King Crimson: “Sleepless” Live in Japan with Tony Levin

This song opens up just right: with some awesome percussive slap bass by Tony Levin.

And he doesn’t stop there.

The tune, “Sleepless” is from King Crimson’s 1984 release, Three of a Perfect Pair, with Levin on bass and Stick, Adrian Belew on vocals/guitar, Robert Fripp on guitar and Bill Bruford on drums.

Levin’s bass is painted to resemble the album’s cover.

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Leave a Reply to Benny Bennett Cancel reply

  1. Thanks for posting this! Tony and Especially Adrien have been huge influences for my playing and songwriting!

  2. Alexander Christian Adrian

    I actually had to run through all the record stores in my hometown when this was new in the eighties to get a hold of it as a single. The single made me buy “Three Of A Perfect Pair”, but this was the standout track. For some reason or other I´ve been under the impression that this was due to Robert Fripps geniues and guitarplaying. I absolutely stunned again by Tony Levins performance. He´s like a Jedi of the bassguitar on “Sleepless” :-)

  3. I still think of Greg Lake! This is good stuff.

  4. Love this song, Love this album, Love LEVIN! and that bass is so sick. Ahh lovely post. thank you.

  5. Corey, maybe it would be a cool idea if ocasionally you posted a small transcription of some of these basslines for the viewers to work on. It would make these video posts even better. For example, wouldn’t it be cool if that opening riff that Tony is playing in the intro was transcribed and included so that viewers could get a taste of it? What do you think?

    • Vinny

      I fully agree with you Rafy, I searched on Youtube many times to see if someone had posted a bass cover of this track, but I only found a few guys who just made an attempt: none of them got close to the way Tony does it (I find his way of thumbing magnificent).

  6. Tony Levin is the man…..very good..

  7. Enjoy seeing Bass used to great effect on different levels