Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

These are a handful of pictures that were taken at the recording of our first album, 90% Live.  With the exception of the studio version of Sunshine, the album was recorded live (no overdubs) in front of an audience and TV cameras for the All You Can Eat Texas Music Café in Waco, Texas.  Pictures were taken by my mom, which is why there’s a high concentration of “me” in here.  All pictures taken during setup/rehearsal.

practicing the lap steel for use on When You Comin’ Home Tonight

rehearsal for Don’t Let Me Be Alone Tonight, featuring Matt Talbert on lead guitar.  Matt, Bryan, Wiley, America & Manuel’s shoulder.

full band (Ed was officially in the band at this point, but wasn’t able to make it to the show)

commentary on Bryan and James’ fashion sense is welcome!

in action

shot of the band with some of the crew members looking on

Matt waiting for his moment

Wiley and Manuel with a good shot of the equipment

James and America waiting sidestage

bass boy

Released: 1971
Tracks: Black Dog; Rock and Roll; The Battle of Evermore; Stairway to Heaven; Misty Mountain Hop; Four Sticks: Going to California; When the Levee Breaks
Best track: Stairway to Heaven
Track to skip: none

Side two comes into being with the great groove of Misty Mountain Hop.  Jeez, Bonham’s drums sound fantastic on this song!  What a great, fun song.  That 2nd section of Four Sticks is definitely one of the coolest things the band ever composed.  Another fantastic groove on this song.  I love how we get another reprise of the acoustic stuff with Going to California (gorgeous song!) before ending the album with When the Levee Breaks.  We get more Bonham greatness here.  Man, he just doesn’t quit.  To me this song seems like a redefining of blues-rock.  It’s relentless and heavy and absolutely intense.  What a perfect way to end this album.

Jeez, I mean, there’s not a bad song on this entire thing!  Everything on both sides of Led Zep IV is stellar.  They may not head into as many uncharted areas here, but what they came up with was soooooo good.  Absolute top-of-their-game material.  Every song is a classic; every song is brimming with a confidence that comes from 4 guys who are true experts of their craft.  Man, I’m blown away by this album.  True excellence – best one so far.

Rating: 97

Released: 1976
Tracks: Epitaph; Cadence & Cascade; Ladies of the Road; I Talk to the Wind (previously unreleased version); Red; Starless; The Night Watch; Book of Saturday; Peace – A Theme; Cat Food (single version); Groon; Coda from Lark’s Tongues in Aspic, Part I; Moonchild; Trio; In the Court of the Crimson King
Best track: Starless
Track to skip: none

The first thing you notice about this, what’s really a “best of” for the years ’69-’74, is the absence of Crimson’s biggest “hit”, 21st Century Schizoid Man.  Robert Fripp excluded this song on purpose – probably his odd sense of humor, or more important, forcing the listener to pay attention to the *other* great songs the band did.  I’m sure that by ’76 he was quite tired of the attention that Schizoid Man received.  In truth, it doesn’t detract from the quality of this compilation.  King Crimson has so many great songs, that if you leave off Schizoid Man, it’s not a huge loss.  It actually took me a few years to notice that it wasn’t there!

There are some rarities here, which is nice.  Side 1 gives us a previously unreleased version of I Talk to the Wind from 1968 featuring Judy Dyble on vocals.  This track is really Giles, Giles & Fripp with the addition of Dyble and Ian McDonald.  I love this version of the song – Judy Dyble has such a perfect voice for this song.  Except for this album (which immediately went out of print), the track would not surface again until the GGF archival album, The Brondesbury Tapes, released in 2001.  Side 3 features the rare Cat Food single from 1970: the single edit of Cat Food and its B-side, Groon.  Both of these tracks would later be released on 1991’s Frame By Frame Set, and then again on the 30th Anniversary Remaster of In the Wake of Poseidon.  Side 3 also features the Coda from Lark’s Tongues in Aspic, Part I (the last two minutes, just the crazy talking bit); it’s incorrectly labeled as the Coda from Lark’s II.  Otherwise, all of these tracks are found on their respective albums (Moonchild thankfully omits the annoying 6 minute improv from the In the Court of the Crimson King version).

There’s no need to seek out this album, unless you just want it for collector purposes.  That’s the only reason I have it.  All of the songs and edits have been released since this compilation, most are from their original albums.  Taken on its own, however, it’s a great summary of what King Crimson did from 1969-1974.  Schizoid Man is the obvious exception, but it’s also a little strange that Lizard isn’t represented here.  A “little” strange, but really not much, as Fripp completely dislikes that album.  No matter.  I think the track selection is very good with the only odd omission being The Sailor’s Tale from Islands.  Otherwise, all of the highpoints are hit here.  It’s a solid compilation with a ton of great material and not a weak second on the whole thing.  I’m sure Fripp could sell enough copies to justify the cost if he issued it on CD (both discs total 75 minutes), but for whatever reason he didn’t.  No matter.  I think all of these songs are excellent and it’s kind of hard to choose a “best track”; for me it’s probably Starless.  I think this was the best song from this early period in Crimson’s history.  A great way to spend 75 minutes of my day.

Rating: 94

Released: 1993
Tracks: You; Creep; How Do You?; Stop Whispering; Thinking About You; Anyone Can Play Guitar; Ripcord; Vegetable; Prove Yourself; I Can’t; Lurgee; Blow Out
Best track: Blow Out
Tracks to skip: Vegetable, I Can’t, Lurgee

Pablo Honey is best known for the unexpected hit single, Creep.  Some people still only know Radiohead by this song and (somehow) don’t realize they’ve done anything since.  It has still retained its catchiness all these years and it doesn’t annoy me anywhere near as much as it used to in 1993.  It’s a good song, not the best on the disc (about in the middle somewhere), but it’s certainly not anything I ever skip.  I have to say, I love having this uncensored version as opposed to what was released in the US initially.  The rest of the songs aren’t as well-known, but they probably should be.  Songs like You, Stop Whispering, Prove Yourself and especially Blow Out are all excellent songs.  Blow Out is definitely my favorite here – a well-written song with some unexpected turns and it definitely points to the sound and songs of The Bends.

I really love that ending “jam” in Stop Whispering.  Slightly bit whiny in the vocals throughout, but the jam shows that these guys could create some seriously cool and intense music out of “noise”.  Overall the band has some pretty good choruses here, definitely catchy.  I also think that on all of these songs the music itself is consistently solid.  The main parts that annoy me are Thom Yorke’s vocals.  Mostly they’re tolerable, but he frequently gets pretty whiny.  It’s a minor complaint, but I can see people being turned off by it.  Then again, he still sings this way, so if you can’t stand his voice there’s a good chance you won’t get into much of their material.  My main problem with this album on the whole is that most of the songs are just way too short.  Songs like You, Thinking About You and especially Prove Yourself end way too soon.  These songs should have definitely been fleshed out more.  A few of these songs are only decent, stuff like How Do You? and Ripcord, and of the three skippers listed above, they’re not outright horrible (well, Lurgee just kind of plods along) but they just sound like throwaways.

I think Pablo Honey is a good start.  Some minor annoyances and some “meh” songs, but nothing is outright *bad*.  On the whole it doesn’t deserve the reputation it gets.  There are some true gems here and shockingly they’re not called Creep!  If you like Radiohead’s “guitar” music then you should check this out.  I enjoy it.

Rating: 83

In 2009 this album (along with The Bends & OK Computer) was reissued with a second disc featuring all of the album’s B-sides, some BBC sessions and most importantly the band’s long out of print debut EP, Drill.  Every one of these songs on the second disc are very hard to find and you can’t even download them from iTunes like you can the B-sides from the rest of their albums.  The rare studio and live songs fit in nicely with the quality of the songs on the album proper.

Released: 1997
Tracks: Airbag; Paranoid Android; Subterranean Homesick Alien; Exit Music (For a Film); Let Down; Karma Police; Fitter Happier; Electioneering; Climbing Up the Walls; No Surprises; Lucky; The Tourist
Best track: Subterranean Homesick Alien
Track to skip: not a second

Man, the production on this album is just perfect; absolutely beautiful.  Even when they’re being noisy, everything sounds perfect.  I don’t know, what to say?  As much as I love the Bends (and everything else they’ve done) the band just blew it all out of the water with OK Computer.  Such great songs on here!  Subterranean Homesick Alien is my favorite of the bunch.  One of my all-time favorite songs and such a gorgeous piece of music.  Man, speaking of gorgeous, what about The Tourist?  What a perfect and beautiful way to end this album.  Paranoid Android, another fantastic song.  Electioneering?  Wow, what a powerhouse.  I have to make a special point about the bass playing on Airbag – Colin Greenwood’s presence on there is fantastic and highly inspirational.

I don’t ever skip a note of this album when listening to it.  Even Fitter Happier – I think it’s a great interlude that nicely splits up the album.  Pretty startling track, too.  It’s terribly easy for me to review this album – I just LOVE IT.  Absolutely love it.  It’s definitely the best album by the most creative and original band of my adulthood.  Sounds like some cliché…I don’t care.  I think it’s a fantastic album.

Rating: 98

In 2009 this album (along with Pablo Honey & The Bends) was reissued with a second disc featuring all of the album’s B-sides and some BBC sessions.  OK Computer produced some *excellent* B-sides and I highly recommend getting the 2-disc version.

Released: 1981
Tracks: The Spirit of Radio; Red Barchetta; YYZ; A Passage to Bangkok; Closer to the Heart; Beneath, Between & Behind; Jacob’s Ladder; Broon’s Bane; The Trees; Xanadu; Freewill; Tom Sawyer; La Villa Strangiato
Best track: Red Barchetta or La Villa Strangiato
Track to skip: none

Spirit of Radio kicks it off and honestly, it’s a slightly flat performance.  I feel that on a lot of these songs, they’re certainly *good*, but for the most part this sounds like a studio compilation of these years; just different versions than the ones we’re normally used to.  I mean, the band definitely does sound good.  Sometimes it’s just not as electric as I’ve heard these songs be live.  But you know what?  That’s OK.  I still enjoy listening to this album.  Red Barchetta is a nice kick in the pants after the opener and it’s totally on fire.  Xanadu is a brilliant performance and Alex Lifeson absolutely RAGES on La Villa Strangiato.  Well, the whole band does.  They rip that song to shreds.  Geddy Lee gets his points here just on his tone in general.  He’s mixed really loud on this album and it’s just heaven for a bassist like me.  Neil Peart’s shining moment comes in his solo in YYZ.  It’s absolutely bad ass and light years better than the one on All the World’s a Stage.  All three simply blow the roof off during the solo section of Freewill.

As I said, it’s a good overview of their most progressive period.  Sums it all up very nicely.  There aren’t too many weak moments on here, but the feeling of a “studio album played live” does kind of hang over it a bit.  No big deal.  It’s quite an enjoyable album.

Rating: 92