King Crimson
Prog rock is a generic term for Progressive Rock, a form that had its heyday in the early 70s. It was a peculiarly European and predominantly English response to psychedelic rock, which dragged in elements of:
...and created a vibrant hybrid of virtuoso players in acts such as:
An intro to King Crimson
I have an official King Crimson bootleg, Nightwatch, recorded LIVE in 1973, in which erudite band-leader Robert Fripp announces facetiously: "...Ladies and genntlemen, we shall now tune our mellotrons and attack culture, once again..." And that off-the-cuff remark, believe it or not, just about sums up King Crimson, a If you could imagine LSD-guzzling, interstellar trooper and super-spade Jimi Hendrix being born as a tea-drinking Englishman, more grounded in classical music than R & B...then you might be getting close. Fripp ain't sexy, he certainly ain't flamboyant...he's intense and er...serious.
A brief documentary on King Crimson Terrible vision & audio, though the first 5 minutes are really interesting.
King Crimson are a band who're deeply loved by fans with a now-forty year pedigree as the standard bearers of Prog. rock. However, they're not just disliked...they're frequently hated by many others, including many critics critics and while everyone seems to agree that the standard of musicianship is often virtuoso, the complexity of Crimson's music:
...is often considered to be too far abstracted from the spirit of rock'n'roll. In fact, some people even consider it evil! Me, I like it, especially since American Adrian Belew joined in 1980.
The Different King Crimson Incarnations & Their Albums:
21st Century Schizoid Man
King Crimson 1 (1969-1970) essentially consisted of:
and released:
King Crimson 2 (1971-1972) essentially consisted of:
and released:
King Crimson 3 (1973-1974) essentially consisted of:
...with other musicians occasionally and released:
Larks Tongue In Aspic
The superb, majestic Red, an album I still can't find the words to describe.
King Crimson 4 (1981-1984) consisted of:
They released:
N.B. Bass player Tony Levin has released a book of photographs from that Crimson era, Crimson Chronicles, Volume 1, now only available exclusively from his own record label, Papa Bear Records
King Crimson 5 (1996-1997) consisted of:
They released:
Splintering King Crimson into four sub-groups (Belew & Levin were the most absent) called The ProjeKcts, the Crimson tribes then created mostly improvised music to reinvigorate the King. This is what resulted...
The ProjeKcts King Crimson sub-groups
After those experiments, Bill Bruford left and Levin had commitments with Peter Gabriel, so King Crimson 6 (2000-2004) consisted of:
They released:
I've yet to even hear the albums (Life got in the way) but hope to review them in 2008. There is a LIVE DVD of the 4-piece in action with two concerts from 2000 & 2004, promoting The ConstrucKtion Of Light & The Power To Believe.
DVD: LIVE Eyes Wide Open
Robert Fripp's collaborations with Brian Eno, helped Eno create Ambient Music, his collaborations with Andy Summers (from The Police) received considerable praise & his SOLO albums have covered a wide range, from prog-pop to near, but not quite, ambient music. & Adrian Belew was plucked from obscurity by Frank Zappa in the late 1970s and within a few years, was known as one of the most innovative rock guitarist in the world. In his SOLO career he has experimented wildly with:
Highly erratic...but fascinating.
see also:
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