The band is called King Crimson!
This is Incredible Stuff. “In The Court of The Crimson King” is a colorful, haunting, moody, captivating musical experience. The cover painting is quite scary. Deep lyrics. You can try, but I don’t believe a bad song can be found on the album. Although some say that the free-form stuff and improvised sections are long, boring and pointless, but those people just think differently. It fits the dreamy atmosphere of the rest of the songs nicely. And “21st Century Schizoid Man”……boy that’s comfortable like a hot shower. So original, and incredibly wacko. You got a gigantic riff going on, blasting sax and this “end of the world” vision. A pretty and timeless album, and a real ground-breaking piece of work for 1969. Textures galore!
You may hear a familiar voice on this record. Greg Lake….who went on to create Emerson, Lake and Palmer eventually. He once said, “The band was never promoted. It was totally by word of mouth. It spread like smallpox!” But man I have been listening to this record again now, and wondered just where were these guys coming from and how was anyone supposed to ‘label’ such different music???? But in the end I realized what any Crimson fan does eventually…they are not about labels. It is simply about listening and enjoying.
I invite you, the reader here…to buy this cd and embark on one of the greatest musical odysseys’ still available to take a journey on…if you’ve never heard Crimson then man are you in for a treat…or on the other hand if you are like me and simply wondered how this music would stand up after all these years…granted I wasn’t even born yet but was at least exposed to ELP and artists like these guys when I was a kid…….still do yourself a favor…and return to the time when an instrument, known as the mellotron, was king. Comparison wise?…I don’t like to compare KC albums or most progressive bands to anyone…but if I must do so….its on par with ELP, early Genesis or Floyd and these artists stand above all others I think.
The Music Bard 