King Crimson

just want to know what the best albums are by this band and what are your thoughts are on them?

Start with In The Court of the Crimson King. What an album!

King Crimson is a milestone of progressive, exciting music. I would refer to their first 7 albums, and all live recordings therein (which are widely available thanks to the band's own Discipline Global Mobile label), first and foremost. After the release of the seventh full-length, 'Red', the band effectively 'broke up' for a good 4-5 years before returning with 'Discipline'. However, as Robert Fripp would suggest, King Crimson is more a 'way of doing things' rather than a 'band' - take that for what it's worth, considering there is rarely the same lineup sans Fripp from album to album. In any case, the first seven are still unified by some form of spirit which makes all of them, though different in their own way, classics of a same family.

To understand and enjoy this band to the fullest, these 4 are what I would suggest to start with, and the rankings are not necessarily far removed from one another in quality:

1. In the Court of the Crimson King
2. Lizard
3. Larks Tongues In Aspic
4. Islands

There will be many who will recommend you 'Red', and while that is a good album, consider one from my list as an alternative beforehand, as I just feel that 'Red' is probably the most uneven of the early albums, despite the latter half having some brilliant material. And be absolutely sure to not eschew 'Lizard'.

I would just start with Court(a beautiful album) and just go through their discography in order.

chewie wrote:

I would just start with Court(a beautiful album) and just go through their discography in order.

I agree.

Also, don't skip Live recordings. This band was all about improvisation...the studio albums are the starting point, the live material is where the REAL treasure is.

Start with The Court of Crimson King, not only it is a great starting point for King Crimson, but it is one of the best albums in rock history

I've only heard In The Court, and boy is it a breathtaking album.

The first section of King Crimson's career is fairly easily broken down into 3 parts.

1969-1970
In The Court Of The Crimson King & In The Wake Of Poseidon both feature Greg Lake on vocals and are stylistically very similar. The focus tends to either be on composed pieces usually featuring ethereal mellotron...or heavier, more experimental numbers, with a jazz sensibility.

1971-1972
Lizard & Islands are probably my two favorite albums. Here the focus starts to shift more in a jazz rock direction, the addition of Mel Collins on saxophone helping to spur that along. Fripp & Collins totally locked in together and played vicious solo battles in concert. Jon Anderson makes a guest appearance on Lizard, the lead vocalist/bassist on Islands is future Bad Company member Boz Burrell. I recently learned that Fripp taught him to play bass. Crimson needed a bassist and they couldn't afford to pay another member, so they just added that onto Boz's plate!

1973-1974
Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Starless & Bible Black & Red.
Generally the most talked about era of Crimson, they definitely didn't sound like anybody else! Fripp put together an entirely new lineup built around the core trio of him, John Wetton and Bill Bruford who had recently bailed from Yes. This band was augmented by David Cross on violin, viola & mellotron (and a percussionist on the first album). This group was the most adventurous of all, not the least bit concerned about song lengths or fitting into ordinary structures. Probably one of the most "outside" of all progressive rock bands...and also one of the heaviest. By the time they got around to recording Red, the band had basically splintered again. Mel Collins was brought back in to play on a couple tracks to complete the album.

In addition to the albums mentioned above, the following is an absolute MUST OWN by every Crimson fan...



The Asbury Park concert (later partially used on the live album USA) is one of the most impressive of the 3rd era, many of the songs are superior in these concerts than on the albums...plus there are other songs here that they never went back and recorded studio versions for. Brilliant stuff.

If you can find the "Ladies Of The Road" collection, that has a killer sampling of the Islands band from the 1972 tour.

yep Boz on 'Islands' was killer, I think that's the best album in terms of vocals. Good to see someone else loves 'Lizard' as well, 'Cirkus' and the title track just blow me away, and I love the other stuff too.

I think the only stuff more 'outside' at the time of 'Larks' and such was Magma and the RIO scene, which are also all worth checking out if you enjoy that period KC.

Thanks detuned, I'll have to check out that live album.

I've tried to pick up as many live Island-era stuff(official and non-official) that I can get my hands on.... Celebration of The Lizard is a good one, as well as many of the KCCC releases.

The first KC album I ever bought was the album A Young Person's Guide To King Crimson on cassette. It has an AWESOME version of "I Talk To The Wind" (with female vocals) pre-Court and "Cat Food/Groon" mixed together as one song. As far as I know that is the only comp that those two can be found on. I finally converted it to cd many years ago.

I recently got the "Live At Summit Studios - Denver 1972" Collector's Club release. It's an awesome recording, live in a radio station studio with a small audience, sound quality is excellent. They run through a short set for the radio show, then continue to play for another 25 minutes after they went off the air.

They even sneak in a couple verses from The Creator Has A Masterplan into one of the improvs!

The Islands band was just incredible.

detuned wrote:

I recently got the "Live At Summit Studios - Denver 1972" Collector's Club release. It's an awesome recording, live in a radio station studio with a small audience, sound quality is excellent. They run through a short set for the radio show, then continue to play for another 25 minutes after they went off the air.

They even sneak in a couple verses from The Creator Has A Masterplan into one of the improvs!

The Islands band was just incredible.

KCCC09 is a good one!!! Do you have KCCC18 Detroit - 1971-12-13? It has Cirkus and Mars on it.......... It's a goodie....

DO WANT live 'Cirkus' and 'Mars'.

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

yep Boz on 'Islands' was killer, I think that's the best album in terms of vocals. Good to see someone else loves 'Lizard' as well, 'Cirkus' and the title track just blow me away, and I love the other stuff too.

I think the only stuff more 'outside' at the time of 'Larks' and such was Magma and the RIO scene, which are also all worth checking out if you enjoy that period KC.

Do you have any Henry Cow? I really enjoy their instrumental album "Western Culture". It is not as wacky as the ones before it , but it's good.

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

DO WANT live 'Cirkus' and 'Mars'.

You have a pm....

Thanks to this thread I watched my King Crimson DVD 'Neal, Jack and Me'

thanks for the suggestions fellas. I have now got Court of the Crimson King and it is mind blowing and ahead of its time especially their well known song 21st Century Schizoid man unfortunately Kanye West (arsehole) sampled that song recently in one of his latest songs.

Also got discipline and I was blown away by matte kudasai IMO one of their best songs

Slowly delving into King Crimson's material. They're one of those bands that I'd always heard of, but never checked out. The stuff I've heard so far is awesome.....need to hear more!

It probably took me a good decade to fully "grasp" King Crimson. I started off liking certain things, then time would pass and I'd go back and revisit and find more thing that clicked. That process continued for a really long time.

They are one of those bands whose myriad live recordings are actually the height of their material, as an improvisational band the studio recordings really only scratch the surface. Each lineup had interesting personalities, changes in instrumentation, changes in the relational dynamics between the players. A lot of bands you listen to and basically hear everything they have to offer pretty much right away...Crimson is different, each layer you peel back reveals another layer...and another...and another...

Probably why they are one of my all-time favorite groups, because the education is never really over and each new performance of a song you hear is different than the ones before.

That's the impression I got with the little I heard.  I just purchased "In the Court of the Crimson King" (delux edition). I'll  start listening tomorrow and probably just go in order and absorb each album.

Wow....
What a great album! I could not stop listening to it during work today.

bgsully wrote:

Wow....
What a great album! I could not stop listening to it during work today.

Your journey is just beginning. Enjoy.

S.D. wrote:

bgsully wrote:

Wow....
What a great album! I could not stop listening to it during work today.

Your journey is just beginning. Enjoy.

He's right, you know! Every album is like a new band and sound. It's friggin' great!