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King Crimson: THE Seminal Prog Rock BandApr 20 '04 (Updated Jun 27 '04) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line One of the great rock and roll bands, King Crimson deserves a serious look from anyone who wants to be remotely informed about rock music
Of the Big Four 70's art/prog rock bands--Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer ("ELP"), Genesis, and King Crimson--King Crimson is the least known yet perhaps the most important. While songs from "The Yes Album" ("Yours Is No Disgrace", "All Good People") and Fragile ("Roundabout")and the predictable ELP tunes ("Lucky Man", "From the Beginning", "Karn Evel 9 Part I") are FM staples, King Crimson (and the Peter Gabriel incarnation of Genesis) rests mainly in memory. This will be an overview of King Crimson, primarily the 70's incarnations of Greg Lake and John Wetton, from the tainted perspective of a high school art rocker who grew up with this and other similar bands (remember Triumvirat? I sure do). Back then, we thought we were pretty cool, listening to WXRT in Chicago, or WMMS in Cleveland, while everybody else was listening to Aerosmith and Peter Frampton and Foghat on the big FM stations--or Starlight Vocal Band on AM (yeesh). However, I will endeavor to have objectivity overcome nostalgia: this is a flawed but great band that produced at least one essential album and arguably two or three. I first got into King Crimson by accident, listening to ELP's live "Welcome Back" album (quite mediocre, except its version of Tarkus blows the album version away) and wondering what the allusion to "Epitaph" was. This led me to "In the Court of the Crimson King", the first and most important album. "Court", released in 1969 or so, starred guitarist Robert Fripp and spawned bassist Greg Lake, who later jumped to superstardom with ELP. One of the first so-called "classical" rock albums, "Court" still sounds fresh today. Although "Epitaph" and the title track are prototypical art rock songs, the album opens with the shocking chords of "21st Century Schizoid Man", a song without which it is difficult to imagine much of hard and heavy metal rock--where would Black Sabbath's "Paraonoid" be without "Schizoid"? Things abruptly shift gears to the sweet "I Talk to the Wind" (a remake of a Giles, Giles and Fripp tune that sounded an awful lot like Fairport Convention on Quaaludes), followed by "Epitaph", complete with Lake wailing on top of a mellotron and some wonderful acoustic work by Fripp. The second side is weaker. "Moonchild" is filler, fit for only completists and acid-heads, capped with the title track and its fake calliope. The music is fun, pomposity is minimal, and the album adumbrates a host of later trends rock and roll. It belongs in every thoughtful rock fan's collection. The second album, "In The Wake of Poseidon", is unimportant but fans will enjoy it. The whole first side is a rip-off of the first album, although the title track is in some ways a better song than "Epitaph", on which Lake's vocals and Fripp's shattered guitar work are especially strong. The second side is mostly mellotron filler***, with "Cat Food" an amusing throwaway featuring Lake at his most sardonic and the closest Crim ever came to a single. Speaking of Lake, he was evidently getting fed up as all he did was sing a few tunes before departing to ELP. It was clearly Fripp's band. [***ERROR ERROR ERROR: It really isn't "Mellotron filler". I listened to the live "Epitaph" album recently, and Fripp notes that it's really an improv on Holst's "Mars" from "The Planet" suite. Shows you what I know.] The next two albums, "Lizard" and "Islands", are for completists only and of little interest. They aren't very good. This stuff is pompous and dull. Future Bad Company bassist Boz Burrell plays on one of "Island": what this hard rock thumper is doing on an art rock album is beyond me. Avoid. Jon Anderson also sings on one of these--more on that later. Matters changed drastically with the fifth album, "Larks Tongues in Aspic". Here, Fripp assembled bassist John Wetton (later of Uriah Heep, UK and Asia) and ex-Yes drummer, the superlative Bill Bruford. I bought this on a friend's recommendation, who warned me it was totally unlike "Court of the Crimson King". He couldn't have been more right. When I heard the opening chimes of "Larks Tongues, Part One", I wondered if this was some kind of a joke. The album is radical, inventive, and almost always interesting. It has the usual filler ("Easy Money" and "the Talking Drum"), but Lark's "Parts One" and "Two" (which is a Stravinsky rip-off), along with "Book of Saturdays" and the beautiful "Exiles", set a new standard for art rock at the time. Superb musicianship all around, although Wetton's voice is occasionally a little raw. "Starless and Bible Black" was next, highlighted by Fripp's "Lament" to his fans and the charming "Night Watch", about the Rembrandt painting (along with "the Great Deceiver", allegedly slam at Jon Anderson of Yes, with its line about "Health food f*ggot/with a bartered bride"). The second side is some terrific (if occasionally tedious) instrumental work, bringing to mind early 20th century classical music in its rhythms and weirdness. It can be a little atonal. The last of the great 70's studio albums is "Red", with the band reduced to Fripp, Weston and Bruford. This first side is a fun, seriously rocking drive over the horizon, really great guitar work that builds off "21st Century Schizoid Man's" framework; subsequent generations of metalheads have seldom if ever surpassed "Red" and "One More American Nightmare" in terms of wit and inventiveness. This is well worth owning, despite some junk on the second side. The live album, "USA", contains competently performed versions of the greatest hits, in particular a very nice rendition of "Exiles". (An earlier live album, "Earthbound" is weak and to be avoided.) IN the early 90's, Crim released an utterly superb four-CD live collection called "The Great Deceiver". This is all taken from performances of the Wetton-Fripp collaboration of this period, with many songs being captured two or three times. It's particularly interesting because it captures some of the songs later found on "Red" before they were finalized in the studio. Sadly out of print now, you can find it on eBay. Despite the repetitions, this shows a superb band at its best. A two-disk CD called "The Night Watch" from the same period is also available. After closing shop in 1975 (getting Wetton severely p*ssed off in the process), Fripp brought the band back together in the early 80's, with Bruford returning and adding guitarist Adrian Belew and ex-Peter Gabriel back-up bassist Tony Levin to "Discipline", "Beat" and "Three of A Perfect Pair". There is much to admire here, but I do not care for these albums as much. I find them a bit sterile and, frankly, do not like Belew's voice at all. Do not let that prejudice you. There is some solid rock and roll, as with the 90's album "Thrak", and you may wish to give them a try. Many compilations are also available, e.g. "A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson", and a host of others. In recent years, Fripp has been releasing more and more live tapes from the 1970's. These are generally available only from the band's Internet site. For fans, they are a feast of rarities. Included are live versions from the Greg Lake, Mel Collins, and John Wetton versions of the band--it's a real pleasure to hear Lake's voice in its prime on "Epitaph". This band should be heard more often. It's a pity we have to keep hearing "I See All Good People" while these songs gather cobwebs, metaphorically speaking. On the other hand, they remain fresh and haven't been played to death. I don't mean to sound gushing, but this is one of the most important rock bands of all time. Pick up "In the Court of the Crimson King", and if you're adventurous. "Larks Tongues", "Starless", and/or "Red". Give these records an honest listen before you dump on me. And try giving this stuff to your kid. Who knows where that will lead? Other recommendations: In 1979, before reforming King Crimson, Robert Fripp released a beautiful album called "Exposure", featuring cameos by Peter Gabriel (performing "Here Comes the Flood" from his first solo CD) and Daryl Hall. It is a remarkable album, vanished almost without a trace. (Fripp also plays on some of the early Brian Eno CD's, and no serious rock fan should be without the beautiful "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy", "Another Green World", and "Before and After Science".) Before he became a superstar with Asia, John Wetton along with Bill Bruford went to technophile group UK, whose self-titled first album is worth buying mainly for "In the Dead of Night". That band broke up in a hurry, but in 1979 or so released a live album called "Night After Night", which has a couple of great tunes on the first side. The rest of the album is dreck. Speaking of Asia, yeah I know you've heard the hits a million times, but I find the first album kind of a secret pleasure. It's fun, OK? It kind of like listening to ELP's "Love Beach", an album almost completely devoid of any virtue except that it is a laugh riot, especially the Chopin rip-off in the second "movement" of the "An Officer and a Gentleman", which really isn't that bad although it doesn't quite make up for the horrorshow first side. I mean, listen to this stuff, but don't let your friends know about it, or they'll enroll you in a 12-step program.  |
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