King Crimson – Easy Money

Built From A Bicycle Frame And Toys

This performance was filmed live at Wollman Memorial Skating Rink in New York’s Central Park on June 25, 1973. Released on March 23, 1973, “Easy Money” appeared as the fourth track on King Crimson’s fifth studio album Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. The album peaked at number 20 on the UK Albums Chart and number 61 on the US Billboard chart, marking a radical departure from everything the band had done before.

While Pink Floyd’s own track about currency was climbing the charts that same year, King Crimson’s version took a more adventurous path through similar territory. Where Floyd used cash registers, Crimson employed bicycle frames, toys, chimes, and bells. The album became one of 1973’s most important progressive rock releases, competing in a year that saw The Dark Side of the Moon, Close to the Edge, and Selling England by the Pound all vying for attention. That maniacal laughter closing the track echoes similar chortles in Floyd’s work, but Crimson’s approach was far more experimental and confrontational.

Robert Fripp composed the verses while John Wetton added the chorus later, creating a piecemeal structure that perfectly captured the song’s themes. Richard Palmer-James wrote lyrics that observers have interpreted as commentary on the music industry’s exploitative relationship with artists, though the imagery of someone strutting around showing off crimson suspenders works equally well as a portrait of shallow materialism in general. Wetton’s vocals delivered the sardonic lyrics with just the right amount of knowing menace, making the listener uncertain whether to laugh or feel uncomfortable.

The track was recorded at Command Studios in London from mid-January to early February 1973. Robert Fripp’s buzz-saw guitar created an aggressive, almost dirge-like atmosphere at the beginning before Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir’s percussion erupted into rhythmic explosions. Muir’s contribution was especially unusual, as he’d come from London’s free jazz scene having worked with avant-garde luminaries like Evan Parker and Derek Bailey. His percussion setup included a bicycle frame, various toys, chimes, bells, sheet metal, baking trays, chains, and occasionally actual drums. David Cross added violin and Mellotron textures that contrasted beautifully with the rhythm section’s heaviness.

The album introduced King Crimson’s third major incarnation after the departure of the previous lineup following Islands. Fripp had recruited Bill Bruford from Yes, who felt he’d exhausted his possibilities there and craved the experimental freedom King Crimson offered. Wetton came from Family, Cross was a relative newcomer, and Muir brought avant-garde credibility. This five-piece lineup would prove short-lived, as Muir departed in February 1973 shortly after recording finished, meaning Larks’ Tongues in Aspic remains the only King Crimson album featuring his extraordinary percussion work. This June 1973 Central Park performance captured the quartet still finding their footing as a four-piece after Muir’s departure, just three months after the album’s release.

The Wollman Rink show was part of the Schaefer Music Festival and marked King Crimson’s return to New York as a four-piece following Muir’s departure. District 97 with John Wetton later covered the song, and it became a staple of King Crimson’s most recent lineups from 2014 through 2021. Steven Wilson created new stereo, surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes in 2023, revealing layers and details that had been buried in the original 1973 stereo mix.

The album established a template that influenced progressive rock for decades afterward, presaging bands like Tool and Primus with its rhythmic complexity and heavy groove. Material first performed to unsuspecting audiences in 1972 proved remarkably durable, aging better than most of its contemporaries. For a song about the corrupting influence of easy money featuring a percussionist playing children’s toys through a bicycle frame, it turned out to be one of the smartest investments in progressive rock history.