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King Crimson - In The Court Of The King Crimson
Having heard this album I thought it was well worthy of a retro review, so here it is. When I first heard it full blast in a mate’s garage, ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King’ blew my knackers off, and I had to have a copy. There are only five tracks on it, but it is a full length album – you get your money’s worth from each track, and they’re quite conceptual in parts.
Track one is “21st Century Schizoid Manâ€? – which can only be described as a classic. I’m amazed I’ve only heard this song fairly recently. It has been covered (with a change of lyrics) by Mister Sharon Osbourne; needless to say, his version is…not so good. The proper version begins with a beautifully heavy guitar riff which is complimented quite nicely by some frantic horn noises. The song aggressively picks up pace and just when you think something is about to blow, it kicks back into verse two. The vocals have a slight distortion on that a lot of young metal bands are experimenting with at the moment; bear in mind this album was recorded in 1969. Every metal fan should hear this song, it sounds great and lyrically it still works.
Next is a peaceful hippie song entitled “I talk to the wind�; quite a contrast to track one. You know it’s the same band, but wonder where this sound came from. This is more dated than Schizoid Man, but as everyone knows, I like a bit of that hippie sh*t every now and then, so it’ll do for me.
By the time you arrive at track three, you’ll have no idea what to expect – another Schizoid Man type track, or another mellow beardy guitar type strummer. What you get is a big song with epic, nay, majestic drum rolls punctuated with crashing cymbals. This is again in contrast to the following track (‘Moonchild’) which has a seemingly random experimental ending where the band members make an occasional note or two on their instrument every so often. This fade out lasts so long you may forget it’s on – whatever you do, don’t let the quietness fool you into turning your stereo up.
- King Crimson
- In The Court Of The King Crimson (1969)
- Category: Album
- Label: Discipline Global Mobile
- Reviewed by: The Manager
- Published on: 15 Jul 2005
- Comments: 1
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesI got caught out like this, and was blasted off my settee (I’m sure I’m not the first) but now I’m prepared to turn it down again for the beginning of the last track ‘In the court of the Crimson King’ – another one with a big sound and a big introduction. This song rounds the album off splendidly and is big on imagery from a lyrical point of view, as many songs were from this era.
Following this album, King Crimson went on to produce several albums, such as In The Wake of Poseidon (1970), Lizard (1970), Islands (1971), Earthbound (1972), Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973) and the posthumous studio album Red (1974). The band have split and reformed under various line ups and side projects over the years. Albums which followed the above (the first split) include Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three Of A Perfect Pair (1984) all now part of the recently remastered series, along with Cirkus (1999), which celebrates the 30th anniversary of the band. Much more information about King Crimson is available on their site – I don’t want to sound any more like a geek than I already have, why don’t you have a look for yourself?
KING CRIMSON? CHECK ‘EM OUT.
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Comment Permalink | Kris Coltart said:
Only know 21st Century Schizoid Man, it’s on one of me dad’s old rock compilation LPs (called ‘Fill your head with ROCK’ or somethin) - like it a lot
duuh da da da DA DAAAA!
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