U.S.A. Easton PA

U.S.A.

King Crimson

Atlantic, 1975

REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/16/2007

This concert album is the second forgotten Crimson live disc of the '70s, the first being Earthbound, which did not get reviewed on this site because very few people probably still have a copy.

Where Earthbound was a low-quality soundboard recording by the first incarnation of the band, full of long jams that only fans would know ("Groon," "Peoria," "Earthbound"), U.S.A. loudly chronicles the live show from the second incarnation, the Larks'-Starless-Red era that fans adore. The vinyl has only six songs; the CD remaster adds "Fracture" and "Starless," two long mostly-instrumental jams.

The problem with U.S.A. is that it has been tampered with in the studio; instruments were later overdubbed and the production cleaned up so that it rarely sounds like a live show and more like a studio disc. This wouldn't be a huge problem, except that Crimson rarely strayed from how it performed a song (yes, the band underwent copious amounts of jamming, but those were often given different names and not parts of real songs).

As such, the versions of "Easy Money" and "Larks' Tongues In Aspic Pt. II" are louder but not necessarily better than their studio counterparts, although the latter is a fine song in any version and the proto-metal guitar riffs sound better on stage. It's a great choice to open the disc. "Lament" and "Exiles" are little more than run-throughs of the tunes; decent songs both, but hardly worth visiting on a regular basis.