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"To me it's a name, a name of a cheerfully mysterious and powerfully collaborative musical occurence." - Pat Mastelotto, 2003 "We are, and I am, prog-rock scum. Our hopes for the future are to bum you out." - Robert Fripp, June 1995 Prime movers of progressive rock, King Crimson are a musically pioneering outfit who have avoided many of the pitfalls which grounded lesser exponents of the genre. In Robert Fripp, their guitarist and prinicipal composer, they have perhaps the genre's most intelligent musician and, over a series of incarnations, Fripp has augmented his band with some of the best players in the business. One of progressive rock's founding bands, King Crimson pioneered the use of extended song format and Mellotron along with bands like THE MOODY BLUES. If there is one group that embodies progressive rock, it is King Crimson. The eerie, portentous sound of early King Crimson set the tone of British art rock. But by the time the group's Mellotron-heavy sound and psychedelic lyrics had turned into lucrative cliches, Fripp had long since shifted the group's style toward music that was far more eccentric, complex and dissonant. If THE MOODY BLUES provided a heavenly Mellotron-soaked soundtrack for millions of late-'60s cosmic rockers, King Crimson balanced the scales with disturbingly dense and explosive sonic trips into the dark side. Even when the band was playing something relatively peaceful, there was a sense that something wasn't quite settled. In 1969, the group burst forth with a ornate, majestic, savage sound and an approach that owed a great deal to modern jazz. The band was conceived, to all intents, in 1967, as GILES, GILES AND FRIPP by Michael Giles (drums), Peter Giles (bass) and Robert Fripp (guitar), later augmented by Ian McDonald (reeds/keyboards) and guest vocalist Judy Dyble (early FAIRPOINT CONVENTION vocalist). They began making whimsical pop, which resulted in one British only album in 1968 called THE CHEERFUL INSANITY OF GILES, GILES AND FRIPP. The band broke up in November 1968, and while bassist Peter Giles went on to become a solicitor's clerk, Fripp and drummer Michael Giles formed King Crimson with Ian McDonald and ex-GODS bassist Greg Lake, who took over vocal duties as well. McDonald introduced them to lyricist Peter Sinfield, who also worked the band's psychedelic light show. Crimson made it's debut at the Speakeasy in London, England on April 9, 1969. Interestingly, while they were honing their chops in various clubs and cafes, one evening Justin Hayward and Graeme Edge of THE MOODY BLUES came by to listen and briefly considered signing them to their newly formed Threshold label. On July 5th the group played to 650,000 people and made an immediate mark at the ROLLING STONES' free Hyde Park concert. Their use of Mellotrons and classical influences mesmerized the crowd. Bringing jazz, folk and classical influences to bear on a rock framework, the group's debut LP, IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING was released in October 1969. It was acclaimed as a masterpiece by both the British and American music press and was endorsed by PETE TOWNSHEND as 'an uncanny masterpiece'. The bizarre face painted on the album cover enhanced the band's potenial for grandly jarring music. The album went Top 30 in England and number 28 in the United States. The title track was the band's only charting single, at number 80. A definitive debut album, which was almost too good (it took years for them to come up with a record as concise and distinctive), an orchestrated vision of apocalyptic doom dominated by Ian McDonald's Mellotron, who adds brilliant orchestral flourishes throughout the album, Greg Lake's dignified voice and bass lines, the ferocious guitar playing of Robert Fripp, and Michael Giles' drumming is superb, adding a jazzy touch with his incredible cymbal work and off beat accents. On top of all that, Peter Sinfield's lyrics gave the album another distinctive quality which captured the imagination of a hippie audience. ------> |
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