Band: King Crimson

[stewie]

King Crimson

[Dylan]

Very tough decision, and I can't do the waffle emoticon yet. I'm not ready. But the band had a good run early on, Three Of A Perfect Pair is alright, the recent stuff is a bit suspect but overall not as noodly as it could be. Downright listenable, sometimes.

[MTAR]

I like this band, although Ive mostly heard the early stuff. I think Adrian Belew made them sound stupid, but that doesn't change the fact the 20th Century Schizoid Man is fucking great. And by the way, just cause it's NOT CRAP doesn't mean it's great... it's just not crap...
mike

[tim]

definitely not crap. lizard (1970) and islands (1971) are good. lark's tongue in aspic (1973), starless and bible black (1974), and red (1975) are excellent.

tim

[olivier]

when belew sing , KC = crap .
power to believe is their best stuff after red . but I don't like it much . I wait for the next one ...

[the Classical]

I waffle on this all the time, there are parts of king crimson I really like, but I feel like you have to wait around for them to rock, fripp makes you eat yr veggies

normally I would say not crap but I saw the "sleepless" video last night on vh1 classics, so I am voting crap!

[Mr. Chimp]

1. Fripp - not crap
2. First two records - not crap
3. next two - crap
4. Bruford era - not crap
5. Red - not crap
6. Belew lyrics - crap
7. Belew songwriting - crap
8. Belew guitarring - not crap
9. Discipline - not crap (excepting applicable crap-Belewisms)
10. "Double Trio" recordings and live - not crap
11. first album post-Bruford - crap
12. The Power To Believe - not crap (excepting applicable crap-Belewisms)
13. King Crimson live - absolutely not crap


8 not craps - 5 craps (split decision on #'s 9 and 12)

King Crimson = Not Crap

plus - Peter Sinfeld's lyrics - total crap but on a plane above and beyond.

[eric]

i must say that i just went to see King Crimson live and it was a really good show. i was kind of expecting it to be so-so, and i was amazed. definately the best sounding mix i have ever heard at the pageant in st. louis. robert fripp is a badass weird mofo. anyone else see this last tour?

[O H Lee]

1st time I heard IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING, I said, "This is where Greg Ginn is coming from." I was told by a WREK person that the 2x Black Flag was at REK for an interview, they only thing they wanted to hear was RED.

[Bernardo]

Not crap. though anything 90's and beyond just doesn't cut it for me.

[capnreverb]

Larks toungue, Starless, and Red, kick the shit out of allmost everything from the 70's.

Also, during that era, they were one of the few, if only, "big" groups of the 70's to use group improvisation as a main part of their playing live. (Grateful Dead are a jam band, so they don't really count). That does not mean guitar and drum solos, but real improvising. And, they were real good at it. That Great Deciever box set shows the brilliance of a band willing to take a lot of chances musically and mostly hitting home runs.

[geiginni]

I'll second that. Capn'...

The Great Deciever is fantastic.

The live Concertgerbouw 1973 is damn fine too.

Crimson from that era cannot be beat.

However, "The Letters" off Islands is about as CRAP as it gets. Horrible, horrible. What the hell was Pete Sinfield smoking, anyway?

Otherwise - totally NOT CRAP!

[tim]

However, "The Letters" off Islands is about as CRAP as it gets. Horrible, horrible. What the hell was Pete Sinfield smoking, anyway?

oh come on! the loud instrumental part after the soft soft? it rocks. and so does that one lyric "impaled on nails of ice."

[Redline]

...Also weird to think the vocalist would soon be a founding member of Bad Company.


Jay

[tmidgett]

it's very funny to me that i voted 'not crap'

this band has made some incredibly bad music

but they are genuine and weird and genuinely weird, and i kind of like some of their music as well

[Mayfair]

Yeah, they were actually a few different bands through out their history so it is hard to blanket them all with crap or not crap so I am assuming we are talking about the "Court of the.." era. For that, I agree with the Midge as I am not a fan of all of it but it is so far over the top, I am just thankful they ever entered the studio at all rather than just spending all their advance on hallucinogens.

In highschool I liked those three records with Fripp/Belew/Levin/Bruford but Adrian Belew's lyrics and voicings do not age with time very well it seems.

[Into the Void]

I have not heard anywhere near everything they've done, but I am going to give a not crap based on the song "Moonchild" alone.

[soup alex]

As far as I'm concerned, very simply Not Crap. I'd rather they just never sang, though.

[matthew]

Of the King Crimson albums I own, here's how I evalute them:

Red- Not Crap.......absolutely not crap.
In the Court of the Crimson King- Crappier
Discipline- Not Crap, mostly...
Islands- Shit
Three of a Perfect Pair- Crappier, but not total crap
Thrak- Not Crap
Vroom- Not Crap

However, "The Letters" off Islands is about as CRAP as it gets. Horrible, horrible. What the hell was Pete Sinfield smoking, anyway?

Amen to that.....hehe.

[Jodi S.]

I vote Not Crap, because of how inspiring they were to me as a kid.

Some of their stuff is the steamiest of turds.

"elephant talk" is Not Crap, and it inspired the career of Primus. Take that as you will.

The fact that Fripp refers to "Starless..." as "Braless and Scrotal Sac" is Not Crap.

Tony Levin is also an amazing bassist.