King Crimson-What is their best Lp/Cd

[spotlightkid]

i just pulled out my stack of King Crimson lp's.are there any King Crimson fans on the SH forums-what are you favorite recordings
mine would be

In the Court of the Crimson King
RED
Starless and Bible Black

[Patrick M]

Larks' Tongue in Aspic
Thrak
Discipline

However, the last two on my list, because they were released in the 90s and 80s respectively, suck axiomatically.

[Sckott]

In The Court Of The Crimson King. (Still blows me away!)
Red
Lars Tongues In Aspic
Three Of A Perfect Pair
Islands
Lizard



I agree with Patrick, as he likes the likes the sound of Thrak. But it's fair to assume, if you're new to Fripp and Crimson, each LP can be concidered very different.

I remember either Virgin or EMI had a CD with the "best of" with a horse on the front cover. CD was mastered sorta poorly but it was a nice 1CD collection of a starter-Crimson kit. This Cd is now out of print, sadly, but can be found occasionally.

[Claus]

My favorite is: In The Court Of The Crimson King ... and the remaster supervised by Robert Fripp is amazing!

[Dave B]

Originally posted by Claus
My favorite is: In The Court Of The Crimson King ... and the remaster supervised by Robert Fripp is amazing!

I have to agree with Claus. I still have my original vinyl but due to the increased dynamic range and lack of surface noise the CD remaster is my pick.

[Patrick M]

Originally posted by Sckott
I agree with Patrick, as he likes the likes the sound of Thrak.

No, I *love* the sound of Thrak. :D That sucker is so heavy it should come with some kind of industrial warning. B'boom and VROOM are good as well.

I don't like everything KC has done, but I have enormous respect for the variety of stuff they try. Each incarnation has something new to offer, although I'm not keen on the latest 4 piece version ("ConstruKCtion of Light").

I still remember the first time I ever played "21st Century Schizoid Man." Amazing. On the whole, though, there's too much fluff on "Court" for my tastes.

Scott, I didn't think you even owned the red, yellow, and blue albums? Of those, I think Discipline is clearly the best.

[Dan]

Three Of A Perfect Pair

followed by:

In The Court Of The Crimson King
and either "Starless" or "Red"

I like what I hear on the sampler that I bought of the forthcoming album as well.

[Beagle]

Lizard
Islands
Starless and Bible Black
In The Wake Of Poseidon
Larks Tongue In Aspic
Discipline

[Sckott]

Originally posted by Patrick M


No, I *love* the sound of Thrak. :D That sucker is so heavy it should come with some kind of industrial warning. B'boom and VROOM are good as well.
(SNIP)

Scott, I didn't think you even owned the red, yellow, and blue albums? Of those, I think Discipline is clearly the best.

Yep! Disipline is a very good album. I tend to listen what suits the mood, and I could go for B'boom if I felt like. I should have picked up the UK imports with the LP repica covers. Made all the discs look nice on the shelf...

KC used to have their own site up, might have been financed by Virgin/EG. They had an animated screensaver of Court. Quite drippy, very trippy.

I forgot to mention In The Wake of Poeisdon and Beat!

The compilation I spoke of before was called SLEEPLESS: Concise King Crimson. The CD didn't sound very hot, but I liked the lineup:
found here. Pretty sure it's OOP. (http://users.utu.fi/petolo/crimson/sleep.html)

[R. Cat Conrad]

The Great Deceiver boxed set (4 CD, live)
The Night Watch (import 2CD live)
In the Court of the Crimson King (imp. 30th Anniversary remaster)
Starless and Bible Black (imp. 30th Anniversary remaster, HDCD)
Red (imp. 30th Anniversary remaster, HDCD)
Larks Tongue in Aspic (imp. 30th Anniversary remaster, HDCD)

Note: I find a certain visceral palpability to the Mk III period Crimson's warts-and-all live recordings that's very engaging. :D

Note: Sound quality-wise this list could just about be reversed.

Robert Cat Conrad

[Drew]

Funny I just listened the 30th anniversary Three of a Perfect Pair and let it go into the bonus tracks. The "King Crimson Barber Shop Quartet" is he-haw funny!

"We don't do 21st Century Schizoid Man"

I'm really surprised by the re-interest in King Crimson. When I first started listening to them back when I was in high-school in the 80's nobody around me knew who I was talking about.

[christopher]

good timing for this thread seeing how i just finished upgrading KC's catalog to HDCD remasters in my collection...

for me, i love everything they've put out, but especially:

larks' tongues
starless & bible black

i have a soft spot for the bruford/wetton rhythm section. they really gave fripp a run for his money!

the first four, however, are interesting a hell as it shows a band--or fripp, more accurately--struggling to keep it together. sure, nowadays such scenes are parodied in movies like "spinal tap", but at the time it was sink or swim. dead serious ****.

folks like mcdonald & giles never thought fripp got the sound right after they left KC. and even more thought it was a mistake to reform for studio albums five, six and seven. still more thought the 80's version was in name only and nothing more.

i think fripp saw/heard a good thing when he knew it and has been trying to recapture the magic of that first album ever since.

later, chris

[Gary]

I love the HDCD remasters but I am disappointed that "In the Court....." was NOT in HDCD. Even the Japanese gold disc was not HDCD.

However someone posted that "In the Court......" is to come out on SACD. Boy, I hope that's true! Hope they get it right, too.....

Favorites?

In the Court of the Crimson King
Larks Tongue............
In the Wake...........

[John Buchanan]

Don't miss out on the King Crimson Collectors Club CDs - available on ebay or by subscription at
DGM Website (http://www.disciplineglobalmobile.com)
I have found the following to be excellent:
King Crimson On Broadway - better sound then B'Boom
Live at Cap D'Agde, 1982
Live in Detroit, 1971
Live at Plymouth Guildhall 1971
In the court.... apparently used an American copy of the master tape that had been dubbed with a misaligned tape head as the original Island 2 track master had gone AWOL. The frequency droop on one channel was corrected with equalisation. The multitracks are long gone, so a remix is not possible. :(

[TommyTunes]

Well I'll start with the obvious
1. In the Court of the Crimson King

I still remember hearing 21st Century Schizod Man for the first time, Alex Bennett a DJ on WMCA in NY, a AM radio startion no less, had come back from England in September 69 and brought a copy of the record back. I that point I just waited for the US release and remember buying it in late October.

2. Epitath
This was a 4 CD box set of all MK I Crimson recordings. Awlful sound but some great live tracks. I love their version of Get Thy Bearings and Mars.

3. Island
One of my favorite KC line-ups Mel Collins just gives them the right jazz feel.

[Sckott]

Originally posted by TommyTunes
Well I'll start with the obvious
1. In the Court of the Crimson King

I still remember hearing 21st Century Schizod Man for the first time, Alex Bennett a DJ on WMCA in NY, a AM radio startion no less, had come back from England in September 69 and brought a copy of the record back. I that point I just waited for the US release and remember buying it in late October.


I remember you telling me that story. When did you find your Pink Island? Was it when you cleaned out that NYC record store and dropped mad cash?n

[Ronflugelguy]

IN THe Court....gets my vote. The remaster is really good , only no textured cover? ;)

[TommyTunes]

Yep, Sckott got all the pinks from that NYC store. Glad I did I think that they would be out of my range now.

[Tony Caldwell]

Discipline and Three of a Perfect Pair are my favorites.

[ultron9]

My picks would be...

Absent Lovers; live in Montreal
Discipline
Lizard
Red
In the Court Of the Crimson King
Beat
Larks' Tongues in Aspic
Heavy Construkction

Check out the Discipline Global Mobile website for up to date news on KC and Fripp related info.

The New remasters are indeed stellar!

[Holy Zoo]

Three of a Perfect Pair and Vroom

I'm curious: on the recent Three of a Perfect Pair remaster, did they use the original mix of Sleepless (with no pause in the bass intro), or did they use (again) the one with the pause that was on the first remaster done in the late 80s, I believe.

[Drew]

Hmmm.. I had that Crimson album on cassettee (not vinyl) but I can't remember differences on that. But here are the bonus tracks on the HDCD TOAPP.

The King Crimson Barber Shop
Industrial Zone A
Industrial Zone B
Sleepless (Tony Levin mix)
Sleepless (Bob Clearmountain mix)
Sleepless (Dance mix - E Kavorkian)