King Crimson: A Tribute To One Of The Most Influential Progressive Rock Bands

Released in 1969, In the Court of the Crimson King (an observation by King Crimson), King Crimson's debut album, reached #3 on the British charts and was certified gold in the United States in 1977.

Called "an uncanny masterpiece" by Pete Townsend of The Who, the album was the band's most successful, and is generally viewed as one of the strongest of the progressive rock genre, combining blues-oriented rock with jazz and European symphonic musical styles.

The original line up was born out of the demise of Giles, Giles and Fripp and consisted of Michael Giles (drums, percussion, vocals), Robert Fripp (guitar), Greg Lake (bass guitar, lead vocals), Ian McDonald (flute, clarinet, saxophone, vibes, keyboards, mellotron, vocals), and Peter Sinfield (lyrics, illumination).

"Following several years of failure we regarded King Crimson as a last attempt at playing something we believed in. Creative frustration was a main reason for the group's desperate energy. We set ourselves impossibly high standards but worked to realize them and with a history of unemployment, palais and army bands, everyone was staggered by the favorable reactions from visitors. In discussing presentation, we didn't plan for the possibility of applause. With the fervor of those months I could write for a publicity handout: 'The fundamental aim of King Crimson is to organize anarchy, to utilize the latent power of chaos and to allow the varying influences to interact and find their own equilibrium. The music therefore naturally evolves rather than develops along predetermined lines. The widely differing repertoire has a common theme in that it represents the changing moods of the same five people.'" - Robert Fripp

The album consists of five songs that are divided into sub-sections. The sub-sections do not indicate actual musical divisions in the songs, but gave the album the appearance of having the equivalence of twelve full songs so the group would get the proper royalties.

Groups no longer need to do this since the rules that the music industry has adopted since the release of In the Court of the Crimson King (an observation by King Crimson) take into account the lengths of the songs, and not just the number of titles on the recording.

1. '21st Century Schizoid Man' - 7:21
   including 'Mirrors'
2. 'I Talk to the Wind' - 6:05
3. 'Epitaph' - 8:47
   including 'March for No Reason' and
   'Tomorrow and Tomorrow'
4. 'Moonchild' - 12:13
   including 'The Dream' and
   'The Illusion'
5. 'The Court of the Crimson King' - 9:25
   including 'The Return of the Fire Witch' and
   'The Dance of the Puppets'

Often seen as being very similar to their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, King Crimson's second album, In the Wake of Poseidon (1970), was written after most of the original members had left.

Robert Fripp and Peter Sinfield were the only ones left from the first lineup. Greg Lake did provide vocals for all songs except track three, Cadence and Cascade (which was recorded by singer Gordon Haskell) but had already officially left the band to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer, believing that King Crimson wouldn't survive the departure of so many members.

Original drummer, Michael Giles and his brother, bassist Pete Giles also helped to record the album with woodwind player Mel Collins without being actual members of the band.

In 2002, Giles, Giles and Collins reunited to form the 21st Century Schizoid Band, which took its name from the song by the same name on In the Court Of The King Crimson and mainly played songs from King Crimson's first four albums.

"In air, fire, earth and water
World on the scales.
Air, fire, earth and water
Balance of change
World on the scales
On the scales."

- From "In the Wake of Poseidon"

Words written by Peter Sinfield.
Music written by Robert Fripp.

The third album by King Crimson, Lizard (1970) included bassist/vocalist Gordon Haskell, woodwind player Mel Collins and drummer Andy McCulloch as official members, but Haskell and McCulloch left the band before the album's release.

Lizard had a heavy jazz and classical influence, and included contributions by non-band members jazz pianist Keith Tippett, Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, and brass/woodwind players Robin Miller, Mark Charig, and Nick Evans.

"Elephants forgot, force-fed on stale chalk,
Ate the floors of their cages.
Strongmen lost their hair, paybox collapsed and
Lions sharpened their teeth.
Gloves raced round the ring, stallions stampeded
Pandemonium seesaw...
I ran for the door, ringmasters shouted,
'All the fun of the Cirkus!'"

- From "Cirkus (Including Entry of the Chameleons)"

Words written by Peter Sinfield
Music written by Robert Fripp

Islands was the last album with Peter Sinfield, and the first with Drummer Ian Wallace and vocalist Boz Burrell.

Boz didn't play an instrument, but Robert Fripp decided to teach him to play the bass guitar rather than waste time trying to find another bass player. Boz would later become the bassist for Bad Company.

This version of the band lasted long enough to complete the Earthbound tour in 1972, after which Burrell, Collins and Wallace left the group, and Fripp once again began looking for new members.

In the years after the 1970's break up of King Crimson, Robert Fripp took a short break from the business. When he returned, he worked with artists such as Peter Gabriel, David Bowie and the Talking Heads. When he started working with Bill Bruford to form a new group, he invited Tony Levin and Adrian Belew to join them.

Tony Levin was considered one of the most sought after studio musicians in New York City at the time, his credits included working with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Art Garfunkel, and John Lennon. Besides working with Fripp on some of Peter Gabriel's solo albums, Levin also worked with him on Daryl Hall's first solo album, Sacred Songs, and Fripp's own solo album, Exposure.

Adrian Belew had worked with Frank Zappa, and David Bowie. He was part of Bowie's band for the Heroes tour, Fripp is credited as Lead Guitar on the album, but was not part of the tour. With The Talking Heads, Belew worked with Fripp's old collaborator, Brian Eno, and Belew's band, Gaga, actually opened several New York-area concerts for Fripp's The League of Gentlemen in 1980.

The new line up started working as Discipline in 1981, but changed their name to King Crimson when Fripp became aware that the rest of the band believed that they should use that name. Their first album together was titled Discipline.

In 1982, the band released Beat, which was the first time a King Crimson album was recorded with the exact line of of the previous record.

This version of King Crimson had a sound which fit with the the New Wave sound that was popular at the time, mixed with the dark, heavier sounds of the 70's version. Three of a Perfect Pair, released in 1984, was this version of the band's last studio album, but live material recorded during the period shows the energy, creativity, and craftsmanship of this lineup.

In 1994, the 1980's version of King Crimson reformed with the addition of Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto to form a six piece or "double trio" band. Fripp and Belew on guitar, Levin and Gunn on bass then Bruford and Mastelotto on drums/percussion.

This version of King Crimson added a jazz influence while keeping many elements of the two previous versions of the group. Even though they fit in with the sound of the alternative rock movement of the period, the music was experimental and said to be inaccessible to the casual listener because it lacked melody.

The "double trio" released the studio EP, Vrooom, studio album Thrak and the live album, Thrakattak.

Different variations of "double trio" team worked as side projects called ProjeKcts as a way to over come the problem the band was having with developing new material.

ProjeKct One - Originally based on an idea by Bill Bruford, consisted of Bruford, Fripp, Gunn, and Levin. The first ProjeKct only existed for four nights in 1997.

ProjeKct Two - Named because it was the second ProjeKct planned, ProjeKct Two, with Fripp, Gunn and Belew actually recorded first and instead of playing guitar on these recordings, Belew played an electronic type of drum kit called V-drums.

ProjeKct Three - AKA P3, featured Fripp, Gunn, and Mastelotto. It performed in 1999, but also played an impromptu show in place of King Crimson in 2003 when Belew was unable to attend a scheduled performance.

ProjeKct Four - Consisted of Fripp, Gunn, Levin and Mastelotto.

By 2000's The ConstruKction of Light, Bruford and Levin had departed from the band leaving King Crimson as Fripp, Belew, Gunn, and Mastelotto. While recording The ConstruKction of Light, members of the band, Gunn and Mastelotto in particular, took material recorded during the sessions and remixed it into what was released as the ProjeKct X album, Heaven and Earth.

In 2003, King Crimson toured in support of their new album, The Power to Believe, Trey Gunn left the group after the tour, and Levin rejoined.

In 2006, Fripp and Belew performed four shows as ProjeKct Six opening for Porcupine Tree. ProjeKct Five had been planned, but still hasn't been formed.

In 2008, drummer Gavin Harrison of the band Porcupine Tree joined to make the current line up Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto and Gavin Harrison.

August 2008 the band set out on a brief four-city tour in preparation for the group's 40th Anniversary in 2009. DGMLive issued a download-only release of the August 7th, 2008 concert in Chicago.