Earthbound, originally released in 1972, was one of the earliest, if not the first, official bootleg released by a major rock band, consisting of a series of deliberately lo-fi live recordings of King Crimson's Islands era line-up on tour in the USA. Earthbound is the final remaining release of the original King Crimson vinyl albums series. On 200g vinyl, the album has been cut from masters approved by Robert Fripp by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering.
One of the grittiest, most powerful live documents of its time, Earthbound features the Islands line-up, Boz Burrell, Mel Collins, Robert Fripp and Ian Wallace, pushing at the limits of its music in a manner which few of their contemporaries ever managed.
On its release, due to its mid-price, it was excluded from the main album charts in the UK but topped the mid-price charts, rubbing shoulders with Jim Reeves and Mantovani. Atlantic in the USA didn't even bother to release it. By then, the band had broken up and the label had already been alerted to the likelihood of a new King Crimson line-up promised for later in the year. Like the later live album, USA, Earthbound remained deleted on vinyl and unreleased on CD until both were finally released in 2002 on CD. An expanded CD/DVD edition appeared in 2017 alongside the Sailors' Tales boxed set.
