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In the Court of the Crimson King
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In the Court of the Crimson King (an observation by King Crimson) is the 1969 debut album by the British progressive rock group King Crimson. The album reached #3 on the British charts. The album is certified gold in the United States.
The album is generally viewed as one of the strongest of the progressive rock genre, where blues-oriented rock was mixed together with jazz and European symphonic elements. In his 1997 book Rocking the Classics, critic/musicologist Edward Macan notes that In the Court of the Crimson King "may be the most influential progressive rock album ever released." The Who's Pete Townshend was quoted as calling the album "an uncanny masterpiece".
The album was remastered and re-released on vinyl and CD several times during the 1980s and 1990s.
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Encyclopedia
In the Court of the Crimson King (an observation by King Crimson) is the 1969 debut album by the British progressive rock group King Crimson. The album reached #3 on the British charts. The album is certified gold in the United States.
The album is generally viewed as one of the strongest of the progressive rock genre, where blues-oriented rock was mixed together with jazz and European symphonic elements. In his 1997 book Rocking the Classics, critic/musicologist Edward Macan notes that In the Court of the Crimson King "may be the most influential progressive rock album ever released." The Who's Pete Townshend was quoted as calling the album "an uncanny masterpiece".
The album was remastered and re-released on vinyl and CD several times during the 1980s and 1990s. The original stereo master tapes were finally located in a Virgin Records storage vault in 2003, leading to a much improved remastered CD version released in 2004.
Album cover
Barry Godber (1946–1970), an artist and computer programmer, painted the album cover. Godber died in February 1970 of a heart attack, shortly after the album's release. It would be his only painting, and is now owned by Robert Fripp. Fripp had this to say about Godber:
Peter brought this painting in and the band loved it. I recently recovered the original from EG's offices because they kept it exposed to bright light, at the risk of ruining it, so I ended up removing it. The face on the outside is the Schizoid Man, and on the inside it's the Crimson King. If you cover the smiling face, the eyes reveal an incredible sadness. What can one add? It reflects the music.
The Music
The album consists of only 5 long songs. Most of these have additional titles given to sub-sections. This was done not to reflect actual divisions in the music but to insure that the group would receive the full amount of song writing royalties from their music publisher. With the sub-sections included the album can be seen as having a full 12 songs, the typical number for a standard rock album. Since the album was made new rules have become standard in the music publishing business which take into account the length of the songs as well as the number of titles on an album.
Production details
Initial sessions for the album were held early 1969 with producer Tony Clarke, most famous for his work with the Moody Blues. After those sessions failed to work out the group was allowed to produce themselves. However, unofficially it is thought by most fans that Greg Lake actually did most of the production work on the album by himself. The album was recorded on an 8-channel master tape recorder at Wessex Sound Studios in London. The engineer was Robin Cable who would go on to record many important rock albums at Trident Studios during the 1970s. It took many hours of overdubbing to build up the orchestral sound of multiple layers of Mellotron and woodwinds played by Ian McDonald. The original 8-channel master multitrack tapes for the album have since been lost.
Soon after the recording sessions were completed in 1969 it was discovered that a stereo tape recorder used to mix the album had recording heads that were mis-aligned. A loss of high-frequencies and undesired distortion affected some parts of the album, most apparently on 21st Century Schizoid Man. While preparing the first American release on Atlantic Records a stereo sub-master tape copy was created that attempted to correct some of the sound problems. The first-generation stereo master tapes were filed away and forgotten about for many years.
CD editions
The most recent CD version (described as the "Original Master Edition", DGM0501) was released in 2004 on Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile label. This release has greatly improved sound over previous CD editions. LP and CD re-issues during the 1980s and 1990's by Polydor and EG Records were taken from tape copies several generations removed corrected stereo sub-master tape. This resulted in a lack of clarity and excessive tape hiss. Several different remastered CD versions were released in this period while attempting to make the best use of the tape recordings that were available. The first generation stereo master tapes for the album were finally rediscovered in the archives of Virgin Records in 2003. They had been misplaced for over 20 years. The latest digital technology was used to repair high frequency problems caused during the original mixing sessions. 24 bit mastering was also utilized to enhance the sound. This latest edition also has a twelve-page booklet that includes pictures and press clippings from the period.
Track listing
Side one
- "21st Century Schizoid Man" (Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield) – 7:21
- "I Talk to the Wind" (McDonald, Sinfield) – 6:05
- "Epitaph" (Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield) – 8:47
- (including "March for No Reason" and
- "Tomorrow and Tomorrow")
Side two
- "Moonchild" (Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield) – 12:13
- (including "The Dream" and
- "The Illusion")
- "The Court of the Crimson King" (McDonald, Sinfield) – 9:25
- (including "The Return of the Fire Witch" and
- "The Dance of the Puppets")
Personnel
- Robert Fripp – guitar
- Ian McDonald – flute, clarinet, saxophone, vibes, keyboards, mellotron, vocals
- Greg Lake – bass guitar, lead vocals
- Michael Giles – drums, percussion, vocals
- Peter Sinfield – lyrics, illumination
- Barry Godber – cover illustrations
Cultural references
- S.M. Stirling's 2008 SF novel "In the Courts of the Crimson Kings", featuring a plot set in an alternate universe Mars resembling Golden Age pulp fiction.
- Due to the philosophical and spiritual nature of Peter Sinfield's lyrics Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias has quoted from this album on several occasions. One example comes from a lecture titled "The Existence of God" which quotes from Epitaph, "knowledge is a deadly friend, if no one sets the rules." Zacharias's commentary usually contrasts sharply with the views expressed in the lyrics.
- Howard Stern's band, "The Losers", have covered the title track of this album live on the air.
- The popular MMORPG EverQuest II based all of the Non-Player Characters in the zone The Court of Al'Afaz on characters in this album.
- The Stephen King book Insomnia references the title of the album several times throughout the book, though this may also be a reference to the Crimson King, the main antagonist of the Dark Tower series.
- The Finnish doom metal band Reverend Bizarre named their first album In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend in a conscious homage to King Crimson.
- Christina Ricci's character does a tap-dance to "Moonchild" in the film Buffalo 66.
- Black metal band Lurker of Chalice (a sideproject of Leviathan) have a track called "In the Court of the Crimson King Diamond" in a double homage to this album and the lead singer of Mercyful Fate; it appears on their second demo.
- "The Court of the Crimson King" is featured in a scene of the 2006 movie Children of Men.
- The prog-rock band Upsilon Acrux titled an album "In the Acrux of the Upsilon King".
- "The Court of the Crimson King" LP album is featured in Katsuhiro Otomo's short story, Hair (1979).
- Madman Atomic Comics #6 by Michael Allred (reprinted in Madman Atomic Comics Volume #1) is titled "Crushed in the Court of the Crimson King" and features "The Crimson King" as a character in the story.
- Saxon covered "The Court of the Crimson King" on their 2001 album Killing Ground
- UK Chanel 4 drama titled "Red Riding" was aired on British Television on 05/03/2009 and featured the song "The Court of the Crimson King" in it's opening epsidode of the 3 episodes.
- New Jersey Hardcore outfit Rorschach covered "21st Century Schizoid Man."
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