Epitaph by King Crimson

Epitaph by King Crimson

I had until recently resisted the urge to explore King Crimson's curated live recordings. As expected, the sound quality is sub par, and listening to three different versions of 21st Century Schizoid Man from the same tour is a little more hardcore than I'm used to. But it's interesting, if only intellectually to realise how much of a jazz ethos KC carried despite decidedly not doing jazz. Not only are these live takes very different from the album versions, they are also very different from one night to the next. And that, after all, is what live music should be about. Not something I'll listen to repeatedly, but something I'm glad I have listened to.