The King Crimson studio album poll

I'd be most grateful if they included the Red-era band actually performing Red live.

Really? I gave it a couple of tries around the time of release, but I couldn't take it...and I generally give even dubious Crim a pretty wide latitude. What are the standout tracks on Construkction in your opinion?

frakctured, larks' tongues IV and the title track are all great (terrible but affable lyrics aside). the ping-pong interplay between the guitars is incredible on this album. it mostly seems to be based on the conceit that fripp and belew play the usual complex riffs, but alternate notes are split between them. it sounds pretty abstract if you hear the two guitars as existing in their own space, but if you take their combined interplay as one melodic line it makes a lot more sense.

I really love KC, but can't abide them in gentle balladeering mode. they're at their best at full force, and construkction is pretty relentless on that score. no songs on here are quite as good as schizoid man or larks tongues' pt 1, or red, but overall its their most consistent album for me. I do like power to believe as well - level five is fantastic - but it's a bit more patchy.

I'd be most grateful if they included the Red-era band actually performing Red live.

― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion)

Unfortunately this never happened. They finished a US tour in mid-74, fired David Cross, went into the studio and recorded Red, and disbanded before the album came out without playing anymore live shows.

Yes indeed, but I have hope that they've been holding out on us for all these years.

Adrian Crimson could have stopped as soon as they made their first album and played 'Red' live as far as I'm concerned. I like the guy as a guitarist but just cannot fucking abide his singing and lyrics.

i hear you but there are a couple of songs where his vocal style works, like "thela hun ginjeet"

Yes-- somehow on that first record it all works.

I like his voice (at least in the 70s/80s), and like about a third of his lyrics. He's kinda fearless as a singer, likes to hold long notes -- "City of Tiny Lites," "Three of a Perfect Pair" -- it can be irritating if you're not engaged with the lyric.

his work on the 80's albums are good and so are many of his solo records, but he's been crummy in the last few crimson records, but the recrods haven't been great either. I feel like there isn't enough of his influence in the music these days.

as I mentioned above, I find KC's vocals pretty bad, no matter who's at the mic. but the vocals are such a minimal and irrelevant part of how I hear them that it really doesn't matter.

So where do you all stand on the Projekcts? I recall getting into Space Groove some while ago, but never followed up on them...

The ProjeKcts are great. Groovy, avant and inspired. They show what Fripp can still do when he puts his mind to it, and it bothers me that he wouldn't think of putting that stuff out under the Crimson name. For someone who professes to be into countering listeners' expectations, he does seem to rather fall back into overfamiliar modes when he puts something out as KC.

Interesting-- I always thought the point of the Projekcts was to develop new material for Crim. Now that I think of it, I did end up seeing one of them (the Fripp/Levin/Gunn/Mastoletto config) and thinking it was pretty decent. I mostly remember that they flubbed their way through VROOOM. Somehow it was refreshing to hear them blow it.

I always thought the point of the Projekcts was to develop new material for Crim

I'm sure that was the idea, yes. But in practice I don't think many of the ProjeKcts' innovations made their way into later KC.

just listened to wake of poseidan last night...never heard it before cuz for some reason i had the idea it was a "bad" one...but damn i really liked it!

it's really extreme in its progginess, like the pretty ren faire parts are super extra fancy even by greg lake standards and then the fucked up skronk (like most of side 2) is even really more fucked up than anything on crimson king....plus a couple of parts that seemed like they were going for some mutant odd meter funk type grooves or something

think i need to get into Crimson. All I have is Court of the Crimson King. Where to next!?

you'd prolly dig poseidan if you like court.....

i think "red" is considered one of the best by nearly everyone. a little more skronk and less fancy than the court/wake era

Larks' Tongues in Aspic
USA
Discipline

cool, thanks! some prog dude i know was raving about some live Zoom Club show? but he didn't have a copy! is it good? he said there was some 45 minute Fripp jamz or something.

in the wake of poseidon is def underrated

You've barely scratched the surface. I guess it depends on what you thought of Court. Personally I'm not a fan of that album and side by the mid-70s John Wetton records onwards.

Download/buy Red or if you've ever enjoyed Remain in Light, just one bit, then head for Discipline which has Adrian Belew from that THeads line up on second guitar and vocals. It's like Remain in Light x PROG INTRICACY!

The old prog review site Ground and Sky has good overviews of their whole back catalogue and is worth checking out.

And on Matt's note, I should check out Poseidon myself. Fucked up skronk, odd-metered funk grooves - - sign me up.

i like court ok, but i've been told the same thing by other fans -- that it's not very representative of the other stuff ...

Discipline which has Adrian Belew from that THeads line up on second guitar and vocals. It's like Remain in Light x PROG INTRICACY!

this description is 100X OTM but is also being a little kind to Crimson by neglecting to point out to you the fact that Adrian Belew is one of the most annoying vocalists of all time (to me)

that said, it's still cool, but i've posted several times here that an all-instrumental mix of Discipline would be soooo awesome.

All talk. It's only talk!! His voice is an acquired taste, like all Crimson vocalists in fact.

There's tons of avant-rock out there which is akin to an instrumental Discipline...Orthrelm, Zs, Marnie Stern (who uses vocals more as another instrument/texture I think), and from earlier on, Univers Zero and Happy Family.

this description is 100X OTM but is also being a little kind to Crimson by neglecting to point out to you the fact that Adrian Belew is one of the most annoying vocalists of all time (to me)

that said, it's still cool, but i've posted several times here that an all-instrumental mix of Discipline would be soooo awesome.

http://svenjaplaas.ch/wp-content/uploads/otm_visitenkarten_2.jpg

Each to his own taste...I don't have a problem with Belew's vocals. (His lyrics are another matter.)

yeah in fairness king crimson wasn't exactly a showcase band for Super Awesome Vocalists (but still at least greg lake, who is a douche, is a douche in sort of a "standard"-ish prog way, belew is just grating to me)

there should probably be a Prog Douche picture thread

never a fan of elp but there's something about lake's vocals for king crimson....so dreamy lol. except when he's doing the heavily distorted schizoid/cat food thing, which is also cool

don't really have a problem with greg lake vox. like you say, pretty standard prog fare. I honestly can't even remember much about his vox offhand.

wetton can grate ("health food faggot") but is (mostly) easy enough to ignore. esp when KC get into long jams.

belew's vox are just too front-and-center for me. all the vocal ticks, studio effects, and the spoken word delivery. just find him really distracting and the david byrne comparisons I can't help but make don't really do him any favors. which is too bad because the music from this era is really cool!

not too familiar with the other eras.

so, I guess I admire KC vocalists who are easy to ignore.

tylerw, King Crimson is at it's best when you look at the individual tracks - not albums.
However, Red is pretty standout, get that one. And I would get Lizard before I ever get In The Wake
80s era - get discipline first
90s era and beyond - how about Construkction of Light first

Thrak > Constukction of Light, but only venture into the post-discipline stuff once you're certain you adore this band, of course.

But is this moot, when you can download an entire band's discography from google/torrents in minutes?

Plus, I've always seen 90s Crimson as a reiteration or summation of all they've done, KC comfort food if you will.

is there a career-spanning KC comp? does someone want to make me one? :D

Larks Tongues, S&BB, Red are easily best 3-in-a-rom Crims. The Belew albums really aren't bad (and Discipline is really good), but yeah, I think Fripp must have thought he'd stumbled on a real front man, because he seems to have given AB a lot of room in the band "mix". The funny thing is that one of the best things about the 80s (and 90s) band is AB's guitar playing. I really started appreciating his contributions when I saw them live circa Thrak-- AB is taking most of the "complicated" sounding stuff, and all of the solos. As a vocalist (and lyricist) he's pretty annoying on record, but live, he kind of glues everything together.

Also very tempting to think of KC w/Daryl Hall or David Byrne fronting.

x-post, also otm to think of KC as a tracks band, as opposed to albums. All albums contain skip-worthy tracks, tho just about all of them have classics too.

or peter hammill!

OK I've tried many times in the past but a KC comp is definitely something within my purview. I am setting to work forthwith...though I don't see it being less than 3 discs...

Shocked to see that, other than via the Children of Men soundtrack, there is no King Crimson on iTunes at all!

ha! I totally support Fripp being anal about itunes in that case

fuck itunes

Sparkle Motion, I'd love to hear the results of your KC mix attempt!

(also thought the use of KC in Children of Men was kinda awesome)

Well, uh, sometimes iTunes can be very useful for sampling shit before you buy. So, uh, fuck Fripp. It'll save me money.

(joeks btw)

well, you already bought this, right? http://www.amazon.com/Court-Crimson-King-Box-Set/dp/B002M3GPOI
$150!

I did! Except the used vinyl version that only contains the original album. That's all the KC I've been exposed to and I'm considering diving in.

yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. It's funny because I feel like I have a ton of Robert Fripp (either his own stuff or guesting on other people's albums) ... but barely anything by his "main" band. not sure who else i could say that about.

I started trying to list essential songs of King Crimson but then I realized that a greatest hits is way too subjective. For instance, on Lark's Tongue in Aspic I think 'Book of Saturday' and 'Exiles' are great *especially exiles* but I care a lot less for 'Easy Money' and 'Talking Drum'. But I imagine many people who love most all the jammy King Crim stuff would include 'Easy Money' and 'Talking Drum' - and maybe even specific live version. 'Book of Saturday' is a turn off to people who don't like Wetton's voice I suppose. I like the complex singing melody on that song (and instrumentation) and I have no qualms with Wetton's voice. 'Exiles' is also a pretty, non-jammy Crimson tune. I think 'Exiles' is essential to a greatest hits cd but some might leave it off. All this subjectivity is making me say "go ahead and listen to everything King Crimson did starting with the albums we already mentioned". I realize that may be harder to do if you can't find a way to hear the songs before you buy them (assuming you are not a pirater).

I can actually say that before I started pirating music I bought every King Crimson studio album except In The Wake of Poseidon and maybe a couple eps from the 90's era on. So Fripp has no reason to hate me (I think)

BTW, here's a pretty wacky Fripp song if you haven't heard it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCADnoAHli8

yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. It's funny because I feel like I have a ton of Robert Fripp (either his own stuff or guesting on other people's albums) ... but barely anything by his "main" band. not sure who else i could say that about.

Yep, pretty much my position exactly.

My first KC album was a compilation, the 2LP Young Person's Guide to King Crimson. It was a great starting point to the extent that it whetted my appetite for more and eventually I succumbed and got them all. Plus, it had a great booklet with loads of diary entries, contemporary reviews and sarky Fripp comments on them. Well worth picking up if you can find it. Failing that the most recent 2CD comp The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson does the job.