| The Night Watch | |
| Type: | live |
| Artist: | King Crimson |
| Cover: | The Night Watch (album cover).jpg |
| Released: | 17 October 1997 |
| Recorded: | 23 November 1973 |
| Venue: | Concertgebouw (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) |
| Genre: | Progressive rock, heavy metal, hard rock, free improvisation |
| Length: | 84:34 |
| Label: | Discipline Global Mobile |
| Prev Title: | Epitaph |
| Prev Year: | 1997 |
| Next Year: | 1998 |
The Night Watch is a live album (2-CD set) by the English rock band King Crimson, recorded in Amsterdam in 1973, and released in 1997.
This album contains an important performance in King Crimson's career, being the source of the improvisations "Trio" and "Starless and Bible Black", the Fripp instrumental "Fracture" and the intro to the song "The Night Watch", all of which were included, with some editing, in the 1974 album Starless and Bible Black. Prerecorded excerpts of (No Pussyfooting) appear at the end of "21st Century Schizoid Man" similarly to what was included at the beginning of USA.
The concert was performed on 23 November 1973 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Most of the concert was also broadcast live by the BBC and taped by listeners; bootlegs of the broadcast circulated among fans. The concert began with a version of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part I)", a recording of which has never been found. Some bootlegs claim to have it but these are recordings from other sources.[1] It was one of the first releases of archival recordings by Discipline Global Mobile, the music company founded by Robert Fripp.
Like the covers of many King Crimson albums, The Night Watchs cover features a painting by P. J. Crook, which is also entitled The Nightwatch. The sleeve was designed by the Bill Smith Studio of London.