The King Crimson studio album poll

Red - King Crimson

Larks' Tongues in Aspic (April 1973)
Starless and Bible Black (June 1974)

cant decide between these two

red ftw

So torn between Red and Larks'

Voted for Red, because I like that 80s live album better than the studio stuff

My vote's for Red.

starless

CONTROVERSIAL

somebody likes live improv

huh? starless is a favorite among music fans.

Islands or Lizards would be controversial, not Starless

Me being one of them! The majority of the album's tracks are live improvs though.

xpost

I don't think I have any of the studio albums anymore. I sold them all in college meaning to get the remasters, and then lost interest and never did.

Lizards is a weird fucking record.

"red" but i'm realising i've not listened to this stuff for so long that my mind might have changed.

Lark's Tongues here. Sailor's Tale is one of my favorite songs by them, but I hate the rest of Islands. Red is my 2nd choice, In the Court of the Crimson King is my 3rd.

Lark's Tongue in a photo finish with Starless, Jamie Muir the deciding factor. That guy was wack.

oh shit. you're right.

Can't decide between Larks and Discipline.

I love Muir's work on Lark's Tongue's. Red just kicks ass though.

I voted for Discipline as it was a kick in the head for me who was a punk rocker and heard something I never heard before when it came out. At the time no one sang or spoke like Adrian Belew did not even David Byrne. Today it does sound less exciting but at the time it was really oddball. It was not screaming, it was not singing, it was not spoken word. It was not even nervous in the style of Talking Heads or Devo. It was just this voice that bobbed up and down.

I did go back to listen to the 70s records and they are good. I do not get why everyone loves Red. It rocks. I enjoy it. But what does this record do that Black Sabbath or Deep Purple or even Genesis didnt do better years before?

Islands and Starless And Bible Black are more interesting than Red, which is fun the first few times but that is it.

Discipline is the one for me. Three Of A Perfect Pair comes close. If I had to chose a record side, Side B of Three Of A Perfect Pair would get my vote.

red is too samey sounding all the way through

Jamie Muir ruled. I blew a bunch of money on two of those KCCC live discs that have Muir on them, but it was worth it.

Yeah, Muir was dope. I like those 3 mid-70's albums to such a similar degree that I think it would be impossible for me to pick a favorite.

I bought that "Great Deceiver" set in high school and my friends laughed at me. =(

Starless just ahead of Red. Discipline and Court are great albums too though.

Red has great drumming, and sounds great too.

Debut or controversial Islands choice for me.

They never got better than their debut, although "Lizard" comes close.

Argh too difficult. They all have superb material and boring material.

Too many distinct eras too. It's like presenting a car, a novel and a banana, and asking me which of those is my favourite thing.

Poseidon and Discipline are the only ones I can listen to without skipping much. Red's got 12 minutes of tuning, Crimson King's got 12 minutes of tuning, ConstruKction is excellent gym workout music but annoying in any other environment, and Larks' Tongues lacks something crucial but I can't pinpoint what it is.

If this were an Adrian Belew poll it'd be easy.

Oh, this poll is soooo Larks' Tongues, baby.

Okay Red it is, pretending Providence never existed.

G-Bflat-C-C#-Bflat-C
G-Bflat-C-C#-Bflat-C
G-Bflat-C....C#...C...
[clamoring Bruford snare/cymbal fill] F-F# etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrT2jEv_Yws

sadly i voted for ItCotCK, when I know RED or Starless are just as good

itcock

disciplin

in the wop

construkction. simply because it's the only KC album I listen to from start to finish.

there's certainly some great stuff on the other albums, but they're not very consistent, and much skipping is required. I don't think KC have ever really worked in soft balladeering mode.

Matte Kudasai? Inner Garden I & II? One Time? Cadence and Cascade? I Talk to the Wind?

I'm nitpicking, I know.

Oh they haven't worked, not they haven't worked. I see what you mean now.

Court or Discipline, just to be a cunt.

I picked "Starless & Bible Black", I like a load of their records about equally, I just went on which one would I want to listen to now if I had them all in front of me.

Going with Three of a Perfect Pair, but might've easily gone with In the Court Of.. or Discipline or Earthbound.

wait, Earthbound is live, never mind that one.

I really like Providence, I don't think, it's just "tuning"

thank you, thank you, thank you, dear kc thread! you've given me a fab new word -- itcockin'!

and as i'm 'ready here, might as well vote. as well.

done it. i'm all for starless. ('tleast today)

almost impossible to do one overall. i chose lark's because i'm boring but it could just as easily have been red, discipline, or beat

lizard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krsai3plmKw

(EVH, Levin, Hammer and Jerry Marotta, pretty close!)

So I've only sporadically poked into their catalog as I've been spurred on by coming across CDs in the wilds. Up to now my KC collection has been limited to ITCOTCK, Poseidon, Lark's Tongue and Red in terms of main studio albums. I've also got a handful of live releases (USA, The Nightwatch, Marquee '69, KCCC 24 Guildford - like I said, grabbing what I come across). Outside of that I've been surviving with those excellent ilxor mixes - but I've felt a desire for a deep dive creeping up.

Left unimpressed with what I'd heard of the '80s stuff, I'd never bothered beyond that. But I came across a really cheap copy of The Power to Believe and I'm surprised by how much I like it! Of course I already have a tolerance for progressive metal, so that probably helps, but this was better than the reputation led me to believe.

Do Lizard next!

THRAK is a pretty good one too. there are plenty of good 21st Century live sets, I like Heavy ConstruKction a lot (even if the studio album wasn't so hot) and of course all the recent live albums are incredible, though you really only need one of them

as for the 80s stuff...you may want to pick up Absent Lovers, its like the 80s albums on steroids. idk if there are any overdubs on it or if the band really was just that good. it's insane, maybe one of the best live albums ever.

I was trying to decide between Lizard and Starless next.

Forgot to mention that I do have two of the more recent live sets (Radical Action, Live at the Orpheum), both of which I enjoyed.

I'm so delighted those mixes are still in play. I've always meant to make more volumes of live stuff...

Those mixes are great. I have everything by KC but I still sometimes put them on.

KC has been the most sustaining music of my life up to this point. A buddy at work wanted to get into them and it got me into reliving everything I loved about them all over again.

I have all the albums up through Red, the Epitaph box (four CDs of radio sessions and liveage from 1969), and three recent live sets: Radical Action, Meltdown (live in Mexico City) and the Audio Diary, which is five CDs, one each from 2014-2018. I'm pretty astonished how much of a fan of this band I've become, really only in the last five years or so. I was always much more into Yes and ELP, but at some point a switch flipped and they just started to make sense to me. I really like how radically they've been transforming their material live in recent years.

I think KC's innate heaviness has served them well. They never (well, rarely) were cheesy or corny or too D&D the way a lot of prog bands could be.

They never (well, rarely) were cheesy or corny

This bit of corniness is kind of endearing to me.

Said the straight man to the late man
Where have you been
I've been here and I've been there
And I've been in between
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...

And the song is pretty.

Glad to see a bit of Lizard love. It's not their best album, but the whole last track / suite is one of my favourites by them and I especially like the Bolero. My guess is that Fripp is a big Ravel fan in general

I still prefer In The Wake Of Poseidon to ITCOTCK - listened to that yesterday and enjoyed the whole thing

Do you ever fantasise about hearing Easy Money on a massive reggae rig, or is that just me. Followed by a dubbed to fuckery version of course. What a groove. It's just not possible to get this loud enough at home.

An older hippie friend of mine said his dream was to hear Easy Star Allstars cover the whole of Larks Tongues in a dub-reggae style

Gonnna give Islands a listen now for the first time.

hmmm... the Lizard / Islands era is maybe the least appreciated KC period, but I like the jazziness of Formentera Lady. Little bit of a Can-esque vibe going on too.

I was a "fuck everything they did before Larks" person for many years, heard Lizard in like 93 and strongly disliked it, but finally bought Lizard and Islands two years ago. "Sailors Tale" is a major major achievement, but I'm afraid I still think the rest of Islands is pretty lousy, particularly "ladies of the road." Lizard is so maximalistically misbegotten that its kinda fun…

Of the bands I'd call my "favorites," King Crimson probably have the most songs I wish were instrumentals.

I used to quite like Ladies of The Road as a quirky Lennon-esque piece when I was younger.

Juno selling KC vinyl for around £16-£17. Very tempting. I definitely want Poseidon, but deliberating between Red, Larks Tongues and Lizard. Red is song-for-song their strongest but I know it reasonably well despite the opening three songs being among my faves. Larks Tongues on the other hand is less known to me but always impresses

Have we ever done a KC poll?

Lizard almost has a "so bad its good" sorta vibe to it in places. it's such a crazy mess and you can definitely hear the tension in the band, it's almost incredible that it came out at all. if you get it you should try and find Steven Wilson's recent remaster, not only does it sound better but it also incorporates parts that weren't in the original

Have we ever done a KC poll?

dude this is it

Poll closes at the end of your natural life

as for the 80s stuff...you may want to pick up Absent Lovers, its like the 80s albums on steroids. idk if there are any overdubs on it or if the band really was just that good. it's insane, maybe one of the best live albums ever.

This has been my line forever, it's wild how good it sounds compared to the studio versions (and how good the playing is). Like one of the very few examples where the live album is the definitive document (maybe I'll start a thread!).

haha I meant a tracks poll. might be difficult with all the live versions etc

Speaking of definitive documents, that was The Great Deceiver set for me.

As far as I'm concerned it has the best versions of all the cuts off of Starless, the great (and rare) Wetton-sung Cat Food, and all the LTIA IIs I could ever want.

Listened to 'Absent Lovers' yesterday... my God!

If the world needed a heavy-metal version of The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, this is it

https://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2020/03/316bcf3bbe6ef17215e556e780f8918b.jpg?w=630&q=75
US tour in June!

Robert Fripp got the cranky old person memo that touring all the time is a lot more lucrative than not touring and grousing from the sidelines.

looks like no west coast dates tho :(

haven't seen them since chicago five or more years ago now! last west coast gigs they skipped portland for some reason. hey guys, soft machine played here last year! on the same date as the crazy world of arthur brown! clearly there's a market, right?

They're playing Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, which is a great venue (I saw Kamasi Washington there), but it's a co-headlining show with Dweezil Zappa's covering-Dad's-music thing - ugh.

The Zappa band is not Dweezil's band. The Zappa Family Trust has their own thing out there.

Please note The Zappa Band touring unit is: Ray White (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Keneally (guitar, keys, vocals), Scott Thunes (bassist) and Robert Martin (keyboards, sax, vocals). Also joining are ZPZ alums Jamie Kime (guitar) and ZAPPA archivist Joe “Vaultmeister” Travers (drums, vocals). The band will be performing a mix of Zappa classics along with new and rare Zappa compositions. Described as “the ultimate Zappa alumni band in partnership the Zappa Trust” this tour will not be appearing with the hologram of Frank Zappa.

Getting their revenge by sacking the hologram

I heard the hologram was fired for just chain smoking and making snide, derisive, cynical, sarcastic comments and fart jokes.

The Zappa band is not Dweezil's band. The Zappa Family Trust has their own thing out there.

Wow, that's actually worse.

not really, it's players from Zappas band playing music they used to play.

that said I'm bummed about this because it's a co-headlining tour I think, which means shorter KC sets, also, I'm not really a Zappa fan at all. but it's all moot since they aren't coming to the west coast this time anyway

Hoping that 2021 gets another full tour with Bill Rieflin back.

i highly recommend the two (I think) records Rieflin did with Fripp and Gunn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62Ixbtg9GqQ

the Zappa set might be kinda fun to see but this is coming nowhere near me so

still bummed I had to miss the new KC in Milwaukee on account of it being my son's birthday. if he ever gets into the band I'll be sure to let him know at every opportunity

i missed Roger Waters' Wall tour to see my then-5 year old in a play in which he had exactly one line. Now that he's almost 14 and into Pink Floyd I remind him constantly that he caused me to miss this.

fear not, Roger will tour the wall until he dies

I know i say this every hundred posts or so, but all I really want from Crim at this point is Larks part 6 written and performed by this iteration.

ohhh I just realized "Level Five" is Larks 5

We’re debating this. I’ve seen this iteration three times now and enjoyed all three but they’ve gotten appreciably better each time. Last time was absolutely mindmeltingly good.

Also wondering how COVID-19 impacts this given the timeframe and the age of Robert and Tony.

https://rockthebonnie.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/king-crimson-covid.jpg " class="noborder">

In The Court Of The Covid King