The Nightwatch: Live at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw 1973 [Live]

King Crimson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 13, 1998)
• Original Release Date: January 13, 1998
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Label: Discipline Us
• ASIN: B000005OO5
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,544 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Easy Money

2. Lament

3. Book Of Saturday

4. Fracture

5. The Night Watch

6. Improv: Starless And Bible Black

Disc: 2

1. Improv: Trio

2. Exiles

3. Improv: The Fright Watch

4. The Talking Drum

5. Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part II)

6. 21st Century Schizoid Man

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Rock's Finest Moments Caught on Tape, April 7, 2004

By 

Bud (Seminole, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Nightwatch: Live at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw 1973 (Audio CD)

Fans of the legendary King Crimson should be thankful that co-founder and mainstay Robert Fripp has such an obsessive pattern of archiving the Crims' various live performances. This late 1973 gig at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam features the most hailed Crimson line-up of Fripp (guitars), John Wetton (bass/vocals), David Cross (violins, etc) and Bill Bruford (percussion), in a furry of musical bliss from the frightening to the beautiful, from the ominous textures to the shadowy lines, from the words of anger to the words of mourning.
"The Night Watch" is, simply put, one of the greatest rock concerts ever caught on tape. Today, live albums have become stop-gap releases more than ever, available mostly through TV offers, with a tacky keychain or poster thrown in. And unfortunately, since this performance was released over twenty years after it happened, it will probably only be seen by many as a nostalgia release. But we know better.
King Crimson blew fans away with their studio albums, but as a live entity they were an unmovable mountain. Despite all its mind-boggling complexity (and Fripp's own criticism, evident in his extensive liner notes), this band invaded whatever venue they were scheduled and produced a sound that could fill a stadium yet still possess enough grace to fit in a concert hall. Selections such as 'Easy Money,' 'Lament,' and '21st Century Schizoid Man,' would have made a stadium audience stamp their feet and hold lighters high in the air, while 'The Night Watch,' 'Trio,' and 'Fracture' mesmerized those in the more intimate venues.
If you only buy one live album by King Crimson (there are many), "The Night Watch" is perfect. Around 26 minutes of these exact recordings were supposedly used for the "Starless and Bible Black" album (after overdubbs and studio polishing), but nonetheless, "The Night Watch" is a moving piece of history from these musical heroes.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Admirable restraint, May 30, 2002

By 

a superintelligent shade of the color blue (minneapolis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nightwatch: Live at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw 1973 (Audio CD)

One track of this recording, "Trio", was released on "The Young Person's Guide to King Crimson", with Bill Bruford credited with "admirable restraint" (he didn't play a note). That's the only restraint you'll hear in this incredible, pounding concert. Based on the liner notes, it seems they had no idea that King Crimson, one of the greatest live bands in the history of rock, was recording one of its greatest concerts.

King Crimson has always been better, braver as a live band than as a studio band. This album is a single extraordinary statement of that power, of the sheer guts to put their chins in the wind and play for keeps. It's the best single concert recording of the Starless-era band that i've heard, and a fabulous introduction to their live strength.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Without mercy, January 6, 2001

By 

loteq (Regensburg/Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nightwatch: Live at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw 1973 (Audio CD)

In my opinion, you couldn't find a better introduction to KC's famous '73/early-'74s line-up than this double-disc set which manages to gather some of the best pieces from "Larks' tongues" and "Starless.." and to present them in better audio quality and more engaging performances than on the studio albums. The remastered editions of "Larks' tongues" and "Starless.." are not yet available in Germany and the early CD issues suffer from an appalling mix and low dynamic range, so I decided to buy "TNW" instead. With the exception of "The great deceiver", all the key tracks are here, including more rock-tinged songs like "Easy money" and long, unsettling improvisations like "Fracture" and "Trio". I favor all of the pieces on "TNW" to their studio counterparts, mainly due to Fripp's guitar playing being more promiment in the mix and Wetton's vocals, which have often come in for criticism, being more discernible and self-confident. KC's live sound has always been somewhat different to their recorded output; they didn't exactly try to reproduce what was on the studio albums instead of coming up with previously unheard material and many improvisations. The decision not to include older songs - apart from "Schizoid man" - is quite typical for KC and can be interpreted as a matter of artistic pride and the refusal to rest on past glories. "TNW" does also signal another new phase in the band's work, moving into a full embrace of hard guitar riffs and angst-ridden lyrics which would find full flower on the subsequent album "Red". Disc 1 opens with three relatively straightforward prog-rock pieces, "Easy money", "Lament", and "Book of Saturday", providing some of KC's more accessible moments and displaying a power onstage which I have seldom seen from other prog-rock bands. At the end of "Book.." you can hear an announcement where they say that the show was being recorded for "Starless and bible black", an album where KC used the music from the concert as a starting point for adding guitar overdubs and vocals in the studio. The second half of disc 1 slows down the manic tendencies of the first three cuts and focuses on long improvisations. The 11 1/2-minute "Fracture" offers glimpses of the guitar arpeggios that would propel KC throughout the '80s, but the 9 1/4-minute "Starless" occassionally borders on annoying with its shrill feedback and aimless excursions. The title cut, however, is an almost romantic and friendly song which lives up to its title and perfectly captures the image of nighttime urban landscapes. Disc 2 starts with the intriguing "Improv:Trio", a beatless detour into eerie mellotron soundscapes which are evocative of Tangerine Dream's mid-'70s output ("Ricochet", "Stratosfear"). It's musically quite different from the rest of this double-disc set. The version of "Exiles" is a vast improvement upon the album cut, beginning with ominous "mello-drones" and bringing the track to a thunderous finale. "Improv:The fright watch", again, offers clear echoes of Tangerine Dream's cosmos and flows seamlessly into "The talking drum", an improvisation which had already appeared on the "Larks' tongues" album. Two decidedly rocky and aggressive tracks finish "TNW": the much-praised "Larks' tongues part II" and a 10 1/2-minute version of "21 century..". The latter one is augmented with a long middle section which is used as a showcase for solos and improvisations of the individual band members. It has to be said though, this album is a varied bag. The structure of the improvisations is overall too similar; some of the pieces simply don't have the transcendental quality they're striving for and remain uninteresting for the most part. At best, "TNW" shows a rock band which can veer between total overdrive and complete restraint, drawing the listener in by gradually revealing the secrets and undercurrents of their songs. This album also features a very beautiful 20-page color booklet with many information about the concert and some funny statements like, "Excited drummers sometimes hit their microphones with drumsticks" or "Tuning a mellotron doesn't". Along with this booklet and the enhaced CD section, the content of "TNW" is very good and may convince skeptics that King Crimson's box sets indeed have a lot to offer.