IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

Here is my own review of this and I took the liberty of using the original review as a spring board. Thx Atomic.

"In the Court of the Crimson King" was the first album by the group "King Crimson". When it first appeared it was quite a shock to many listeners, similar to The Beatles White Album, which defied description and challenged your perception of music and where you stood, or thought you understood these things. Somehow, at the time, not many people thought as much about "pop music", or gave it some credit for literacy, which is usually not associated with popular top ten songs in Billboard or Top of the Pops.

As the years have passed, and it is now 2010, this album gets a lot more reviews and comments than The Beatles' White Album and I think this is well deserved. That is not to say that The Beatles had lost their touch, they had not, and their last album was the next one voted in this particular list of albums. Abbey Road, however, was not the "anti- topofthepops" that "The White Album" had been and indeed, it appears that the fracture in the band had already caused issues and prevented the music from being better, or at least from just being a bunch of songs, and every member on their own trip, which is very clear in both of those albums, and the album "Let It Be".

Like many of the more outlandish rock bands in those days, this King Crimson album featured a lot of things ... and the small list added above is a very good example of some of the things found in the album ... however, one should appreciate the fact that many of these had been happening for some time in many other artist's repertoire ... with one exception ... you did not see them all in the same album!

So, in this album you will find a lot of weird things, jagged guitar licks, weird drum time signatures, massive keyboard sounds, and specially with a mellotron. As for influences, this would be a bit harder to define ... one could say that this piece appears to be towards jazz, this one towards rock, but how do you define this other piece and that other piece?

But there are some things that tell you that this whole album is done by people that have a conscience and an attitude. It may not be quite as visible or as important today (2010) since we have nothing to fight for anymore, but let's start with the very first piece on the album.

21st Century Schizoid Man The harsh guitar attack right at the front of it all, leads the way ... and singer Greg Lake lets you have it ... ... At paranoia's poison door Twenty first century schizoid man. ... Blood rack barbed wire Politicians' funeral pyre Innocents raped with napalm fire Twenty first century schizoid man. ... Death seed blind man's greed Poets' starving children bleed Nothing he's got he really needs Twenty first century schizoid man.

It doesn't take any smarts to realize the socio-political commentary of this whole thing. From VietNam (Napalm fire reference) to Oil to politician's funeral pyre (IRA conflict) ... and the guitar attack right out front.

I've always thought that the guitar licks were almost the same thing as the images that you saw on the TV, and the brutal violence of it all, and the point, TO ME, was ... what are you going to do about it? It was not about it being "progressive" or anything else. It was about your own conscience and your ability and desire to take action and help change the insanity in this world ... the 21st Century Schizoid Man was the maniac that you saw with guns in their hand ... because he wanted the oil and the money it could bring ... ohh, by the way, have things changed much? ... and you can see the importance of something like this is likely to last out a lot more than ... a lot of other music out there.

Greg Lake's voice, is as important here as the album itself ... why? There is a screaming/shouting/and cynical/satirical edge that helps make the point, where a regular singer would not sound as important or create such a strong impact. It's hard to think of this song as just guitar, saxophone and breaks and time changes ... without the lyrics spoken in the right spot, the ability to accentuate a meaning dries up ... and that is not something that happens in this whole album. More on this later.

I Talk to the Wind More of a folk song than anything else, with soft vocals by Greg Lake, and the woodwinds by Ian McDonald ... and it is one of those pieces that stands out, more because of the contrast to the opening piece than anything else, but unlike most rock bands or conventional and popular music bands, these lyrics are a continuation of the 1st piece. Check this out:

... I'm on the outside looking inside What do I see Much confusion, disillusion All around me. ... I talk to the wind My words are all carried away I talk to the wind The wind does not hear The wind cannot hear.

It's actually a very sad song, because it KNOWS that it has a voice and an opinion and wants to help create change ... but no one listens or cares? ... actually one could say that the wind is at fault since it carries your words and does not bring the meaning in to you ... or you would hear it! And, know it! I'm particular to that thought and feeling ... because too much that is said is often ignored and not appreciated or (as is the case here in the board) understood, and quite often you get a group of people that are ... quite simply ... not interested at all.

Epitath The next song, if not one of the most important of the album, is without a doubt one of the prettiest things ever done in rock music anywhere. And it is a massive eulogy to the many innocent vitims of corruption and wars that mean absolutely so little to most people, except those that wish to take advantage of whatever natural resourses in some form. With a stunning opening scene that is better than almost any movie ever made, and the best imagery that any literature can offer ... or the prettiest painting you ever saw ... that gave you ugliness, such a perfect image to illustrate so much of the 20th century and its wars ...

The wall on which the prophets wrote Is cracking at the seams. Upon the instruments of death The sunlight brightly gleams. When every man is torn apart With nightmares and with dreams, Will no one lay the laurel wreath As silence drowns the screams. ... (and then it closes with)

... Confusion will be my epitaph. As I crawl a cracked and broken path If we make it we can all sit back and laugh. But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying, Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying. ...

There is no such emotion, and amazing imagery, in most lyrics and music anywhere.

Most of the rock lyrics hope to tell you a story with insipid lyrics and ideas that are trying to make any band come off as relevant, and in the end, it is vacuous and not important ... it's just trying to make sense and sound important ... but it rarely can reach the heights and level that these lyrics and poetry can.

The larger special point to be made here is how it is sung. Greg Lake is NOT an average singer, and in fact, I like to joke that he can't sing at all. But when it comes to "acting" and "accentuating" words and moments, there are not many in the music business that are any better than what his work examples have done. In a business where we worry about tenor, baritone and rock singer and whatever else description we can give it, in the end, we can see why so many people that love rock music do not enjoy a lot of classical materials, like Opera ... can you imagine a Greg Lake singing in Turandot? ... oh my gawd ... she would die after the first set of words. Can you imagine Greg Lake as Siegfried challenging the Gods? ... yeah ... it's very different from a song about some bitch or some girl that left you behind!

With one of the prettiest sounding mixes of keyboards, mellotron this song stands out as an anthem for the ages, and the kind that will be remembered for a long time to come. It is the ultimate conscientious objector Anthem, and stands out like Jimi's American Anthem at Woodstock or Toni McPhee's endearing version of Amazing Grace prior to that. If there is a God, or a theme, or a heart ... you won't find many out there that even come close.

Lyrics, regardless of where they come from can make or break something. Poems can kill, or lead people to war. But pure heart and soul, is hard to ignore. And it has been with us for hundreds of years in many forms and idioms, and this is one of the finest examples of what poetry and music can do ... it's not just the lyrics ... it's everything else wrapped up in one.

Moonchild ... She's a moonchild Gathering the flowers in a garden. Lovely moonchild Drifting on the echoes of the hours. ...

Like the soft piece before it (I Talk To The Wind), this one comes and goes, and you don't know what to make of it. Sometimes, when I hear this, I think of the "hippie" thing and ideal that led to many communes and pictures of women dressed up as angels and other rather insulting images for the male ego. But the image sticks. The song lingers. The loveliness of the woman lingers. Your experience lingers.

A lot can be said about the improvisations that appear to be just some meanderings in music with little attention to anything else. Things like Moonchild come off like they were what is called in theater "guided explorations" which are often done in very advanced acting classes and these usually end up defining the difference between the "boys and the men" and the "women from the girls", the words taken with lots of salt and sugar of course. The point is that you see something on a screen, let's say, and the visual shows a girl picking up flowers and you would play what comes to mind to fit the mood of the film ... very much as if it were a soundtrack for the visual. This is something that some people can stand, when you close your eyes and allow the images to flow with the music or the lyrics. The problem is that there are many folks that are not capable of doing that and they "have to be told" by the lyrics what it is all about ... and when that happens the Shelley'esque poetry goes right out the door and is not understood or appreciated.

Not all improvisations are just meanderings into nothing and back. Theater and film actoing schools (the advanced ones not the rest) use a lot more exercises that help you develop that "inner" character in order for the performance to get stronger. All the major groups across the world live by similar processes and that is the main reason why they are so well known. There is no reason to believe that musicians are not intelligent enough to not want to experiment and learn something else about what they do ... with the exception of the rock music ego, that thinks that the world can not experiment or try different things that are not "music". Actually the same thing happens in academic circles.

The results in these things vary. In general, for most acting exercises, it is the directors' calls and changes and little things thrown here and there that cause the process to change and each character (in this case instrument) have to update itself and adjust to the feeling at hand, and this is something that most "prog" drummers can not do when all they are concerned with is "time" ... and in the picture that you are "coloring" the time changes ... and you are not changing it? ... or adjusting?

The Court of the Crimson King This is the last song in the album and it is a long one with massive layers of keyboards and mellotron like the song before (Epitath). And while I, personally, do not think that this is a massive anthem like 2 other songs in this album, it still stands out ... but for another reason. The lyrics.

It's hard not to appreciate the cynic here and the view from the "Fool's" eyes. In essence the whole thing is like saying that in the end we're nothing but puppets on a string in a much bigger court ... it's a wonderful analogy for the state of affairs politically and philosophically and what the 20th century had become ... ideas don't matter any more and no one cares any more and business interests run a muck and do what they want and convince you along the way they are funny and witty ... and you cry and scream fighting for these ideals and die for them sometimes.

Someone had a thread on one board on how evil this was. It is not evil. It is just like any other story about the King and the Fool and everything else around them ... and how one manipulates the others, and in the end, all that is left is a song, a few words, a poem ... and even them it doesn't mean much ... specially when today, we're talking 2010, this album is discussed as a major work in "progressive rock" and the rest of the artistic concept and design is totally left behind.

This is much more than a "progressive rock" album and that concept is nothing compared to the importance of the album itself, not only to the time and day when it came out, but today, in September 2010 and any time after today ... it's still important. And it stands up because both the mucis and the lyrics are so direct and such a strong screen shot of a day and age and time that we want to remember the music, but not what it created, including the hurt, the anger, the wars, the bombings, nameless acts ... that were all shown on your television in that day and age.

Few albums have that much importance! And this album deserves the credit for one of the most intelligent and defining moment of my generation, people that I am proud to stand up for because they meant a lot more than some other ideas and concepts that were simply defined by advertising and social belief!

But you must choose ... if you like to have your strings pulled, or if you want to be the player. I side with the artist and the player.

... The yellow jester does not play But gently pulls the strings And smiles as the puppets dance In the court of the crimson king.

Lastly, is the discussion into what became known as "progressive music" many years later.

I, personally, do not think that when you have your center in the right place and you know what you believe in and what you want to try and what you want to accomplish with your art ... that a whole new world reaches out to you. That world is one that is unknown to many folks and even scary for 95% of all the musicians out there. Why? ... how do you keep track of everything and stay together ... the answer my friend, lies in the wind ... and not the drum beat ... and what that tells you is that the musician and person that is asking the question is not listening to that wind! ... and that is what "I talk in the Wind" and "Moonchild" are so important to this album ... trying to help you see ... but sadly all we can think of is some kind of improvisational this or that which makes it some kind of fusion that we can't define, and it takes away from the music itself, the moment and ... most importantly its very soul.

Music, is about "expression" ... and very few musicians are talented enough to know the difference between notes and scales and art. One you can listen and call "progressive" or "prog". The other you live and die with and love every minute of it.

The opening song itself is about "megalomania" if you will with a political edge ... but in other ways it was also an attack on a lot of music at the time that was noisy, loud and did not have a whole lot of strength behind it. To me, that is also an important edge in this album ... that "noise" and "loud" can also be good and important, not just a Rolling Stones concert, which was usually too loud ... and often out of tune too! And it's hard to separate that megalomania and "star" think in the history of rock music ... even if the progressive contingent wants to separate itself from the over blown "stars" of rock music ... and in the end create another group of stars .... progressive is a lot less about the individual than it is about the music, and this is one thing that we tend to forget, and must understand first of all.

It is important for us to realize that a lot of "progressive" music came out of a lot of experimentation and improvisation and that a lot of the music was cleaned up and then lyrics added. It might be said that sometimes the lyrics were there and then the music was added and that is definitly a possibility when you are looking at lyrics in this album by Pete Sinfield. Although not a major poet at the time, what he did write was solid enough to give him some credit for his work, and all it took was one group of musicians that had enough respect for some wonderful words ... to be able to find some music that fit the whole thing beautifully ... and you can't say that about The Beatles or anyone else! At least you will have a hard time listing these in one finger.

This album is not, for me, the best of them all, in terms of the top of the progressive list, but it certainly is one of the top ten albums and a definite must listen. However, this is not a good listen, in general, for today's (2010) audience of metal and prog and some other genre's that are quite meaningless when placed next to something like this. You either appreciate a time and a place and its music ... or you simply are not someone that enjoys music ... for music, in the end, is not about jagged pills or mellotrons or synthesizers ... it's about the very heart that created what it did ... and this album is by far one of the very best ever in that area. Few albums can stand up to that kind of strength, unity, design and above all .. BEAUTY!

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