IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

Placing this album on the turntable for the first time in the the better part of a decade, I reflected on the impact it had on not only in the annals of rock music but it's contribution to modern music as a whole.

Untarnished by continuous radio airplay, In The Court Of The Crimson King was more of an artist's album that veered off the beaten track of the American R&B trends of the day, almost consciously deviating from a standard six bar blues substructure. Virtually devoid of individual solos, the grandiose multi-sectioned compositions featured odd time signatures and unusual instrumental combinations that demanded concise execution and concentration from all band members. No Keith Moons or Jimi Hendrixes here. Despite the macabre nature of the abstract free imagery contained in the lyrics, it still managed to appeal to the hippies while inspiring and setting precedents for a new generation of artsy bands that would surface over the next few years. Not only did the sepulchral lyrics create dense atmospheres, compressed walls of mellotrons and the uncanny use of angry saxes and delicate woodwinds contributed to it's fierce and imposing sound whose tension was occasionally alleviated by sullen passages by the woodwinds as well as the guitar. The album can also attribute it's unique sound to things that went wrong in the studio, from misaligned tape heads to lost master tapes that resulted in an overall muted sound ironically creating even darker cohesive textures throughout.

Although the sound deficiencies were compensated for on a 2004 remaster after some lost tapes were discovered ( and to a greater extent on a 2009 5CD blowout ), the full audio-visual effect of In The Court Of The Crimson King : An Observation by King Crimson ( Phew ! The name even gives the impression that something huge is about to transpire ! ) must be heard in it's original vinyl format in order for it's exquisite splendour to be explored and revered. I can only imagine what it must have been like to listen to this creature for the first time in October 1969 holding the foreboding album sleeve in hand gazing at the paranoid Edvard Munch meets Wiliam Blake artwork of Barry Godber, wondering what might lurk behind those glaring eyes of the 21st Schizoid Man, the subject of the chaos and cacophony of the opening track with it's classic plodding main riff written by vocalist/bassist Greg Lake and reed man Ian Macdonald. Covers by everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to April Wine ( who arguably do the most credible version ) not only bear testimony to it's lasting appeal, but it has also been ressurected on the 2005 Crimson Jazz Trio's 2005 CD, The King Crimson Songbook ( featuring original drummer the late Ian Wallace ) which reveal it's free jazz possibilities. It's restive metaphorical lyrics could be a contemporary comment on the Vietnam war but like the lyrical chaos and catchy idioms that persevere throughout the album, Pete Sinfield's dark, philisophical lyrics captured listener's imaginations and delved deeper into their conciousness like no album that prededed it. An onslaught of mellotrons and harmonized vocals colour the four other elongonated tracks ( I Talk To The Wind, Epitaph, Moonchild and In The Court Of The Crimson King ) which served as templates for so many bands that would surface in the early seventies, which would adopt and integrate the profound classical musical devices, dynamics and forms of these prototypical art rock compositions into their own musical endeavours. A definitive ground breaking album that confronted the unknown, In The Cort Of The Crimson King would even recieve positive reaction from the musical press who would later lambaste recordings from bands like Yes and Genesis and King Crimson themselves who would harvest and filter components from the work gradually turning this new high art music concept into clichés that by 1974-75 at times bordered on the ridiculous . With some notable exceptions, King Crimson well nigh took what would become known as progressive rock to it's verge here and could quite arguably be credited with both it's creation and destruction on this leviathan recording.

A nonetheless undisputed revolutionary audio document from countless perspectives, In The Court Of The Crimson King sits as comfortably on the shelf with other innovative recordings from Stravinsky or Coltrane as it does with The Beatles or The Sex Pistols and is quite simply one of the most important recordings of the 20th century period.