| In the Court of the Crimson King | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 10 October 1969 | |||
| Recorded | 7 July – 13 August 1969 | |||
| Studio | Wessex, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 43:54 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | King Crimson | |||
| King Crimson chronology | ||||
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| Singles from In the Court of the Crimson King | ||||
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In the Court of the Crimson King (subtitledAn Observation by King Crimson) is the debut studio album by Englishprogressive rock bandKing Crimson, released on 10 October 1969, byIsland Records.[3] Often regarded as the first true progressive rock album, it combinedrock music influences with elements ofjazz,classical, andsymphonic music while describing the devastating effects ofwar and conflict,societal alienation and disillusionment, the perceived futility of human efforts against powerful, corrupt forces, and unchecked authority and corrupt leadership.
In the Court of the Crimson King was King Crimson's most commercially successful album, and is widely lauded as one of the greatest progressive rock albums ever released. It reached number five on theUK Albums Chart and number 28 on the USBillboard 200, where it was certifiedGold by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2015, the album was ranked number 2 onRolling Stone's list of the "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time", behind 1973'sThe Dark Side of the Moon byPink Floyd.[4]
King Crimson made their live debut on 9 April 1969 atThe Speakeasy Club in London.[5][6] Another concert at the Speakeasy Club circa August 1969, was disrupted by members ofThe Pink Fairies Drinking Club (includingSteve Peregrin Took, hours before his flight out to the US forTyrannosaurus Rex's August/September 1969 debut American tour) who were out celebrating the completion ofTwink's solo albumThink Pink.[7][8] King Crimsonopened forthe Rolling Stones inHyde Park, London, in July 1969, before an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people, which brought them positive attention.[9][10]
Initial sessions for the album were held in early 1969 with producerTony Clarke, most famous for his work withThe Moody Blues. After these sessions failed to work out, the group were given permission to produce the album themselves. The album was recorded on a 1"8-channel recorder atWessex Sound Studios in London, engineered by Robin Thompson and assisted by Tony Page.[11] In order to achieve the characteristic lush, orchestral sounds on the album, Ian McDonald spent many hours overdubbing layers ofMellotron and various woodwind and reed instruments. In some cases, the band went through five tape generations to attain deeply layered, segued tracks.[12]
The music onIn the Court of the Crimson King is considered by critics to be stylistically diverse and rhythmically complex. John Cunningham ofWhatCulture said the album "threw thebluesy sound ofrock at the time out the window. In its place, the group displayed apsychedelic hybrid style composed ofacid rock,jazz andclassical overtones."[13] Sean Murphy ofPopMatters assessed: "This was not a pose, and it was not reactionary; it still manages to seem somehow ahead of its time as well as—it must be said—out of time. Of course, it came out of an era and the minds from which it was conceived, a dark, sensitive, and undeniablypsychedelic space."[14] He said that musically, the album "speaks from the underground, but is grounded in history and looks forward, not backward". According to music historianJeff Gold, "King Crimson abandoned most ofrock'sR&B roots to embrace a kind of guitar and Mellotron-based, crypto-classical style that went well beyond whatProcol Harum and the Moody Blues had previously attempted."[15] The album contains what music criticJim DeRogatis describes as "symphonic arrangements,"[16] withflute andsaxophone sections performed byIan McDonald. HisMellotron is said to be the "dominant" instrument on the album, and is described as "fierce and overpowering".Robert Fripp's guitar work has been characterized as "strangely [fusing] elegantclassical,Hendrix-likerock explosions, andjazz noodling." Lake's voice has been described as "plaintive." The album's lyrics have been described as "portentous," and exploresocially conscious themes like war, societal collapse and alienation. They have been characterized as being "filled with dark and doom-laden visions". Gold also noted that the lyrics consist of "oblique wordplay".[14][17][18]
"21st Century Schizoid Man" has been called "perhaps the firstalternative anthem" by Manish Agarwal ofTime Out, and DeRogatis said Fripp "never rocked harder" than he did on the track, likening the stylings toheavy metal.[16] Agarwal described "Epitaph" as a ballad. He described "Moonchild" as a "spooky pastoral love song". The song contains what is described as an "improvisedambient-jazz interlude." The album's title track is said to invoke a "medieval" atmosphere, and contains what has been characterized as "folkyarabesques, bombasticdrum rolls, andbaroque flute." The track was written by keyboardist/woodwinds playerIan McDonald and Sinfield for their earlier group The Creation, and started as acountry and western song before its final progressive rock configuration.[19][17] The song "I Talk to the Wind" was written for King Crimson predecessor groupGiles, Giles and Fripp (the only song on the album for which this was the case), but was retained by King Crimson in order to show the group's soft side.[20] According to lyricistPeter Sinfield, the song was influenced byJoni Mitchell; in a 1997 interview, he said it is still his favourite lyric that he ever wrote.[20]
Manish Agarwal ofTime Out called the cover artwork "scary", and suggested it to be "best enjoyed ongatefold vinyl."[17] Barry Godber (1945–1970), a computer programmer friend of Sinfield's, painted the design for the album cover. He used his own face, viewed through a mirror, as the model.[20] Godber died in February 1970 from a heart attack, shortly after the album's release. He was 24 years old. It was his only painting; the original painting is now owned byRobert Fripp.[21][15] Fripp had said about Godber's artwork: "Peter [Sinfield] brought this painting in and the band loved it. I recently recovered the original from [managing label E.G. Records'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."[22]
In the Court of the Crimson King was released on the 10th of October, 1969. Upon its release, the album reached No. 5 on theUK Albums Chart[23] and No. 28 on the USBillboard 200,[24] where it was certifiedGold by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for equivalent sales of 500,000 units in the United States. The album also charted within the top 10 of theAustralian Album Chart, and charted within Canada and Japan.
In the Court of the Crimson King was reissued several times in the 1980s and 1990s through Polydor andE.G. Records, with pressings made from copies that were several generations removed from the stereo sub-master tape. This resulted in sub-par audio quality and audible tape hiss. While supervising a mastering cut,Ian McDonald discovered that the copy master had a problem on the right track, and because the first generation master tapes were missing since 1969,[25] this problem was compensated for byEQ until 2002. Fripp speculated that the problem was caused by incompetentmastering engineers or "some tapes were mastered in different countries on machines that were not very well maintained or from copies made in the source country (normally US or UK in the case of rock music) where the second machine was inadequately maintained/monitored. These tapes were then sent out to licensee countries who had no adequate measure of comparison and trusted the source material from the record company office. Tape machines running at different speeds occasionally resulted in albums being a couple of seconds shorter/longer".[26]
In 1982,Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released ahalf speed mastered version of the album on vinyl,cut by Stan Ricker with the Ortofon Cutting System.[27] In 1989 the album was remastered for its debut on CD byRobert Fripp and Tony Arnold; this version was part of "The Definitive Edition" series, which consisted of other remastered albums by the band.[28] In 1999, in commemoration of its 30th anniversary, the album was remastered again, this time using 24 bit andHDCD technology bySimon Heyworth, Robert Fripp andDavid Singleton; this edition was part of the "30th Anniversary Edition" series, which consisted of remastered editions of King Crimson's back-catalogue for their 30th anniversaries.[29]
Three years later, in 2002, the original masters were discovered in theVirgin archives, with splicing tape still present between the various songs, and crossfade between "I Talk to the Wind" and "Epitaph" yet to be created. In 2004, a new remaster was done by Simon Heyworth using these first-generation stereo master tapes and it was released the same year with a 12-page booklet. This release was called "Original Master Edition" and used the same HDCD and 24 bit technology as the 1999 remaster.[30][31][32]
In October 2009, Fripp collaborated with musician and producerSteven Wilson to remix the original master recordings in a new stereo and5.1 surround sound mix, released as the album's 40th Anniversary edition.[33][34] The album was sold as three different packages: a two-CD set with the old and new stereo versions, a CD and DVD set with the new stereo and surround sound mixes, and a six-disc (5 CD/1 DVD) box with all mixes and bonus audio and video tracks. In 2010, the original 1969 stereo mix was remastered and reissued on 200-gram super-heavyweight vinyl. This edition was cut by John Dent at Loud Mastering, it was approved by Robert Fripp and included a download code for a 320 kbit/s transfer of the original 1969 vinyl.[35]
In 2019, the album was remixed in 5.1 and stereo by Steven Wilson once again for a 50th anniversary box set of the album. Wilson expressed satisfaction with his 2009 remix, but stated that his 50th anniversary mixes are a significant improvement, being more faithful to the original 1969 mix and benefitting from his 10 years of ensuing experience.[36] The box set includes 3 CDs and aBlu-ray. The Blu-ray features the all-new 2019 stereo and 5.1 mixes encoded at 24/96 resolution, the 2004 "Original Master Edition" with the 1969 mix (also encoded at 24/96), a complete alternate version of the album comprising 2019 Steven Wilson mixes and 2019 instrumental mixes, while the three CDs in the box set feature the new 2019 stereo mix, an expanded edition of the alternate album in the Blu-ray and the "Original Master Edition" plus additional tracks.[37]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| All About Jazz |  [38] |
| AllMusic | [39] |
| Classic Rock |  [40] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [41] |
| The Great Rock Discography | 9/10[42] |
| Mojo | [43] |
| MusicHound | [44] |
| Pitchfork | 10/10[45] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide |  [46] |
| The Village Voice | D+[47] |
In the Court of the Crimson King received acclaim in the British music press. InNME,Nick Logan said that although the album lacked the impact of their live concerts, the diverse musical influences from pop, jazz and classical music had produced a result that was "totally original and always captivating", and stating that "King Crimson, on this showing, have it in them to be huge."[48]Melody Maker also noted that the album did not fully capture the power of the band's live performances, but that it "still packs tremendous impact", and that "this is one you should try to hear".[49]Disc and Music Echo described the album as "a brilliant mixture of melody and freakout, fast and slow, atmospheric and electric, all heightened by the words ofPeter Sinfield". The magazine stated that "this must be heard as a complete entity" and concluded that it would "establish King Crimson as a major talent".[50]
In the US, John Morthland ofRolling Stone said King Crimson had "combined aspects of many musical forms to create a surreal work of force and originality".[51]Cashbox called the album a "tour-de-force" with "no loose ends" and also praised the band's musicianship, compositional skills, and arrangements.[52]Record World listed the album as one of its album picks of the week in its 29 November 1969 publication and said that the album material was "tonsil scorching".[53]Billboard highlighted the band's "towering sound and foreboding poetry" and singled out the title track as a song that reflected the band's "depth and deliberateness".[54]Village Voice criticRobert Christgau called the album "ersatz shit".[47]
Later reviews ofIn the Court of the Crimson King have been positive, withAllMusic praising it "[a]s if somehow prophetic, King Crimson projected a darker and edgier brand of post-psychedelic rock" in its original review by Lindsay Planer, and calling it "definitive" and "daring" in its current review.[39] InClassic Rock reviews of King Crimson's 2009 reissues, Alexander Milas describedIn the Court of the Crimson King as the album which "blew off the doors of musical convention and cemented these quintessentially British innovators' place in rock history for all time".[40]
In his 1997 bookRocking the Classics, critic and musicologist Edward Macan notes thatIn the Court of the Crimson King "may be the most influential progressive rock album ever released". Macan went on to argue thatIn the Court of the Crimson King presented an example of every significant element of a mature progressive rock genre. Further, Macan mentions that the album coalesces prog rock tropes and conventions, some of which are only established in the future, into a single congestable medium. The impact of these developments, in his eyes, is the album representing but also influencing the overall musical impact of progressive rock as a whole for decades to come.[55] Paul Stump'sHistory of Progressive Rock, published the same year, stated that "If Progressive rock as a discrete genre can be said to have had a starting point,In the Court of the Crimson King is probably it. All the elements that characterize Progressive's maturity are in place: jazz and blues influences are subservient to intense compositional rigour characterized by Mellotron-induced Western classical symphonic arrangements ... Individual and collective passages of arresting virtuosity and a rhythmic discontinuity bordering on the perverse are also components of an essentially tonal, approachable whole inoffensive to any classical or pop listener." Stump further commented that while the album is defined by avant-garde sensibility and subtle arrangements, it still communicates through the accessible language of rockers.[20]
In the bookTurn On Your Mind, music criticJim DeRogatis citedIn the Court of the Crimson King as "the album that got the progressive ball rolling".[16]The Who'sPete Townshend was quoted as calling the album "an uncanny masterpiece".[56] In theQ &Mojo Classic Special EditionPink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came fourth in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums".[57] The album was named as one ofClassic Rock magazine's "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock".[58] In 2014, readers ofRhythm voted it the eighth greatest drumming album in the history of progressive rock.[59] In 2015,Rolling Stone namedIn the Court of the Crimson King the second greatest progressive rock album of all time, behindPink Floyd'sThe Dark Side of the Moon.[1] The album is also featured in the book1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[60] It was voted number 193 inColin Larkin'sAll Time Top 1000 Albums.[61]
Sean Murphy ofPopMatters referred to the album as "The Rosetta Stone, and still the purest and most perfect expression of the progressive rock aesthetic." He further explained, "to fully fathom whatIn the Court of the Crimson King signifies, it's useful to consider it as less an uncompromised statement of purpose, and perhaps the first influential album that forsook even the pretense of commercial appeal. To understand, much less appreciate, what these mostly unknown Brits were doing you have to accept their sensibility completely on their terms."[14] In the book101 Essential Rock Records, author and music historianJeff Gold called the album the "first true masterwork" of the progressive rock genre.[15]
Bruce Elder ofAllMusic referred toIn the Court as King Crimson's "definitive album", and "one of the most daring debut albums ever recorded by anybody". He explained, "At the time, it blew all of the progressive/psychedelic competition out of the running, although it was almost too good for the band's own good – it took King Crimson nearly four years to come up with a record as strong or concise."[62] John Cunningham ofWhatCulture assessed: "Spitting in the face of British rock conventions,In The Court of the Crimson King is a landmark in prog rock history. [...] Surreal, dark and unpredictable, the album was unlike anything that had come before it at the time. [...] Arguably the original prog rock album, it remains one of the best to this day."[13]
Hip hop artistKanye West usedsamples of "21st Century Schizoid Man" in his song "Power", from his 2010 albumMy Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In a 2022 lawsuit by Declan Colgan Music Ltd, the owners of themechanical licence for the song, they claimed that West had sampled it without a licence.[63] The case was settled in May 2024.[64]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "21st Century Schizoid Man" (including "Mirrors") | Robert Fripp,Ian McDonald,Greg Lake,Michael Giles,Peter Sinfield | 7:24 |
| 2. | "I Talk to the Wind" | McDonald, Sinfield | 6:05 |
| 3. | "Epitaph" (including "March for No Reason" and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow") | Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield | 8:47 |
| Total length: | 22:16 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4. | "Moonchild" (including "The Dream" and "The Illusion") | Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield | 12:13 |
| 5. | "The Court of the Crimson King" (including "The Return of the Fire Witch" and "The Dance of the Puppets") | McDonald, Sinfield | 9:25 |
| Total length: | 21:3843:54 | ||
King Crimson
Production personnel
| Chart (1969–70) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[68] | 7 |
| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[69] | 27 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[70] | 96 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[23] | 5 |
| USBillboard 200[24] | 28 |
| Chart (2019-20) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Italian Albums (FIMI)[71] | 89 |
| UK Progressive Albums (OCC)[72] | 9 |
| Chart (2022) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[73] | 73 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[74] | 39 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[75] | 3 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC)[76] | 6 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[77] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
| France (SNEP)[78] | 2× Gold | 200,000* |
| Italy (FIMI)[79] 2004 release | Gold | 25,000* |
| Japan (RIAJ)[80] | Gold | 100,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[81] 2004 release | Gold | 100,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[82] | Gold | 500,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
