King Crimson

Never too late to discover the classics. My tastes keep me going backwards time, which means I have the rest of my life finding "new music."

Boz Burrell untfortunately, had a short time on this earth

You are in for a treat. 🤗. Turn it up loud!

Hard to imagine how you could have missed them at that time.

I was in college, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in the late 1970s, and had a bunch of friends who were way into progressive rock, so I knew, and loved, King Crimson from back in the day. Had the great good pleasure of seeing them on the Discipline tour, too -- awesome show. I've continued to listen to them over the years, always standing (or sitting) in amazement. Yes, enjoy what's ahead. And do turn it up!

Really liked the first four albums, before the personnel began to change.  If you like the lyrics, the main writer, Pete Sinfield, made a solo disc, which is worth seeking out.  At least one other of the original band members also made a (forgettable) solo disc.  And so it goes with groups.

Wow, I would love to hear Court of the Crimson for the first time again. Enjoy! 

 @twoleftears Yeah, for instance, I never really liked McCarthy after he left his first backup band and started Wings. I think the first band called themselves The Beatles. 

28 official releases. All good QC thanks to Robert Fripp.

Enjoy!

I am fascinated by the recording of instruments and sounds. Islands in 1970? I don't believe anyone else was using the studio this way...a few years later the Dan? Compositions include different genres, crazy good, next up...Larks'

King Crimson is only the opening act. Check out Robert Fripp's videos with Toyah Willcox. They're ... something else! But beware; once you watch their Sunday Lunch version of "I'm Too Sexy," you can never unwatch it!

Saw them many times since the Discipline tour.  Most recently last September at the Beacon in NYC.  It might have been the last US tour, although in a discussion with Fripp before the show, he eluded to perhaps a string of shows somewhere.  They played in a Broadway theater for like 2 weeks in ~1996 (saw one), so I can imagine something like that.  Said three members of the band are in their 70's and doing the tour bus thing was getting too difficult.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/king-crimson/2021/beacon-theatre-new-york-ny-3b8c207c.html

That's Fripp?? I fell on youtube a few years back and thought this is artistic, lol. The Beacon is a great venue!

They are probably out on tour- worth catching them. Personnel except Fripp different from the first album, but they do it justice, along with the track "Starless" from the album Red. Greg Lake's voice on "Epitaph" is stunning. 

Cost of period UK pink labels is high, and almost all have some noise on the quiet parts. The pink rims, used to be cheap, not any more. The Steve Wilson remixed remix is pretty good, whether in digital format or as a vinyl record. 

Live in Toronto 2016 (on vinyl as well) sounds very much like what I heard in a 2,000 seat hall several years ago when they came through Austin. Go hear them! 

This was the best version of Crimson

And let's not forget the legendary Jamie Muir!

Even though I was in college in the mid-70's, never had a chance to see this lineup. I did see Fripp in person at a Peaches record store in Ft. Lauderdale in 1979. He had a little amplifier and was playing and explaining the Frippertronics stuff that he had worked on with Brian Eno. It was a weird year. There was a 1979 punk girl there who I knew from the only, as we would say now, independent record store in West Palm Beach. She left after 5 minutes. I asked her about that a few days later and she said: "He was wearing a F#### Business Suit! 

Court of the Crimson King was the 1st psychedelic rock album I ever bought.. still have and play the mint LP that I bought in 69.

I bought it after hearing "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Epitaph" on an underground radio station, 300 miles away, that broadcasted after midnight.

The dj went by the name Clyde Clifford and the name of his program was Beaker Street. Those were the days!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Clifford

I remember Beaker Street! Many late night listening sessions. I believe I had some NAD stuff and a pair of Heresey's. 

If you like King Crimson, listen to McDonald and Giles only album, a masterpiece! They are two of the original members of King Crimson. Fripp was very distraught when Ian McDonald left the band. Listen to the album and you'll see why. Ian passed away last week. RIP.

Greg Lake was also an original member who's no longer with us. IMO, his vocals on "Epitaph" were outstanding.

Also, April Wine did a cover of "21st Century Schizoid Man" that I thought was a little more raw and edgy.

April Wine? I’ll check it out. All I know about April Wine is, they were to appear in Toronto at a small club, couple hundred people but instead of April Wine, The Rolling Stones rehearsed for their upcoming tour. I would have loved to be at the bar that night!

Greg Lake had a angelic voice, RIP

How many of you have this LP?

Back in the day, it was one of my favs.

I love Qobuz…listening now. Thanks twoleftears

Pure...

I have the original 1969 pressing in my collection along with about 12 other King Crimson albums.

The founding member of this band passed a week or so ago Ian McDonald that was also a founding member of Bad Company.

I have several copies of Court of the Crimson King on LP, CD and remastered versions. Amazing sound especially considering the era and the technology available to them. My favourite era of CK is with Adrian Belew. Very different and very good. 

@twoleftears Ditto on the Thanks!

@has2be Wow! I wasn't aware of this. Amazing how the vocal stands on it's own. Bravo!

And yet no love for the McDonald and Giles album 🤔

My favorite also. 

👍 I respect your taste :)

I was fortunate enough to be in the audience at the West Palm Beach Motor Speedway in Oct. 1969, where the original KC performed a set each of the 3 nights.  Fripp, Lake, MacDonald and I think Giles on drums.  They were brilliant and delivered a live sound very close to what you hear on "CotCK", with the mellotron amped through Leslie speakers.  Other acts that impressed were many...Spirit did most of "Sardonicus", Rotary Connection with Minnie Ripperton, Pacific Gas & Electric was tremendous, Johnnie Winter jamming with Janis Joplin backed up by Vanilla Fudge, swilling Southern Comfort all the while.  The last performer...the Stones during the "YaYas tour.  Almost anti-climactic in the near freezing wee hours of Monday AM.

 Back when Greg Lake was in the band before Emerson Lake and Palmer, I missed King Crimson as well but I don’t miss ELP!

I mean I didn’t miss ELP loved them. 

I loved KC from the first album through all of the ones with John Wetton and Bill Bruford, and fell by the wayside after that. 

When I was in college in 1969, some art students painted the inside elevator doors in our dorm building, with half of the cover of 'Court of the Crimson King' on each elevator door, so that once you were in the elevator and the doors shut, you were presented with a wonderfully painted cover of that album! Alarmed a few students under the influence of various psychedelics who saw it for the first time, but there ya go.

Steven Wilson remixes are excellent. 

Heavens. All these years with thinking the band got wiped out in a plane crash.

I still have "Court of Crimson" album and remembering to be so sad when i heard that news years ago. Dirty, rotten rumor?

I am a long time fan of all their incarnations.

Their best are: Larks' Tongue in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, and Red. These 3 are their most progressive and musically adventurous.

But all of their releases have something of interest.

Like Doc I was at the Beacon in NYC. First time I ever saw a band fronted by three drum kits. Fripp has always been the driving force and a tremendous talent. If you wish to explore further in the catalogue I would recommend Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Red, Starless And Bible Black, and Discipline. Enjoy, Scott

I’ve been a fan since, I think, the first time I heard KC’s “Lizard.”  I was 14, and man, was I hooked. All my allowances went to buying their stuff the next ten years.

I saw them in concert in St. Pete, Florida at the Bayfront center shortly after (IIRC, they were the HEADLINE act, but Peter Frampton and Bob Seeger played before them), then a few years later for Larks Tongues in Aspic - same venue - friend of mine took some interesting B&W photos we later developed in his darkroom and mailed off to David Cross.

We had Cross’ mailng address because after the show, he was in the lobby trying to figure out how to get the right change into a cigarette machine - so we ponied up the right coinage for him - and told him about the pictures.

A year or two later, same friend and I saw them for RED at the Lakeland civic center where, after a sound check, me with my head leaning hard upon a backstage door to listen, Bill Bruford comes out the door and knocks me on my butt. Chip and I thought it was the funniest thing in the world, Bill was all kinds of apologetic, went off with his crew.  During the show, front row, I climbed up to the stage and tossed a freaking coconut to John Wetton.

”JOHN!”  He turned, looked down at me, I tossed the coconut, he backed away as if I’d tossed a bomb.

Written on the sanded surface were the words “To the #1 band in the world,” with our names.

Between sets, he picked it up and tossed it off to a roadie and they played on.

Next time I say them was in San Diego, SDSU right after Midnight Oil. Three of a Perfect Pair.

I’ve played some of KC’s lighter stuff - I talk to the wind - for my wife, whose tastes run from Paul Simon, S&G, to Renaissance, Joni Mitchell, folk, little else, and she was impressed, but not a fan.

‘bout ten years ago, I tortured my son - then 15 and a drummer - with several hours of KC’s best on a 12 hour road trip, interspersed with YES, RUSH, several others, but he knows KC’s stuff, Bruford’s playing still stumps him at times but he can do everything Travis Barker ever did by rote and then some.

I recently bought the entire set of Steven Wilson’s Robert Fripp-approved 180gm remixes and transferred them onto SM900 tape on a refurbed Revox B77 2-track deck for future play and look forward to more.

Somewhere, somewhere in my “stuff” I have four negatives from that photo shoot in  St. Pete in - 1972? - I’ll turn ‘em up someday and digitize them for future reminiscences.

If I had to recommend ONE album to start with?  I couldn’t.

Giles, Giles and Fripp if you can find it, McDonald and Giles (again, if you can find a copy somewhere), then the first album. Take it slowly, roll it around in your mind like a finely aged wine, appreciate the legs, the colour, the scents of rare herbs, spices - some common, some only found in master chef’s kitchens - then taste it with your ears, your heart, let it seep into your soul, appreciate the master blending of efforts of the vintner, the rich soil’s contributions to the full-bodied vintage, and don’t miss the fine, refined, finish that has yet to end, and pour yourself another track, sit back and relax.

It’s taken 55+ years to get this far, it’ll last far into this century if not the next.

NB 

I agree with @simonmoon - 

I am a long time fan of all their incarnations.

Their best are: Larks' Tongue in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, and Red. These 3 are their most progressive and musically adventurous.

But all of their releases have something of interest.

Ah the cheerful insanity

       What a band and what an album. Thanks for sharing voodoo and norm. What I would give to be able to go back in time and see Crimson during the ITCOTCK, Lizard or Red period tours. They are one of my favorite live bands. There’s a four cd box set called The Great Deciever. Its from the Starless and Bible Black/Red period 73/74 tours.
       One of my 5 first record purchases in 1978 was ITCOTCK. Lizard was my second Crimson purchase very soon after. I remember I had to return the vinyl for another because of an imperfection on the printing and it was warped. The gatefold of both releases especially Lizard fascinated me.
       I still listen to KC regularly. I have all of the releases and like the first 7 the best. The last one was good too, The Power to Believe. It’s hard to believe this came out in 2003. I was reading they recently are putting the live show to an end and are releasing a movie. I hope Mr. Fripp decides to keep touring. I know he is in his 70’s. I never saw them live unfortunately. They are a huge influence on other bands. No one truly sounds like them though. A very original and timeless music.

twoleftears

Really liked the first four albums, before the personnel began to change.  If you like the lyrics, the main writer, Pete Sinfield, made a solo disc, which is worth seeking out.  At least one other of the original band members also made a (forgettable) solo disc.  And so it goes with groups.

Are you discounting Greg Lake? Or is he only for right ears?

Three of a perfect pair was my first exposure to King Crimson around 1985. Love Court too.

I was reading Mark Kelly's (Marillion) new book in which he makes a reference to running into Fripp sitting quietly by himself in a bar. Interesting conversation.

I'm on my third or fourth vinyl of In the Court since the 70's. I guess I play it too much?

Sadly, my original King Crimson album (from '69) was stolen from my dorm room at U of MT; such a loss.  Love "Moonchild".  

If you have a video set up you might enjoy the DVD King Crimson Deja Vrooom.

Is there a certain vinyl copy of court that I should look for? All I have is Qobuz.

@voodoolounge - I wrote up a shoot out of three copies, an original UK pink label, a UK pink rim and the then new (50th Anniversary) Steve Wilson remixed remix on vinyl (without all the extras from the deluxe package). You should be able to find it on the web. I found the 2010 issue to be a little clinical sounding.

Bill Hart