V. cumber 2009-01-03

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In The Court of the Crimson King
Album Rating: 10
Best Song: The Court of the Crimson King
Released on October 10, 1969, "In The Court of the Crimson King" is considered by many one of the King Crimson's best albums, and one of the most, if not the most influential albums in progressive rock history. While the album may not be one of the most well known albums, the progressive rock cult certainly was influenced by it, and it's easy to see why. Using a wide variety of different instruments, rock instruments do not take a lead in this album. Take for instance "I Talk to the Wind" lead by a soft flute, or "Moonchild" with no lead but a ton of strange instrumental parts. This album, even in the progressive rock camp, is very experimental and one of the most influential of all time.
The album starts of with what remains as one of King Crimson's most well known songs "21st Century Schizoid Man" with loud saxophones and loud disoriented vocals from Greg Lake, this is considered a classic by lots of King Crimsons fans, but not me. Those loud disoriented vocals aren't that good, and the song drags on to me. A decent song, but easily the worst on the album.
It gets picked back up immediately by a soft flute introduction to "I Talk to the Wind" which is a nice soft relaxing tune, with a nice hippy feel to it for me. Constantly lead by a flute, and fun lyrics, not that I know what they are about. This is where the album gets good.
We got into the epic "Epitaph" with it's soft drums and heavy use of the meltron, is just genius. The song feels like an epic soft-rocker, and has the epic lyrics about mankind and death. One of the best songs on the album, though that's along with everything besides the first track. Strangely this was released as a single a couple of years later in 1976 leading in front of "21st Century Schizoid Man" after the "A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson" a 2-cd compilation released by King Crimsons where they choice some of the best songs from their albums prior to that.
Next up is the very experimental "Moon Child". We're treated too a two and a half minute meltron ballad, and then go into a random instrumental phase. Tons of instruments are played in this, and it's just feels completely random. I know a lot of people who hate this song, I have friends who think it's stupid and boring, but I think it's pure genius. The actual song part is really good, and I always listen to the crazy experimental part too as I find it enjoyable, especially towards the end.
Finally we have the closing epic "The Court of the Crimson King", and I can't emphasize on how great this song is. The lyrics are very fantasy-like, and whatever he is talking about has background things doing it perfectly when Greg Lake says "The purple piper plays his tune" you hear a flute in the background, everything in this song is just perfect. The haunting vocals, the strange instrumentals, the aahs after Lake says Court of the Crimson King, everything is wonderful. This is the progressive masterpiece, and the crowning achievement of one of the greatest progressive albums ever.
This album was the album that set the standards for progressive rock in the seventies, this album was the album that influenced many, and this album is one of the best progressive rock albums of all time. Soft and haunting with fantasy lyrics, though it is a rare thing, King Crimson hit the mark on their debut, and I can't say it is their best as I haven't listened to all their albums, but I think it will be, along with one of the best albums of all time.

Song Ratings:
21st Century Schizoid Man - 7/10
I Talk to the Wind - 9.5/10
Epitaph - 10/10
Moonchild - 9.5/10
The Court of the Crimson King - 10/10

C. Potocki 2009-01-03

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What can one say about an album like "In The Court Of The Crimson King"? The word "classic" immediately springs to mind, quickly followed by "incredible" as well as "stunning". I pay absolutely no mind to the few musically illiterate people who have said this album is "overrated"...what garbage! This album is a one-of-a-kind & was way ahead of it's time then & even now. Besides King Crimson & possibly their fellow UK counterparts Soft Machine, no one was making music like this in 1969.

Opening with the classic "21st Century Schizoid Man" with it's crunching guitar riffs, wailing sax & heavily distorted vocals perfectly creating an eerie, paranoiac feel. In sharp contrast is the hauntingly beautiful "I Talk To The Wind" featuring wistful vocals & gorgeous flutes floating in the background. Next is "Epitaph", with its' climactic, sorrowful Mellotron strains & the 12-minute plus "Moonchild", which starts off nicely but breaks down into a lengthy stretch of weird, random percussion & guitar pieces. Pink Floyd did a similar thing on "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" from their "Ummagumma" album released later the same year.

I agree with many of the reviewers that the superior musicianship of the original lineup is what made this album what it is: guitarist/mastermind Robert Fripp, bassist/vocalist Greg Lake (who would later join Emerson, Lake & Palmer), keyboardist/flautist Ian MacDonald (who later turned up in Foreigner), drummer Michael Giles, & lyricist Peter Sinfield. Sadly, most of the lineup splintered after the release of this album, with only Greg Lake remaining for the band's 2nd album "In The Wake Of Poseidon" before he too departed to join Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1970.

I have the 2004 Original Master Edition of this album with 24-bit remastering; the sound quality is absolutely amazing, the best that you'll find with a domestic release. I've heard that the Japanese reissue sounds even better, but if you're like me, you don't want to shell out over 50 bucks for a CD, even for this. I do agree however, that if you have the original vinyl LP &/or the 1st CD pressing from 1988, you'd do very well to replace them with this CD edition; you'll be impressed, trust me!

Vorman 2008-12-22

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This album is truly brilliant from start to finish, but now do yourself a favour and listen to these guys.......... they have an album coming out soon[...]

Cinemabon 2008-12-22

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In 1970, every stoner had this, led zepplin, frank zappa, and pink floyd in their repertoire.

Jeffrey Blehar 2008-12-04

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Year Zero for progressive rock. Ridiculously complex song-structure? Check! Pratty, regal-voiced lead singer later to join one of the Seventies' more dire groups? Check! DUAL Mellotrons? Check and check! (These being Mellotrons, the second "check" is slightly out of tune with the first one.) Lyrics written by Pete Sinfield? Check! Robert Fripp? Aye, mate, and how so!

Actually, Fripp's involvement with In The Court Of The Crimson King was actually surprisingly small. He wasn't the bandleader he later became, nor the main songwriter - he was just the quiet, eccentric lead guitarist who insisted on sitting down during gigs. Which is probably why Fripp, who went on to be the last truly revolutionary guitarist in rock history, still holds such a soft spot in his heart for this incarnation of the group he would later go on to become synonymous with: it was a true collaborative effort. Fripp sprays his first definitive guitar moment all over "21st Century Schizoid Man" and decorates everything else with laudable restraint. Lake comes up with the bulk of "Epitaph" and brings his icily patrician vocals to lyrics which need exactly such an approach to not sound ridiculous. Michael Giles drums with a combination of metronomic precision and free-flying expressiveness that would become an inspirational touchstone for future progressive drummers, while also thinking up the great 1-2-3 stairstep chord progression that caps the main riff of "Schizoid Man." Sinfield writes, for the first and last time in his career, a set of lyrics whose cod-mystical literary pretensions are both checked by self-restraint and matched flawlessly to the music. And finally, the quiet man...Ian MacDonald, who burned with the inner mounting flame that truly fired the first edition of Crimson.

Nowadays everyone thinks of King Crimson as Robert Fripp's band. Surely that has a measure of truth now, but Fripp would be the first to tell you that back when the Crimso monster first got underway KC was, if anything, Ian MacDonald's band. Not only was he the band's primary Mellotron player (and remember: it was this album that would inspire a rush on Mellotrons from a hundred aspiring bands - in fact, Genesis actually acquired THEIR brilliantly-deployed Mellotron from Crimson), his reed playing (saxophone, flutes and various & sundry woodwinds) also dominates the album, featuring on every song. And the range he displayed with these instruments was stunning: yeah, there's definitely some airy-faerie folky flute playing on In The Court, but the lasting impression is given by the psychotic free jazz sax solo on "Schizoid Man" and the swirling Mellotron assault of the title track.

MacDonald wasn't just the most important player in the early Crimso. He was also the key creative contributor. Most of the songwriting was done by Ian MacDonald, and the power of his work on pieces like "Schizoid Man" (which is SO hard that it will shock you even today: not just loud, but irresistibly grotesque), "I Talk To The Wind," "Epitaph," and "In The Court Of The Crimson King" is so undeniable that it boggles the mind that THIS IS THE MAN WHO LATER WENT ON TO FOUND THE BAND FOREIGNER.

Lily-gilding commentary aside, I wouldn't consider any music-lover's collection complete without this album, and not just because of its historical importance. It's because it's one of the most simultaneously shocking, ravishing, stately, and aggressive things laid to wax. A record which announced "YO BUDDY - THE 1960'S ARE OVER" just as surely as Led Zeppelin's debut ever did. And now, with this current CD version taken from the (finally unearthed) original master tapes, the best-sounding copy ever available on CD.

If you don't own it, blush.