King Crimson - (1993) The Concise King CrimsonBoxset/Compilation, released in 1993
I have taken the easy way to make a review, it´s easier to review a compilation or "Best of" than an a complex studio album.
King Crimson being a monster of Progressive Rock, is neccessary to be tasted by every prog fan, if you like it or not, that´s the less important, but you have at least to listen to them to haveyour persola criteria about the band, i think for deep prog fans like the most of the people in this site, is not important to own a compilation, at least it´s not that usual that i put my Bests Of in my CD player very often, sometimes is good because maybe you have the mood of listen to those classic songs (usually called hits) , but it´s obvious that we prefer much more the studio albums.
The fact is, that the opposite happens when you are a newbie, i mean, i have had the experience of people that are interested in new bands, the first thing that they do before buying the album , is download some songs, usually the most well known songs, and then they decide if dig the band or saty away, so my thoughts here is that a compilation or best of could be recommendable for people who is not familiar with the band or the songs, they probably dont know the names of the most beautiful albums, so the easy way is buying a compilation which supposes to contain the most representative songs (not always the best songs.
King Crimson had released some compilation albums, Sleepless is one of them, and maybe the one that i prefer.
A newcomer of King Crimson maybe won´t know that they have had several line up changes, and musical changes, in this album i think the track selection is suitable for newbies and also for Crimson lovers (as i said above, a Crimson lover won´t play a compilation that often, but sometimes it´s ood to have a nice time).
The order of the tracks is chronologically , which is a good point, because you will appreciate the different eras one by one, and not suddenly like in "The Compact King Crimson" which track list is not that different from this one, but the order makes it terrible to listen to. Also we won´t find the original songs, some of them have been edited to give pass to other ones, it´s only like a proof of what King Crimson music is about.
The fact is, that the opposite happens when you are a newbie, i mean, i have had the experience of people that are interested in new bands, the first thing that they do before buying the album , is download some songs, usually the most well known songs, and then they decide if dig the band or saty away, so my thoughts here is that a compilation or best of could be recommendable for people who is not familiar with the band or the songs, they probably dont know the names of the most beautiful albums, so the easy way is buying a compilation which supposes to contain the most representative songs (not always the best songs.
King Crimson had released some compilation albums, Sleepless is one of them, and maybe the one that i prefer.
A newcomer of King Crimson maybe won´t know that they have had several line up changes, and musical changes, in this album i think the track selection is suitable for newbies and also for Crimson lovers (as i said above, a Crimson lover won´t play a compilation that often, but sometimes it´s ood to have a nice time).
The order of the tracks is chronologically , which is a good point, because you will appreciate the different eras one by one, and not suddenly like in "The Compact King Crimson" which track list is not that different from this one, but the order makes it terrible to listen to. Also we won´t find the original songs, some of them have been edited to give pass to other ones, it´s only like a proof of what King Crimson music is about.
Track Listings:
1. 21st century schizoid man (7:20)
2. Epitaph (8:45)
3. In the court of the Crimson King (7:19)
4. Cat food (edit) (2:45)
5. Ladies of the road (5:30)
6. Starless (abridged) (4:36)
7. Red (6:16)
8. Fallen angel (6:00)
9. Elephant talk (4:41)
10. Frame by frame (5:07)
11. Matte Kudasai (3:45)
12. Heartbeat (3:53)
13. Three of a perfect pair (4:11)
14. Slepless (remixed) (5:22)
Total Time: 75:30
Line-up/Musicians
- Robert Fripp / guitar
- Adrian Belew / guitar, lead vocal
- Tony Levin / bass guitar, Chapman stick, support vocal
- Bill Bruford / percussion, electric and acoustic drums
- Ian McDonald / woodwind, keyboards, mellotron
- Greg Lake / bass guitar, lead vocal
- Michael Giles - drums, percussion
- Peter Sinfield - words & illumination
- Keith Tippet / piano
- Mel Collins / saxophone, backing vocal
- Boz / bass guitar, lead vocal
- Ian Wallace / drums, percussion, backing vocals
- John Wetton / bass guitar, vocal
- Marc Charig / cornet
- Robin Miller / oboe
