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This may sound like heresy....
Does anyone else have the new 40th anniversary edition of 'In The Court of the Crimson King'? I do (as you may expect) and believe it or not, what has been done to it in terms of sonic quality is astounding. It's even better than the 30th anniversary edition (which I thought was outstanding) and comes with some really good extras too.
But.
To me, the biggie on this album was always 'Epitaph'. It was really this track that showed me the way and pointed me at a style of music I don't think anyone else in the genre has come close to equalling. And it was always the Mellotron that did it. Everything else in the track was great, but the piercing shreik of the Mellotron propelled it from being a fairly standard minor key tune into something really magical.
Which begs the question: what the shiny blue fuck has happened here? I was listening to the track again today having had a feeling of loss in a couple of previous listens, and have suddenly found out where it was coming from. Or not. At the close of the first chorus the Mellotron climbs to the top E as well all know...and never gets there. The note is not there. One note. Big deal, you may say, but it is a sublime note. As Fripp himself has droned, you 'can play any note they like provided it's the right one'. And this is the right one. It's sweet and perfect and rounds off the chorus perfectly. So why is it omitted. It's even in tune!
Worse is to come. That pitch bend. My 14 year old jaw dropped on hearing it for the first time. I think I destroyed my first copy by dropping the needle onto at point again and again and again. It is a fantastic, blood-curdling hair-on-the- back-of-the- neck experience. And on the 40th anniversary set it is sludged out. The crescendo behind it absolutely overwhelms it to the extent that you can hear the trick; one Mellotron plays a crescendo climbing 'flat' to E-minor whilst the other one bends up to it. Expert fading on the original ensured that the effect was heard but that the squeak of strings ratcheted up like that was not. It's a superb moment. And you can barely hear it on the new release.
Has anyone else noticed this or any other weirdness/ It's the only track I have listened to in such detail so far, which makes me a tad scared for the rest now. Actually, I'm playing it now and the clarity of the piece now makes it sound like Mike Giles banging on timpani in a studio, not the far-off and distant sound of doom that I know so well. Maybe less is nore. Perhaps Fripp has tinkered beyond. Perhaps I'll ask him.
Musical choices aside, the sound quality is to be heard and disbelieved. A friend with a good 5:1 system says that 21CSM is like having the band play in your front room. It's that good.
-- Mike Dickson, EdinburghFree Music Project: http://www.mikedick son.org.uk/ Or http://www.last. fm/music/ Mike+DicksonOr http://soundcloud. com/mikedicksonOr http://www.planetme llotron.com/ revd4.htm# mikedickson