Jan 31 2007
King Crimson - Elephant Talk
I’ve alwys considered the majority of the 1980’s to be a musical wasteland, not having an appreciation for new wave, punk, or hair bands. And that was also the decade that the great progressive rock bands, such as Yes and Genesis, began their transformation into pop sellouts. But not King Crimson. Have a look at this early 80’s television performance… it’s math rock, but grooves hard….real hard. And Robert Fripp was actually smiling. Maybe he wasn’t feeling well. Enjoy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZbOdgevxDE]
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“These are words with a (little) ‘d’ this time!”
“Elephant Talk” just about killed me the first time I heard it in ‘83, and it’s been killing me ever since. From Levin’s immortal intro leading into that Stick groove; to the way all the parts chug along together, so interlocked with, but distinct from, one another; to Belew’s gleefully manic talk list…it just rivets me.
John, I’d be interested to know what you think when you compare the early ’80s live version with another version 20-odd years later.
Well, I was fifth row in the audience when they did that tour, and I remember being quite impressed with it.
Fantastic! Never heard a live version of that before. “Discipline”, Steve Reich, and endless hours of playing euchre were pretty much my first year of college (the year before Rebecca got there
).