This may sound like heresy....
Does anyone else have the new 40th anniversary edition of 'In The Courtof 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'seven better than the 30th anniversary edition (which I thought wasoutstanding) and comes with some really good extras too.
But.
To me, the biggie on this album was always 'Epitaph'. It was reallythis track that showed me the way and pointed me at a style of music Idon't think anyone else in the genre has come
close toequalling. And it was always the Mellotron that did it. Everything elsein the track was great, but the piercing shreik of the Mellotronpropelled it from being a
fairly standard minor key tune intosomething really magical.
Which begs the question:
what the shiny blue fuck has happenedhere? I was listening to the track again today having had afeeling of loss in a couple of previous listens, and have suddenlyfound out where it was coming from. Or not. At the close of the firstchorus the Mellotron climbs to the top E as well all know...and nevergets there. The note is
not there. One note. Big deal, you maysay, 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 thechorus perfectly. So why is it omitted. It's even in tune!
Worse is to come.
That pitch bend. My 14 year old jaw droppedon hearing it for the first time. I think I destroyed my first copy bydropping the needle onto at point again and again and again. It is afantastic, blood-curdling hair-on-the- back-of-the- neck experience. Andon the 40th anniversary set it is
sludged out. The crescendobehind it absolutely overwhelms it to the extent that you can hear thetrick; one Mellotron plays a crescendo climbing 'flat' to E-minorwhilst the other one bends up to it. Expert fading on the originalensured that the
effect was heard but that the squeak ofstrings 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 onlytrack I have listened to in such detail so far, which makes me a tadscared for the rest now. Actually, I'm playing it now and the clarityof the piece now makes it sound like Mike Giles banging on timpani in astudio, not the far-off and distant
sound of doom that I knowso well. Maybe less is nore. Perhaps Fripp has
tinkered beyond. PerhapsI'll ask him.
Musical choices aside, the sound quality is to be heard anddisbelieved. A friend with a good 5:1 system says that 21CSM is likehaving the band play in your front room. It's that good.