IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

A monster of a follow up to their debut. This is a strange one. KC wasn't a band anymore. Robert Fripp was desperately doing everything he can to carry the Crimson banner. With new recruits, Keith Tippet and Mel Collins filling in as session players filling the huge void left by Ian McDonald. Greg Lake, Michael Giles and Peter Giles do big Bob a huge favor providing the vocals, drums and bass respectively. Fripp even asked a childhood friend (Gordon Haskell) to sing on one of the songs. Talk about desperation! So what do we get? Well as mentioned in previous reviews, it certainly sounds much like the first album. Even the sequence of a few of the songs. But, despite all of this, it's a great album. The Peace tunes give this album nice continuity bookending the album and placing one smack in the middle attempting to distance this record from the debut is a nice touch. Pictures of a City is a 21st Century Schizoid Man clone that would have been downright plagiarism if it was done by a different band. Dominated by guitar rather than the woodwinds, it is quite a workout. This actually was done by the original band on their first tour. Cadence and Cascade a gentle song about two groupies. Soft acoustic guitar underlies Gordon Haskell's vocals, Mel Collins provides a really nice flute solo. A great player for sure. A classic.

In The Wake of Poseidon sounds to me like Epitaph and In The Court Of The Crimson King. The song mentions all of the characters on the album cover.

Cat Food is a bit of comedy relief. A fun song seemingly about a man's lament about a wife who is unfaithful and cannot cook.

It's too bad Groon wasn't released on the original version of this album. A really cool jazzy instrumental that appears on the newer expanded versions of ITWOP. One of my favorite Crimson tunes.

The Devil's Triangle starts off as the original band's version of Mars-The Bringer of War then morphs into a maelstrom of mellotrons. Evokes the imagery of a sinking ship amid a storm.

So quite a nice job by Mr. Fripp keeping the ship afloat before having an even more difficult time sustaining the band for another couple years.