King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King


We could have a bit of a debate about the first Prog album. Most people would probably give that title to Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues. Some would Argue In The Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson. I'm on the fence. 

That Moody Blues album was literally a gift from the label: things are in a slump, why don't you guys try a pop album with orchestral interludes. The result is very much a concept album with a story, but it's really just a fairly standard Psych-Rock album of the time, no matter what anyone else says. You could definitely argue that it "created a new genre," but i don't think i can honestly believe it was written from that perspective. 

In The Court Of The Crimson King, however, is very much Prog: the Rock band as ensemble, blending Rock, Jazz, Pop, and symphonic style composition into an eclectic amalgam that can't really be broken back down into its component parts. That's probably a needlessly fussy distinction. Ok fine, let's listen to the technically second Prog Rock as a definitive genre album, In The Court Of The Crimson King. 

What a lovely album. Greg Lake can sing anything and i'll be happy. I never have much to say about lovely albums because they speak for themselves. I do wonder, though, which 3 lullabies in an ancient tongue he actually heard the choir softly sing. I suppose you could do the boring thing and interpret tracks 2, 3, and 4 as those lullabies the 21st-century schizoid man heard. I'm borderline not schizoid, so imma go even weirder and pick from the actual list our buddy Gerard compiled for us. 

Standing Stones, Third Eye, and The Storm are my choices this time around, but there's no reason you can't pick 3 of your own. Just head over to gerardsmith2 dot bandcamp dom com and flesh out the intertextuality on your own terms. 

And i apologize, i couldn't help it, it just seemed appropriately inappropriate to let forced perspective make its own humor for the photo. Cheers.

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