King Crimson, Larks' Tongues in Aspic - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction / Excerpts
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- Опубліковано 24 сер 2024
- #kingcrimson
Dipping into progressive rock again, this time I start at its beginning, and what a different kind of rock! I don’t think I’ve heard anything else quite like it - at least, so far! The way in which they explore the textural, tonal, and timbral elements of music makes me curious to return to this band and see how they develop along the way.
Here’s the link to the original song by King Crimson:
• King Crimson - Larks' ...
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Amy Shafer, LRSM, FRSM, RYC, is a classical harpist, pianist, and music teacher, Director of Piano Studies and Assistant Director of Harp Studies for The Harp School, Inc., holds multiple degrees in harp and piano performance and teaching, and is active as a solo and collaborative performer. With nearly two decades of teaching experience, she teaches privately, presents masterclasses and coaching sessions, and has performed and taught in Europe and USA.
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Credits: Music written and performed by King Crimson
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Amy it’s amazing how you can hear these songs for the first time and get so much out of it that you can explain it to us. Thanks Virgin Rock.
Please do dive into more King Crimson! They have so many hidden gems.
Yeah, by all means! Would you say "Red" (I mean the album) may be some place to start, like "One more red nightmare"? I would suggest not to go into the later KC records for now. What do you think?
@@jaynyczak7999 Yes, I think anything from Red would be great to do!
@@jaynyczak7999 Red is overrated!!!!! One of my least favourites, and I can't believe I am alone in feeling that.
@@ulfingvar1 not everyone can have awful taste
Robert Fripp is the mad scientist of the rock world.
Never tought of it this way, it makes sense.
"Starless" might be the pinnacle for this iteration of the band. Try "Indiscipline" for the 80s version!
Both perfect
She might like Discipline as a purely instrumental piece as well. There's a video on UA-cam of a French harpist playing the song (doubled to cover both guitar parts).
'Starless' is such a devastating example of hopelessness. An amazing work.
No? This is the pinnacle of the band or maybe lizard
Yes Epitaph too
Just to add, I interviewed King Crimson's violinist (David Cross) for a music paper after a concert in the summer of '74. He had recently graduated from a conservatory, so it makes sense that some of his phrases were evocative of Thais.
Fripp says LArks tongues is very much inspired by Bartok string quartets and Rite of Spring. I found the 10/8 rhythm idea in Bartoks 5th string quartet.
I really think Amy should comment Le Sacre du Printemps and notice the influence Stravinskib had on King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Metallica and many many others in rock music.
Have been waiting for you to come around to King Crimson. It's a necessary wait - you need a familiarity and an appreciation for the foundations of rock before you can see what Crimson does so differently. But, for my money, and even though I don't always enjoy what they make, I think King Crimson is the most interesting, diverse, and artistically pure band that could still be described as traditionally 'rock'. Once you feel up to another album project, I definitely think their debut album should be listened to in full.
They definitely have 3 or 4 distinct periods I would've suggested to start at the beginning.
Larks Tongues in Aspic Part II is one of the coolest songs I know. Robert Fripp's use of dissonance on that song is the craziest thing I've ever heard. It would be great if you did that and also Advent of Panurge, Knots, Proclamation or Cogs in Cogs by the band Gentle Giant.
Yeah
And Gentle Giant is very permissive about copyright and wouldn't probably cause problems
@@henrymach yes I think that’s true. I see interviews with members on fairly small music channels so that’s maybe also possible. Gentle Giant is a must for classic English Prog.
I wish that she would evaluate "On Reflection" live.
Jimi Hendrix considered King Crimson 'the greatest band on Earth'.
Where’s that quote from? And he considered his favorite guitar player, Billy Gibbons.
Describing his meeting with Hendrix at London’s Revolution club in 1969 after King Crimson had performed there, Fripp shares, “backstage, a man came up to me in a white suit, with his right arm in a white sling. One of the most luminous people I’d ever met. And he came up to me and said, ‘Shake my left hand, man - it’s closer to my heart.’” Fripp added that he had later accidentally met the sister of original Crimson drummer Michael Giles in a bookshop in 1981, 11 years after Hendrix’ death in 1970. “She said to me, ‘Do you remember the time when Hendrix came to see King Crimson?’” Fripp said. “And I said, ‘Of course I do - it’s my Hendrix story!’ And she said, ‘Do you know that I was sitting on the next table to Jimi Hendrix. … He was jumping up and down and saying, “This is the best group in the world.”’ “In all due modesty, that is one of the best calling cards any working musician is ever likely to be able to present.” @@boodge.
You have come such a long way...it really is quite impressive. There is way around the copyright issues, albeit cumbersome. Direct the listeners to open two windows. Your YT channel window and the window of the linked video. Using time codes that correspond to the segment you listened to and/or /analyzed, have us pause your video and listen to the same time coded reference points on the the linked video. We go back and forth in this way until we've explored the entire video. Please bring this to Vlad's attention.
There’s an easier way: become a patreon of her. It has two advantages: unrestricted view and Amy gets paid directly.
Cue the prog peanut gallery! 😄 Robert Fripp has talked about how in the late 60's he was hearing many different kinds of music, from The Beatles to Bartok, and to him it was all basically the same thing. It was all just *good (or interesting) music*. This is why so much of progressive music is about breaking down barriers or fusing disparate musical styles. This particular album is marked by the presence of second percussionist (and general madman) Jamie Muir. All of the crazy incidental sounds are his doing, and he had a huge influence on Bill Bruford, who had just come from recording Close to the Edge with Yes. Bill has said many times that King Crimson was critical to his growth as a musician, because Fripp basically told him "Whatever you think you should do, do something different." So King Crimson has always been as much a guiding philosophy about how the musician approaches their craft as much as making noises. That has earned them the 'pretentious' tag, but these days they're getting the last laugh with legions of musicians and critics who admire them. Yeah, you won't hear them often on the radio, and people like my wife likes to pejoratively describe them as "music for musicians". But for anyone who is a student of modern rock music they are a band you sort of have to pay attention to on some level.
The title came from a dish that was served at an opulent Roman banquet, I believe. This track is very much like a complicated, multi-course meal. KC is a favorite of mine. The band has a long and complex history, with different eras, frequent line-up changes, and a relentless drive to keep moving forward and outward. I hope you keep exploring.
F
Finally!! Amy, delighted to see you being one of the view music reviewers to cover King Crimson. You could have probably gotten past censors by playing a live performance -- which for Crimson is better than their studio releases. This would not have been my first choice to start with. Their first album in 1969 ,which I bought when it was first released, is still their stellar starting point. Under Fripp's guidance, Crimson has always been an evolving band throughout its various incarnations. I would not call it new age music -- there was no genre of so called new age music in 1973 when Larks Tongue was released. however, yes, this was a time when Fripp was diving into esoteric metaphysics heavily... He described a spiritual experience around this time as "the top of my head blew off" and then immersed himself in the esotericism of JG Bennett, who was a leading British follower of the cryptic Georgian/Russian fakir/yogi/monk GI Gurdjieff who also developed an esoteric musical theory to elicit altered psycho-somatic experiences. You hear more of Fripp trying to incorporate this in the next album Starless, and then his "GuitarCraft" period in the 1980s and later Crimson incarnation in the 1990s was fundamentally based upon Gurdjieff's musical theory and concept of "objective art". Quite a few musicians and bands were influenced by Gurdjieff in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I flirted with it a bit when I was in college at that time. Also, the percussionist Jamie Muir is brilliant on Larks Tongue, but after the release and tour he left the music world to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk.
Another alumni, Adrian Belew, who was in Zappa.
King Crimson seems omitted by most of the reactors. So glad you finally choosed them to react to.
1973 was the peak of prog rock: Dark Side of the Moon, Close to the Edge, Selling England by the Pound, and of course Lark's Tongues in Aspic. Lark's Tongues in Aspic part one is sort of a long introduction to Part Two, which is the epic conclusion. You really should listen to Part Two. My interpretation of the title is that it represents exotic hedonism. King Crimson changed dramatically and evolved, as progressive rock should. It would be wise to listen to their albums in order starting with In the Court of the Crimson King.
Close to the Edge was in ‘72
LTIA1 is very much a tour of the KC kitchen. I think you've read it well. And I think, KC generally interrogate and map a particular space - the space of the something of nothing/nothing of something, the existential knife edge. The Himalayan retreat, the yoga mats, the prayer flags, this is well visioned - the environment of contemplation and, more importantly, infinite preparation for the emergence of something from nothing: Music which authors and authorises itself, because the musicians are sufficiently finely tuned to allow this inexplicable (or as Fripp would say, inexpressibly benevolent) becoming. This is why there is nothing more to do with it than lay it out as a sequence: Look what we have found. Look at the many dishes that have taken form in our kitchen: Chocolate ants. Deep fried chilli ice cream. Smoke and pickled flowers. Larks' Tongues in Aspic.
i think "larks' tongues in aspic" is a metaphor and a reference. it's a reference to Lucius Licinius Lucullus, a Roman general and statesman, known for his very extravgant, peculiar and experimental taste in cuisine, having his cooks prepare outlandish dishes, meals, and feasts for himself and his guests. this is in general a metaphor to the music king crimson were creating, and larks tongues in aspic specifically a metaphor, suggesting the tongues of song birds being the allegorical quintessential pars pro toto of the musical art, conserved and served in gelatine, to be presented to and cosumed by the listeners. with some irony, since eating the instrument of a dead musical animal isn't the same as enjoying the sound it can make while still alive :) a very loaded poetic expression
Very recently, Daryl Hall's Live from Daryl's House You Tube show featured Robert Fripp. On this episode Daryl's house band, along with played 'Red' without any rehearsal. Truly Impressive!
Felt very emotionally moved by that series, these are two friends and kindred spirits separated by too many years apart, their warmth and love for each over spilled forth. Robert has an undeserved reputation of being cold and clinical, it was an absolute joy watching him relax and having fun.
An amazing band stacked with stellar musicians. I do hope you cover more of their material. There are too many songs to list. Speaking of bands to cover, try ELP's "Tarkus." As always, a wonderful reaction.
I think that the title is a wink at Vaughan-Williams's "The Lark Ascending". King Crimson has always had a revolving door-type lineup, with Guitarist Robert Fripp being the smallest common denominator in all of its incarnations. Jamie Muir was a percussionist who played many unconventional instruments, and this is the only album by KC he appears on.
King Crimson is really tough when it comes to copyright. Their music wasn't even on youtube for a long time, they were very late to bring their music to streaming platforms.
It's interesting to me that you describe this song as overall a sort of peaceful, new age kind of experience. For me it's one of the heaviest pieces of music I've ever heard. It literally knocked me off my feet the first time I heard it. It is definitely a journey, but not a peaceful one. I map it out as follows:
The first section is peaceful, but busy. Like a city seen from a distance, or a colony of ants tinkering away in their tunnels and hills. Then the violins and guitars come in and evoke the most horrible sense of dread. It builds to the next section, of world-shattering violence and destruction. There is then a relative calmness, like the eye of a storm, as we return to the anxious violins of the second section. Another round of destruction is followed by societal chaos and collapse, represented by the manic guitar runs and wild percussion. The long violin solo that follows is post-apocalyptic. Sparse and strange and sad.
It's a masterpiece and it's not even the best King Crimson song!
You'll probably be gratified to discover that the percussionist, Jamie Muir, left the group a month after this was recorded to join a Buddhist Monastery.
He came back in the early 80's playing in British jazz/improv scene with people like Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann and Evan Parker.
@juharintala9527 - I remembered his having worked with some of those folks before KC, but I'd forgotten about his return. He's great.
Personally I'd like to hear your take on early Dream Theater. They are probably the most recognizable name in the progressive metal genre. Most people would suggest their staples "Pull Me Under" or "Metropolis Part 1", but the one I'd most like to hear you review is "Voices". I feel it's rather underrated in their catalog, but it's always been a favorite of mine, and I think it really shows off what the band could do compsitonally with intent and purpose.
Jumping in the deep end huh?
I think the first King Crimson album In the Court of the Crimson King would have been a better introduction. I think it is more accessible as popular music.
I think you are right that it is more accessible a popular music, but I think that is not really much of a factor when the listener is a classical musician.
@@lonbecker113 I don't think being classical musician automatically means you listen to a lot of experimental music
Your description and the feeling you felt from this piece was brilliant ...I think your thoughts are what the band wanted to express .I always thought King Crimson was band that was very interested in texture.
Prog rock really started before Crimson but their 69 album really stood apart and inspired many to adopt that style.
I love the Larks album as a whole. I think I have mixed feelings about this entry song in particular. I see it as sort of a mystery, a bit strange but mostly a fascinating piece of art. Your explanation gave me some more perspective, thank you! I also recommend listen to rest of the songs on the album. I think I love "Exiles" and "Easy Money" the most. Also I join the other commentators and suggest "Starless", "Lizard" and other their masterpieces.
Robert Fripp said that the parts I and II ( begining and ending this album) were intended to represent what you could expect in one of their live performances.
Part one shows a diverse range of possibilities and part II would be the climax.
They improvised a lot on stage, and made pieces on the spot out of thin air.
Some of those moments wrr recorded and used later on official releases
Thinks you could think we're improvised were in fact written and the other way round
One of the all time greatest bands, I did buy this record when it was released back in 1973.
Nice one! King Krimson is a whole universe in itself and this piece happens to show a lot of that breadth in just one track. It´s a bit like a collection of sounds, styles and feels juxtaposed in an enjoyable way.
I wonder why this band was not that famous/commercially in radio waves? First time hearing them and to me it sounds as improvisation and experimentation, sort of Jazz but modern type not classical, sort of rock style or other influences/directions, over all to me is just that EXPERIMENTATION is like hitting everything to see what sticks., that is maybe why they were not radio popular, is a mixture of many things a casserole of sorts. Very common in the 60's when they used to get so high that ... whatever the soul manifested at the time... spontaneity. Reminds me EARLY PINK FLOYD flying, flying, high, high... before they matured.
In furniture-making, a lark's tongue is a chamfer which ends short of a piece in a gradual outward curve, leaving the remainder of the edge as a right angle. Chamfers may be formed in either inside or outside adjoining faces of an object or room. Who knew.
This is my all time favorite album and this song still gives me chills every time I hear it
In high school we would ditch school and listen to 21st Century Schizoid man! It was incredible song!
King Crimson was a game changer for me. I made my strongest music preferences for anyone who would create something unique and make the heckles on my back rise. Three of their albums stood out in such uniqueness: "In the Court...", with its origins in free jazz and contemporary classical, this one, where the level of improvisation has never been equalled, due to the brief addition of percussionist Jamie Muir (check out the Music Improvisation Company and 1980s Company LPs), and "Discipline", which introduced odd time signatures with gamelan and minimalist approaches. "Red" is a great album with many memorable songs (I'd like "Starless" to br played at my funeral), but - and I don't care what anyone says - not a pivotal album. Just a great way to say goodbye (at the time). I'm a volunteer DJ in Rochester, NY and my program reflects many of these musical forms, much of it in the avant-garde, all thanks to KC.
KC and LZ are my favourite bands now! KC has a lot to discover
Progressive means a number of things including using more imagination in composition, a serious not necessarily commercial approach and experimentation in all aspects. The other band in at the genesis of the genre is the Moody Blues. You will find them easier on the ear. I confess to struggling with King Crimson, owing to the unusual time signatures, restless experimentation within albums, use of strange sounds. Yes and Genesis are very accessible in comparison. However, although not an easy listening experience they are important because of their position in the development of rock music and all members' high standard of musicianship. Robert Fripp has been constant throughout their career and has also made important contributions to the albums of other rock acts. some have dubbed his guitar work as 'Frippertronics'. Try their 'Starless' next...there are videos of them live on YT.
Just FYI, "Frippertronics" refers to a particular type of guitar performance Fripp used with the use of long tape loops and two tape machines to generate overlapping harmonies and rhythms. Originally created by Eno I believe. For a example ua-cam.com/video/kaKgj9DqxhE/v-deo.html
@@lurcher300b Thanks for expanding on that, 👍
The beginning is like Gamelan music from Java and Bali, played by striking pitched metal instruments with mallets. About Primus - don't "primal" and "prime numbers" have long "i' s.
Have a listen to “I talk to the wind” on Court of the Crimson King.
Agree !! Full àlbum is great !!!
Amy, you are obviously blessed with an open mind and a very deep understanding of musical composition! As some others have suggested, I would start with their first album, In The Court of The Crimson King. To my ears, Greg Lake's heroic voice helps to bring a human element to the percussive, chromatic focus of Robert Fripp's guitar. My favorite is I Talk To The Wind, which introduces Ian MacDonald's lovely jazz flute stylings.
Here is something live that you should be able to do.... King Crimson - Indiscipline - Live in Mexico City
A composition I know so well, that I don't have to listen to it to follow Amy's exploration. Robert Fripp is the always practising perfectionist. He still spends many hours each day practising technical guitar passages in compositions he wrote 50 years ago. When it comes to copyright, well, In his case it is not really about copyright IMHO, but about the taboo of never interupting the music in any way. I have 64 hours of King Crimson music on my computer, but that is only a fraction of all that Robert Fripp has released! There is said to be 700 official releases with Robert Fripp contributing.
King Crimson.....what a rabbit hole !!!
I wore this album out. If you hear more Fripp you can hear Stravinsky in there. It’s really hard to get a grasp on this band with one song. It’s funny you said kitchen sounds because pots and pans were definitely being played.
As I'm sure you've already learned, King Crimson takes a heavy hand with the unauthorized use of their music. In this case, it's not just UA-cam causing you trouble.
The band is philosophically opposed to recordings of music in favour of live performance, incredibly resistant to internet distribution of their music and comes down like a tonne of bricks on anyone that reacts or analyses their work. Most copyright blockers are just *******, but I kind of respect the commitment in this case.
Hard to sympathise with the blocking in this case, this channel's content is the very essence of 'fair use' imho.
And yet their live performance of this song on Beat-Club always felt more like a parody of prog rock. The ego and self indulgence on display as the audio equipment seemed to be choking on it. What an incredible trainwreck it was.
Larks tongue comes from Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending
I remember reading that the name for the album came from Jamie Muir while King Crimson was still in the process of recording the album. He was asked what their new album sounded like, and his answer was Larks Tongues in Aspic. I don't know if it was just an eccentric response or word play or whatever, but it does get your attention.
First a small Rant: I love King Crimson and am repeatedly frustrated by their stance on copyright. Many of the people who want to watch this have already bought their music and are here for the analysis and for those who haven't, this is how the music is going to spread to new generations.
As for this, this is likely them at their most experimental/least rock, although they have continuously gone in different directions during their entire history. A lot of the texture here is done by their percussionist Jamie Muir. This is the only album he was with the band on and he really shaped it, especially this song and part two which closes the album.
The Band went through countless lineup changes which fall into rough "periods." For more songs from this period I would recommend Starless or Fracture (which might be my favorite Crimson song). For their earlier stuff both 21st Century Schizoid Man and In The Court of the Crimson King from there first album are good picks. From there some of there later works you could try Frame by Frame or Discipline from when they reformed in the 80's (for a very different but still unique sound).
Bonjour à tous. C'est le tour de Robert Fripp et ses amis. Magnifiques morceaux à venir avec King Crimson....
One contemporary band I very highly recommend are The Mars Volta. They were influenced by King Crimson and other major prog (and non-prog) bands, but have right from their first album Deloused in the Comatorium (here's a name for you 😀) their own immediately recognizable sound, true to their latino roots. IMO all their output in the decade 2002-2012 is dynamite ! If I were to recommend an album I woild pick Frances the Mute. If it were one piece I would suggest Cassandra Gremini from that album, a 32-minute suite with no second wasted. They're not easy - it took me quite a while before I got over my,TBH, fear of such intense music - but the reward is worth the effort !
here's one of their more accessible pieces : ua-cam.com/video/sZ8YoTDO7m8/v-deo.html
Wonderful! Many people will recommend many other pieces from KC. From this period I would recommend Starless as the most impactful "song" and Fracture as the most interesting "composition" from a tonal analysis point of view.
Maybe try a live version so we can enjoy this ALL TOGETHER 😇
King Crimson is not the start of Progressive Rock. Progressive Rock starts in 1967 with Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade Of Pale," followed shortly thereafter by The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album and The Moody Blues' "Days Of Future Past." Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa and other significant players in the genre are also active at that time, 2 years before King Crimson.
One could stretch a point and say the advent of King Crimson represents the beginning of a short commercial peak for Progressive Rock. Though Prog didn't really become commercial until 1970 when Yes, ELP and The Moody Blues hit the pop charts with it. And, in terms of achievements in 1969, the first King Crimson album pales in comparison to The Who releasing the first Rock Opera that year.
"Larks' Tongues In Aspic" comes near the apex of Prog Rock's commercial peak around 1973/74 when King Crimson, like all other bands, were taking advantage of new advances in electric instruments and recording technologies that added new dimensions to the sounds they could produce in the studio. This was the period where Progressive Rock achievements were at their most mind blowing.
So, contrary to popular misinformation that proliferates in the Prog Rock Fandom, what you're listening to here is nowhere near the beginning of anything. It's not even a beginning for King Crimson, who have come a long way from their first album by this point.
Progressive Rock was defined by Paul McCartney as "The classical music of today." That statement was a shot heard round the music world, and just about everything that falls under the heading of Progressive Rock from 1967 to 1980 is in some way trying to prove that statement, while at the same time dealing with the anachronism of having to do it as a genre of pop music.
Prog Rock bands did grand symphonies, concertos, suites, operas, oratorios, requiems and tone poems, not to mention all manner of Avant Garde experimentation and genre mixing, all while at the same time being pressured to have hit singles. Sometimes this curious balancing act worked. Sometimes it didn't. Though that is often determined by the ear of the listener.
Gosh, one of my absolute favourites. I’m curious to hear what you’ll make of them.
Oh, there is sooo much of Crimson you have to discover... this is skimming the surface.. 😁 By the way, I hate copyright BS! How could Robert Fripp possibly loose any money from you playing this to us?
One would think all this exposure (no pun intended) would produce the opposite effect.
I don't think it is about money. Robert is interested in the purity of art and the uninterrupted, non-distracted, totally focused and authentic experience of it. Ideally it seems he'd like you to experience it live, within the context of a certain space and time at a concert. Next best would be a live album from beginning to end. After that, a studio album from beginning to end. The art, in its entirety, framed as intended. A track, by itself, out of context, worse still chopped up into little pieces and dissected is an anathema. I'm not sure I entirely agree. I enjoy analysis like this. But I think I understand where he's coming from. That said, copyright claims are administered by 3rd party publishing companies, not the artists themselves. Robert intervened to bypass that to enable Kanye West to use samples from 21st Century Schizoid man. Ever the enigma...
@@MattNolanCustom I still think it is asinine, especially when all their albums (well, almost) are readily available here.
@@ulfingvar1 I think it is probably counter-productive overall too, but an artist has every right to do whatever with their compositions and has no obligation to do what anybody else does or thinks is right. Many fans think they have extra rights or that the artist owes them something because they bought an album or paid for a concert ticket. I quite like that Robert challenges this, as it at least makes (some) people stop and think about it.
@@MattNolanCustom Still doesn't make sense (see above)
More King Crimson would be great! They are very innovative
King Crimson - Lizard (the lizard suite) is worth listening to. One of there best progressive tracks.
Agreed!
One of THEIR best progressive tracks...
There is a channel called Make Weird Music where the host blogs his ongoing struggles to learn to play King Crimson song “Fracture” which a near impossible but he persevered and Fripp would troll him in the comments saying things like “Give it up mate”. The host ended up writing a book about learning to Fracture and Fripp featured it on his own channel. That was fun. Good song for the harp, just saying. ;)
Make Weird Music has also docunented his journey with Fraktured.
@@mamertobernal4460 yeah the videos and book were really good.
King Crimson is really a string of bands around the guitarist Robert Fripp. The greatest versions were ones in which the other musicians saw themselves as equals in the band. The version that invented prog rock (there were proto-prog bands like The Nice, but I think it is fair to say The Court of the Crimson King is the first great prog album) was Fripp, Lake, McDonald, and Giles, but they others all quit during the first American tour. They did contribute to the second album, which is much less interesting. Then Fripp did an album without an established band (the very strange Jazz fusion album Lizard, which I like but many people hate). He put together what was clearly a backing band for the fourth album, which is good, but not at the level of their best albums.
Progressive rock was a movement which had its peak from 1969 to 1974. By the time that Fripp put together the above lineup, most of the seminal prog albums were already out. Yes had The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge. ELP had Brain salad Surgery, and Tarkus. Genesis had Nursery Crimes and Foxtrot. (Their best, Selling England by the Pound is from the same year, I don't know which came our first). So King Crimson is no longer trying to establish prog rock, it is trying to figure out how to innovate in a music form that has already established its basic form. Fripp had a real fear of stagnating. So, clearly, did Bruford who must have given up millions of dollars by quitting the massively popular Yes to join the rather unpopular King Crimson. It was a need to challenge himself that led to that decision, and he thought Yes would keep playing the same basic thing while King Crimson would keep doing something different.
Unfortunately this fear of stagnating also led Fripp to dissolve King Crimson right after they released their best album when they were at the height of their inventiveness. (And supposedly when McDonald thought he was rejoining the band).
To go with your viewing this title as being about a meal, the various sections can be seen as courses, dishes. Connected, playing off each other, building, referencing, but not necessarily forming a clean single narrative
They were often improvising in this period of the band's line-up--and the line-up changed OFTEN leading up to this album and then the line-up was winnowed down for the next two albums, before disbanding until reforming in the 80s with a different line-up. The last album in this period, Red, I think is the most narratively cohesive and focused album. Especially the long song at the end of that last album, Starless
My favorite album of theirs is "Three of a Perfect Pair." That was in their Tony Levin/Andrien Belew era, and it was a nice mixture of prog and rock with some funky overtones in places. Like Rush's classic era, much of it was complex but approachable.
I’ve found that the violin solo brings to mind Barton’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
Copyrights are a problem for rock music reviewers, but I'm excited that you are finally getting into King Crimson. Rock on Amy.
Larks' Tongue is a riff on Ralf Vaughn Williams' A Lark Ascending. Maybe you caught that already. Ralf Vaughn Williams and Benjamin Britten being my two favorite composers from GB, probably Thomas Tallis also.
King Crimson, yessss
I'm a huge fan of King Crimson. I think Starless is their masterpiece and deserves attention. You'll probably either love it or hate it, but almost certainly find it interesting.
Ah yes ... King Crimson.. what can we say...MARMITE.. you either get them or you really dont.. Lovely video, and you had a lot to say, because there is a truck load going on musically from start to finish here. One of the best music documentaries ever, yes ever, is about this band. ` In the Court of the Crimson King- 50 years of King Crimson ` is profoundly funny, deeply moving and a musically fascinating tale of obsession. Robert Fripp isn`t so much `on the spectrum` as off any spectrum . The end of it is also totally perfect.
Amy, I think that progressive music of all forms of "rock" music takes the most musical training i think. I don't see how one can write this kind of music without being classically trained. I think you'll find King Crimson a very interesting band. By the way, not all King Crimson sounds "out there", yet it is all very inventive and sometimes very accessible. One very excellent song by them is called Starless
Thank you for your eloquent sense of this music and its structure. This was a new King Crimson, with Bill Bruford of YES on drums and David Cross on violin. This was their second stylistic period, and this is like modern classical music. This is different from their first period, where the lyrics were of magic and legends, with Michael Giles on drums and including vocals by Greg Lake of ELP. The difference between those two clearly were integral to their approach. I am a drummer, two, and being influenced by both, I prefer the complex but feather light drumming of Michael Giles, and the fairytale sounding music, including vocals by Greg Lake of ELP. compared to Lark's Tongue ushering music that was dead serious, complex and even though harsh and dissonant in places, it really seems like the times we've all felt like going mad. This version of the group continued for two more albums and a live one, I was able to see this the first time plaayed in New York City. This was released as the U.S.A.album. And there other distinct lineup/periods of KC still Happy Exploring!
Fripp's remarks about his composition "Fracture". I cannot play Fracture. I don't know why I play it. I'm 60 years of age, why do I walk this tightrope each night on tour?"
Today, the Japanese, all-femal five-piece BAND-MAID is making progressive rock of a different sort. Their song CORALLIUM is one example.
Thank you!
That opening was the Indonesian gamelan that was mentioned in your opening notes. Many 20th Century classical composers were influenced by this Indonesian percussion ensemble.
You're right, but references to Gamelan with respect to King Crimson tend to be more to do with the interlocking, looping guitar parts of the 80s incarnation of the band.
As far seeing any band live, the first time I saw King Crimson, they had the largest influence on me then any other band I ever saw. I'm not saying they were the best, but before I saw them, I had never heard them and had no idea what their music was about. They were on the bill in Indianapolis with some other bands, might have been Alice Cooper, but when they they came on they opened with "Pictures of a City" I had no idea what kind of music it was, but I knew I loved it. I had never heard anything like it! Their entire set was like that. That was over 50 years ago and I still remember how I felt at the time. I saw them again about a year later, a completely different band, with a completely different sound but still King Crimson.
It looks like she's conducting an orchestra even when she just speaking _ really turn the volume down and watch _ she's a natural
Two "sibling" songs from KC that are a must: Fracture (from Starless and Bible Black) and FraKctured (from The Construkction of Light). Both can support many hours of repeated deep listening.
All behold the Oracle, Mr. Robert Fripp!
It's kind of an incredible you getting copyright flagged for King Crimson especially this one.
I don't understand the whole copyright thing anyway it's not like you're trying to sell this if anything you're promoting their music.
Again you did one of the greatest bands in rock music. Robert Fripp did also a lot with other great musicians like Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno and David Byrne.
Amy, there is one word you used repeatedly in the video which amply explains the title of the piece: "texture".
Fun fact "Larks' tongues" is uttered by "Brian" in "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979), a mocking reference to the "Roman Imperialist Tidbits" he is offering for sale at the gladiatorial contest. (Apparently the richer romans really did indulge in "larks tongue pie").
I don't agree, that was everything true. KC was the first band that discover that every song from The Beatles will be another genre of rock music. But that is one of the best band in the history of popular music.
not sure if i'd liken that solo to a warm-up exercise. the important question to ask is whether it grooves or not. to my ears it does.
You have to weigh ALL the tracks on their albums. It's the juxtapositions within each track as well as acrossthe entire album.
Another call for the song "Travel" by The Gathering, the TG25 live version. "I wish you knew your music was to stay forever".
Always have had a vast range of musical likes.... my 3 all time favorites are The Beatles, Frank Zappa,... and King Crimson. The best means to gain the full experience of any Progressive Rock Album is to listen from A to Z, take the full journey but certainly understand the limitation in a format such as this. For King Crimson, I would suggest that as you have with the Beatles, start with the early work and listen chronologically to get the "feel" of the progression of the compositional growth. As I did 45 years ago, I would suggest starting with the first release "In the Court of the Crimson King", with particular attention to 21st Century Schizoid Man, Epitaph, and the title track. Them move forward in the catalog till you get to the 3rd release because I think you would absolutely love hearing the "Lizard" suite. It is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word.
I was listening to this album for the first time when 9/11 was happening, I wasn' t aware of yet.
In your spare time, listen to 'Prelude: Song of the Gulls' from their 1971 album 'Islands'. An instrumental piece in a classical form.
And the go straight into the next track, "Islands", which is what it's the prelude to. Technically, with the album "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" being the next studio album after "Islands", the song "Islands" (the last one on this album) in some sense sits right before "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One". But all of the band members except Fripp changed between the two albums, so they represent radically different eras of Crimson. Also, "Islands" and "LTiA, Pt 1" are two of the rare KC tracks where I prefer the studio versions over the live ones ("Prelude" was never performed live).
Would be great of you covered Fractured next.. or any of the live versions of The Deception of The Thrush.. Or The Light of Day.. Good heavens, there is sooo much to suggest..
Oh dear.....Prog......!
.....now...where did I put those razorblades.....!!
Amy, I think it’s a Gamilan, a SE Asian percussion instrument.
Amy, I would be intrigued by your reactions related to King Crimson's (probably) most complex and best work, Starless from their Red album (they also have another, much less interesting Starless - that is "Starless and Bible Black" - from another album). Would you pick that up?
You should contact Robert Fripp. He would probably really like speaking with you about the music.
there is two parts to this .maybe you should do bath parts.
Three parts- the third is on Three of a Perfect Pair.
Five parts, though I'd argue Elektrik sounds more like a Larks part than Level Five.
On the subject of Primus, Baroque (UK: /bəˈrɒk/, US: /-ˈroʊk/; French: [baʁɔk]).
Great analysis, I am waiting for 'Fracture'
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