Notes: This band evolved from 1968's The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles, & Fripp, which sounds nothing(!) like King Crimson, but does foreshadow the talented, precise guitar playing by Fripp as well as some of the complementary, tight drumming by Michael Giles. (Peter Giles does not appear on the first King Crimson album, but does return briefly for the second one.)
Notes: Most of this album was recorded as the 1969 incarnation of KC was disintegrating. Because of this, and because the format of the album was so similar to the first album, it is a very much maligned album in some quarters. However, as the first Crim album I ever heard, it holds a special place in my heart, mind & memory.
Notes: Jon Anderson's vocals make a nice addition to the KC lineup, and foreshadowed an even more productive YES/KC musician exchange to come. According to some sources, Bryan Ferry (of Roxy Music fame) also contributed guest vocals on this album, but if true, it is not ackowledged on the liner notes for the album. The album pays closer homage to jazz than any other Crimson album. This is to be expected, as many of the personnel (e.g., Keith Tippet) are more closely affiliated with the jazz scene than rock.
The song Happy Family is a wonderful parody of the Beatles. You should take the time to read the lyrics and inspect closely the little picture in the upper right corner of the album cover behind the letter "I". The one with the yellow submarine in the background.
In a recent diary entry at the DGM website, Fripp made some less than positive comments about this album, although he speaks highly of the track Bolero. He concludes that he knows that there are some Lizard-lovers out there, but that they must be really weird people. Thank you, Robert.
Notes: That's the Trifid Nebula on the cover. Suggests a broader meaning of the word "Islands", doesn't it?
The Letters is a re-working of the theme from Drop In, a tune performed live (but not recorded in the studio) by Crim the Great.
Notes: Two words: Magical Enigma. While the sound is markedly different from the early incarnation of KC, this powerful album more than makes up for the lack of direction on Islands. This album broke new ground in music. Indeed, this album created entirely new categories of music. John Wetton and Bill Bruford join the team, giving the group the strongest line-up since the departure of McDonald, Giles, & Lake. I wish I knew the story behind the album title.
Someone (I think a subscriber of the Elephant Talk Newsletter) has stated that King Crimson has made three really important albums: In the Court of the Crimson King, Lark's Tongues in Aspic, and Discipline. My own feeling is that these three albums are indeed instances of the most radical departures from the music that preceeded them (especially the first two of these), but that in no way diminishes the importance or quality of the other albums. I can't say enough how Lark's Tongues in Aspic is a stunning original creation, and yet, I feel that In the Wake of Poseidon, Lizard, Starless & Bible Black, Red, The ConstruKction of Light, and, to a lesser extent, Islands, Beat, Three of a Perfect Pair, Vrooom, and Thrak are every bit as important as musical events.
Notes: In my shifting, boiling kettle of favorite Crim albums, this one comes to the top perhaps more often than any other. Fripp, Wetton, Cross & Bruford are at their tightest. While not as much as a departure as the previous album, it is incredibly versatile. It has biting sarcasm (The Great Deceiver), heavy rockers with searing guitar work (The Great Deceiver, Lament), An intelligent ballad (The Night Watch - It has done more to make me appreciate the Rembrandt masterpiece than the painting itself!), a foray into classical sounding music with a hauntingly simple structure (Trio), brooding, discordant mystery (The Mincer), masterful syncopated rythmic displays (We'll Let You Know), and bold extended improvisational instrumentals (Starless & Bible Black, Fracture). What more can one expect?
Notes: A worthy farewell album. It features the best of the Fripp-Wetton-Bruford sound in all it's perfectionism, but also integrates the sound of past incarnations: witness the personnel featuring guest artists from the 1969-1972 period! Providence reminds me of Moonchild somewhat - a very ambitious improvisation that works quite well. Fallen Angel recalls Pictures of a City in its sentiment, but not in its sound, which is unique although if one listens closely one can pick out sounds which evoke bits and pieces of every previous album. Starless even features a mellotron again! And the instrumental Red has even been adopted and reworked by the most recent incarnation of the band in the 90's.
Notes: My heart leaped when I saw a new KC album in the record bins! The sound is quite different from the previous incarnations. But quite good - they "Belew" me away! OK, I do occasionally miss the mellotrons, and prefer the Sinfield/Palmer-James lyrics to those of Belew on the whole, and yet this band is still the epitome of music for me. And the album? ...No matter how you analyze it, now matter how you break it down, it remains consistent. I LIKE IT!
Notes: In a Deja Vu (or should I say Deja Vrooom?) experience which mirrored my experience with the first incarnation of KC, it was actually the second album (Beat) which I heard prior to the first (Discipline). Like eleven years previously, I found myself defending the second album to people who claimed the first was better. Perhaps they are right, but my experience is more akin to my experience with the first incarnation in another way (which I take as independent evidence of the greatness of this band); namely that my favorite album (and song) with this line-up also remains in a state of perpetual flux.
Despite the more pop-oriented lyrics of Adrian Belew, there are some very interesting features worthy of note. The opening cut Neal & Jack & Me is of course a tribute to the Beat Generation by it's reference to Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac's antics in the classic On the Road. But what an interesting twist - the song is sung from the perspective of the car(!) that they drove. (A thematic trick which would appear again on the next album). Similarly, Two Hands, a hauntingly beautiful love song is sung from the perspective of a photograph on the wall whose subject is observing two lovers intertwined as one. Other notable lyrics of Belew on this album are the almost commercially viable ballad heartbeat (which was covered years later by Al Kooper on his live album Soul of a Man) and the psychotic rap-like Neurotica, a sort of modern day update of Pictures of a City.
Notes: The title cut has to be one of the best examples of Belew's lyrics and is one of my favorite songs by this incarnation of KC. Dig me is the cut sung from the perspective of a (discarded, rusting, rotting) automobile. The entire album is quite enjoyable, but the surprise ending would warm the heart of any true Crimhead - Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part III, a tribute to the landmark album from the 70's incarnation of KC. Will There be a part IV? (Yes! see below!)
Notes: They're back! Besides the new "double trio" lineup, this incarnation brought me my first chance to see them in concert. Much of this album was expanded in the next offering Thrak. Of those cuts which didn't make it onto Thrak, Cage is notable in its intensity and in that it recalls Neurotica somewhat.
Notes: After the short mini-album VROOOM, this offering was a welcome addition to my collection, even though much of VROOOM reappears. It's an hour of the most intense original music of 1994.
Notes: This was the result of 3 years of 'research and development' by the ProjeKCts - a leaner, stripped down, more guitar-oriented incarnation of King Crimson. To me, it is much more satisfying than anything produced by the double trio. While not everyone agrees with this sentiment, and indeed this was a somewhat controversial release (partly because of the tunes 'FraKctured' and 'LTIA part IV', which were seen by some as too much reliance on past glories), I nevertheless like this better than anything they've done since Red. Indeed the two tunes mentiond above are my favorites on the album, and I applaud the return to interlocking guitar parts and world class guitar work from Fripp on 'FraKctured', which I regard not as an exercise in nostaglia (cf. 'Fracture' on Starless and Bible Black), but as the next natural step in the evolution of an idea. And Adrian's imitation of Tom Waits on 'ProzaKc Blues', whether intentional or not, is a hoot.
Also I like this album more than the double trio partly because the double trio is too dense. With 6 world class musicians playing at once, it is too crowded for any one to really step out, and it would be difficult to hear and follow individual parts if they did anyway. There is more than enough going on at once with just these four guys playing!
The rest of the KC catalog consists of "best of" collections and various box sets. In this section, rather than be encylcopaedic, I note only those which I have actually heard and/or purchased. For live albums, see the next page.
Notes: Aside from the great sequencing of the tracks, there are two notable features. The version of I Talk to the Wind is the demo with Judy Dyble on vocals. The only recorded track of King Crimson with a female vocalist. Also included is Groon, the B-side to Cat Food which wasn't previously released on any studio album (there is a live version on Earthbound.)
Notes: More great sequencing of the tracks, and the following notable features: Cadence and Cascade has been remixed with Adrian Belew replacing Gordon Haskell on vocals, and Bolero with Tony Levin replacing Gordon Haskell on bass. On the previously unreleased track The King Crimson Barber Shop, Tony Levin sings all parts. Also includes a 60 - page (!) color booklet with a complete history of the band.
(Obviously, disk IV is not a studio release, but it makes sense to keep this 4 - CD box set together, rather than list disk IV separately on page 2 of this discography.)
