The Great King

My gut was shook by Black Sabbath, but then I bought an unknown album called In The Court of The Crimson King and my head went spinnin'! It was moving, but at the same time filled my thoughts with ideas I had never had. It was a whole new experience for my musical palette.

In the mid sixties a couple of brothers named Giles, were looking for a keyboardist that also could sing lead. They found a wizard named Fripp, that couldn't really sing, but played the guitar like no one ever since has heard. His riffs became tangled webs of sensations weaving in and out of emotional highs and lows, and everywhereinbetween. Soon there after Fripp called in his old friend Greg Lake who replaced one of the Giles brothers on bass and became the lead singer. Not long after an ugly covered album with a big blue and red faced troll screaming at you was released.

"The Court" had many redeeming qualities, probably the greatest of all times was 21 First Century Schizoid Man. What a song. Full of expression and feelings, horns and guitars wailed out the feelings of people caught in the struggles of a new world. In a fewminutes all of my anger was expressed in perfect harmonies and screaming cackling. Incredible! But it didn't stop there. Fripp introduced a new instrument to the genre, something called a Mellotron. It made the sounds of singing angels! Not really. But it did strings like no other instrument had so far. I've never seen one up close, but I've heard that it has a tape recorded of every instrument. Keyboards would not be seen the same anymore in rock.

The band changed over the years (see Wikipedia for more info), except for one constant maestro - Robert Fripp, the genius of the new age. As musicians came and went, swirling around the trunk of a mighty tree, masterpieces of musical life were spewed out across the branches. I have been in heaven ever since hearing that first playing of 21st Century Schizoid Man.

Lark's Tongues in Aspic was one of my favorites. But to limit my love of King Crimson to a several albums would be to go without desert after a thanksgiving dinner. I simply love it all. However weird, however strange. I can't really pin it down. As corny as it sounds, it speaks to me.

Beethoven was just clowning around compared to King Crimson. It's a devil of a group.

Thanks Bob!