The Night Watch (album)

Contents

This album contains an important performance in King Crimson's career, being the source of the improvisations "Trio" and "Starless and Bible Black", the Fripp instrumental "Fracture" and the intro to the song "The Night Watch", all of which were included, with some editing, in the 1974 album Starless and Bible Black. Prerecorded excerpts of (No Pussyfooting) appear at the end of "21st Century Schizoid Man" similarly to what was included at the beginning of USA.

Production

The concert was performed on 23 November 1973 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Most of the concert was also broadcast live by the BBC and taped by listeners; bootlegs of the broadcast circulated among fans. It was one of the first releases of archival recordings by Discipline Global Mobile, the music company founded by Robert Fripp.

Art

Like the covers of many King Crimson albums, The Night Watch's cover features a painting by P. J. Crook, which is also entitled The Nightwatch. The sleeve was designed by the Bill Smith Studio of London.

Disc 1

1. "Easy Money" (Robert Fripp, John Wetton, Richard Palmer-James) – 6:14
2. "Lament" (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James) – 4:14
3. "Book of Saturday" (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James) – 4:07
4. "Fracture" (Fripp) – 11:28
5. "The Night Watch" (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James) – 5:28
6. "Improvisation: Starless and Bible Black" (David Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bill Bruford) – 9:11

Disc 2

1. "Improvisation: Trio" (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford) – 6:09
2. "Exiles" (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James) – 6:37
3. "Improvisation: The Fright Watch" (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford) – 6:03
4. "The Talking Drum" (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford, Jamie Muir) – 6:34
5. "Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part II)" (Fripp) – 7:51
6. "21st Century Schizoid Man" (Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, Michael Giles, Peter Sinfield) – 10:38

Credits

Personnel