Vernon on 7/10/2011 at 06:49
Where do I start? I have been listening to Red. I like it and all. It's certainly Epic, but I don't understand the MASSIVE OBSESSION thing with their music. What is the pull for people with King Crimson? Do we still have any fans here?
Nicker on 7/10/2011 at 07:42
Red is a good place to start. Bruford's drumming really changed my understanding of what you could do with rhythms and the spaces they create.
I can't think of any band that covered as much ground stylistically and genre hopping, than King Crimson. And not just dabbling.
It was really a series of bands composed of mostly exceptional musicians, sharing the same name and one core member.
Kuuso on 7/10/2011 at 10:15
To see why King Crimson is so significant, you need to place it in the continuity of progressive rock and see how they shaped it alongside seeing how talented the musicians were. If you like the songs themselves is down to your taste in music and due to that, you might never see why people rave about them (same with any other popular band really). If you really get interested, you should read about Robert Fripp (the only "core" member), since he is an amazing multi-instrumentalist that has contributed to a lot (David Bowie for an obvious example).
You should, of course, listen to In the Court of the Crimson King, which some consider "the" prog rock album.
gunsmoke on 7/10/2011 at 15:21
I was going to say something along the lines of Kuuso's comment. They are very much like my fave band Rush in that respect. Very rarely are you going to become a raving Rush fan out of the blue.
fett on 7/10/2011 at 15:59
Honestly, I've never really gotten it either. No disrespect toward Bruford but as a drummer I never understood why he's so celebrated when Alan White has turned in much more solid, consistent, and interesting performances. White is a much more "musical" drummer -he plays the Song ala Ringo Starr, whereas Bruford always seems in a world of his own and could care less whether everyone is with him or not.
As for Crimson, I agree that they have to be appreciated in the context of the development of prog, but I don't think they did much that was ground breaking. I've got most of the early albums and they just make me want to listen to either Rush, Yes, or Gabriel-era Genesis.
BEAR on 9/10/2011 at 09:08
I think the way to do it is get all the albums and find out what you really like. That was the way for me with king crimson and a lot of (for me) older bands. The songs/albums I liked often tended to not be the ones that were really popular, but you'll tend to work your way back to the songs/albums that influenced the more contemporary bands you like.
I happen to really like mastodon, and Its interesting to me to ear certain licks and say "holy shit that is straight king crimson", but that is definitely not true of all king crimson songs, but certain albums/songs for sure.
Just FYI, after Red, some of my favorite songs are on Thrak.
Medlar on 10/10/2011 at 20:44
Saw them live at the Roundhouse, Finchley many years ago. Disappointing....
nickie on 10/10/2011 at 21:16
It's quite disorientating to be reading posts about a band I used to listen to not far off 40 years ago but have never listened to or heard of really since. :D
But I could have sworn I saw an ad the other night featuring 21st Century blah blah.
heywood on 11/10/2011 at 01:50
I have a few early albums. They seem to be sprinkled with good instrumental bits but those bits aren't arranged into songs I really enjoy. There's no question of their influence on the prog genre though. They quite literally sold Genesis on the mellotron, for example.
