IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

It begins with 21st Century schizoid Man, a driving powerhouse of a song, it begins with reeds, and then a power guitar opening from Robert Fripp leads us into Greg Lakes opeing lines "Cats Foot Iron Claw" etc.

From then it gets stranger and stranger, the huge instrumental passage midway through may seem pointless but it is brilliantly concieved.

The veres about "Innocents bleached with Naplam fire "could be a reference to Vietnam and americsa bombing of villages with Naplam bombs. A brillianrtopeing to the album.

Then comes I talk to the Wind- a gentle almost folky track wonderfully played and sung, if not typical Crimson it certainly lightnes the mood.

Next comes Epitaph- a dark, gloomy song sung by Greg Lake and co-written bby Peter Sinfield, tihs siong is as dark as any on the album and begins with Ian Macdonalds Mellotron and this instrument is prominent throghout the song.

The lyyrics are very dark and even scary, though what Lake means when he sings Confusion will be my epitaph is a mystery to me.

Lakes vocal performance on this song is oputstanding, and the playing by Macdonald is a brilliant counterpoint to the darkness of the piece.

Next comes Moonchild, all ill say about this is that it is a brilliantly earthereal song, 12 minutes long but never dragged out or dull, the playing is tight and the words are semi-spiritual.

So onto the fianl track-Court of Te Crimson King, what an epic, almost 9minutes long, mellotron,organ, bass and guitars all combine to produce a brillaint background to Greg Lakes well sung lyrics, as usual the lyrics were written by Peter Sinfield and on this song they conjure up medieval castles, torture and masques. The song ahs often been called the first true Prog Rock song and i believe it is.

all in all the album is 43 minutes of brilliance, epic iin its scope but also eartereal, spooky and on Schizoid an just plain weird.

Listen to this album and marvel at this criminally overlooked bands majestic writing and playing.

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