Any King Crimson fans??? What are your favorite albums?

theotherside

theotherside

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 21, 2008
Messages
8,900
Location
Inside of a heart-shaped box
Robert Fripp was of course a guitar master, but he had so many lineup changes that it is fun just keeping up with what band he was playing with on which album. I love the fact that Bill Brufford from Yes decided to dump the super group Yes to go over to be part of the dark prog of King Crimson.
Anyways what are you guys' favorite albums/songs? My albums go in order:

1)In the court........a true prog album, Lake's contributions makes this an easy pick for the best K.C. album

2)Lizard......complicated, even more complicated lyrics but fantastical by my standards :)

3) Red.........harder, fantastic from start to finish, I can play this one for my "cool" friends

4) In the wake of...........kind of the same album as the first but the title track with Lake is worth the price of the album alone

5)Lark's I.............complicated of course but this is where they start to rock with distortion and establish the "new sound". Islands is one I skip mostly

6) Starless and Bible black.........feels incomplete but I listen to this one alot for some reason "cigs and icecream" is just too damn funny to be a chorus :)

7)Islands........kind of like weather report meets classical, not my favorite

The rest were ok, songs like elephant talk were good, but no more "great" albums were made IMO

What do you guys think???
 
Last edited:
I love King Crimson!! I almost choked on my french bread yesterday when I was checking out some King Crimson on Youtube and some moron said he just bought "in the court"in a discount bin cuz it had a cool cover. he proceeded to say they sucked and were a "Creed" rip-off. WHAT??!! Ok, maybe they went forward in time 30 some years just so they could rip off that shitty band! NOT!
 
I'm a touch late arriving to KC. Okay, more than a touch.

First big taste was about five years ago, 'The Noise' on DVD, 1982 in Frejus. Great stuff and I was content to watch that for a while.

Started looking for other stuff and have gone through a lot, but not all, the older material. In fact, it was just this weekend that me and another late arriving KC fan listened to most of Lizard for the first time. Super stuff. We both like 'complicated' music - we're jazz fans.

I'm happy to report that most of the early stuff is superb. The 80s stuff is strong too but much different...and not meant to be epic i think in the same way.

Came across some Deception of the Thrush and was well impressed again. Very heavy...and worthy of much more listening.

Overall, I'm happy there is so much of it and it's consistently good, but after starting with the middle period ?? (80s ) I'd say the earlier and later might be better. But then...I like Matte Kudasai and The Sheltering Sky....so why get hung up on choosing ???
 
Last edited:
yes love the band have you heard the some times god smile and sometimes god hides compulations by their lable disaplin if not check them out its like a king crimson and family going on . also love hawkind which members of king crimson have played in at 1 point or another . want to listen to i talk to the wind now
 
lightlord99 said:
They're good, but I prefer the Canterbury prog bands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_scene
Click to expand...

I do to....I LOVE Caravan, and Egg.
But earyl king crimson...first 7 albums are abosolute greatness.
TheCantebury scene was more of a "playful" observation on the psychedelic mindstate where as Fripp and company took a more serious role in the lyric department....especially on Lizards.
 
Yes there were several great "bands" that formed after leaving the name King Crimson.....one being U.K. who put out a great record...he was the leader from Lizards, took a break on Islands, and then was their for Larks, Starless, and my Red.

Another was the two best members of the original lineup, particularly Giles made an unknown record that is like the third KC album....fantastic lyrics and musicianship is out of this world.
 
In the Court without doubt. Though I can live without the second half of Moonchild, the rest of it is mighty stuff. I love the mellow moments best of all.
 
"Shine, shine, the light of good works shines!"

I especially love Starless and Bible Black album. From whence comes the utterly flattening "The Night Watch", which is about a Rembrandt painting, and has one of the most oblitteratingly intense instrumental buildup openings that eventually breaks into lyrics with great melodies in the voice and all the instruments... very dynamic and multi overlapping parts and sections, very complex like a symphony in 4:40... The section where the buildup which has held one solid shimmering sparkling blazing note the whole time has these two falling notes at 0:45 just kills me through to the vocal & almost makes me break down in tears every time. And just touches like the suddenly quiet little guitar/bass interweaving counterpoint fugue at 1:57, glorious! The choral "Wah Oo Wah Oh Wah Oh" figures entering at 3:05 behind Fripp's mindblowing guitar solo... soooo emotional!

Pure unalloyed genius, IMHO.

Hearing this the first time really made me feel some incredibly deep shit when a now-passed-on friend played it for me tripping 30 years ago.. Still does, even sober. That one experience changed who I am forever... I look up to the stars and thank Terry T. for that timeless night still today.... and still ('Like the time I ran away, and turned around and he was standing close to me')... still I can hear him answering from the beyond, clear as day: "You're welcome... My love is still with you, inside you, and all around you, my love."

If you never heard this classic work of utter scintillating brilliance, put down what you are doing, close your eyes, check it out right now:

(NOTE: lower right of video frame change 360 to 480p for higher fidelity stereo sound)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGiOYVG2jBQ
 
Last edited:
Hail to the King !

I'm so grateful I had the chance to see them live for their last tour in 2008.


Larks' Tongues in Aspic is my favorite album by them, perfect from start to finish.
ITCOCK & Red are truly great as well.

Starless and Bible Black, Discipline, Lizard and The Power to Believe are in my opinion in the "second tier".

In the Wake of Poseidon, Islands, Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair do nothing to me however.
I'm forgetting some albums (in the Belew era) which I haven't listened to, oh well.


As for live albums, The Great Deceiver box set is a MUST have. The Night Watch is quite awesome as well.
USA could have been awesome but the recording quality is just so bad.


;)
 
THRAK is cool.........that is why all the lineups are so amazing......each one is so much different.

Voyaging.........nice list :)
1. In the Court of the Crimson King
2. Red
3. Islands (tie)
3. Larks' (tie)
3. Discipline (tie)
6. In the Wake (tie)
6. Three of a Perfect Pair (tie)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top