Featured today is one of the unquestioned landmark releases of progressive rock. Previous work by the artists that formed the band really gave no indication that this album was coming. I recently listened the the lightweight but enjoyable Cheerful Insanity of Giles Giles & Fripp and couldn't help but wonder how Robert Fripp progressed so rapidly from the whimsical to the profound.
Of course Fripp has excellent support, far removed from just the Brothers Giles. Michael Giles remains on drums, but the sound is wildly influenced by multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and bassist/vocalist Greg Lake. The album features some of the most inspired Mellotron work outside of a Moody Blues album and Lake plays across the spectrum, from the fragile "Moonchild" to the aggressive opening salvo of "21st Century Schizoid Man".
Needless to say, this one was a daunting act to follow, and the most common criticism about the next album was that they basically re-did this album. Of course the financial side of things wasn't holding up at all, and since the band didn't own a time machine to whisk them to the 1990's to prove how influential they actually were, the breakup began soon afterward. Greg Lake would steal lyricist Peter Sinfield for his own use in Emerson Lake & Palmer. Meanwhile, the vocalist slot in the band continued to pay dividends for other bands, such as Bad Company (Boz Burrell, even though he wasn't their singer), Uriah Heep, and Asia (John Wetton). Nevertheless Robert Fripp somehow managed to remain far above all of that, eschewing riches and producing complicated and quite uncommercial music with like-minded new musicians.
Interestingly, King Crimson remains one of the few bands that doesn't do iTunes, Amazon mp3's or any of that stuff. This album is easy to find at most libraries; the others not so much!
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