In more recent years, Mr Fripp has been busily re-mastering, re-packaging and re-issuing everything KC ever released, as well as exposing us to stuff we never had access to before. The cunning old devil has steadily rolled out a succession of previously unreleased live recordings from his vast archive, usually with splendidly informative booklets of press cutting from that long gone epoch. For me, the most important release was 'The Great Deceiver', a four-disc box set of live recordings of my fave line-up, all re-mastered and digitally cleaned up. Droolsome indeed.
But, despite all these re-issues, USA was yet again unavailable. Just as I thought some ancient curse had been re-evoked, RF decides to give us USA: as a 24-bit re-mastered high-definition CD with two bonus tracks ('Fracture' and Starless') in a mini-gatefold sleeve, with the mandatory cuttings booklet. Phew! The sleeve's a beauty with extra Kirlian photos on the inside, but otherwise looks like a shrunken version of the original.
The sheer power and inventiveness of Crimson live is superbly captured on this album. 'Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part II' sounds a hundred times more effective here than on the original studio recording and sets the pulses racing. 'Exiles' is even more haunting in this incarnation, fusing bass, guitar, violin and mellotron together perfectly.
For the completist KC collector, USA is important because it's the only place to hear the storming semi-improv track 'Asbury Park'. This is the one that really hooked me into USA first time around. Fripp's fuzz guitar squeals and screams constantly for most of the 7minutes of the track without a break, whilst Wetton and Bruford cook up a storm. One of the best examples of Crimso’s live magic in my opinion and I’ve yet to hear any other guitarist emulate what Fripp does here. Track 5 is ‘Easy Money’. There are plenty of other live recordings available now of this famous ‘standard’, but this is special because of Fripp’s heart-rendingly beautiful solo, which takes up the bulk of the track. The inevitable ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ rounds off the original ‘USA’, but on the re-issue, it’s followed by ‘Fracture’ and ‘Starless’. For my money, they don’t compete with other versions, but who’s complaining?
I’ve still got both my vinyl copies and can’t imagine parting with them. If I had to name a Crimson ‘Desert Island Disc’, I reckon this scratchless, matchless re-issue of ‘USA’ would be it.