Eugenics Buff		Robert Cantor (Univ of Penn): M
E Eugenicist		Dr. Ben Carson (Yale) DPr, Rl, RWN
FF Financial Fraudster		Andrew W.W. Caspersen (Princeton, Harvard): DPr, FF, S, SL
GB Greedy Bastard		Benjamin Church (Harvard): GB, SxF, Tr
KP Kiddie-Porner		Bill Clinton (Yale): DPo, SxF
LL Lowlife		Morris Cohen (Columbia): Tr
MM Megalomaniac		Roy Cohn (Columbia): AS, D, DN, DoE, Dpr, H, LL, RWN, S, SL, T
Ms Misogynist		Ann Coulter (Cornell): AS, Bu, R, RL, RWN, SL, VL
M Murderer		Ted Cruz (Princeton, Harvard): A, D, DN, H, MM, RL, RWN, SL, Wgr
P Plagiarist		Charles Davenport (Harvard): AS, DPr, E, R
Ped Pederast		Ira Einhorn (Univ of Penn): DN, M, Ms
R Racist		John Fairbanks (Dartmouth): DPr, D, FF, GB, SL, T
RL Religious Loon		Douglas Feith (Harvard): D, RWN, Sl, Wgr
RWN Right Wing Nutbar		Thomas Gilbert Jr (Princeton): CP*, SL *[Wanted to indicate a murderer but he has not be tried yet]
S Scammer		Stephen Glass (Univ of Penn): DPr, P, SL
SKSerial Killer		Al Gore (Harvard): W [if he has stood up for his election, we wouldn’t have had 8 years of GWB, and probably no 9/11]
SxF Sex Fiend		Madison Grant (Yale, Columbia): AS, D, E, R
Slv Slaver		Dr. Dirk Greineder (Yale, Harvard): M, SxF
Tr Traitor		Edward Holyoke (Harvard): R, Slv
T Thief		Stephen Hopkins (Brown): R, Slv
UI Useful Idiot		E. Howard Hunt (Brown): AS, R, RWN, Wgr
VL  Vulgar Lout		Laura Ingraham (Harvard): RWN, Sl
WC War Criminal		Arthur Jensen (Columbia): D, R, RWN
Wgr Warmonger		Piyush “Bobby” Jindal (Brown): B, Dg, RL, RWN, SL
WS White Supremacist		Theodore Kaczynski (Harvard): DT, M [UNABOM stands for University and Airline Bomber]
W Wimp		Gulnara Karimova (Harvard): DN, FF, GB, MM, S, T
		Henry Kissinger (Harvard): A, DoE, DPo, SL, WC [a strong case could be made that he is a war criminal]
		William Kristol (Harvard, Univ of Penn): B, RWN, SL, Wgr
		Arthur Laffer (Yale): DPr, RWN, Sl  [It’s his fault (his curve) that people all believe that lowering taxes is good for the country]
		Harry H. Laughlin (Princeton): A, DPr, E, MM, R
		Cardinal Bernard Francis Law (Harvard): Doe, DPr**
		Jonah Lehrer (Columbia): P, SL
		Joe Lieberman (Yale): A, D, DoE, RWN, Wgr  [few in this book get as much abuse as he does]
		Nathan Lord (Dartmouth): Slv
		Abbott Lawrence Lowell (Harvard):  AS, A, DN, H, R
		Sean Ludwick (Univ of Penn): D, DN, LL, M, SL
		Daniel Mason (Dartmouth): M
		Cotton Mather (Harvard): Bu, MS, RL
		Lyle Menendez (Princeton): D, DN, GB, M, T
		J Ezra Merkin* (Columbia, Harvard): B, DPo, DPr, GB, S  *[Those seeking pubic wig jokes in this entry will be severely disappointed]
		Judith Miller (Barnard, Princeton): DPr, RWN, Wgr [She’s a disgrace to her profession if she is a journalist but if her profession is right wing flack then she’s doing just fine].
		Charles Murray (Harvard): DPr, E, R, RWN
		Ralph Nader (Princeton, Harvard): Dg, DN, MM
		Walter M Noel Jr (Harvard): B, DPo, Dpr, GB, SL
		Dr. Mehmet Cengiz Oz (Harvard, Univ of Penn, Columbia): DN, DPr, GB, S [He is America’s Quack]
		James Perkins (Harvard): GB, R, Slv
		Richard Perle (Princeton): GB, RWN, SL, Wgr
		Ezra Pound (Unib of Pen):  AS [he said that Hitler was a saint]
		Raj Tajatatnam (Univ if Penn): DPo, DPr, FF, GB
		Raphael Robb (Univ of Penn): M
		Michael Bruce Ross (Cornell): M, Sk
		Isaac Royall, Jr (Harvard): R, Slv
		Antonin Scalia (Harvard): Bu, D, H, R, RL, RWN
		Jeffrey Skilling (Harvard): DPo, FF, GB, S, SL, T
		Eliot Spitzer (Princeton Harvard): DN, SxF
		Kenneth Starr (Brown): D, RWN
		Clarence Thomas (Yale): D, DoE, DPo, DPr, RWN  [Antonin Scalia said this about Clarence Thomas: “I’m an orientalist I’m not a  nut.”]
		Donald J. Trump (Univ of Penn):  A, B, Bu, D, Dg, DN, DoE, FF, GB, LL, MM, Ms, R, S, SL, UI, VL
		Benjamin Wadsworth (Harvard): R, Slv
		Dr. William Walker (Univ of Penn): A, Dg, MM, R, Slv, Wgr
		Lawrence Scott Ward (Harvard Univ of Penn): KP, Ped
		John White Webster (Harvard): M, S
		Eleazar Wheelock Yale (Dartmouth): R, Slv
		Woodrow Wilson (Princeton): D, R [Former Princeton University President.  There’s a nice shout out to current President Christopher Eisgruber–a JEW! Suck on that Woodrow]
		John Witherspoon: R, Slv  (Princeton): [Princeton University President in 1768]
		Elihu Yale (Yale): FF, GB, R, S, Slv

**Cardinal Law was one a huge supporter of equal rights for minorities, but then the church got him and he had to protect priests.  In his final years on earth, we imagine that Bernard Law has plenty of time to reflect upon his life.  And we’d like to think that, with his Harvard-honed knowledge of medieval history he carries within him a vivid, haunting and relentless vision of what awaits him in the eternal damnation of the Roman Catholic hell.