Last week I dug out my old vinyl of "A Young Person's Guide To..." and I settled into my chair in the sweet spot with a couple of cups of coffee. Ahh... heaven. And what an excellent compilation. A great overview with really nice variety.
I didn't recall that particular album ever coming out on CD. I cruised around the net and it was only ever an expensive Jap. import disc (which I did eventually remember as existing). So I thought "to heck with it" and I set about making my own version of it (seeing as I hardly ever listened to the 30th Anniversary CD's anyway). With a little "Audacity dexterity" I duplicated all the edited versions that were unique to the album, threw in the regular tracks, sprinkled in the Judy Dyble "I Talk To The Wind, burned and BOOM!... mission accomplished. (Man, I love doing this stuff. It's my favorite hobby.) It sounds utterly divine on the hi-fi. And it sounds amazing LOUD! Good old-fashioned dynamic range.
Anyway, all of this also made me remember how often KC used to get played on FM radio back in the early 70's, and how cool a time that was for radio. Mostly it was the first album. In fact, I don't think I remember any other KC album getting played. Wait, I do remember hearing "Red" and "Starless" a few times... the tracks, not the albums. It's funny how "Red" in particular seems to not have aged much at all. It still sounds very contemporary. To an old progger like me, anyway!
FM is dreadful now. It's long become the norm to play single edits. Give me a freaking break! The only 10-minute song you'd hear these days is PF's "Sheep", and then only once in a blue moon.
But yeah, "A Young Person's Guide To King Crimson"... outstanding!
They scored a documentary on the Bermuda Triangle called, 'THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE', if memory serves correctly around 1975. It was available on vhs at my local video store and I recall renting it twice in 20 years with neither the doc nor the music making an impression even though 'music by King Crimson' was heavily advertised on the box. I don't see it on the IMDB. There was some underwater footage and some Bimini road footage. That's all I remember.
"The Devil's Triangle" was a TV movie that premiered in 1970 and the highlight of the film definitely was Crimson's track. While I enjoyed the film, it was one of the first of the fictionalized docmentary type that became popular. I also recall it was run in theaters in the mid '70's. As for King Crimson, I'm a long time fan of their first two albums which I believe are classics. However it seems their later material was often rehashing of "21st Century Schizoid Man" and some of their first stuff. They were certainly very capable of beautifull melodies.
The title track THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE appears in it's entirety on their second album IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON, and is a tour-de-force demo of the capabilities of the Mellotron.
As for King Crimson, I'm a long time fan of their first two albums which I believe are classics. However it seems their later material was often rehashing of "21st Century Schizoid Man" and some of their first stuff. They were certainly very capable of beautifull melodies.
Yep, indeed they are classics.
I wonder, Jackfu, how you compare the old KC with the 80's incarnation. That whole issue seems to sharply divide KC fans into 2 camps.
I wonder, Jackfu, how you compare the old KC with the 80's incarnation. That whole issue seems to sharply divide KC fans into 2 camps.
Honestly I really stopped following them after the '70's so I'd have to go back and give a listen again. The 80's version, what I remember of it seemed very similar to Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, etc., to me; not meant as an insult.
The title track THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE appears in it's entirety on their second album IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON, and is a tour-de-force demo of the capabilities of the Mellotron.
And an awesome version of "Holst's Mars, Bringer of War" it was. I really did admire their work with the Mellotron, especially at the beginning of "Starless". Spellbinding, in my opinion.
Honestly I really stopped following them after the '70's so I'd have to go back and give a listen again. The 80's version, what I remember of it seemed very similar to Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, etc., to me; not meant as an insult.
I think that a lot of fans feel that same way. Including me, sort of. I remember listening in disbelief when "Elephant talk" got played in the record store in '81. "That's WHO??" LOL It all seemed just so twitchy and herky-jerky, not unlike the Talking Heads, as you mentioned. The labyrinthine guitar loops, the exotic-sounding "middle eastern" sheen, etc.
I warmed up to it, though. I began to feel like a lot of that was merely what Belew brought to the table. And with guys like Bruford and Levin... there was just too much going for it to not like it. Fripp must have thought it was the best opportunity yet to see just how experimental a band could be and still call it music, particularly the albums that followed after "Three Of A Perfect Pair". Now THAT stuff is pretty out there.
I'd have to say that I think "Sleepless" is the best thing that came out of that period. Just outstanding, that track.
King Crimson was probably in a tie for my favorite group in the early 70's -- along with The Band. I received their first album when I was a DJ in high school at age 16 and rabidly anticipated each new studio album. I used to drag my high school friends kicking and screaming over to my house to hear their stuff as it was not the usual pop radio fare:
In the Court of the Crimson King (1969) In the Wake of Poseidon (1970) Lizard (1970) Islands (1971) Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973)
I saw them live in concert in 1971 in Chicago when I was a freshman in college which remains an awesome memory. They were superb in concert. Then, circa 1973, I stopped following their music and didn't purchase an album after Larks' Tongues. This was due, as I recall, both to a change in their line up and music -- and also because my tastes started a slow shift to focus more on classical music and film music.
Their line up over the years had an incredibly talented group of musicians -- Fripp was a true genius IMHO.
I never seem to read any love for "Lizard". Even Fripp appears to distance himself from the album. Apart from "Bolero", it's never represented on any of their plentiful compilations. Which is a shame, because as murky and impenetrable as it is, I think there is much to enjoy on it. Sometimes the harder stuff just takes longer.
I see no reason for Fripp & Co. to disown it if they thought enough of it to release it in the first place.
This is one of the bands I always wanted to check out when I was obsessing over prog rock in my formative years in the early 90s, but I never really got around to it. I think I sampled some at the time, but it didn't grab me the way other bands did. Don't know why. Perhaps it's time to re-acquaint myself with them.
A superb band in every way. Had the 1st LP in mid 70's and later got into all the rest, some of the late 80's and 90's albums are hard to digest yet with repeated listenings they all shine in their own way.
