King’s Crimson’s 1975 live album, USA, presented a band in legacy form, no longer active. By the time USA appeared as a chronicle of King Crimson’s 1974 US summer concert tour, guitarist Robert Fripp had dissolved Crimson, and would not resurrect his group (with different membership) until the start of the 1980s. USA followed on the heels of Red, King Crimson’s final 1970s studio effort, which had pared Crimson to a core trio. When released, USA was barely noticed in America and even less so in England, King Crimson’s home turf. Over ensuing decades, fans and recent musicians who were influenced by the 1970s King Crimson, eventually gave USA higher marks, and the record is now esteemed by some as one of the defining statements of mid-‘70s progressive rock.
