The Great Deceiver (King Crimson)

Infobox Album | Name = The Great Deceiver
Type = Live album
Artist = King Crimson


Released = 1992
Recorded = 1973-1974
Genre = Progressive rock
Length =
Label = E.G. Records
Virgin Records
Producer =
Reviews =
Last album = "Three of a Perfect Pair" (1984)
This album = "The Great Deceiver" (1992)
Next album = "VROOOM" (1994)

"The Great Deceiver" is a live 4CD box set by the band King Crimson, released on Virgin Records in 1992.

The box set features live recordings of the band from 1973 and 1974. All recordings feature the lineup of Robert Fripp, John Wetton, David Cross and Bill Bruford. Jamie Muir, who left the band in early 1973, is not featured on the set. The band's 1974 concert from Providence, Rhode Island is presented in its entirety on CDs One and Two; this was the second-to-last live concert ever performed by this incarnation of King Crimson.

King Crimson's "walk on" music in 1973-74 was an excerpt of "The Heavenly Music Corporation", from the album "(No Pussyfooting)" by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. These "walk-ons" are reproduced here, and indexed as separate tracks.

Three recordings from this box set were previously available on other King Crimson albums, albeit in slightly altered forms. An abbreviated version of "We'll Let You Know" appears on the "Starless and Bible Black" album, released in 1974. Similarly, an abbreviated version of "Providence" was included on the "Red" album, also released in 1974. The live performance of "21st Century Schizoid Man" on CD Two was issued in 1975 as part of the album "USA", featuring overdubbed violin from Eddie Jobson.

Many of the recordings on this album are band improvisations. "A Voyage to the Centre of the Cosmos" is an extended version of the "Asbury Park" improvisation from the "USA" album. "The Law of Maximum Distress" appears in two sections, as the tape ran out in the middle of the song. Much of the missing material seems to be used on "The Mincer" from "Starless and Bible Black". As Robert Fripp notes in the CD jacket, "Most live recording follows the policy of two machines in use simultaneously to meet an eventuality such as this. We learn."

The liner notes to "The Great Deceiver" run to 68 pages. These notes feature comments from Fripp, Wetton and Cross, annotated excerpts from Fripp's 1974 diary, reviews of the previous King Crimson box set, "Frame By Frame" (1991), and a complete listing of all concerts performed by the band in 1973 and 1974.

The track "Exiles" is credited to Fripp/Wetton/Palmer-James on this box set. The correct credit, listed below, is Cross/Fripp/Palmer-James. However, John Wetton has indicated in interviews that he wrote the bridge for "Exiles" and so the box set credit might be correct.

Track listing

Disc 1: Things Are Not as They Seem...

*Recorded at the Palace Theatre, Providence, USA, June 30, 1974.
#"Walk On ... No Pussyfooting" – 0:52 (Robert Fripp, Brian Eno)
#"Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two" – 6:12 (Fripp)
#"Lament" – 4:04 (Fripp, John Wetton, Richard Palmer-James)
#"Exiles" – 7:00 (David Cross, Fripp, Palmer-James)
#"A Voyage to the Centre of the Cosmos" – 14:41 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bill Bruford)
#"Easy Money" – 7:14 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#"Providence" – 9:47 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#"Fracture" – 10:47 (Fripp)
#"Starless" – 11:56 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford, Palmer-James)

Disc 2: Sleight of Hand (or Now You Don't See It Again) and...

*Tracks 1-2 recorded at the Palace Theatre, Providence, USA, June 30, 1974.
*Tracks 3-11 recorded at the Glasgow Apollo, Glasgow, UK, October 23, 1973.
*Tracks 12-13 recorded at Pennsylvania State University, State College, USA, June 29, 1974.

(Note: Only the first half of "The Night Watch" is taken from the Glasgow performance; the second half was taken from the Zurich show featured on CD Four. The liner notes indicate that there were technical problems with both recordings, and that the splice was done "to honour the spirit and sense of Glasgow's performance".)

#21st Century Schizoid Man – 7:32 (Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, Michael Giles, Peter Sinfield)
#Walk off from Providence ... No Pussyfooting – 1:15 (Fripp, Eno)
#Sharks' Lungs in Lemsip – 2:38 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One – 7:25 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford, Jamie Muir)
#Book of Saturday – 2:49 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#Easy Money – 6:43 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#We'll Let You Know – 4:54 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#The Night Watch – 4:54 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#Tight Scrummy – 8:27 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#Peace: A Theme – 1:01 (Fripp)
#Cat Food – 4:14 (Fripp, Sinfield, McDonald)
#Easy Money – 2:19 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#...It Is for You, but Not for Us – 7:25 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)

Disc 3: ...Acts of Deception (the Magic Circus, or Weasels Stole Our Fruit)

*Tracks 1-11 recorded at the Stanley Warner Theatre, Pittsburgh, USA, April 29, 1974.
*Tracks 12-13 recorded at Pennsylvania State University, State College, USA, June 29, 1974.
#No Pussyfooting – 1:15 (Fripp, Eno)
#The Great Deceiver – 3:32 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#Bartley Butsford – 3:13 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#Exiles – 6:23 (Cross, Fripp, Palmer-James)
#Daniel Dust – 4:40 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#The Night Watch – 4:18 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#Doctor Diamond – 4:52 (Cross, Wetton, Fripp, Bruford, Palmer-James)
#Starless – 11:36 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford Palmer-James)
#Wilton Carpet – 5:52 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#The Talking Drum – 5:29 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford, Muir)
#Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two (abbreviated) – 2:22 (Fripp)
#Applause and announcement – 2:19
#Is There Life Out There? – 11:50 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)

Disc 4: ...But Neither are They Otherwise

*Tracks 1-4 recorded at Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada, June 24, 1974.
*Tracks 5-12 recorded at the Volkshaus, Zürich, Switzerland, November 15, 1973.
#The Golden Walnut – 11:14 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#The Night Watch – 4:22 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#Fracture – 10:48 (Fripp)
#Clueless and Slightly Slack – 8:36 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#Walk On ... No Pussyfooting – 1:00 (Fripp, Eno)
#Some Pussyfooting – 2:23 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One – 7:41 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford, Muir)
#The Law of Maximum Distress, Part One – 6:31 (Bruford, Cross, Fripp, Wetton)
#The Law of Maximum Distress, Part Two – 2:17 (Bruford, Cross, Fripp, Wetton)
#Easy Money – 6:57 (Fripp, Wetton, Palmer-James)
#Some More Pussyfooting – 5:50 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford)
#The Talking Drum – 6:05 (Cross, Fripp, Wetton, Bruford, Muir)

Personnel

*Robert Fripp - guitar, mellotron, electric piano
*John Wetton - bass guitar, vocals
*David Cross - violin, mellotron, electric piano
*Bill Bruford - drums, percussion

Executive producer: Robert Fripp. Mixing by Fripp, Tony Arnold and David Singleton.