The King Crimson Album By Album Thread Part I

The Preface

Welcome. Although there are several active album by album threads, it is now or never that I tackle King Crimson, and rather than limit us to only the main studio albums or to the recordings of a particular lineup, I have decided to include all official studio and live albums and DVDs from The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp to The Power To Believe and the Eyes Wide Open DVD… excluding the Collectors’ Club releases… by chronological recording dates, not release dates. In other words, Epitaph: 1969 Live (issued in 1997) will follow In the Court of the Crimson King rather than Thrakattak (issued in 1996). This sequence will enable us to discuss each live incarnation of the band in conjunction with their studio works. And as we all know, the live Crimson was and, we hope, remains, a mighty beast.

There will be exceptions to this chronological sequence: several nonessential compilations will be bypassed altogether. Plus all solo and duet albums will be excluded (examples Exposure and McDonald and Giles) as well as DGM downloads.

The Projekcts will be included. And the band’s general history will be touched upon at intervals.

As far as the pace at which we should move through this large catalog, the studio albums will receive five to seven days dependent on response and my schedule. Some albums will receive less, again dependent on response.

Besides my writings, I will quote from Sid Smith’s In the Court of King Crimson, Eric Tamm’s Crimson King To Crafty Master, and Wikipedia accounts. Undoubtedly, there will be other sources as well as links.

I ask three courtesies of the respondents: 1) don’t jump ahead of the sequence [although late-comers are welcome to join in at any point in the recording history up to the current album under discussion] 2) refrain from arguing about lineups, a tiresome subject that has been done to death, and 3) don’t threadcrap: there is no reason to tell us you dislike the band.

Free your inner Crimhead…

Dr. Weber

 

Where our story begins (quoted from Wikipedia):

Giles, Giles and Fripp were a quirky English late sixties band featuring brothers Michael Giles on drums, Peter Giles on bass guitar and vocals, and rounded out by Robert Fripp on guitar.

The group formed in their native Bournemouth, Dorset area in 1967 when the Giles brothers sought a singing keyboard player through a newspaper advertisement. Fripp, a non-singing guitarist responded but was hired anyway. Between late 1967 and late 1968 the group lived in Brondesbury Road, London. Throughout their time at the house they made many demo recordings. The early home demos soon led to a record contract with UK Decca’s newly formed Deram Records division.

In April 1968 the group recorded an album The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp and two singles, all of which sold poorly. In autumn 1968 the group added Ian McDonald on saxophone, flute and clarinet, and former Fairport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble. Ian McDonald's clarinet overdubs were added to the single version of “Thursday Morning.” Deram then rejected their next studio sessions including "She Is Loaded" and "Under the Sky". These later recordings now appear as bonus tracks on the CD reissue of the album. Judy Dyble did not feature in any of the Deram recordings.

The group continued to record at home; Dyble was only with the group for a short time but did perform with the group on a few songs including "Make It Today" and demo versions of "Under The Sky" and “I Talk To the Wind.” One of the melodies from "Passages of Time" was later re-used for "Peace - An End" on the second King Crimson album, In the Wake of Poseidon. A collection of the home recordings were eventually released in 2002 as The Brondesbury Tapes. The demo recordings were made on a professional 2 track Revox recorder which was specially modified to allow for multiple overdubs.

Dr. Weber

 

The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp

Released 1968
Length: 37:43
Label: Deram

Personnel:
Peter Giles: bass and vocals
Michael Giles: drums and vocals
Robert Fripp: guitar and voice
with auxiliary strings, keyboards (including Nicky Hopkins, and Mike Hill), trombone, and backing vocals

Tracklist:
The Saga of Rodney Toady:
1. Northmeadow (Peter Giles) - 2:29
2. Newly-weds (Peter Giles) - 2:07
3. One in a Million (Michael Giles)- 2:25
4. Call Tomorrow (Peter Giles) - 2:31
5. Digging My Lawn (Peter Giles) - 1:50
6. Little Children (Robert Fripp) - 2:48
7. The Crukster (Michael Giles) - 1:35
8. Thursday Morning (Michael Giles) - 2:50
Just George:
1. How Do They Know (Michael Giles) - 2:14
2. Elephant Song (Michael Giles) - 3:15
3. The Sun is Shining (Michael Giles) - 3:06
4. Suite No. 1 (Robert Fripp) - 5:33
5. Erudite Eyes (Robert Fripp) - 5:05

From Crimson King To Crafty Master by Eric Tamm:

For those whose exposure to Fripp's music begins with King Crimson, the music of Cheerful Insanity might come as a shock. For one thing, it's not in the least heavy - it's a collection of frothy little absurdist ditties. The tunes on Side One are interspersed with Fripp's spoken recital of a sort of tongue-in-cheek morality poem he called "The Saga of Rodney Toady," a fat, ugly lad who is the butt of cruel jokes. We are all familiar with McCartney music-hall nonsense verse along the lines of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"; a lot of Cheerful Insanity is kind of like that - light, whimsical, gently satirical - except that the orchestration is even sillier.

Fripp's playing is accomplished enough, but to hear the Crimson king of Marshall-stacks distortion mildly riffing along in best cocktail-lounge-jazz fashion is a bit of a revelation. Even here, Fripp couldn't resist showing off his chops a little, however; his "Suite No. 1" features him ripping along playing a continuous melody in sixteenth notes at a quarter note of 148 beats per minute. Only two other songs - "The Cruckster," with its jagged, dissonant guitar effects and primitive reverb, and "Erudite Eyes," which sounds at least partially improvised - give any indication of musical paths Fripp was later to follow.

Cheerful Insanity is a very English record. The Hungarian Bartok hadn't quite yet made the acquaintance of the American Hendrix; the album sounds like a collaboration between Monty Python and the Moody Blues in one of their less pompous moods. After Giles, Giles and Fripp, Fripp's sense of humor may have remained intact in his day-to-day life, but it went decidedly below the surface in his music.

Dr. Weber

 

Some interesting stuff on this album, but not nearly as interesting as what didn't get released, particularly the later material with Dyble and Ian. The Brondesbury Road demos are available on iTunes. The second demo version of Under the Sky with Dyble is very nice and the versions of Drop In, a tune that would rear its head many times between 68 and 71, are also interesting. And of course this band's version of I Talk To the Wind remains a favorite of mine.

 

A fun, quirky album if you can listen to it not expecting KC.
Some nice early Fripp guitar work and 'The Saga of Rodney Toady' is hilarious.
Amazing how they when from this to 'In the Court...'

 

I concur. Cheerful Insanity was more of a psychedelic pop album IMO, and by the time KC released In the Court, all of the pop (and psychedelic) edges had completely been worn away.

But I do think that The Brondesbury Demos proves that there was more of a link between GG&F and KC than the two studio albums would lead you to believe. Part of that has do with the fact that they had already worked out "I Talk to the Wind" and the two demos on that disc are really nice. The other part is that it illustrates the British folk undercurrents that were somewhat obscured by The Cheerful Insanity. I'm not saying that KC was a folk rock group by any means, but their music did take some cues from it.

Sometimes, I think it's a matter of what the band (or its record company) chose to release on Cheerful Insanity, rather than what the band was actually playing and recording, that makes the leap from GG&F to KC seem to enormous.

 

This is a fun record. When I first bought it I was, in fact, shocked (as the review above says), but it really grew on me. Taken on its own terms there is some nice stuff there. "Newly-weds", "One in a Million" and "Digging My Lawn" are some of my favorites. But actually I think the best thing on the album is the bonus track "She is Loaded." Brilliant. I still can't do "The Sun is Shining"...every time that one comes up I try, but I just can't listen to it all the way through without wanting to throw up. That's probably the point of the song though.

 

I've had this album for decades...and don't think I've ever sat down and actually listened to it all the way through. Probably got it just to complete my Crimson collection, I guess.

Maybe this thread will inspire me to give it a spin again...

 

I loved this album from the day I bought it (just prior to the release of 'Exposure') - kinda reminded me of Ivor Cutler, if Ivor had a more musical bent. I had been warned off it by more than one record store clerk (remember the days when they'd actually offer advice rather than just parrot "did you find everything you were looking for?") as being "a lot like Bowie's 'Images' stuff" and that's not entirely untrue. It maybe tries just a little too hard to be humorous and whimsical.

Still not sure why thisd was so unpopular at the time, though. 'One In A Million' shoud have been a top-10 hit in England. 'Elephant Song' is probably the one piece they shoud have left off, though. Never worked for me.

It's an entertaining, though certainly less ambitious album (possibly because Fripp's clearly not the one in the driver's seat) than what would come later.

 

'In the Court of the Crimson King'. Got an 'audiophile' record of this album maybe 15 years ago from somewhere mail order. Just opened it up and played it on my Sansui SR-838 about 4 months ago!! Sounds fabulous!!!

 

This the Lp that made me understand that...Fripp DOES have a sense of humor.

 

Cheerful? – sure... insane? – well, not so much compared to what would soon follow... I certainly prefer Fripp's more serious-biz King Crimson, but this'un is fun as described... this album would never, ever be released in 2007.

Never did replace my vinyl... better get to steppin'.

 

Great summation of this record, Doctor; in fact, Moodies-meet-Python is exactly how I described this record to someone recently! (Think "Another Morning" from Days colliding with the Monty Python "my brain hurts" guy.)

BTW, the original U.K. Deram vinyl and CD of this sound fabbo.

 

Never really could get into this album. It has it's charms, but it's not very interesting, is it? (IMO)

Now, those Brondesbury Tapes sound a bit more interesting. Any elaborations? Any particular cd editions to avoid/jump on?

 

There's only one CD edition, and an LP version with only about half the tracks.

 

This brought joy and much chuckles to me from the first time I heard it. As others have posted before me, English music hall, quirky and Monty Python are terms that come to mind when I try to describe the music to others. Fripp does let 'er rip here and there.

If I recall correctly, GG&F were the chosed as a representative groovy band for a BBC film advert, which unfortunately, was most likely taped over or lost.

 

'Suite No.1' is a must, with a Fripp/Nicky Hopkins duet.

 

Of the initial comments about The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp in this thread, my own attitude parallels this response, a central reason I quoted from the Tamm book in post #3. I didn't want to start the thread with negativity, even with balanced, thoughtful criticism, not wanting to color subsequent responses. This thread could have started with Court... as was discussed in my preliminary thread asking for advice and suggestions... but to my perspective if we include the Projekcts, as we will, then Giles, Giles & Fripp is similarly King Crimsonesque, albeit nascent.

As for Cheerful Insanity being "too English," for years I have called this sub-sub-genre "English twee" and indeed mentioned it about a year ago in the Bowie Album By Album Thread. There really is an essay of material here that I am woefully underprepared to condense to a few lines, but at a time that America was tumultuous regarding social and racial divisions, the war in Vietnam, growing drug use, etc., ... say 1967-8... American rock music reflected this tumult. Nowhere was there a musical style comparable to "English twee" or jokey juvenila... consider the debut albums by Giles, Giles & Fripp, Bowie, Roy Wood and the Move to an extent, the Idle Race, plus several acts collected on Nuggets II.

Another reason I included the Tamm passage in post #3 was this accurate observation: After Giles, Giles and Fripp, Fripp's sense of humor may have remained intact in his day-to-day life, but it went decidedly below the surface in his music.

Dr. Weber

 

To quote from Tamm's Crimson King To Master Crafty:

Fripp summed up the demise of Giles, Giles and Fripp as follows: "The dissolution of Giles, Giles and Fripp followed some 15 months of failure and struggle. We were unable to find even one gig. World sales of the album within the first year were under 600. My first royalty statement showed sales in Canada of 40 and Sweden of 1. Peter Giles left to become a computer operator and finally a solicitor's clerk although he played on sessions for a while, notably 'Poseidon' and McDonald and Giles."

And a quote from Sid Smith's In the Court of King Crimson, published in 2001:

Fripp speaking: "A profound disagreement in principle between Peter (Giles) and myself, which continues to this day (until the book's publication, and later) is that Peter believes himself to own the copyright of the Brondesbury Road recordings, as if he were the record company which hired the players to make those recordings. So, in his view, he is producer, record company and owner of the phonographic copyrights. I don't hold this view. We were a collective, each supporting each other by mutually contributing."

A footnote from page 56: In 2001, Peter Giles released these tapes, and other sessions recorded at Brondesbury Road, on a limited edition vinyl release called Metaphormosis on Tenth Planet Records.

Dr. Weber

 

THE BRONDESBURY TAPES (1968) by Giles, Giles & Fripp

Personnel:
Robert Fripp (guitar)
Peter Giles (vocals, bass)
Michael Giles (vocals, drums)
with:
Ian McDonald (vocals, piano, flute, sax, guitar, clarinet)
Judy Dyble (vocals)
Al Kirtly (piano)

Tracklist:
Hypocrite (3:41)(Peter Giles)
Digging My Lawn (1:58) (Peter Giles)
Tremelo Study in A Major (1:41) (Fripp)
Newly Weds (1:52) (Peter Giles)
Suite No 1 (5:34) (Fripp)
Scrivens (2:15) (Peter Giles)
Make It Today (3:26) (McDonald, Sinfield)
Digging My Lawn (1:55) (Peter Giles)
Why Don't You Just Drop In (3:40) (Fripp)
I Talk To The Wind (3:17) (McDonald, Sinfield)
Under The Sky (3:53) (McDonald, Sinfield)
Plastic Pennies (2:18) (Fripp)
Passages Of Time (3:32) (Fripp)
Under The Sky (2:49) (McDonald, Sinfield)
Murder (2:41) (Peter Giles)
I Talk To The Wind (3:15) (McDonald, Sinfield)
Erudite Eyes (6:46) (Fripp)
Make It Today (4:46) (McDonald, Sinfield)
Wonderland (6:08) (Fripp)
Why Don't You Just Drop In (3:42) (Fripp)
She Is Loaded (3:12) (Peter Giles)


A review of The Brondesbury Tapes (1968) by Chris Jones from the BBC online:

Already partially unleashed on vinyl earlier this year under the name of Metaphormosis, this timely CD release fills in a sizeable hole in the enigmatic career of the mighty Fripp and pals and their part in the creation of the Crimson King. Mainly consisting of demos recorded at the titular address, this document is amazing for two reasons. Firstly, as the splendid sleeve notes demonstrate, this was far more than a couple of mikes fed into a Revox set-up. The sound quality of these pieces is a testament to the precision of artists forced to work under primitive conditions while developing a profile which their first album (The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles And Fripp) - with it's bland production - failed to deliver. Secondly, with its addition of key players such as Ian MacDonald on wind instruments and Pete Sinfield, this shows how a year of hard work away from the limelight could turn a jokey little trio into a powerful musical unit, ready to take on the post psychedelic music scene.

It is fascinating to finally hear all of the tracks that featured the criminally underrated Judy Dyble, the original vocalist with Fairport Convention. Committed King Crimson fans will already be familiar with her rendition of "I Talk To The Wind", but on the evidence of the other material on offer here, she should have stayed for longer than the mere two or three months it took to record them. "Drop In" by Fripp, which became a Crimson live staple the following year, makes its first appearance here as does a re-versioned "Suite No. 1" which should dispel any notion that the Wimborne wonder was anything less than a young genius of the fretboard.

Lush harmonies, assured, jazzy instrumentation and a sense of humour (check out those Pythonesque photos!), all wrapped up with most scholarly and amusing sleeve notes from Pete Giles. This is both a lovingly prepared historical document and a well-prepared argument in favour of a band who have, for too long, languished in the shadows as a mere precursor to greater things.

Dr. Weber

next: In the Court of the Crimson King

 

This is not available on cd?

 

Yes, it is, and I'm sorry for any misunderstanding. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, it is available as an iTune download as well. It is currently "out of stock" at DGMLive.

Fripp and Peter Giles resolved their differences about issuing this recording, although I haven't heard specifics. Oddly, the brief summary at the DGMLive Shop says that the "recording belonged to a private collector," failing to mention Peter Giles by name.

Dr. Weber

 

...for Dunlop Tyres. They were augmented by McDonald and a model playing the group's singer, Mary Land, who later married Michael Giles. She appears on the cover of McDonald and Giles.

Two photographs from the commercial shoot are in Sid Smith's The Court of King Crimson. In both, interestingly, Fripp has his arms crossed over his chest, looking less than engaged or enthused. Surely he never posed like that all day, the duration of the shoot. And as far as "groovy looking," lol, just say those were different times...

Dr. Weber

 

I've gotta get this one.