Larks' Tongues in Aspic - Song Info

Song Info

The album sees the band incorporate into its sound violin and also various exotic percussion instruments, including sheet metal and mbiras.

The album opens with a long experimental instrumental piece titled "Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part I)". After that there are three vocal pieces, "Book of Saturday", "Exiles" and "Easy Money", with lyrics written by Richard Palmer-James. These are followed by two more instrumentals, "The Talking Drum" and "Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part II)". The instrumental pieces on this album have strong jazz fusion influences, and portions have an almost heavy metal feel.

The album spawned the concert staple "Exiles", whose Mellotron introduction had been adapted from an instrumental piece called "Mantra" the band's original line up performed throughout 1969. At that time, as well as in late 1972, the melody was played by Fripp on guitar. It is the only studio album with this 5-man line up, since Muir left the group while on tour in 1973. Attrition took this incarnation of King Crimson through the next several albums until Fripp's "retirement" in 1975.

In 2012 the album was issued as part of the King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series, including the release of an expansive box set subtitled "The Complete Recordings". This CD, DVD-A and Blu-ray set includes every available recording of the short-lived 5 man line-up, through live performances and studio sessions. As with the rest of the 40th Anniversary Series, the release features new stereo and 5.1 surround mixes produced by Steven Wilson and Robert Fripp, taken from the original multi-track master tapes, as well as a selection of alternative versions. Clean video footage of the band performing early versions of "Exiles", "Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part I)" and a 30 minute improvisation became available publicly for the first time as part of this reissue; previously only one of the pieces had been broadcast on German television, with heavy visual effects applied to the image.