Jim Lange Published

The Classical King Crimson

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I know I’m a bit obsessed about this band. I get that.

To be perfectly honest, my tireless enthusiasm is founded on one basic idea: by comparison, every other band seems lame. When friends or family talk wildly about some country singer (yawn) or some muso drones on endlessly about a new hot band, I sigh internally. About 40% of the time, the music is engaging and I might even download it and roll it through the Eclectopian wheels. It’s clever and catchy, but it pales by any comparison. It’s not fair to do that, but music people are like that.

Most bands play what you expect- KC dispenses with expectations and operates by its own rules. Fripp calls it, “A way of doing things.” Isn’t that like saying, “I painted this little thing in the Sistene Chapel. Hope you like it.”?

To be fair, KC are their own language, their own country and it is frightfully difficult to compare them to anyone else.

That’s because every player in the group is a monster in their own right.

But, I digress.

The Elements Tour, currently North American leg, is selling out everywhere they play. Not bad for a band with a famous (or infamous) on again – off again history, one that hasn’t ever had a hit single and music that most public radio stations with serious “risk aversion” programming would avoid playing.

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Credit Tony Levin. Used by permission of the artist.
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Tony Levin’s pic of the edits that Rachmaninoff made to a score. Mind blowing stuff.

Bassist Tony Levin has an interesting post. Levin is classically trained and the Philadelphia Orchestra librarian opened up their library to him. Utterly fascinating.

So, peace, love and understanding to you all. I leave you with this:

“In strange and uncertain times, such as those we are living in, sometimes a reasonable person might despair. But Hope is unreasonable and Love is greater even than this.

May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the Creative Impulse.”