Wow. Robert delivers.
I've always loved this tune, even before I ever heard a live recording of it. And then, when I finally did...well, there is just no preparing for what you see when you watch the 80s King Crimson do this piece live. The first time I did, my internal monologue went something like this:
Wait, Belew's on drums? But the whole theme is there...no, Robert's not playing anything yet...holy shit, that's all Tony? What the...yes, yes it is. Okay then, who's going to play the keyboard part? Okay, there it's winding up, but who's doing it? Robert's nowhere near a key-...oh, he's playing it through the guitar? Yeah, well, that's kind of like the sound on the record, or rather it was a minute ago before he added another power grid's worth of "live wire" sound on his way up the ramp...and HFS, just look at him go! Either he's going to pop an aneurysm, or I am, because this is just unbelievable.At the time I had no idea what a guitar synthesizer was, and the only live Crimson I'd heard before was of the '70s band, which featured an actual keyboard (Mellotron), so I was just not ready for those sounds to go with that picture. But hell, there they were, and anyone who has heard both the studio recording and any live performance from that period can tell you they are two completely different animals. While absolutely being the same tune.
There's a lot of King Crimson that works well--really well--when my head needs to just light off a flamethrower and torch noise with noise. "Sartori" is at least near the tippy top of the heap, and may actually rest there. Here it is, as a document, if nothing else.
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