King Crimson - The Talking Drum (Live At The Warfield Theatre, 1995)
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
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Having not heard the song for years, I thought I’d listen to this version of King Crimson’s ‘The Talking Drum’ from the Warfield Theatre and then check out the original. So much had changed in the intervening 22 years, without anyone in the band ever really saying anything about these changes. The song just evolved over years of playing.
There is much about the original that I like, starting with Jamie Muir’s whirled instruments, which give some movement in the aural space. Whirled instruments are instruments that are played by swinging them in a circle: for example, a corrugated plastic tube that is rotated in a circle to produce sound. The faster the tube is swung, the higher the pitch. Or a ‘bull-roarer’, a piece of wood attached to a string that is swung in a circle to produce a roaring sound - evidently used in in ancient rituals and to communicate over long distances. For the completist, whirled instruments are also the sound source for the track ‘The Shepherd is Eternal’ from the first Earthworks album ‘Earthworks’ (1987).
These sounds give way to Jamie’s lovely talking drum, over which Fripp’s guitar yawns and stretches as if awoken by the arrival of Davis Cross’s languorous violin. I also love Fripp’s repeated 5/4 motif, first heard at 4’ 31”, that together with the return of the whirled instruments, caps the piece, before it devolves into a collective shriek, something the band excelled at.
Unfortunately the tempo slows a little as the rock rhythm section tries to whisper as quietly as possible under a talking drum. Jamie’s hand-drumming starts around 150 beats per minute (bpm), and the track slows to about 146/147 bpm at it’s climax. Slowing up as you get louder on drums is both a cardinal sin and a school-boy error. Unfortunately we didn’t check it on playback- there were no computers, and all parties seemed happy to go with the take.
The Warfield performance, by contrast, starts at around a brisk 157 bpm, settles for much of the middle section at about 158 bpm and gives way to a final rush to 159. Better that than slowing up - it makes for a more insistent, urgent kind of feeling that the song had, by 1995, acquired. With hindsight I should have taken more care with all this. My attention to tempo was not good in 1973, and it will sound funny to those who believe the core function of the drummer is to deliver steady tempo, when I say that that the topic wasn’t of much concern to me. Nobody discussed tempo much until after the drum machines of the mid-1970s., but that's a whole other story.
The whole track has the effect of a something coming to life or waking up. The guitarists - Trey, Adrian and Robert - all have individual spots over the groove, before Robert’s wicked 5/4 motif reappears; alive, well and vital as ever. Great to see Robert, at the back and centre of the stage, again delivering one of my favourite King Crimson moments.
#drummer #livemusic #billbruford #kingcrimson #musicperformance #billbrufordsearthworks #musicimprovisation #tamadrums #paistecymbals
The talking drum is one of the greatest songs Crimson ever produced
What are the greatest progressive songs of all time!
In these three minutes it seems that the whole world revolves around Bill's snare drum. ❤
Bruford !!! There will never be a Drummer like him just fantastic. 👍🎶🥁🎼✌
One of the things I've always loved about King Crimson is the fact no one ever really does a 'solo': it's just exemplary musicianship.
Drop any of the lads into any other band/context, and what they're playing here would be a stand-out solo.
(Not well expressed, but I know what I mean.)
This I really like. Much more condensed and self-sufficient than the album version. And your analysis of the song is nearly as interesting.
Thanx for the performance Mr Bruford 🎩
The Snare!!!!!!!!!! Amazing sound!!!!!!!
No way!! Ive been looking for this since KC removed it fron youtube years ago
One of the TRUE GOATS of Prog!!!
Grandi king ❤❤❤
love you from Brazil, Bill!
Great video.
Gawdamn ❤❤❤
No expLanation needed, when
BiLL Bruford is behind the kit...
The music speaks for itseLf 🙂
👍 ✌🏼🎵🎶🤘🏼 ❤️🤍💙 👌🏻
Thanks for the tune BiLL😊
Have a nice day🌞
cya...😎michaeL😎
Literally any other King Crimson show ❌
The Warfield, 1995 ✅
(Not complaining, just remarking!)
Its because there isn't a crazy number of recorded Crimson shows out there, especially for the 90s, which I think has 3 officially available live show videos.
Obrigado Bruford
And the drum was indeed talking
WOW!!!
You know, they just don't make them like this anymore 🙎
Who is the 12 strings guitar ? The 2nd drummer Pat Mastelotto I presume (1995).
That’s Trey Gunn playing a Warr touch guitar. Similar to the Chapman Stick
Trey Gunn on the 12 string Warr Guitar.
Trey Gunn
Great version of a classic Crimson Song!!!
I really prefer the sound of the chapman stick over the standard fender guitar
Is that Steve Howe on guitar?
No it's Adrian Belew!
@ Whoops
It looked rather like him with the long hair. I’m used to it being short!
@IamaNumanoid-km5jq yes, I can see why you thought it might have been Steve Howe. Yes it is unusual to see Adrian Belew with longer hair.
That was during his hair guitar phase@IamaNumanoid-km5jq
Let qualified priests not decide there was a cardinal sin in that fantastic studio rendering prior to considering that, in the way big animals move slowlier, a slowdown of the tempo would fit the evocation of a Gradually Growing smoking beast...THEN let any music software show us what it all sounds like if we move to a higher tempo towards the end !