“Easy Money” by King Crimson
From the 1973 album Larks’ Tongues in Aspic
The sound here is not great, but it’s rare to find live footage of the fearless mid-’70s King Crimson lineup in action, so it’s worth enduring any shortcomings in the recording. First we hear “Easy Money,” the closest thing to a “hit single” from Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. Then in the second clip the band segues into one of their signature improvs.
“Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part One” by King Crimson
From the 1973 album Larks’ Tongues in Aspic
The two bands most conspicuously absent from the exhibit so far are undoubtedly Genesis and King Crimson. I was really hoping to find a rare gem from Genesis, like something from the elusive Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour, their last with Peter Gabriel. I found a few, but none were of the quality I was hoping for. Instead, I’ll offer up this surprising find from the brief period in 1973 when King Crimson operated as a quintet, before the… er, unique… Jamie Muir fled to a monastery, and Robert Fripp fled to a barber.
This looks to be from the Beat Club in Bremen, Germany. You’ll see plenty of clips from the late ’60s and early ’70s at Bremen’s Beat Club on VH1 Classic or YouTube, and they are all more-or-less the same: gaudy overuse of low-budget psychedelic video effects; inexplicable superimposition of the band’s name halfway through the performance, followed by a personnel list with unnecessary instrument name abbreviations. (Really? You couldn’t fit “ums” next to the “dr” right there?)