Would you recommend King Crimson if...

 

Another example would be a kid that hangs with a small prog gathering of friends during the weekends. The listening experience begins for this kid at age 15. He hasn't heard mainstream rock music yet or has payed attention to it. At first he doesn't like the music his friends are worshipping. Then about 4 months later he begins to enjoy it.  Also taken into consideration that his friends are rather fringe members in their age group and loners which hang together. In school they are by all means considered strange to everyone around them. Prog becomes the local "Goblin's Club" or the "Dead Poets Society". It's like your religion now and you are more than willing to except it.

 

There is this old practice amongst my elderly prog brothers from the 70's. To simply get rid of a girl you do not prefer to date ......play a King Crimson album.  Never play King Crimson for a cheerleader. Things of that nature and guys in college were sarcastic about it.  Over the years I had met ladies who were huge fans of King Crimson. The early King Crimson. It was what they liked on their planet. Most of the dislike for King Crimson derived from people's feelings towards the strangeness of the band's style. This was the generation of teenage groupings in 1971that I was exposed to. Only because 1 or 2 of us had older sisters that collected King Crimson albums were we aware of the band and their music. No internet, no picture with an ID, .........just people older than you introducing this music to you and your friends. I have no idea what the current reactions to the band are.

 

But, the first KC album I bought was Islands, after hearing the title track late at night on a radio show. An extremely accessible and tranquil song, if you can last the 9 minutes or so (and the Miles influenced cornet solos).

 

However, that first side left me gobsmacked and not for the right reasons. I'd never heard anything like it before and it took an eternity to get into. Strangely, I was already listening to Yes, Genesis and ELP at the time, but KC were on a different level altogther.

 

Of course, Islands turns out to be their strangest album and an already esoteric range. If I'd bought ITCOTCK or ITWOP first, then I would have got into the much earlier.

 

The early stuff really now sounds as if it's from a bygone era now. Most younger fans probably wouldn't realise there was an experimental phase in rock music where bands had more or less total freedom to play their own style. I suspect  I would therefore recommend some of the later more electronic efforts to get them into the style. The Construction Of Light, for example, is nowhere near as good as the early 1970's stuff - in fact, it's a pale imitation of their 1974 style, minus any Jazz influence, but it's perfect for giving you a feel for the band's style without being too challenging. One to play on a long car drive to keep you awake.

While LTIA is probably their most original work, there's a danger it could sound like white noise to some.