Absent Lovers (Live In Montreal 1984) - King Crimson

...to also write one on Absent Lovers, Live in Montreal. Please be patient with me because there is a reason for this. The decision was not made out of an attempt to ‘make up the numbers.’

King Crimson is notorious for making OK studio albums, and then being one of the most remarkable lives bands of all time. Someone once said that Crimson made the Red Hot Chilli Pepper sound like a 3rd league Camden indie guitar band. This is not a ...
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Absent Lovers is a snapshot of the last two nights at the Montreal Jazz Festival. It is also the last time they played live for the next ten years. It is a double CD with an array of photographs, many courtesy of bass/Stick player Tony Levin. They are not all the usual glossy band-on-stage photos but Fripp and Belew waiting outside a station with their luggage reading the paper; pictures of the everyday of touring (ala their song ... more

My apologies, I know I’ve only just added my opinion on King Crimson’s Beat but I was standing in the shower and it occurred to me that I had to also write one on Absent Lovers, Live in Montreal. Please be patient with me because there is a reason for this. The decision was not made out of an attempt to ‘make up the numbers.’

King Crimson is notorious for making OK studio albums, and then being one of the most remarkable lives bands of all time. Someone once said that Crimson made the Red Hot Chilli Pepper sound like a 3rd league Camden indie guitar band. This is not a frivolous opinion. Having seen them live I can say that they have a remarkable power, everyone involved so totally focussed on their music and interplaying beautifully.

Absent Lovers is a snapshot of the last two nights at the Montreal Jazz Festival. It is also the last time they played live for the next ten years. It is a double CD with an array of photographs, many courtesy of bass/Stick player Tony Levin. They are not all the usual glossy band-on-stage photos but Fripp and Belew waiting outside a station with their luggage reading the paper; pictures of the everyday of touring (ala their song from Beat: Neil and Jack and Me) etc. There are also copious liner notes from Fripp, which for those interested in the internal (internecine) working of the music industry are a must read.

This is for me their greatest live album; only Live Nashville 2002 and Level 5 (a limited edition tour CD) come close to it in terms of raw power; if you talking about a band quitting at the height of their powers then this is it (though what would come after is also remarkable but for different reasons). Absent Lovers can also be seen as a kind of Best Of album covering their 80s period and their latter work in the 70s (1973-74; with John Wetton; David Cross and Bill Brufford – who remained in the band) as it displays most of their greatest songs from the period, though there are a few, for me, notable omissions that I would have liked: Neil and Jack and Me (from which the title is taken) and The Sheltering Sky (but you can get both of these at Crimson Live at the Cap D’Agde in 1982), especially TSS as it’s one of their most beautiful instrumentals with some magnificent guitar by Fripp.

Now I could take you on a Journey track by track but you would be here two hours later and so I shall walk you through the ‘highlights’ and the very few ‘lowlights’ to be found on this most delicious of recordings.

--CD1--

First up we begin with the Entry of the Crims. I begin here for this is the beginning. Also because this is not a Crimson song per se, but an improvised introduction and anyone conversant with Crimson’s work will now quite how important improvisations are to the band – Heavy ConstruKction, their 2000 tour CD contains a slew of improvisations in the 2 CDs that compromise the ‘set’ itself and then there’s a third that is full of improvisations and nothing else. This track is the perfect introduction. It begins sounding like the music from a circus, inviting the audience to amuse themselves and prepare themselves for what is to come; only Fripp’s sustained guitar darkens and darkens presaging some of the music to come, we slide into Lark’s Tongues in Apsic Part III but what comes after that is stunning.

Thela Hun Ginjeet is one of those musical moments that are divine. The sheer power of the original is one thing; the live version is something else entirely. The lyrics, gawd knows what they are, but it doesn’t matter at all (the original version has Adrian Belew telling a story about being held up in New York city and being mistaken for a cop!). Thela Hun Ginjeet is all about the music; it’s calculated to knock you literally off your seat. The introduction is blistering; it strikes you so hard you have no choice to listen and Belew’s guitar pounds through the song darkly. It is impossible to describe this song, it’s certainly up-tempo and pounds away at you, the energy it produces is astounding and is as thrilling and hair-raising as piece of music as you’ll ever hear, but you need to be there, subjugated to your speakers to understand the raw power of the music. When I’m feeling energised (as rarely as that is) I shove on Thela Hun Ginjeet and my energy multiples exponentially. Just stunning, stunning, powerful music. Ahh, gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh (to quote A Clockwork Orange – the film anyway).

From strength to strength: Red is the title and first track on Crimson final album from 1974 and their best of the 1970s. It is an instrumental of soaring beauty and once again colossal power. In the inlay of Red there is a speedometer and in one corner the numbers are red. There is something to that in Red, you can hear the music as a car careening through empty streets at phenomenal speeds and yet to say that almost degrades the music. This is one of Crimsonites’ everywhere favourites and understandably so. Like Thela it’s incredibly potent but it is also incredibly exciting for an instrumental; it keeps you hooked without the need for lyrics to glue the music together; the variations and changes defy the need for words and this version is definitely superior to any other I can remember hearing.

I have to comment briefly on Matte Kudasai, for it is intelligent balladry at it’s most beautiful, from Belew’s bird like, melancholic guitar to it’s gentle end, Matte Kudasai stands out as an emotional tour-de-force, subtle, beguiling and never once saccharine. Listen and fall in love.

Industry and Dig me hail from Three of a Perfect Pair (their final 80s album) and represent industrial, disjointed music. These are not meant for easy listening. Industry is an (surprise, surprise) industrial instrumental which I enjoy. Dig Me is filled with the sound of creaking metal, fractured sounds, croaking vocals.

Three of a Perfect Pair is a powerful, superior version to the slightly anaemic version on the album. Here the band pours on the power and Belew’s vocals soar, telling his story of dysfunctional love. Around him, Levin’s distorted Stick peels stridently. This is straightforward song writing at it’s greatest, coalescing into blistering music. But is followed by:

The notorious Indiscipline. A sister piece to Discipline (on CD2). It is an inspired version of an inspired ‘song.’ Indiscipline begins in a structured, near regimented way, with Bruford’s drumming keeping the tone right. Belew lyrics: “I do remember one thing, I carried it around with me for days and days, playing little games, like not looking at it, then, looking at, to see if I still like it.’ Are sung with a careful precision that mirrors the music and then: HE YELLS: ‘I DID’ and all hell breaks loose. All structure is eliminated in a beautiful cacophony of music that leaps from the speakers and forces me to listen to every single crashing sound. Why is this so brilliant? Well, because in the hands of another band this would be noise, plain and simple, but in Crimson’s hands it becomes something greater as we have four musicians of greatness allowing their talents free reign, there is no self-indulgence here; this is exciting as well as intelligent. The ability of the band to play off one another gives a kind of structure to the near-improvised chaotic sound of the track. The song settles down then and repeats itself, though not unnecessarily. A fantastic way to end a great CD.

--CD2—

But this CD is my favourite, better yet than that which precedes it. The live version of Satori in Tangiers, their Indian tinged instrumental from Beat is absolutely stunning work. It is beautifully controlled. Every note and nuance is played to perfection. This is a band on a high at the end of their tour and not worn out and tired. The tension is so palpable that I can feel it between my shoulder blades and yearn never to be released. I have always loved this instrumental because it is so simple and yet so startlingly realised. Beyond almost all else it is a paragon of instrumental music that surpasses even Red. Glorious.

Then comes a favourite, Frame by Frame: a delight; a song that somehow fails to be generic because listening to it the first time on Discipline (the album from which it originated) I wasn’t overly impressed and now it has become a firm favourite because of its simplicity, also because of it’s controlled nature. This live version has never been bettered anywhere, by any incarnation of Crimson, a genuinely high watermark to which other musicians and Crimson themselves can but aspire. Sometimes listening to albums you skip tracks, I would never skip this.

Man With an Open Heart is similiat to Frame by Frame; the original is good enough but live Crimson put so much power and emotion into it, and again Belew’s uxoriousness is given free reign in his lyrics. This is then a kind of devotional music, from Belew to his wife and utterly beautiful. One not to miss out on.

As this track finishes Belew declares: “That’s the best we’ve done that in a long time.” And he’s right. This version of Waiting Man, always brilliant to begin with is simply breathtaking though it’s impossible to say why. From Bruford playful, electronic drumming, that gives way to Levin’s bass, to Belew’s and Fripp’s Guitars, to Belew’s, tense, emotive vocals, everything is just right; perfection is hit, there are no mistakes; absolute perfect harmony, the layering sounds, of instruments, the interplay between rhythms is just remarkably stunning, unspeakably beautiful and yet mindbogglingly simple. I’m listening to it now and trying to think how to explain it. All I can say is listen: feel the melancholy yearning and beauty of emotional release.

Sleepless, is a Tony Levin song, bass powered and thumping. An interplay between Levin and Brufford. Fripp takes a back seat and Belew’s tales of sleepless nights are suitably surreal. A superior version of a superior track that leads into:

The divine: Lark’s Tongues in Aspic Part II. Fripp’s magnificent, sawing, grinding guitar cuts through this always brilliant instrumental and it is not just the best version of it but the most definitive. It is a tightly packaged piece of music, taut and varied; occasionally dissonant but always superb. There is something sublime about it, as it veers between tempos, flowing between sounds and rhythms effortlessly. I can’t put it any other way. Every sound is clear, crisp and distinct; there is something unremitting about it but in the most perfect of ways, like it is growing towards a terrible crescendo, which is does, and ends up in near-Hendrix-like screaming guitar, in an utterly brilliant fashion. Just a delight, in everyway, from Fripp’s sky-sawing guitar, to Levin’s pulsing bass; Bruford’s thumping, inspired drumming and Belew’s strident psychotic guitar, it never lets up; it chews you up and spits you out in an act of catharsis. It can be draining to listen to but in a calming, serene way. I just don’t know what else to say.

Discipline is Indiscipline’s sister track, as I mentioned earlier, an instrumental of regiments sound, clear, crisp and structured; it is the antithesis of Indiscipline’s chaotic music and mysterious lyrics. This should be quite boring and yet it is a hypnotic array of sounds playing off one another to create a kind of tapestry. It is subtle and thrilling in a quiet way; this hasn’t the obvious raw power of Lark’s Tongue or Thela, but nevertheless is sublime a track.

Penultimately we have Heartbeat! Right, now I LOVE THIS SONG! And this is a pretty damn good version. A love song of greatest simplicity and sheerest beauty. Enough said. (go see my Op on Beat if you want to know more!)

Finally, we have Elephant Talk, notorious as Crimson’s encore song. When I saw them in Shepard’s Bush there were screams of “Bring on the elephants!” Hmmm, I’m not really keen on Elephant Talk. The song starts a little anaemically. But half way through we have the most wonderfully, almost funny, boing-guitar sound that is delightful and I love it; the music really hits its stride and I can feel Fripp, Belew, Levin and Bruford enjoying themselves. So I find it hard to reconcile my disinterest at the first half of the song and delight at the second. But then that’s music for you.

I don’t know if I’ve managed to get over the power of Crimson at all, I hope so. Especially the second CD I find stunning. There is something about four musicians who know each other so well that their timing and ability to play off one another is practically instinctual. This is great music because, well, it is… it’s also the kind of music you need to hear to understand, as so much is so potent and sometimes so subtle that it defies description.

Also, it’s a mere £12.99 on Amazon (don’t even bother looking for it on CD WOW) which ain’t bad for a double CD, don’t you think?

For anyone interested in buying any live Crimson, please go to Discipline Global Mobile (Fripp’s record company) as there is more than a wealth of live recording. In fact there’s more than anyone ever imagined!
http://www.disciplineglobalmobile.com/index.htm
 

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