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How fucking good are King Crimson?

I

iamblades

Member
Altazor said:
I like Beat. It doesn't measure up to Discipline and its production really harms it, but it has some damn fine stuff. Neal and Jack and Me, Waiting Man, Neurotica, The Howler and even Sartori in Tangier are all songs I really like (though in the case of Waiting Man and Neurotica, the live versions are incredibly superior). Requiem is... a special case, if I'm honest - sometimes I enjoy the foreboding improv, it feels like the soundtrack to the end of existence. And other times it feels like pointless noodling.
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Can't argue that the production is probably 80% of my hate for that album, but I've never really been able to get into it because of that. It's like they shat all of the worst 80's music production trends onto that album at once. :p

Pinko Marx said:
I admit I haven't been through their entire discography, and knowing how much King Crimson likes to switch their sound I don't doubt they drop it later. But still I always have to skip Moonchild when I listen to In the Court...
This thread has inspired me to listen to them again so I'll check out some of their newer albums.
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Yeah, the source of most the hippy-dippy stuff in early KC was Peter Sinfield, who wrote basically all the lyrics for those first 4 albums.

I understand that stuff isn't to everyone's tastes, but he was gone (along with everyone else who wasn't Fripp) after Islands.
 
A

Altazor

Member
iamblades said:
Can't argue that the production is probably 80% of my hate for that album, but I've never really been able to get into it because of that. It's like they shat all of the worst 80's music production trends onto that album at once. :p
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Have you listened to the new Steven Wilson remixes of Beat/3OAPP? I don't think either album has ever sounded better.

Also, Beat's flat and uninspiring sound was one of my main gripes about it for quite a while. This live version (and Absent Lovers') made me appreciate Waiting Man one hell of a lot more - it's now one of my favorite 80's Crims songs.
 
T

TheGameshark

Member
lol because of this thread I went back and listened to Lizard which I hadn't listened to in a while. Man, Prince Rupert Awakes into Bolero is fucking incredible. The fusion of classical and jazz in bolero is cool and the Oboe part is sublime.

lol and apparently a composer of one of those gundam movies either blatantly ripped off or was trying to pay homage to Prince Rupert Awakes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HHdYXUHl06o
 
S

scorcher59

Member
I love KC precisely because you can never pinpoint their "style" I mean the shift from "In the court-In the wake of poseidon" to "Lizard" and then to records like "Red" all the way to stuff like "the power to believe" is so eclectic and quality throughout and constantly challenges you to leave your comfort zone I don't think that there too many bands like that.
edit. to answer OP's question, how fucking good? One of a kind good.

I've been listening to Fripp's solo album exposure and holy shit is it intense, been hooked on a track called breathless, fucking brutal man!
https://youtu.be/Rz1GVwLwH2M
 
S

Stencil

Member
Retro said:
Fripp also played on David Bowie's "Heroes" and "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" albums (the former of which, along with Low and Lodger were a collaboration with Brian Eno). That's actually how I was introduced to King Crimson, a friend of mine knew I was into Bowie and we got into a perpetual cycle of "If you like that, listen to this" that eventually ended way out in the weeds, listening to stuff like Magma.

If you're a fan, you might also want to track down an album he did with Japan's David Sylvian, Damage. Here's two of my favorite tracks; Brightness Falls and Blinding Light of Heaven

And since we're on the subject, Fripp does one of my favorite guitar solos on an Eno Track, a real face-melter from "Here come the Warm Jets" called "Baby's on Fire" (starts around 1:30).
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Hey, thanks Retro! I had a feeling he was on those Bowie joints. LCD Soundsystem sure did a good send up of Fripp's sound, with their track All I Want
 
W

Waldo Lydecker

Member
THRAK_-_Original_Album_Cover.jpeg
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No love for Thrak?
 
A

Altazor

Member
Waldo Lydecker said:
No love for Thrak?
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Damn fine album. I'm not particularly enamoured by its constant interludes/segues, but the actual songs are great - a mix between the 80s pop sensibilities and the 70s heaviness and experimentation.

Double Trio lineup deserved another studio album - at least one better than TCOL
 
R

Retro

Member
Stencil said:
Hey, thanks Retro! I had a feeling he was on those Bowie joints. LCD Soundsystem sure did a good send up of Fripp's sound, with their track All I Want
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Hadn't heard that before, thanks.

cntr said:
Whoa, I didn't know Fripp was on Scary Monsters. Makes a lot of sense, but whoa.
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Yeah, everything but Ashes to Ashes, Scream Like a Baby, and Because You're Young. You can really hear it on It's No Game (pt.1), kinda funny the song ends with Bowie screaming "shut up!" at fripp.

Finding out he played on Fashion after years of not making the connection was almost as big a surprise as finding out Eddie Van Halen did the solo in Beat It. It's like "Oh, of course, it's so obvious now."
 
T

The Scollard

Member
They're pretty amazing. I ended up first hearing them when a specialty radio station played "In the Court of the Crimson King" and I ended up thinking it pretty cool that the band name and the song had the same name.

Later, when I first started getting in prog rock, I encountered them again (this was after I got into JoJo, so I knew about the meme) when I bought the album ItCotCK and listened to it in full, and it blew my mind. First off, I had played Saints Row the Third before, and I had no idea they had been sampled by Kanye. Also, the melodies, the focus on craftsmanship and the infusion of classical and jazz influences into rock made listening to the album an amazing experience. From 21st Century Schizoid Man to the titular song, I love every minute of it.

Now, I'm a pretty huge prog rock and KC fan (they're definitely one of the big three for me when it comes to prog) and I was kind of pissed that they played a concert near me and I couldn't go.
 
A

ATF487

Member
Randomly got a used LP of Starless and Bible Black on impulse from the local record store in college and I was hooked afterwards. Great band.
 
M

Mr_Appleby

Member
Loved them for years. First heard Court as a teenager. Fan of the 80s stuff too, I quite liked Belew as a front man. I saw him do a set with his trio last week and it was a lot of fun. Not as technically precise as a Fripp-led KC but the rawness was a new dimension to that music.
 
R

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
A friend made me listen to their debut album a while ago, and it was great. There was one improvisation I wasn't a fan of, but the rest sounded really good. It's a shame their discography isn't on streaming services.

nitewulf said:
The issue with checking out any band in depth is also, there are just so many bands to check out, aside from the "hit singles". I recently discovered Big Star, recently started checking out CSNY album-wise, you know aside from "Just a song before I go", "Judy Blue Eyes" etc. There is Can, Supertramp, The Outlaws, the harder pre-metal stuff from the late 60's, the Zombies catalog...there are just way too many things to concentrate on one band. It is not possible.
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So much music, so little time. Still, it's always nice to get into new bands, and slowly discover their catalog.

By the way, Supertramp is awesome. I recommend their albums Crime of the Century, Crisis? What Crisis? and Famous Last Words. Their debut is also full of good prog rock stuff, in a different style than that of the other albums.

Timedog said:
Not that good. It's all about Yes, IMO.

And the most underrated prog band is Camel.
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Mirage is one of my favorite albums ever, an exquisite mix of prog and psychedelic rock. I also enjoy Moonmadness more each time I listen to it, and The Single Factor is a good pop album by a prog band.
 
B

BTails

Member
RionaaM said:
Mirage is one of my favorite albums ever, an exquisite mix of prog and psychedelic rock. I also enjoy Moonmadness more each time I listen to it, and The Single Factor is a good pop album by a prog band.
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Camel, especially Mirage, is absolutely amazing. Just listened to it again a couple days ago.

As for KC, I love them. Still need to get more records, but everything I've heard is phenomenal. Lizard might actually be one of my favourites, Circus is such a great track.

Also, I wasn't a huge fan of Larks' Tongues in Aspic first time I heard it: I had bought it based on everyone saying it was their best album, and I remember being somewhat disappointed. It didn't click with me until last year, when I gave it a second listen and was floored.
 
B

beelulzebub

Banned
Waldo Lydecker said:
No love for Thrak?
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As inconsistent as it is, it's up there as one of my favorites. I also picked up Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of the Monkey Mind during a recent KC show and I really love that too. It's a beautiful culmination of their career and a great representation of their current live act. I guess I just really love warring drum kits.

Not sure why everyone sleeps on their 80's-00's material. Every era of Crimson has some really great material and some really awful material, and the various Belew eras are no different.
 
B

brianjones

Member
Mr_Appleby said:
I never realised spotify was such a thing that people wouldn't listen to music if it wasn't on there. I tried it once and they didn't have a single thing I was searching for.

You can buy KC albums digitally through the dgmlive store. Is that old fashioned now? Because I buy full albums from bandcamp all the time.



Ha I love that video.
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i mean spotify is just so convenient

even pirating music is almost not even worth it anymore

i know for me my days of needing huge hard drives to store music is a thing of the past.. just save rare stuff on an external
 
A

Atom Heart Mother

Banned
Love King Crimson. Red is my favorite album of theirs and I can listen to it on repeat anytime.

King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, and Pink Floyd are the kings of Prog rock. I don't think even bands outside the genre of progressive rock can come close to their brilliance.

brianjones said:
i mean spotify is just so convenient

even pirating music is almost not even worth it anymore

i know for me my days of needing huge hard drives to store music is a thing of the past.. just save rare stuff on an external
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could never get into streaming. having a hard drive full of music is still the way to go for me. i like controlling my own library and curating it, not someone else doing it for me.
 
D

DieNgamers

Member
Fripp's solo on Bowie's "Fashion" is absolutely mental! His guitar line on "Heroes" is known by almost every person in the western world but many don't know it's him.

The live version of Fracture from KC Live in New York ('75?) is legendary. Such a radical guitar player and musician.
 
M

moltonasty

Member
They're the fucking best prog band of all time

Every decade of their sound was incredible, yes even their 90s output IMO

Saw em a year or two ago with the three drummer setup....one of the best shows of my life bar none
 
M

Mr_Appleby

Member
brianjones said:
i mean spotify is just so convenient

even pirating music is almost not even worth it anymore

i know for me my days of needing huge hard drives to store music is a thing of the past.. just save rare stuff on an external
Click to expand...

Idk just hardly seems convenient when they don't have what I want to listen to. HDD space is cheap and compressed audio gives relatively small files so I don't see it as an issue really. If I wanted to stream I'd probably use something like play music so I can stream my own library but in any case I prefer to save my mobile data for other things.

Atom Heart Mother said:
could never get into streaming. having a hard drive full of music is still the way to go for me. i like controlling my own library and curating it, not someone else doing it for me.
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Yup. And it's not like I don't discover new music, I'm constantly finding new stuff on bandcamp, YouTube, radio, wherever. I just prefer to download it once instead of every time I want to listen to it.
 
W

Watcher of the Skies

Member
King Crimson is one of my favorite bands, i'm obssesed with pretty much all prog rock from the 70's (except Emerson, Lake and Palmer they suck) and King Crimson is absolute fantastic.

In the Court of the Crimson King: everyone knows this apocalyptic-melancholic masterpiece one of the highest points in music.

In the Wake of Poseidon: Some members quit King Crimson (Ian Mcdonald, Michael Giles and Greg Lake) but Giles and Lake accept to be in the album, so they only added Mel Collins (air instruments), Gordon Haskell (Vocals only in the third song) and Michael Giles brother Peter Giles (Bass), what if King Crimson rips off King Crimson then you have this, but i don't care this album is fantastic the beautiful 3 parts of peace are amazing, need a jazzy song? Pictures of a City is PERFECT, Cadence and Cascade is a beautiful melody so calm and delicious?, then In the Wake of Poseidon hits the Epitaph of this album this song is so aquatic, melancholic, strong, i can feel being in a lonely ISLAND, Michael Giles is one of the best drummers ever, need another jazzy song? Cat Food it is, The Devil's Triangle is a great song but i can get why some people dislike it (too much mellotron).

Lizard: And again members left the band (Michael Giles, Greg Lake and Peter Giles) replaced by Gordon Haskell (Bass and Vocals) and Andy McCulloch (Drums). This is for me the hardest King Crimson album because Happy Family and Indoor Games are everything but accesible songs (Chaotic prog rock with jazz elements) still great songs, now CirKus has to be one of my favorite Crimson songs the feeling of a nostalgic circus mixed with nightmares and a sweet guitar (Not your usual melodic guitar), Lady of the Dancing Water is an amazing soft ballad with a beautiful flute, and then finally comes LIZARD oh yeah a 23 minute journey, it starts with a tragic mellotron with Jon Anderson (YES singer) singing beautiful lyrics, then it changes from a tragic song to a chaotic song and then to a sad song and finally to a scary song, i don't want to talk about this song too much because it is an experience, Lizard great album.

Islands: Yet once again some members left the band (Gordon Haskell and Andy McCulloch) and were replaced by Boz Burrell (Bass and Lead vocals) and Ian Wallace (drums) Another european lonely island vibes album, this time less experimental and mostly direct, we start with Formentera Lady a beautiful soft song remembering love and good times great piano and flute in this song, Sailor's Tale is an instrumental with the feeling of adventure really good song, The Letters a really sad song and really soft until Boz Burrell screams desperately "Impaled on nails of Ice" a great moment, Ladies on the Road is a good song but not as good as the others (I love it though), Prelude is an instrumental song with a classical feeling i really like it, Islands the last song and a really great one is a combination of Formentera Lady and The Letters, Islands is the "weakest" of the classic King Crimson albums but still a fantastic album.

Now what ? (not a Deep Purple pun), Robert Fripp parted ways with the Islands members and the incredible (also the second member of the Original line-up that was still a member of King Crimson) Peter Sinfield (Because Fripp was tired of fantastic theme songs), Fripp recruited John Wetton (ex-family and a long time friend of the band), Jamie Muir (a really crazy guy who loves improvising and no i'm not talking about any Can member), Bill Bruford (the legendary Yes drummer) Bruford felt Yes already did all they can offer (Fortunately Tales from Topographic Oceans,Relayer and Going for the One prove him wrong), and violinist David Cross, forming a more jazz improvising band with lots of experimental sounds (god bless Miles Davis), and they released a trilogy of great albums.

Larks' Tongues in Aspic: Yes this album is really different, really jazzy, experimental and sometimes heavier than Sabbath, but that's great, the album starts with the instrumental Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part One) we have a lot of sound in this song and they are amazing what a brutal song nothing more to say, Exiles hits as an hybrid song of the new and the old King Crimson with a really melancholic vibe that reminds me a lot of In the Wake of Poseidon the guitars and violin in Exiles are so good the same with John Wetton vocals and Bill Bruford drums, Book of Saturday is a charming and beautiful ballad once again the guitar and violin get along really well and John Wetton vocals are great, Easy Money is a fucking sweet song the song that makes you feel like a king with a moccasin sneakers, Talking Drum (I love Bill Bruford) pretty much what the song is, Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part Two) holy mother this song fucking rocks nothing else to say, is that good. This album is a classic.

Starless and Bible Black: This album was recorded mostly live, with just a couple of studio songs, we see the most improvising King Crimson by far, an album like this is pretty difficult to describe so i'm just going to say that this album is chaotic, angry, energetic and really charming, some songs i can talk about are The Night Watch (not the one with Jon Snow) my favorite song in the album, the lyrics are great, and that part with the crying guitar jesus christ, Fracture this song is impossible to play in a guitar unless your name is Robert Fripp you know whats worse? There is a more difficult (holly mother) version of this song in the 2000 album The ConstruKction of Light called Frakctured. Great album a complete experience.

Red: Finally we reach the final King Crimson album in the 70's, and what an album, it is really dark and melancholic, David Cross burned out from the tour and was eject from the band after the summer tour in 1974 (Still you can see him in the awesome live performance of Starless in the french Melody Tv), we start with Red a really heavy instrumental song a classic from King Crimson, Fallen Angel is one of the most underrated King Crimson songs because it's awesome a sad song about the murder of a brother in New York city with a perfect performance by the band, One More Red Nightmare just leave the sad parts of Fallen Angel out and you have this fucking kick ass song, Providence is an instrumental song recorded live on june 30, 1974 at Palace Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island, Us this is an instrumental improv and a fantastic one, and finally we finish with one of the most (If not the most) beautiful song ever Starless, this song is a combination of classic and new King Crimson actually Ian Mcdonald (Original member of the band) is in this song (Mell Collins too), we start with a depressing guitar and John Wetton beautiful vocals, then the song evolves into madness and finishes with a combination of both. Red is one of the best albums ever.


I would love to talk about 80's King Crimson ( wich are awesome ) but i'm tired, all i can say for sure is that Discipline is as good as any of the 70's King Crimson albums thanks to the touring musician of the Talking Heads Adrian Belew, so check that album, Beat is a good album but thats it worth cheking, Three of a Perfect Pair is good, a lot more pop oriented with your experimental parts not as good as Discipline but still good, 90's King Crimson only released THRAK really different from the 80's album but pretty good again not as good as Discipline but i really like this one, and finally 00's King Crimson with The ConstruKction of Light this is for me the worst King Crimson album is so lifeless and technical it has some great songs like Larks' Tongues in Aspic: Part IV, the 2 parts of The ConstrKuction of Light, and the alternative version of Fracture now called FraKctured , The Power to Believe is the best King Crimson album since Discipline (wich is better haha) worth cheking out. Now what about ratings? I hate ratings but if i have no choice

In the Court of the Crimson King 10/10.
In the Wake of Poseidon 8/10.
Lizard 8.5/10.
islands 8/10.
Larks' Tongues in Aspic 10/10.
Starless and Bible Black 9/10.
Red 10/10.
Discipline 9.5/10.
Beat 6.5/10.
Three of a Perfect Pair 7/10.
THRAK 7.5/10.
The ConstruKction of Light 5/10.
The Power to Believe 8/10.



By the way there is some King Crimson in spotify, recently they added the Heroes EP and the Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind live album (Jesus christ Fripp why not just Radical Action) i think thats a huge step for the band maybe the studio albums next. They are coming to Mexico in July but it is too far away from my city and too expensive (just starting new job) i hope they come back next year.
 
W

wanderingprostheyltite

Member
Started listening to their catalog just as I started my first semester in college, was the perfect aural accompaniment to that whole self discovery period. Still need to see them live. Got that Three of a Perfect Pair/Discipline live dvd around that time where they play in Japan, Bruford is such a beast.
 
A

Atom Heart Mother

Banned
Watcher of the Skies said:
(except Emerson, Lake and Palmer they suck)
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cmon man Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery is awesome! How can you like early KC and not like Greg Lake's singing on ELP?!
Also by noticing your name I'm guessing you love Genesis too :)

wanderingprostheyltite said:
Started listening to their catalog just as I started my first semester in college, was the perfect aural accompaniment to that whole self discovery period. Still need to see them live. Got that Three of a Perfect Pair/Discipline live dvd around that time where they play in Japan, Bruford is such a beast.
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their on tour this year in the US! go do it!
 
M

Manu

Member
Really fucking good indeed.

There have been rumors of a Latin American tour by November, hope they're true.
 
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