Customer Reviews

Earthbound

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ah yes, how can any music historian NOT crack a wry smile when discussing Earthbound? It pulls off the neat trick of achieving consensus in the stubbornly diverse field of rock criticism, to be nigh-universally agreed upon as one of the worst live albums to ever be released by an otherwise worthy band. You can put a tick-mark by every box on the checklist: legendarily bad sound-quality, indifferent/awful performances, and inexplicably perverse song selections combined with a brief running time. (Yeah, it's like the old joke about the restaurant: "The food is terrible! And the portions are so small!")

The reason you're seeing a lot of defensive four star reviews for Earthbound here on Amazon (most on the page devoted to the now-deleted "30th Anniversary Edition" - there is no substantive difference between this version and that one) is twofold. Firstly, it was unavailable on CD for a very long time, which inevitably increased its mystique. Secondly, devoted Crimson fans can point to one unambiguously magnificent moment on Earthbound, one cut which in our minds almost redeems the whole mess, awful sound quality and all. And that's the opening performance of "21st Century Schizoid Man." On this one cut I can happily join with everyone else here: it is truly the most monstrous, enraged runthrough of the Crimson classic ever recorded or released. Even with the godawful overloaded sound quality (in fact maybe partly because of it!) it is the definitive version: this is it, the alpha-omega of their most important early track. In fact, I'm tempted to hear Fripp's psychotic soloing here as a cathartic expression of his frustrations with the band; never before have I heard a man curse so loudly and obscenely using only an electric guitar.

But you know what? "Schizoid Man" aside, I'm not going to join many other reviewers here in attempting to refute Earthbound's awful reputation. Even as an obsessive-compulsive collector of everything Crimson has ever released, I have to admit...man, this album sucks. There's no way around it, no way to avoid the giant Hoover Vacuum ominously lurking in the corner of the room.

The facts are these: Earthbound was angrily compiled by Robert Fripp as a contractual obligation in 1972, when his label demanded product. The anger didn't just stem from his label's compulsion; he had an extremely sour view of the Islands-era band (which he felt lacked the avant-garde temperament of the original edition) and he was also still irked over their semi-revolt during the '72 tour, where they took control of shows with their blues/jazz predilections and penchant for goofing off. This resulted in a release that was EXPLICITLY intended as a bitter documentary joke: "Schizoid Man," a brusquely edited version of "The Sailor's Tale" (a cerebral high point of the band that most would have preferred uncut), two incredibly boring BLUES jams from band not exactly known for their blues chops, and (ah, irony) a gloriously UNedited monstrosity of agonizing noise known as "Groon." The first 10 seconds of it bore some resemblance to the obscure B-side of the same name, the rest of it was probably meant by Fripp as an outright DEMAND AT GUNPOINT that you get up right now and lift the stylus from the vinyl.

The title? It ain't accidental. This was Fripp's unsubtle way of declaring "Man, this band sucked! We were forever chained to the ground, unable to break free." (Thus the two redundant blues instrumentals, which would otherwise be inexplicable.) Now why would he release an album like this, given that he was one of the performers on it, and the steward of the Crimson name? Well, if you're asking that question, then you don't know Bob Fripp. That's just the sort of demonstrative fellow he is. Remember, this is a guy who held onto his circa-1970 grudge with Gordon Haskell with such tenacity that he erased both his voice (on "Cadence And Cascade") AND his bass playing (on "Bolero") out of the Frame By Frame "official history" boxed set back in 1991. No, Earthbound was a very methodical album, assembled by a man with an agenda and a warped sense of humor. It's the Crimso version of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.

But the reason I'm not laughing at Fripp's performance-art "joke" is because a live Islands-era retrospective didn't have to be this poor at all. This album is unfair, INTENTIONALLY unfair, to the band's legacy. Fripp himself mellowed out considerably about this band long ago, and has since made available TONS of great-sounding, well-performed material from the Islands band that gives the lie to the "thesis" of Earthbound. That's the kicker: it's not as if the only live documents of the 1971-1972 band were these godawful cassette tape masters. No, Crimson fans have since been able to purchase (via both the Collector's Club and dgmlive) A+ sound quality soundboards from both years, featuring great performances from everyone (Boz included!) that put this band in its proper context.

So I guess that's the real "joke" behind Earthbound. As Fripp has proven here, you can make ANY band look utterly hapless and stupid if you make a point to only (mostly) show them at their worst and least engaging.

If you want to really understand what this iteration of King Crimson was about, then don't look here. Go instead and buy the 2CD "Ladies Of The Road," which devotes its first disc to excellent soundboard-quality performances of their best work and its second to a hilarious notional reconstruction of a 60 minute long (!!) performance of "Schizoid Man" using only excerpts from tapes on the Earthbound tour (including part of the "Schizoid Man" featured here). This record is only for the completists. I'm a completist myself, and I'm glad I own it (again: if you really like "21st Century Schizoid Man," then you could justifiably erect a shrine to this one), but everyone else can stay away knowing they're not missing anything at all.

My rating must be weighted as thusly:
-Three stars for hardcore Crim-heads, completists or very open minded listeners
-One star for just about anyone else
-so, an everage of 2 stars

Although this CD features somewhat improved sound over the original vinyl (yes, it DID indeed sound worse than this), be warned that this is a bootleg C+ sound quality.

That being said, there is some fairly good music buried under the muddy, oversaturated sound. This is not the tight, focused Crim we've heard before, but a loose (sloppy?) jam version. This reason alone makes it worth a listen for the curious fan. Mel Collins' sax is very up front in the mix, quite different from the studio releases and very jarring on first listen. Fripp's guitar is often buried, Boz Burrell's vocals (which I never liked all that much) are electronically treated (VCS3?) with mixed results. Yet...on the rare occasion I pull this one out to listen to, I find myself enjoying it. I treat it as a stand-alone version of the ever-changing creature that is King Crimson.

There are now better sounding (and performed) recordings of this era and I urge you to serach these out first unless you are a completist or very adventurous.

This record probably should never have been released because the sound is really bad. Takes away from what is really a set of good performances. It does, however, contain one of the best versions of schizoid man ever caught on tape. Fripp absolutely burns on this one. He had come a long way since 1969. I like the loose jam numbers too. Mel Collins is a great sax player and his work on this record is excellent. Ian Wallace's drumming is good too. A better band musically than the "Islands" record would lead you to think. Be sure to pick up "ladies of the road" for a much better sounding live show from this tour.

The words "poor sound quality" will always be synonymous with "Earthbound," a live release from prog-rock royalty King Crimson. Recorded hastily onto cassette (and in the case of 'Sailor's Tale,' in the rain) and met with limited release by understandably hesitant execs, "Earthbound" nevertheless remains the most official live document from the short-lived Crim lineup that saw Robert Fripp employ Boz Burrell, Mel Collins, and Ian Wallace. True, a few archival live releases featuring this lineup have been made available through the King Crimson Collector's Club, but "Earthbound" with all its chaos, fierceness, and alarmingly wonderful musicianship, seems to fit the 1972 mark of King Crimson the best.

Cleaned up on CD with surprisingly decent (but understandably not "perfect") sound quality, this disc is definitely worth seeking out. It begins with a power-hungry, vicious steamroller version of '21st Century Schizoid Man,' which when compared to the already unnerving original, blows its studio predecessor out of the water in many (but not all) ways. Boz Burrell's oft-criticized vocals are transformed live with a VCS3 synthesizer, creating a wonderfully psychotic result, as the rest of the band soldiers through the KC standard in ferocious form. Elsewhere, the band plays as if there was no tomorrow (which for this lineup, there sort of wasn't). The improvs 'Peoria' and 'Earthbound,' the latter utilizing a catchy saxophone melody, are the album's highlights after the opening 'Schizoid Man.' The screams of the rapt audience add to the chaos of the closing 'Groon' which stays interesting...even despite a drum solo.

An intriguing release, as it's essentially an authorized live bootleg issued in 1972 from a cassette recorded by sound engineer Hunter MacDonald.

Taken from four United States tour stops (Wilmington, Delaware; Peoria, Illinois; Jacksonville & Orlando, Florida) in February and March 1972, the 46:38 includes a fiery rendition of 21st Century Schizoid Man (including Mirrors) that clocks in at nearly 12 minutes.

This lineup - Robert Fripp, electric guitar; Boz Burrell, bass guitar & vocals; Mel Collins, baritone saxophone & mellotron and Ian Wallace, drums - sizzles, with hints of funk as they kick out the jams.

The sound quality was rough on the initial album release and is marginally better on the CD issue. But the performances are outstanding and shows a band not holding back, perhaps because the members had agreed to disband after the tour.

I'm not certain it's good form to write a review in response to another, but this is very much in response to Jeffrey Blehar's review. Blehar claims that Earthbound

'...pulls off the neat trick of achieving consensus in the stubbornly diverse field of rock criticism, to be nigh-universally agreed upon as one of the worst live albums to ever be released...'

Earthbound is my personal favourite musical work by any band or composer of any period; and for me the highpoint of this album is not Schizoid Man - although I'd agree that this is the best cut of Schizoid Man which Crimson ever recorded. For me the highpoint is Groon. Blehar is completely correct to describe Groon as '... a gloriously UNedited monstrosity of agonizing noise...'; but he says that as if this were a bad thing.

It isn't a bad thing. It's musicianship on the transcendent limit, shaping a whirlwind. Yes, Groon is a monstrous, angry noise, but it is a glorious and supremely crafted angry noise. Which brings us back to the sound quality of the recording. No, it is not studio quality, in any sense of the term. You cannot get this ragged, dangerous sound in a studio. And the muddyness of the sound seems to me to be part of its impact. It is to music as Jackson Pollock is to art - the muddiness, the chaos, the explosive energy are part of the aesthetic.

This is music dangerously on the ragged edge; it's definitely not for everyone and it's not for people who like their music melodic or controlled. Earthbound is be no means easy listening. It is hard, demanding listening. But it's listening worth doing. Try it. You may hate it - or it may change the way you understand music completely.

Yes, it is an official bootleg recording and the sound suffers mostly due to the fact that this was recorded on cassettes straight from the mixing board. I disagree however with the opinion that this sounded worse on record. The original Japan import of this I had years ago on record actually sounded better. Thank you Tower records. I think that this is probably due to the fact since cds have a higher resolution rate they tend to make albums that were subpar recordings sound even more so. The remastering team of Fripp and company did the best they could. If you want a better sounding live album check out King Crimson's official web site and purchase one of the collector's club releases from this time. However, keep in mind that the performances on here are actually pretty good to great. Schizoid Man rocks real hard. Sailor's Tale has some great guitar work by Fripp.Groon show that King Crimson is the "prog rock" British equal to the Grateful Dead.

I was contemplating giving this five stars, but I had to account for the poor sound quality somehow. I found this in a record shop, put it on to test it out, and heard what I thought was the best version of the 21st Schizoid Man. I mean, if there were such thing as "jazz-metal", this would be it. I purchased it immediately. This album definitely has many good moments. But do NOT play with headphones (it's usually the opposite of what I recommend to folks when I like something). Just put it on your stereo and enjoy and think that you've traveled back in time before the fancy stereos and soundboards.

More importantly, being a huge Crimson fan, this album opened the doors for me to get into the whole underrated "jazzy line-up" with Mel. Over at dgm live (just search for it), there are many good shows from this line-up that can be purchased for cheap by downloading them or even getting them on a CD in couple of instances. And there are some with fantastic sound soundboard quality. Amazon also has the Ladies of the Road compilation that features the material from this era. These shows, in my opinion, give a whole new dimension to the underrated Islands material that was very influential (still can't figure out which Mars Volta song was inspired by the Sailor's Tale, but there surely is one that sounds like it). It's made me contemplate getting the latest Islands reissue, too. I would highly recommend getting this and then going for a ride with this amazing live line-up.

This live album, which brings together various performances culled from the 1972 tour (United States), is the most reviled album in the entire King Crimson discography. The complaints leveled at Earthbound by fans include the fact that (1) the recording quality is astoundingly bad and (2) that the group was perhaps the weakest of all the King Crimson lineups. While I agree at least in part with both of these complaints, there is at least one shining moment on the album (possibly two) that warrants the hardcore prog freak and King Crimson "completist" adding Earthbound to the collection. To put things in perspective, I am both a hardcore prog freak and a huge fan of King Crimson's 1970's output so naturally, I found something to like here.

The lineup at this point included Robert Fripp (electric guitar); Ian Wallace (drums and percussion); Boz Burrell (bass guitar and lead voice); and Mel Collins (saxophones and mellotron). With the single exception of Boz Burrell (who went on to fame and fortune with Bad Company) all of the musicians are excellent. In particular, I was very impressed with Ian Wallace - especially with his thunderous (and electronically altered?) drum solo on Groon. Unfortunately, the lack of a good bass player really did not help this lineup much and the other musicians have to work hard to compensate. In fact, I think Mel Collins may have been a little frustrated (or could not hear himself) - it sounds as if he was trying to send the reed flying out the bell of his saxophone he was blowing so hard.

The five tracks on the album range in length from 4:45 (an excerpt from Sailors Tale) to the closing jam session entitled Groon (15:30). Interestingly, the album opens with a great version of 21st Century Schizoid Man that is buoyed along by the frenzied playing of Fripp, Wallace, and Collins. The vocal delivery by Boz is actually pretty good and his bass playing is (fortunately) completely buried in the recording. Things go downhill fast from there however. Specifically, although there are a few shining moments here and there buried in the murk, some of the tunes are blues-based and sound really dull and uninspired. The vocal delivery by Boz on these tracks - which at times is no more than what sounds like improvised "scat" singing - does not help either. In spite of it all though, there is an avant-garde "rawness" to this album that is somewhat appealing.

The mini-LP format of this remastered album (from Holland) is pretty cool and reminds me somewhat of my old vinyl copy. However, there are some things about Earthbound that I would have appreciated the record company changing and that is the sound quality - for an official release, it really is not all that great.

All in all, Earthbound documents a weak lineup crumbling away from the core with performances that never get off the ground. The release of Earthbound was likely inspired by pressure from the record company to release a live album. For those of you that are interested in exploring this particular period of KC further, check out Ladies of the Road - it is better sounding than Earthbound.

Fortunately, Robert Fripp would re-form the band following the release of this album with what many consider the finest progressive rock lineup ever assembled. For those folks that are new to the band and are interested in live King Crimson, check out USA: 30th Anniversary Edition (1975); the excellent Night Watch (which documents the 1973-1974 period), and the heavy duty box set entitled The Great Deceiver (Live 1973-1974), which has recently been split into two separate CDs The Great Deceiver, Vol. 1 and The Great Deceiver, Vol. 2 - both have received very positive reviews.

There's nothing like TAPE. There's nothing like LIVE. When you combine the two it's absolute heaven. Thank God for music this technically good and sonically saturated. Namaste.