The Formative Years – King Crimson
There was a period as a teenager where I despised anything that was even remotely associated with progressive rock, well, until I was introduced to King Crimson through Rorschach’s cover version of 21st Century Schizoid Man.
The cover version intrigued me enough to take a punt and purchase In the Court of the Crimson LP second-hand, following the thinking that what served as a source of inspiration for Charles Maggio, Thom Rusnak and gang, should be interesting or at least educational for me as well.
And educational it was, for the sheer musicianship that through Brian Wilson’s fantastic production takes psychedelia and polyphonic experimentation to new heights, to culminate in shaping their own microcosm via their orchestral arrangements.
It took a couple of spins during which my appreciation evolved to the point where my mind was blown when I finally grasped the extent of what King Crimson channelled: The album encompassed the building blocks of classic rock, classical grandeur and mixed it with a seemingly effortless freely improvised approach, which seemed to follow nothing but the respective band members’ instincts. It was a level of sheer boundless musical sophistication, simultnenously eccentric, refined, orchestrated, diabolical and wonderfully absurd, I had so far not encountered before.
It was good to hear Kanye West sample 21st Century Schizoid Man again for his song Power in 2010 and thereby injecting it into the ears of younger generations, which resulted in me diving down into a King Crimson rabbit hole to experience their other fantastic albums as well, down to their new wave-tinged album Discipline from the early 1980s.
Given that their magnus ops album has not lost an iota of relevance in now fifty-three years since it was released speaks volumes about the quality. I have yet to hear a prog-metal band that has not in some form directly or indirectly been inspired by a band that was aeons ahead of its time.
In the Court of the Crimson King was a prototype never considered for mass production and thereby serves as a fundamental cornerstone of artful rock.
