120: King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

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“For silence to become audible, it requires a vehicle. And that vehicle is music.”

–Robert Fripp

As frequently as we mention King Crimson on this podcast, you’d think we would have done a proper episode on them by now. But we wanted to hold off until we could really do it up right, so this is the premiere of our three-episode series on the greatest pioneers of progressive rock. They didn’t fully invent prog, but they did more to solidify the genre than any group that had come before them, to the point where each song on their debut album spawned a different prog subgenre - so, while this isn’t the first prog album, it might be the most important. Time to get started on this journey, because the cracked brass bells have rung to summon back all us fire witches to discuss The Court of the Crimson King. 

Miscellany

• The clip in the teaser comes from a Bill Bruford interview in the recent King Crimson documentary. What is wrong with being the Moody Blues, Bill Bruford?? 

• King Crimson has more than compensated for the inadequate drum sound on this album; their most recent live incarnation featured three drummers across the front of the stage, with everyone else behind. It was everything Amanda has ever wanted.

• At the 2019 show Mike went to, “Moonchild” had the three drummers trading the cymbal taps back and forth, and the jam was replaced by an extended Tony Levin bass cadenza containing a quote from “Tequila.”

• Even though this is our first proper episode on them, we have discussed King Crimson before: once in our series on Producer Mike’s prog compilation and once in a Patreon bonus episode on the great and terrible Mellotron. We also used “Epitaph” as a comparison point in our episode on Helium’s album The Magic City, and there are probably more that we are forgetting about right this minute.

• One of our sources for this episode was The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock by leading prog expert/political journalist/old pal Dave Weigel, who has been on our show multiple times: he came around to talk about Todd Rundgren, Yes, Pet Shop Boys, and several awesome prog songs. He also talked about King Crimson at great length with our other old pal Jeff Blehar on Jeff’s podcast, Political Beats.  

Other links 

• The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock by David Weigel (Amazon affiliate link)

• Robert Fripp: From King Crimson to Guitar Craft by Eric Tamm (Amazon affiliate link)

• In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 (Schizoid Shop)

• Tom and Jerry: Rock ‘n’ Rodent (Daily Motion)

• Schizoid Mice (YouTube)

• “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot (Poetry Foundation)

• “And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!” (YouTube)

• Discord & Rhyme’s In the Court of the Crimson King playlist (Spotify)

• Discord & Rhyme’s merch store (TeePublic)

• Discord & Rhyme’s Patreon

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call

• Amanda Rodgers (host)

• John McFerrin (moderator)

• Mike DeFabio

• Dan Watkins 

In the Court of the Crimson King tracklist 

1. 21st Century Schizoid Man

2. I Talk to the Wind

3. Epitaph

4. Moonchild

5. The Court of the Crimson King 

Other clips used 

King Crimson:

• Travel Weary Capricorn

• One in a Million (Giles, Giles and Fripp)

• I Talk to the Wind (Giles, Giles and Fripp)

• Cat Food

• The Devil’s Triangle

• Mars

• The Talking Drum

• Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part II)

• The Court of the Crimson King (Live in Detroit 1971) 

Others:

• David Bowie - It’s No Game (No. 1)

• Tool - Eulogy

• Derek & the Dominos - Layla

• Frank Zappa - The Gumbo Variations

• Kanye West - Power

• The Moody Blues - Visions of Paradise

• Opus Three - I Talk to the Wind

• Metallica - The Unforgiven

• Metallica - Dirty Window

• Rodgers & Hammerstein - Surrey with the Fringe on Top

• Karlheinz Stockhausen - Es

• Klaus Doldinger - Atreju’s Quest

• Bob Dylan - Desolation Row

• The Beatles - A Day in the Life

• Doc Severinsen - The Court of the Crimson King

• Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression Pt. 2

• Foreigner - Feels Like the First Time

Band/album personnel 

• Greg Lake – lead vocals, bass guitar, production

• Robert Fripp – electric and acoustic guitars, production

• Ian McDonald – saxophone, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, Mellotron, harpsichord, piano, organ, vibraphone, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "I Talk to the Wind", production

• Michael Giles – drums, percussion, backing vocals, production

• Peter Sinfield – lyrics, illumination, production 

Credits 

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of: 

• Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

• Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

• The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

• Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

• Herbie Hancock - Hornets

• Kraftwerk - Autobahn

• Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

• King Crimson - Moonchild (this episode only) 

You can buy or stream In the Court of the Crimson King and other albums by King Crimson at dgmlive.com, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Amanda Rodgers, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.