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[DeSo]

No one ever talks about them but "In the Court of the Crimson King" is arguably the best album ever, up there with the Beatles best.

Then they have Red and Larks'.. so good.

 

[PaulExcellent]

Relevant post:
I haven't heard much of their music, but Epitaph is truly an amazing track.

Spoiler

JoJo post: But how does it work?

 

[Chinner]

I think the first time I ever heard them was on the soundtrack for Children of Men. Subsequently got their album on record, and yes, it is great.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

I hear about them but never heard a track, link me something good mayne!

 

[Roi]

Don't know they aren't on Spotify..

Spoiler

(They are brilliant, the album Red is one of my all-time favorites!)

 

[Zelenogorsk]

70s King Crimson is amazing. Red in particular.

Everything past that is garbage (maybe garbage is too strong a word, but I really don't like anything past their awesome 70s catalog)

Spoiler

(They are brilliant, the album Red is one of my all-time favorites!)

This guy gets it.

 

[Zombine]

I always come across them in my boxes of records I grade. Their albums are always in NM condition, and when I do research on them there's next to nothing on YouTube and their play count on Spotify is insanely low.

 

[Gurgelhals]

This fucking album right there:

Starless in particular.

 

[Hella Lugosi]

ITCOTKC isn't even the best King Crimson album

The Belew era is so underrated

 

[Moppeh]

They're dope and really need to get on Spotify.

 

[DeSo]

Apparently Fripp is a cunt and doesn't want his music online. What it comes down to.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

ITCOTKC isn't even the best King Crimson album

The Belew era is so underrated

Awesome username

 

[SDCowboy]

I hear about them but never heard a track, link me something good mayne!

Same. They're one of those bands I see mentioned all the time on forums, yet I don't think I've ever once heard their songs on the radio, and I mostly listen to classic rock and oldies.

 

[DeSo]

One More Red Nightmare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyoVrVGeqOU

One of my faves, Red is an incredible album.

 

[Zelenogorsk]

I hear about them but never heard a track, link me something good mayne!

Same. They're one of those bands I see mentioned all the time on forums, yet I don't think I've ever once heard their songs on the radio, and I mostly listen to classic rock and oldies.

Listen to this right now!

One More Red Nightmare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyoVrVGeqOU

One of my faves, Red is an incredible album.

This song is really fun to play on bass.

edit: after some quick googling it seems John Wetton passed away earlier this year. He was my favorite part of the 70s King Crimson line-up. RIP.

 

[PartTimeWarrior]

Epitaph

But how does it work?

 

[DeSo]

Epitaph

Thank you.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

This fucking album right there:

Starless in particular.

PREACH.

Seriously, this album is a prog masterpiece.

 

[Gurgelhals]

Same. They're one of those bands I see mentioned all the time on forums, yet I don't think I've ever once heard their songs on the radio, and I mostly listen to classic rock and oldies.

Ultimately, King Crimson are an album band, but this is complicated by the fact that most of their albums contain at least one or two pieces of pointless improvisational noodlings. Also, there's a great stylistic variety to their work, so depending on your tastes you can really start off the wrong foot with them.

First album is pretty much hour zero of British progressive rock. Strong jazz influences and lots of gorgeous mellotron. 21st Century Schizoid Man, Epitaph and The Court of the Crimson King are the highlight of that era. Keep away from the airy-fairy medieval hippie shit of the subsequent albums though.

Then there's the "heavy prog" phase of the early 1970s, which is characterized by a heavier rock sound. Larks' Tongues in Aspic is a great album from beginning to end, but it doesn't quite reach the peaks of Red (Starless, One More Red Nightmare, Red). While the best bits on Red are arguably "Peak Crimson", the album is marred a bit by the pointless noodling that is Providence.

And then there's the early 1980s / New Wave phase of King Crimson, which sounds like Talking Heads performed by a bunch of mathematicians. The singer of that era, Adrian Belew, does a pretty blatant (but good) approximation of David Byrne as well. It's a kind of fidgety post-punk sound with interlocking guitars and polyrhythms. Discipline is the best album of that bunch.

 

[Morat]

You have good taste OP

 

[mf.luder]

What blew my mind is that album came out in 1969. Incredible. Love the album.

 

[admiraltaftbar]

Awesome band who is held back by their archaic views. The fact that you can't listen to their music at all besides owning a copy of it is ridiculous And even when you do buy a copy of red on vinyl you don't get high res digital files, you get an okay rip of the record (that you can even hear the needle drop on). It's frustrating because I would buy their other albums besides "In the Court of the Crimson King" and "Red" but I have no idea what they even sound like.

 

[azyless]

I like their stuff but since they're not on Spotify I don't listen to them much.

 

[dan2026]

Came for Jojo. Was not disappointed.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

That's some good stuff, really like the drumming.

 

[Hello? This is Hailun!]

Post Islands 70s KC are brilliant. 21st Century is pretty great record too. 80s stuff so so. 90s stuff not so much. New stuff is really bad.

 

[andylsun]

No one ever talks about them but "In the Court of the Crimson King" is arguably the best album ever, up there with the Beatles best.

Then they have Red and Larks'.. so good.

Listen to Emerson Lake and Palmer - Tarkus and prepare to have your mind blown.

Starless is my favourite track of theirs though.

 

[Cptkrush]

Apparently Fripp is a cunt and doesn't want his music online. What it comes down to.

Not that Tool are cunts, but your avatar is very relevant to this conversation

I've needed both of these bands on Spotify forever.

Edit: Just read rumors pointing to a full catalog release on Spotify ahead of Tools new album. I dunno if KC will ever get there though.

 

[CrocMother]

Dude, so good.

 

[Retro]

Really fucking good, OP, really fuckin' good.

I hear about them but never heard a track, link me something good mayne!

Definitely give the stuff other people are linking a listen as well (especially Starless and Epitath), here's a few that haven't been linked yet;

21st Century Schizoid Man (Gonna have to be a live version, everything on Youtube is edited or has super cringe-inducing videos / political crap over it).
In the Court of the Crimson King
Lark's Tongue in Aspic (Part I)
Book of Saturday (Good sample of "Frippertronics")

 

[Altazor]

Don't know they aren't on Spotify..

Spoiler

(They are brilliant, the album Red is one of my all-time favorites!)

Robert Fripp really really dislikes streaming music.

It's one of those Prince situations. He's not going to let his music on any streaming platform as long as he lives.

And as for the OP, absofuckinglutely. Discipline is amazing. Math-rock before the term was even invented.

 

[thesoapster]

I just recently started listening to them because I realized a lot of bands I like cited them as an influence. "Epitaph" is one of my favorite songs ever.

 

[Nappuccino]

Their early stuff, particularly with Greg Lake are some of my favorite records.

 

[Pinko Marx]

It's been a while since I listened to some King Crimson but yeah they're really friggin good. It's a shame, their hippie wankery always always takes their albums down a notch or two. I don't wanna spend 17 minutes listened to your band trip nuts.

 

[Bronx-Man]

Iconic band and I'd definitely pick them over Yes as the kings of prog. Just wish I could listen to their damn albums on Spotify.

 

[Flying Toaster]

Larks Tongues in Aspic is one of the best albums ever. I have seen them live twice and they are my second favorite band of all time.

 

[AlfredX1990]

I came here to jojopost but I'm already too late

 

[TheGameshark]

First album has my favorite track, In the court of the crimson king, but Red would be my favorite album from them. Pretty insane that Fripp decided to break the band up immediately after that album.

 

[Dan-o]

Apparently Fripp is a cunt and doesn't want his music online. What it comes down to.

I hold out hope that one day, he'll change his mind.

Steven Wilson did... Still waiting on Tool as well.

Although, with the current way that all the streaming services seem to handle royalties, I don't entirely blame him...

 

[Stencil]

Never listened to them but I was like "Yo this Fripp & Eno record is dope, this Fripp guy rips on guitar" and then I learned he's in King Crimson, right?

edit: Evening Star is the album I was referring to. Amazing album. No Pussyfooting was not for me, but you got to love all the lines of coke hidden in plain view on this album cover. Those dudes must've gotten deep.

 

[StanleyPalmtree]

pretty goddamn freaking good!

 

[cntr]

Love the first album. Still need to listen to more.

 

[Altazor]

Never listened to them but I was like "Yo this Fripp & Eno record is dope, this Fripp guy rips on guitar" and then I learned he's in King Crimson, right?

he pretty much is King Crimson. Only constant member since the inception of the band.

 

[kingslunk]

Discipline is their finest work imo

 

[phanphare]

they're pretty fucking good

their run of albums from court through red is one of the finest bodies of work of any band ever. discipline too but there was a significant time gap between that and red so it doesn't feel like a part of that run.

 

[iamblades]

It's been a while since I listened to some King Crimson but yeah they're really friggin good. It's a shame, their hippie wankery always always takes their albums down a notch or two. I don't wanna spend 17 minutes listened to your band trip nuts.

Only the first 4 albums had anything that could be considered 'hippie wankery'. Wetton Era crimson is heavy as shit, and Belew era is almost New wave pop.

Modern(post 90s) crimson has been highly technically experimental with double trios and three drummer lineups, but not much hippie anything.

As far as hippie wankery goes though, Lizard is one of my favorite albums of all time(though not my favorite Crimson, I'm in agreement with most of this thread that Wetton Crimson is best Crimson), and that is peak wankery.

 

[JadedWriter]

Robert Fripp really really dislikes streaming music.

It's one of those Prince situations. He's not going to let his music on any streaming platform as long as he lives.

And as for the OP, absofuckinglutely. Discipline is amazing. Math-rock before the term was even invented.

Thank you for saying Discipline for the most part every time I step into a KC thread I feel like I'm the only one that likes KC's 80's era?
King Crimson, Frame by Frame
King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair -live-(1984)

Discipline is their finest work imo

Vrooom and Beat are pretty good too.

 

[Timeaisis]

Court is great and then they slowly go downhill. Red is still really good, though.

70s King Crimson is amazing. Red in particular.

Everything past that is garbage (maybe garbage is too strong a word, but I really don't like anything past their awesome 70s catalog)

Discipline is good, imo.

 

[iamblades]

Iconic band and I'd definitely pick them over Yes as the kings of prog. Just wish I could listen to their damn albums on Spotify.

All you need to know to know that is that Bruford did too.

"In Yes, there was an endless debate about 'should it be F natural in the bass with G sharp on top by the organ, or should it be the other way around?'". In King Crimson, almost nothing was said ... you were just supposed to know."

 

[cntr]

I need to check out more of 80s KC, but I like what I've heard.