Frippin' Out: Trollheart's First-time Exploration of King Crimson's Music

[Trollheart]

Frippin' Out:
Trollheart's First-time Exploration
of King Crimson's Music


Having given many of you reason to sharpen your blades and look up the easiest ways to dispose of a body with my whining "I don't get seventies Yes" thread, I came across this from a few years back and thought I'd prod you a little further. I only ended up doing a few albums, so I'll repost those and then I'll carry on from there. Prepare to be annoyed!

Note: I originally used my colour coding on those reviews so I'll continue to do so. For those who are unaware, forgot or don't care, these are the keys:

Blue = Fantastic, perfect, wonderful, top class etc
Green = Excellent but not quite perfect; still really really good
Brown = Okay; certainly has a lot going for it but a few flaws or things I don't like or that could be better
Grey = Meh. Nuff said.
Red = Bad. Don't like this at all.


In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

So this is where it all starts, huh? Well, I actually did eventually listen to this album, when it came up on the list for my History of Prog journal, and was very very impressed. But I haven't listened to it since, so though this won't be the first time I'm listening to it, it will be slightly new to me. I see they're already being mavericks at this point. They have multi-part suites, but unlike Genesis for instance who would use numbers to differentiate the parts a few years later, or indeed the Moody Blues, who just broke up the tracks, to say nothing of others (whose name at present escapes me) who used letters, King Crimson take a leaf out of fellow proggers Van der Graaf Generator's book, and simply call the track by its main name, noting that it "includes" other songs, such as with "Epitaph (including March For No Reason and Tomorrow and Tomorrow)". Of course, I'm only going by Wiki and I don't know if this is how the track listing is shown on the actual albums, as mine aren't physical copies.

Only five tracks, but the album still clocks in at a relatively impressive 44 minutes. So let's break this puppy down, shall we?

1. 21st Century Schizoid Man (Including Mirrors): Heavy, powerful start to the album, with what sound like almost Beefheartian vocals. Sure, others copied these, but at this time I doubt anyone else was emulating the bold Captain. Maybe it's a vocoder? Not sure. Anyway, it's quite heavily psychedelic with a lot of jazzy elements thrown in, and you can already hear a band that's tighter than me at the pub. Serious skills here..

2. I Talk to the Wind: A lovely change into a soft, lush ballad. Really relaxing and just gorgeous. Lake's vocals are very soothing here, in contrast to the slightly manic tone of the opener.

3. Epitaph (Including March For No Reason and Tomorrow and Tomorrow): Hmm. Seems to be another ballad, with some fantastic orchestral stuff in there and guitar that pulls at your heart at times. Sublime.

4. Moonchild (including The Dream and the Illusion): The real epic here, coming in at just over twelve minutes, part of which (I assume the aforementioned "The Dream") is sort of atmospheric, ambient instrumental music which really gets very quiet, though you can hear a lot of strange little sounds. Xylophone? Maybe a vibraphone? Touches on the piano. Susurrating percussion, all very almost surreal.

5. In the Court of the Crimson King (Including The Return of the Fire Witch and The Dance of the Puppets): I'm sure there's little I can say about this that hasn't already been said. The powerful vocals on the chorus, the sort of medieval atmosphere created, the flutes, the extended instrumental ... pure magic.

Result: Well as expected I loved it, but then that's hardly the revelation I'm looking for, since as I already said, I've heard this once before. Only gets better with the second listen though. I am a little surprised (pleasantly) by how laid back most of it is. Hopefully the rest of the discography can keep up this extremely high bar. Oh, and this is the first time I've really heard drumming I can say is something special. One other thing that really hits me about this album is how really advanced it must have been for its time. When you consider what Genesis and Yes were doing around this time, well, this knocks both into a cocked hat. Like I said, magic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OvW8Z7kiws&list=PLXhfRoiJBIiuXOUv_7EJ1i7UKj0aGfy0U

[grindy]

As a huge KC fan I'm really looking forward to this.
I love the first one but I honestly don't listen to it that often. Even more greatness was on the way.

Will you be excluding live albums, as you sometimes do with those things? Asking since the last incarnations were exclusively live.

[Trollheart]

Thanks for reading, grindy!
It's very unlikely I'll do live albums. I almost never do, not sure where you got the idea I do. If I do a discography it's nearly always studio albums, and for this reason: while you can talk about how different the live tracks may be, the chances are you've already talked about them when reviewing the studio album, so to me that's just wasted effort. I'll say all I have to say about the studio albums and leave it at that. So generally, no, there won't be live albums here, especially when it's a band I know so little about and have heard so little from.

[Lexi Darling]

One of the all time 10/10 greats. Personally I don't think they ever matched their debut. It feels equally like a culmination of what was happening in the late 60s, an influential look ahead to the 70s, and a nod to the aesthetics of the distant past.

The title track is the first KC song I ever heard; I was introduced to them around 2006 by a couple who would attend my Magic the Gathering get-togethers and always showed up dressed like renaissance fair cosplayers.

[Trollheart]

In the Wake of Poseidon (1970)

Okay so here's where it really kind of begins for me. After the debut there is not a single Crimson album, or track, that I've heard (shut up) so all of this will be new to me.

1. Peace – A Beginning Just a quick a capella intro, less than a minute. Not much to say about that.

2. Pictures of a City (Including 42nd at Treadmill): Very jazzy, comes in very powerfully and has a nice groove. Melody and rhythm  kind of reminds me of early Sabbath to a degree. Fripp breaks out the guitar magic about three minutes in and the track takes off. Does go a little too improvisational at the end though.

3. Cadence and Cascade: No problem with this one. Lovely little gentle ballad in a kind of Moody Blues vein. Lovely piano, lovely vocal harmonies, sweet flute.

4. In the Wake of Poseidon (Including Libra's Theme): The moment that organ starts I'm in love with this song. Kind of puts me in mind of my boys VDGG, like something off H to He or maybe Aerosol Grey. Also again a very Moodies influence, or maybe that should be the other way around? Whatever. Great track anyway.

5. Peace – A Theme: Again, just a short little instrumental. Nice for what it is.

6. Catfood: I can't place my finger on it; there's just something about this I don't like. It reminds me of the worse tracks by Spock's Beard that make me unsure whether or not I will ever like them as a band. No, not into this one at all. Actually the ending is good, but that's about it.

7. The Devil's Triangle (i) Merday Morn (ii) Hand of Sceiron (iii) Garden of Worm: An eleven-and-a-half minute instrumental? This better be good. I read that it's based around Holst's "Mars" but that his estate wouldn't allow them to use it so they had to kind of disguise it. I can hear it, but had I not read that I don't think I would have made the connection. Hmm. Oh no wait: I definitely would. I hear it clearly now. Takes a while to get going, but then there's plenty of time I guess.

It's quite funny in a way: Fripp saying "so we can't use your music? Well fuck you: we'll make it so close to it that it'll really piss you off without being legally actionable!" Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer says "How much are we getting paid for this?" referring to the story of Bart's life, and Marge says "the producers changed it just enough so that they wouldn't have to pay us!" Heh. Loving this at the moment I must say; high point of the album.

Very cleverly done, shows real skill to skate that close to the edge (pun intended) without falling over. Like the addition of the chorus to "In the Court of the Crimson King" thrown in there. Overall, a definite ten out of ten here.

8. Peace – An End: Bit of a hippy ending with a short almost a capella piece though the acoustic guitar and the vocal harmonies that come in are nice.

Result: Nowhere near as good as the debut, though to be fair I hadn't expected it to be. To follow up such an instant classic inside a year would have been asking a lot. Still, I'm a little more underwhelmed by this than I had thought I would be. There's more on it that I don't like than I anticipated, though the good tracks do outweigh the bad. I feel it doesn't quite hold together the same way ITCOTCK did, that it's perhaps a little disjointed? Don't know, but overall not as impressed this time round. Still good, even great, just not, for me, a classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDC6Yj8JQJk&list=PLXhfRoiJBIisZQ8vMbNUApfin2R8Rbcav

[Trollheart]

Lizard (1970)

Looks like Crimson managed to release two albums in one year, though at this point it seems Greg Lake has fucked off to beeome the "L" in ELP, so we're left with a guy whose singing I have to say I don't much dig. Well, we'll see how he his. This is what they call a transitional album, they tell me.

1. Cirkus (Including Entry of the Chameleons): Starts off deceptively slow and relaxed but quickly kicks into life, and reminds me again very much of VDGG. Some really nice horns and what sounds like orchestral strings here. Pretty decent track but I wouldn't be raving about it.

2. Indoor Games: I may have pinpointed – at least with this album – why I'm finding it a little harder to get into Crimson than I expected, and it hinges on those jazzy horns. VDGG use this style a lot too, and though I do like them, there are a lot of their albums I can't get into because they're too jazz-slanted for me. This song is just ok, nothing special. A bit boring if I'm perfectly honest. The stupid laughing at the end is particularly annoying.

3. Happy Family: More discordant jazz, god damn it. I really do not like this guy singing. What's his name? Oh yeah: Gordon Haskell. Well, fuck him. I've yet to hear anything on this album that's going to make me like it. At best this is a meh but it's verging towards a Hate.

4. Lady of the Dancing Water: At least we finally get a ballad, which is nice, but what the fuck is with Haskell? It's like listening to a Gumby try to sing. Hope he fucked off after this album. I doubt I'm going to enjoy anything here, even this, when the enormous drag factor of his singing has to be taken into account.

5. Lizard (a) Prince Rupert Awakes (b) Bolero – the Peacock's Tale (c) The Battle of Glass Tears (i) Dawn Song (ii) Last Skirmish (iii) Prince Rupert's Lament: This multi-part suite runs for a total of twenty-three minutes and change, and I assume took up the second side of the album, and I have to admit it's speaking to me a whole lot more than anything on this record previously. Maybe it can be salvaged after all. Yeah, this is not only streets but city blocks ahead of what has gone before. Much of that is, to be fair, down to the fact that most of it is instrumental so I don't have to listen to Haskell, though again to be fair, when he did sing on the opening part he wasn't bad. I prefer Lake though. As far as this track (side?) and the rest of the album go though, night and day.

Result: I'd have to say a pretty damn big disappointment. Although the second side/epic suite/last track saves the album, up to that point there's nothing really there for me. At all. The last track is good , but more in a sort of "at least it's not as bad as the rest of the album" way rather than a "fuck me how have I been missing this for so long?" kind of way, which is what I'm pretty much still waiting for. Bar the debut, of course.

[Trollheart]

Well so far we've had an album that apparently even Fripp himself hated (until Steven Wilson came to save the day, it says here) and now one that is seemingly the weakest of their career up to this point. Don't think this one is going to change my current mindset on them, but let's give it a go anyway.


Islands (1971)

1. Formantera Lady: Came and went without leaving the slightest impression on me. Boring as all hell.

2. Sailor's Tale: A little better, bit of excitement in it, but still nothing much to get excited about.

3. The Letters: Starts off very low-key and quiet, then explodes into a VDGG hornfest (oooer!) but it's still not gripping me. Yawn.

4. Ladies of the Road: A boring, annoying attempt at hard rock on an album that doesn't quite know what it wants to be.

5. Prelude: Song of the Gulls: Nice little almost classical instrumental, the first track on this album I've given a shit about. Very enjoyable. Beautiful, in fact. A welcome respite from the tedium this album is weighing me down with.

6. Islands: Okay this is also very nice. I'm not wild about this third vocalist either (seems he, and everyone else, left after this album anyway) but the sax from Mel Collins is very easy on the ear, and it's a really nice relaxing tune.

Result: Basically pretty disappointing, though reading about it I had kind of expected this. Nothing will bring me back to this album again, so currently we're at a 2/2 split in terms of albums by King Crimson that I liked and didn't like. I see though that what is apparently widely accepted as the trilogy of their best work is up next, so maybe things will take an upswing. At the moment, they couldn't drop any further.