King Crimson
The Night Watch

Release Date: 1997 | Tracklist

“The Night Watch” is the eighth live album of King Crimson and was released in 1997. The line up on “The Night Watch” is Robert Fripp, David Cross, John Wetton and Bill Bruford.


“The Night Watch” was recorded at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam in Holland, in 1973. It was only released as an official live album in 1997, twenty four years later. The bulk of the concert was broadcast, at the time, by BBC, which means, that it was subsequently heavily bootlegged. “The Night Watch” contains a very important live performance in King Crimson’s career, being the source of the improvisations “Trio” and “Starless And Bible Black”, the instrumental “Fracture” and the introduction to the song “The Night Watch” and “Lament”, all of which were included, with some editing, in their future sixth studio album, at the time, “Starless And Bible Black”, which would be released in 1974. Especially due to these reasons, this live concert eventually acquired a legendary status among many fans of the band.

The cover of the album is an image of the painting with the same name “The Nightwatch”, painted by Pamela June Crook. Pamela is a British painter and sculptor with some success in England. However, her work is probably better known in France and America. The sleeve design was provided by the Bill Smith Studio, in London.

“The Night Watch” has twelve tracks. At the time where “The Night Watch” was recorded, King Crimson had already five studio albums, “In The Court Of The Crimson King” released in 1969, “In The Wake Of Poseidon” released in 1970, “Lizard” also released in 1970, “Islands” released in 1971 and “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic” released in 1973. But, of all those albums very few have tracks represented here. In reality, only two have tracks here and in very different proportions. By the other hand, as I mentioned before, on “The Night Watch” are several tracks that would be released on their future sixth studio album, at the time, “Starless And Bible Black”. So, from “In The Court Of The Crimson King” we have only one track, the legendary track “21st Century Schizoid Man”. From “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic” we have “Easy Money”, “Book Of Saturday”, “Improvisation: Trio”, “Exiles”, “The Talking Drum” and “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II)”. From their future album “Starless And Bible Black” we have “Lament”, “Fracture”, “The Night Watch” and “Improvisation: Starless And Bible Black”. Finally, we have also another track, an original track, “Improvisation: The Fright Watch” which is an improvisation number, a counterpart to the “Night Watch”, a kind of an introduction to “TheTalking Drum”, which never gave rise to any song that has been released on any studio album of King Crimson.

You don’t have much to say about the quality of the music here. In the eyes and ears of many, this line up was the best incarnation of King Crimson. Their full strength and full pressure only developed in the highly intensive live situations, which is impressively, demonstrated by their live albums “The Great Deceiver” and “The Night Watch”. The opening chords of “Easy Money” speak volumes for the intensity and format of the band. One can hardly believe it when David Cross, then violinist of the band, wrote in the booklet: “We were long term and deep down tired by the time we played the Concertgebouw in Holland”. Wetton’s fuzz bass squeezes and screeches, Bruford plays powerfully and subtly at the same time, as usually, Fripp as always is outstanding, both in gentle plucking and in diagonally demanding solos, and David Cross tries to counter the onslaught of the rhythm section with violin, Mellotron and electric piano in an amazing way. There are many moments of exceptional power and energy all over the album. We can see that perfectly well, for instance, on “The Talking Drum” and “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part Two”, which simply blow away the studio versions, as well as some intense bitter-sweet quiet moments. We can also see that on “Book Of Saturday”, and above all on the improvised, but howling beautiful “Trio”. And of course there are also many exciting improvisations all over the album, as usual. Apart from that, the recording quality of “The Night Watch” is simply excellent and without any kind of blame.


Conclusion: King Crimson always was one of the most difficult bands to rating because I never know what would to expect on a new album of them, studio or live, because they change frequently their music. Besides, I always thought that King Crimson is a better live band than in the studio. “The Night Watch” is an incredible live album. It represents one of the best and highest moments in King Crimson’s career. This line up is perfect, one of their best and one of my favourites too. The repertoire is excellent and the performance is brilliant, even the improvisations that are in other cases too much free and disconnected, are great. The sound is amazing for a live album, particularly from a live album from the 70’s, giving us the feeling, if there was no applause from the assistance, that we were in presence of a studio album. “The Night Watch” is a live masterpiece that can’t be waived for any lover of good, creative and prog music.


Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)

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4.2 excellent

Rank: #0 for 1997