In The Court Of The Crimson King is Life-changing
This is one of the best albums ever made, its story is inspiring, but its music changed my life forever, and it might change yours too.
September 1968, a group of 5 was rehearsing, unaware of just how monumental their impact was about to be. 4 months later, they would officially decide to be known as King Crimson. They played a gig in April at The Speakeasy, which was one of the hottest bastions of great music in London at the time, everyone was playing there, Floyd, Elton John, The Stones, you name it, they probably played there. King Crimson's show was met with the proper amount of praise, a ton. Jimi Hendrix saw them in a different London club and called them the best band in the world, and he probably wasn't far off. They had a massive amount of confidence and so did the people, they had a growing reputation for incredible concerts, they had an album in the works, and everyone could tell that they were going places. Including Tony Clarke, who they sat down with to record their first album. Tony was best known for producing the Moody Blues, another symphonic group, who had hit power at the time. They recorded, but the sessions weren't quite there yet, the studio just didn't fit their large and overbearing sound. They relocated to Wessex Studios. They still couldn't truly get the sound they wanted though, and they realized the problem wasn't the studio, but the producer. Clarke may be well known, but his style of producing was too similar to the Moodies, and King Crimson just wasn't them. They took one of the biggest risks of their career, and walked away from Tony, and a label deal. They decided to self produce the album, thinking they could do a better job anyways. Now, they just needed the cash. Their managers managed to strike a deal with the owners of the studio, guaranteeing £15,000 recording cost, Enthoven (One of the 2 managers) mortgaged his house to do this, but in my books, it paid off. It only took 2 weeks to record the album, and they had to do it in between gigs. They were very matter of fact, less downtime, more recording. They would finish recording in July and on August 20th the final mix was ready. The album was released on Island in October, to massive success, in part due to reputation and in part due to Barry Godber's album cover, the one very famous now, and extremely provocative then. It reached number 5 in the UK, and 28 in the US. All this in less than 9 months was and still is one of the most intense and meteoric rises to fame we've seen from a band. That rise is the reason I'm here today, in perhaps my most personal review yet, of In The Court of The Crimson King.
The band on stage in Hyde Park supporting the Rolling Stones.
[Note: This was written during and after the experience laid out, which happened not "hours ago" but more accurately months ago] Call it hyperbole, call it overzealous, you've never heard music until you've heard this album. This album clicked for me on a low day. I had been in a bit of a depression in the morning, something I've been generally unaccustomed to for years. I'd been happy overall for quite a long time, my life was in a very good place, nothing in particular happened for me to be in this depressive state, but yet I was. I tried to regain my energy, perhaps by masking it in a sense. I'd listened to a new punk album I'd been getting into recently, along with some high energy songs I'd love for years, and briefly, I succeeded. I'd become energetic, and happy, but after it wore off I was in the same place as before, I'd tried getting my mind off of it by cooking, something I enjoy, anything to not think about my consciousness in the moment. Short form success, but not a solution. I had to do something, something that I didn't know at the time, but something so important it would alter my life. I'd listened to In the Court of the Crimson King before, 2, maybe 3 times, but always passively, never in the way I was about to. I would sit down, listen, and write. In the beginning I had no ideas or guesses as to how much my thoughts and emotions were about to change based on this album, but I knew what I had to do. Place the record, turn it up and listen.
Inside cover of In the Court of The Crimson King
This is one of the most emotional pieces of music ever made. While listening to 21st Century Schizoid Man I saw my childhood self, it's as if I was being reborn, as if all the music I'd heard up to now where all leading to this, and fully appreciating it was the peak of a mountain I'd been climbing for years, simply trying to understand myself, and the world around me. I finally understood it, through music, how many things in my life have often come about, or been realized. My life was "complete" in a sense, but in another it was just beginning. I'd been looking for it for years, and it finally showed itself to me, the perfect album. I don't know if this album truly is perfect, but in the moment, that was the closest anything had ever come for me. I was on this high of pure bliss and amazement, my mouth was genuinely agape, I couldn't stop shock from filling my body and ears. It was a feeling of euphoria I'd only felt possibly 2 times before whilst listening to music, so it's safe to say I knew quite early this album was more than simply good. I Talk to the Wind feels understated at times, especially appearing in between possibly the 2 best songs on this album, but it's still just of unbelievable quality and tact, and perfectly encapsulates both the feeling the words and music give you on this album, and they both compliment each other perfectly. Epitaph is simultaneously one of the most haunting pieces ever made, and one of the most emotional. Tears are shed while listening to this showcase of raw human emotion. This is the emotional apex of the album, you're lulled into a sense of calmness and safeness with the previous track, but Epitaph forces you to face your reality and realize yourself, and purpose. Moonchild forces you to marinate in those thoughts and reality, whilst sounds erratic and seemingly pattern-less circle you, as if floating in space. You're transported to a place not your own, to a place floating above yourself, above all else, and all earthliness, you are forced to see yourself as you are. You're confronted by your own existence for what feels like a new lifetime being lived on Moonchild and then brought down to Earth with The Court of the Crimson King in a way that hits you like a shock wave of reality. You've confronted your reality, now live it, that is the message of this album.
Bassist Greg Lake plays and listens during recording sessions.
The truth is, this entire experience happened only hours ago. Am I disappointed in myself for only realizing the true beauty of this piece now, and not sooner? No. Now this might be surprising, it was to me, I hear many people (likely including myself at some point) say they "wish they'd heard this sooner" often in relation to an album, song, artist at times. After fully experiencing this album, I no longer think that. This came at the perfect time. I have heard and will hear so much more music, but now I have the context of this album being in my life. The issue I now find myself in is the paradox of comparison. Now that I've had this truly life altering experience, how can I ever hear anything and not immediately think of this piece, and how it affected me, how can I not compare? Comparison can be healthy, but if thoughts are consumed by it then the truth of them can never fully be realized. At least in my experience, comparison is a tool used by reality to try to understand itself better. If all you do is compare, it's impossible to find yourself, or the true meaning in something, there has to be independent thought within analysis, of anything, but most importantly within your own self. The question I find myself asking at this point is why? Why was it this album that brought this out in me, why did this album click in the perfect way to change my outlook on life, or at least inform it more than any other piece of music I've ever heard. Now that is a question I cannot fully answer yet, over time I might have more of a picture painted, and will be able to have some more reasoning, but, I don't know if I will fully ever be able to say.