Rediscovering King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

 I just purchased a new copy of King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King, after not owning it for many decades, I used to play it quite a lot so new it well and it was interesting to revisit and I found myself really appreciating it again.

For me this album is a stand alone release, although King Crimson did continue after this it was a significantly different band with Robert Fripp as it’s undisputed leader, but on this album Ian MacDonald has more compositional presence and Greg Lake’s vocals and Peter Sinfields lyrics are perhaps all more important than the part Fripp plays. The songs on this might be unconventional but they are carefully arranged songs, which isn’t a mark of later Crimson. Overall this is an imaginative and rich evocation and while it has with justification been called the first progressive Rock album you can see that it does share some sort of musical lineage with Sgt Pepper, Family, Early Floyd, more in terms of having wide tonal colour, musical ambition and the sense of creative freedom and being imaginative triumphs of pop/rock.

Michael Giles drumming also really stands out it has a Ringo-esque style although is less restrained but always perfectly fitting for the album.

The album opens with the frenetic opening of 20th Century Schizoid Man, there is a great variety within this track with extended instrumental sections that are highly synchronised, very tight in both performance and structure. The track ends with a chaotic breakdown of instrumentation.

Then with I Talk to the Wind, we get a great contrast of a very spare arrangement that gives a great sense of space, a really beautiful song, evocative with natural images . Lakes singing here and throughout the album is perfect.

The third and final track of side one Epitaph is one of the two great epics of the album placed at the end of each side. Both of these have a grandeur and sense of the dramatic. The use of mellotron on these tracks is most use of the instrument.

Side 2 starts with Moonchild a very soft song divided into a song section at the start and a long improvised atmospheric instrumental section at the end. The song section does leave me wanting more and if there is a hint of weakness to the album I think it is that I’d substitute a little of the improv for a reprise of the song section with a couple of extra verse. But the improvisation does bring another colour to the album and it was a bold choice.

The it ends with the title track In the Court of the Crimson King. For me this is likely the best song on the album, they were right to use this as the title as it best captures the fantastic imaginative vision of the album.

I can’t believe I have been neglecting this album for so long and am delighted to be reacquainting myself with it.