The King Crimson Iceberg Explained | Part 1

King Crimson is a band I hold very closely to my heart. I first got into their music around 4 years ago, at the end of my sophomore year in high school. I was a different person back then than I am right now, and not in a better way. But, over that summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school, I improved myself a lot, and I feel like King Crimson helped me a lot with that. It may sound cheesy, but listening to their music really helped me appreciate life and change myself for the

better. Without them, I wouldn’t be the person I am today . So when I saw this iceberg chart floating around, I knew I had to cover it. Not only would it make for an excellent video, it also gives me an opportunity to explore more about one of my favorite bands of all time. Before we start, we just have some housekeeping to get across. I know its getting kinda redundant at this point, but just in case someone hasn’t watched an iceberg video before, a quick explanation is in point. An iceberg cha

rt is a chart about a general subject filled with different entries. The entries are sorted by layer, with the top layer being the most well known information about the subject, and the bottom layer of the iceberg holding the most obscure information about the subject. This ensures that an entire iceberg contains a pretty holistic view of a subject. So whether you know nothing about King Crimson, or if you’ve been a fan since 1969, you’ll hopefully learn something new watching this series. I kno

w I’m excited to learn while researching this video. Also, I just want to keep in mind that while I’ll try to be as objective as possible, I’ll also include my personal thoughts on some songs, whether it be on how much I like them or my interpretation of what we mean. Obviously, we all have our own opinions and interpretations of art, so what I say isn’t the only correct position, and its totally ok if you disagree. Also, while I play instruments, I am no musical theorist or student, so apologie

s if I don’t go into the technical impressiveness of many of their songs, even though it, in all honestly, shouldn’t be understated. If I did, I’d at best be reciting words and phrases that I have little to no understanding of, and at worst I’d be misrepresenting information. Please keep that in mind. So without further ado, this is the King Crimson Iceberg explained. LAYER 1: THE PUPPETS In the Court of the Crimson King Our very first entry is fittingly, the very first studio album by King Crim

son. In the Court of the Crimson King was King Crimson’s debut album, releasing on October 10th, 1969 by Island Records. The album is the band’s most famous by far, with the painting of the Schizoid Man on the album art being one of the most iconic album covers in all of music, and one of the most influential albums in Progressive Rock. A little fun aside about the album art. It was painted by Barry Godber, one of the friends of Peter Sinfield, a band member. Godber was actually a computer progr

ammer and not a professional artist, and the painting was a self-portrait. It was the only album cover that he made because sadly he passed away in 1970 at a young age. But it’s still incredible that one of the most iconic album covers of all time had such humble beginnings. Back to the album, it consists of 5 songs, 21st Century Schizoid Man, I Talk to the Wind, Epitaph, Moonchild, and In the Court of the Crimson King. The album itself presents a very anti-war message and shows cynicism towards

current state of affairs as well as the future. It was released to great success and was lauded for its very unique sound and composition, combining rock, jazz, and medieval music. 21st Century Schizoid Man, the first song in the album, paints a bleak picture of the future, the 21st century to be exact, and the downward spiral humanity will be in at that point. The first verse of the song talks about society sliding farther into violence and paranoia, and how the rich will benefit from this. Th

e second verse talks about how politicians will continue to wage war, killing many innocents, all to keep his own career alive, and avoid his own ‘funeral pyre’, so to speak. Obviously, this verse was inspired by the Vietnam War happening at the time, and sadly, politician’s mad wars still continue to this day. The third verse talks about the destruction of culture and art in favor of commodities that only enrich corporations that don’t really care about art, represented by the greedy blind man.

So the poets starve and children bleed while the general population is distracted by cheap entertainment and the newest product that they don’t really need. And then we have the titular 21st Century Schizoid Man. Schizoidism is a personality disorder where people actively avoid participating in society as well as interacting with others, showing little emotion. Well, if society has degraded to this point, I think everybody in the 21st Century would be a Schizoid Man. I’m not going to go this in

depth on all their songs, but considering that 21st Century Schizoid Man is probably their most famous song, I thought it was worth fully explaining. The next song on the album is I Talk to the Wind. Right away, this is a superb follow-up to the album’s opener, with that song’s screaming lyrics, distorted guitar, and wailing saxophone being contrasted by I Talk’s relaxing flute, laid-back bass, and soft lyrics. I Talk to the Wind seems like a direct follow up to 21st Century Schizoid Man, with

the song looking like it takes place from the perspective of the schizoid man. The lyrics are about a man drifting around aimlessly, speaking but not heard by the world around him. Third on the album is Epitaph. Another anti-war song, Epitaph is about a man who sees that the future of humanity will be dictated by war and suffering, and being unable to change it, this man accepts his fate and can do nothing but cry. I have some nostalgia for Epitaph, as its the first song that I learned to play o

n the bass. Its not hard at all, but it was quite the confidence boost when I realized I could play a full song from one of my favorite bands. The next song on the album is Moonchild. Moonchild is the most abstract song on the album, both lyrically and musically. It’s an extremely peaceful and soothing song. And this is a controversial statement to make, but its also my favorite song of the album. The lyrics are quite poetic in nature, and seem to be set on describing a physical scene rather tha

n telling a social message. The most commonly accepted interpretation of the lyrics are that it just describes the moonlight in various situations, and the actual ‘child’ part is just metaphor. For example, ‘Dancing in the shallows of a river’ refers to moonlight reflecting off the river, and ‘Dreaming in the shadows of a willow’ is moonlight streaming through the branches of a willow. However, moonchild is defined by its insanely long improv section, known as Part II: The Illusion. This is over

nine minutes long after the lyrics end. The improvisation is very ambient and quiet, characterized by spaced out drum fills and guitar noodling. The improv section is pretty controversial among listeners, with many claiming its just too random and empty to be interesting, and it admittedly is the worst improv of King Crimson across their albums. However, I do enjoy it, but I’ve always liked ambient tracks so I must admit I do have a bias. But it is very peaceful, and if anything it lulls you in

to a calm state of being and cleanses your palate. It makes the final track of the album, The Court of the Crimson King, hit even harder once it begins. The lyrics invoke a poetic yet chaotic description of a king’s court, with many different characters like the Yellow Jester and the Black Queen. I’m going to be honest, I can’t even begin to decipher meaning from this. I understand that the song has various themes of control, as the Crimson King is controlling the members of his court like puppe

ts, but anything further than that I’m stumped. Peter Sinfield has a website called songsouponsea where he explains a lot of his thought process and inspirations behind the lyrics he writes, but even reading this I’m still somewhat confused, the whole website is pretty wild. But from what I gleaned, it seems like Sinfield was inspired by the life of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. But ultimately, all that really matters is that the song sounds super good. The song itself sounds apocalyptic and

larger than life, and even if the meaning of the lyrics eludes you, they do a great job at painting a vivid scene in your head. This is probably the only song to rival 21st Century Schizoid Man in its popularity, and for good reason. Robert Fripp Robert Fripp is the lead guitarist and co-founder of King Crimson, and is notable for being the only member of King Crimson to be a part of the band from its creation until the present day. I say the present day because the band never officially ended,

it was just that Fripp said that they were getting too old to tour. However, he did say that although unlikely, future tours were possible, so the band is still technically together. But anyways, Fripp was always interested in playing music, and was a part of various bands before forming King Crimson in 1968. Since then, he’s been involved in various musical projects and bands, including multiple incarnations of King Crimson, until officially retiring from professional music in 2012. He also tea

ches guitar in various groups. Technically, he is known for popularizing crosspicking and developing New Standard Tuning for the guitar. About his personal life, he was born in 1946 in Dorset, England. He married singer and actress Toyah Wilcox in 1986, whom he still lives with. Fripp has kinda created a persona of being a no-nonsense and strict man due to his live performances, where he just sits and plays without much fanfare or emotion showing. However, as we got more insights into his person

al life, a lot of us fans realized he was quite the opposite, which I will talk about later. Progressive Rock Progressive Rock, also known as prog rock, is the musical genre King Crimson is a part of. Prog Rock arose in the 1960s as a way to kinda elevate rock to a more dignified and culturally appreciated status. While the genre itself is very loose in what its defined by, there are some certain key features that differentiate it. First is that the songs typically are quite long in length, and

by long I mean longer than anything that could really be played on the radio, with the typical range being from 6 minutes to around 30 minutes. The second are that the lyrics tend to be more poetic in nature. The music also ideally tries to innovate their sound, using technically impressive techniques to create new soundscapes. A lot of times, they will fuse different genres like jazz, electronic, rock, and ambient in their music. Often, due to the length of these songs, an individual song will

cycle through these different styles, genres, and techniques, with the songs having different sections. Personally, I’ve also seen that a lot of progressive rock music has a more medieval tone, where the music just sounds stereotypically medieval-like and the lyrics are often fantasy-oriented. However, this isn’t universal, as I can think of some bands that don’t fall under this umbrella, including King Crimson’s incarnations after the 70s, but it was something that I noticed. Basically, while m

ost professional music released is meant to be stuff that’s danced to, prog rock is meant to be listened to and analyzed. Its because of this that prog rock has a kinda negative reputation, with many believing that the genre is full of self-indulgent elitists, and don’t get me wrong, we have our fair share of those, but that’s not all of us. Some examples of popular Prog Rock bands are King Crimson, Yes, Rush, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Caravan, Gentle Giant, Camel, and Genesis. Probably the most po

pular Progressive Rock band is Pink Floyd. Now, there are those that claim that Pink Floyd isn’t progressive rock solely because they’re too popular, but that’s just complete nonsense. Pink Floyd’s music checks off all the prog rock essentials, and the only reason why some people don’t consider them prog is that they’re so elitist and gatekeepy that they don’t want one of the most popular bands of all time to be a part of the genre they love so much. Well, too bad for them, because the most popu

lar prog rock song of all time is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Although on the shorter end for prog, it is a part of the genre. Some essential non-King Crimson progressive rock albums I enjoy are as follows- Close to the Edge by Yes, Fragile by Yes, In the Land of Grey and Pink by Caravan, Romantic Warrior by Return to Forever, Meddle by Pink Floyd, Animals by Pink Floyd, Octopus by Gentle Giant, Tarkus by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and Mirage by Camel. Starless The final track of King Crimson’s

1974 album Red, Starless is widely regarded as the best King Crimson song. Musically, it is excellent. The song stirs a mix of emotions within you, mostly deep sadness and depression. The lyrics talk about how the brightness and happiness in one’s life is drained out- life is meaningless to you. You cannot see the beauty in a smile, you cannot find faith in worship, you cannot find any stars in the night sky. Your life is completely and utterly hopeless, and as you slip away into death, you refl

ect back and realize how futile your entire existence was. Its kinda fitting, because at the time of its release, Starless was the last ever studio song by King Crimson before their disbandment. But its not just the lyrics themselves that portray this message- the instrumental of the song is excellent, especially in the long middle section without lyrics, where the soft instruments slowly linger and crescendo into an angry climax over the course of several minutes, perfectly portraying despair t

urning into anger and then finally acceptance without a single word spoken. Starless, in mine and many others’ opinions, is not only the greatest King Crimson song, but perhaps one of the greatest songs ever made. It certainly has had a huge influence on prog rock and rock in general. I listen to this song quite frequently, and I would suggest that everybody give it a listen at least once. POWER Power is a song by Kanye West released in 2010 as part of his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

. This is notable because the song prominently features a sample from 21st Century Schizoid Man, where the titular lyric is repeated throughout the song. In April 2022, Declan Colgan Music, the people who own the rights to 21st Century Schizoid Man, sued Universal Music as they were not paid sufficient royalties from Power’s profits gained from streaming. Robert Fripp came out and said that this dispute has been going on longer than necessary, and that the details of the case would shock anyone

who believes that one should be paid fairly for their work. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a manga series written by Toshiyuki Araki, better known by his pen name Hirohiko Araki. It has been in serialization since 1987 and is still being written to this day. It has also gotten a popular anime adaptation, beginning in 2012 and still continuing to this day. Araki is a fan of a lot of western music, specifically progressive rock and rock in general. Due to this, Araki names ma

ny of his characters and powers, known as stands, after musicians, bands, songs, and albums. Due to Japan’s lax copyright laws, this is allowed. And as you might have guessed, King Crimson is also referenced within the manga. King Crimson is the name of the stand of the mafia boss Diavolo, the main antagonist of Golden Wind, the 5th part of the series. Jojo’s musical references can range from a name randomly chosen that has nothing to do with the actual story, to a character who’s personality, a

bilities, and story arc is directly inspired by the music its referencing. King Crimson leans more towards the latter. Here are all the potential references I found. First, the album art for In The Court of the Crimson King is reflected in the design of the stand itself, especially with its second, smaller face. Diavolo’s character is noted for being extremely reclusive and secretive of his identity, and his final goal is to basically cut off all potential means of someone to find him. That soun

ds like a case of Schizoidism to me. Diavolo has a split personality- one of the mob boss, and another one of a weird yet innocent guy, Doppio. Often, Doppio will hear Diavolo’s voice in his head, and talk back by speaking out loud, seemingly to nobody. He’s talking to the wind. Also, you can interpret the two personalities are the Straight Man and the Late Man from the lyrics of I Talk to the Wind, with Doppio being the straight man who participates in society, and Diavolo being the late man wh

o isolates himself and simply watches everybody else. King Crimson has an ability called Epitaph, which allows him to see the future, but not change it- a major theme of the song Epitaph. Part 5 of Jojo revolves around the mafia that Diavolo leads, and the various infighting among its members, It can be said that this mafia is The Court of the Crimson King, and that these traitorous members killing each other are just puppets dancing. Finally, this one might be a stretch, but the song Fallen Ang

el is about a guy who joins a gang, and ends up dying after being stabbed, which is basically what happens to Diavolo. That could just be coincidence and not a reference though. Another potential reference is that Doppio’s character is based off the symbol in the Larks’ and Three of a Perfect Pair album art. Both of these symbols represent the merging of the masculine and feminine, which fits the whole Doppio/Diavolo dynamic. But once again, that could just be me stretching, as many other Jojo s

tands don’t have ties this deep to their inspirations. Also, I’m adding this very recently, but in Chapter 2 of Part 9 of Jojo, we got introduced to the stand of the character Usagi, Matte Kudesai. This is a very recent reveal, so we don’t know everything about this reference. However, from what we’ve seen so far, its power is to recreate an object but with properties that someone wishes for. For example, in the chapter it creates a new security camera that changes the faces of anybody filmed by

it, as one of the characters wished for it. It fits with the song Matte Kudesai’s themes of longing and want. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is relatively controversial among King Crimson listeners, as there’s a lot of people who are mad that a lot of online discussion about the band outside dedicated forums would often just become swamped with jojo memes. For example, the comments section of songs like Schizoid Man, Epitaph, and Court are often dominated by obnoxious jojo fans making jokes. But on t

he other hand, the series has got a lot of people listening to King Crimson, many of whom became genuine fans of the band afterwards. I myself am kinda like the opposite of these people- King Crimson was what got me into Jojo. But I will admit that Jojo introduced me to a lot of music and got me into bands I would’ve otherwise ignored. The truth is, everybody is introduced to bands and songs differently- nobody is born a music connoisseur. There have been tons of examples of people being introdu

ced to music after learning about it from a movie or other media. As long as everybody is open minded and people on both sides aren’t obnoxious, I think no matter how you got into music, what matters is that you enjoy it. Greg Lake Greg Lake was another founding member of King Crimson. He actually grew up in the same town as Robert Fripp, and at one point both received guitar lessons from the same man, Don Strike. This shared history fostered a friendship in the 1960s, which resulted in him join

ing the original King Crimson lineup. He was to be the vocalist of the band, and despite being a guitarist, he would quickly learn to play bass, as Fripp didn’t want to search for another bassist. He had some involvement in writing the song lyrics, and would actually produce Court himself after their contracted producer left the project. Lake stayed with King Crimson for their second album after which he left to form Emerson Lake and Palmer, for which he is most well known. After ELP, he worked

on some solo projects, had a brief stint with the supergroup Asia, played in a reformed ELP, and would continue to tour musically well into the 2010s. In his personal life, he had a wife Regina and daughter Natasha. On December 7th, 2016, he sadly passed away from cancer. His autobiography, Lucky Man, was released posthumously in June 2017. Bill Bruford Bill Bruford is another prominent member of King Crimson. He initially rose to prominence as the drummer for fellow Prog Rock band Yes, as he pl

ayed for the first five albums of said band. However, he decided to join King Crimson in 1972, as he believed that it was a band which would challenge him more musically while still being sustainable. He said “King Crimson was one of the only gigs for a rock drummer where you could play in 17/16 and still stay in decent hotels.” He played for the rest of King Crimson’s initial run until 1974, which is when they disbanded. However, he rejoined for the 1981 and 1994 iterations of King Crimson, ami

dst several other obligations. He retired in 2009. Afterwards, he released his autobiography and earned a PhD in music at the University of Surrey. He was offered an honorary degree, but declined as he wanted to put in the work to get it, as he felt like he missed out on upper education as a young man. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes. Peter Sinfield The last of the King Crimson members for this layer, Peter Sinfield is a poet and songwriter who wro

te for King Crimson’s songs in the early years of the band. He also did various other work for the band, such as their lighting at shows, advice for artwork for the album covers, and even sometimes playing the synthesizer. He notably was the guy who came up with the name King Crimson for the band. However, as time went on, Fripp and Sinfield’s relationship soured, and in 1972 Fripp asked him to leave, While the exact reason is unknown, it is theorized that this was due to Sinfield’s lyrical styl

e, which may have conflicted with Fripp’s vision, something we will get to later. Afterwards, he worked with Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, before working on various other projects. Related Bands It’s best to get these bands out the way, as I’ve already mentioned them a lot. There are a lot of bands that consist of former King Crimson members or would contribute members to King Crimson. First is Yes, which we already established that Bill Bruford was once a member of. Yes is notable for being anothe

r founder and huge name in the world of Progressive Rock, and was very much a contemporary to King Crimson, especially considering both underwent a similar evolution from more psychedelic rock in the 60s and 70s to a more mainstream pop-rock in the 80s. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer is another influential prog rock band that of course, featured Greg Lake of King Crimson. Asia is a progressive pop-rock supergroup, formed in 1982. Its initial lineup featured former King Crimson member John Wetton as b

assist and vocalist, and Greg Lake also played the same part for some concerts for the group. Asia also featured several members from Yes as well as Carl Palmer from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. So yeah, you can say that all of these bands are pretty interconnected. Anti-War Messages As I mentioned before, King Crimson’s debut album, in the Court of the Crimson King had some heavy anti-war themes. This was of course a protest against the at the time ongoing Vietnam War as well as the fear of a pot

ential nuclear war, This is most prominently seen in the songs 21st Century Schizoid Man and Epitaph, with the former talking about the devastation caused by the Vietnam War and the latter speaking to fears of world leaders causing devastation with nuclear weapons. LAYER 2 Red Red is the seventh studio album by King Crimson, releasing on October 6th 1974 through Island Records. It was also the last album released by the first iteration of King Crimson, as the band actually disbanded a couple wee

ks before the album’s release. The band at this time only had three members- Fripp, Wetton, and Bruford, as seen on the album’s cover. However, several guest musicians also contributed. The album consists of five tracks, and while there isn’t an overarching theme or story to it, it can be said that the songs on the album deal with ideas surrounding death. The album opens with its title track, Red, which is an instrumental. It then fades into the second track, Fallen Angel, which tells the story

of a man who lost his brother to gang violence in New York City. The intro is amazing, with the heavy distorted bass bleeding into the guitar building up to the first lyrics. It’s a very emotional song that I can’t do justice through words, with the grief really permeating through the instrumentals. The third song is One More Red Nightmare, which is a lighter song in tone than Fallen Angel. The lyrics seem to be John Wetton singing about a nightmare he had about his plane crashing. He sings abou

t how he felt safe in the plane until it started dropping, at which point he started panicking and praying to be saved from death. And well, his prayers were answered because he woke up on his bus safe and sound. By far the most upbeat and energetic song on the album, injecting some dark humor into the lyrics. Next up, we have Providence, which is just eight minutes of some excellent improv. It is a song that is admittedly difficult to get into, especially with the intro of the song sounding lik

e the band just tuning their instruments, but once it gets going, it gets going. And finally, we have Starless. I’ve already sung the praises of this song previously, so I’ll spare you from having to listen to it twice. Red is an absolutely amazing album that all of you should listen to at least once, regardless of whether you enjoy the rest of King Crimson’s discography. It is considered by many to be the best King Crimson album, and one of the greatest albums of all time. Even Kurt Cobain repo

rtedly said Red was one of his favorite albums of all time. Red is progressive rock at its best- perfecting Crimson’s old sound, while also forging new ones. Tony Levin Tony Levin is a very talented bass player who is known for his session playing on many solo and group projects. He’s worked with John Lennon, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and Buddy Rich. However, he’s also notable for being a King Crimson member who’s stuck around for multiple lineups since the 80s to the modern day, a very impressiv

e feat. Levin was born in 1946 in Boston, Massachusetts and started studying the bass at the young age of 10. He played with various bands starting from the late 60s, and he’s kept himself busy with music since then. He’s become famous not only for his incredible bass skills, but also his use and popularization of the Chapman Stick. He also invented this technique called Funk Fingers where you attach modified drumsticks to your fingers to get a funkier sound on the bass. I can’t reasonably do ju

stice to how accomplished Tony Levin is, and I’d suggest you look into his works if you’re interested. He is a huge inspiration to me and to many other people across the world. Discipline Discipline is the eighth studio album by King Crimson. It’s notable because its the first album in the second era of King Crimson, defined by their three albums in the 80s. Discipline marked a huge step forward in musical development for the band, with a more groovier and funkier tone, very similar to Talking H

eads if you know them. In fact, Robert Fripp played the guitar for the Talking Heads Album Fear of Music. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time, and that was before I knew that Fripp actually did some of the music on the album. I mean, knowing that now, it seems like Fripp took a lot of inspiration from Talking Heads when making Discipline, as the album sounds exactly like something the band would put out, as a lot of bands in the 80s would take leaps forward due to new technology as well a

s being inspired by music from other cultures. Discipline was originally not meant to be a King Crimson project, Fripp wanted it to be the debut album of a new band, also named Discipline. While the album was musically great, there was a fear that it didn’t have a widespread appeal, so the obvious solution was to rebrand this new band as the latest incarnation of King Crimson for the name recognition. Also, Fripp felt as if the new music was something the old band would evolve to play, so he was

fine renaming the band. Personally, I like 70s King Crimson, and 70s prog as a whole better than the more pop turn it made in the 80s. I absolutely love the larger than life, medieval, and almost fantastical tones of a lot of 70s prog. But I guess it wouldn’t be called Progressive Rock if it didn’t progress. And every time I relisten to Discipline, or any of King Crimson’s 80s songs, I’m taken aback by how much I like it across the board. While I like the 70s albums more as a whole, I think som

e of the individual songs from King Crimson’s 80s discography are some of their best. So with that history and personal aside out of the way, lets get to the album itself. The album released on September 22nd 1981, and featured a new lineup of previous members Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford on Guitar and Drums respectively, as well as newcomers Adrian Belew, who played the guitar and did the vocals, and bassist Tony Levin. The album has seven songs. First is Elephant Talk. The song itself plays o

n the meaning of the phrase Elephant Talk, which is a type of speaking where you get your point across directly without using too many words or articulating much. As such, the lyrics of the song are incredibly straightforward- literally just synonyms of the word talk, grouped alphabetically, sometimes broken up by the repeated line “Talk, it’s only talk”. The best part of the song is when Belew has to say “These are words with a D this time” in the middle of him listing words with a d. That, and

the guitars sounding like elephants trumpeting in the background. Very funny. Next up we have Frame by Frame. The lyrics of this one are simple- it’s about someone who’s suffering from anxiety over an unspecified situation, and is analyzing and reflecting upon the events that happened to try and analyze what happened. However, more notable is the guitar work in the song by Fripp and Belew. You actually might have heard about this through a copypasta that circulated around meme pages some time b

ack without even knowing it was about this song. And since the copypasta explains the guitar work well, I’ll just recite it verbatim: So both guitars are playing the same riff, but one of them's playing it with out the last note so it's in 13/8 instead of 7/4 right? And everytime they play the riff the second guitar lags behind by an extra note, and they get more and more out of sync until eventually they're exactly one bar apart and they start play at the same time again, it's crazy shit bro, y

ou gotta hear it. The song and this technique was inspired by the tradition Indonesian music of Gamelan, which utilizes polyrhythms and dropped notes to weave time signatures. Next up we have the song Matte Kudesai, which is Japanese for ‘Please Wait’. It’s a very quiet, sad, but calming song. The lyrics themselves tell a part of a story that we don’t know the full context for. All we know is that it’s about a woman waiting and longing for something. There have been many theories proposed about

the song’s full story. Considering that the title is in Japanese, many people think that it’s about a Japanese woman living in the United States, but unhappily, and she’s waiting to return. Others have said that it could be inspired by the opera Madame Butterfly, in which a Japanese woman waits for her American husband to return to her and her son as he left her shortly after their wedding. The next song in the album is called Indiscipline, and just like the name, the contents of the song are al

so quite undisciplined. Originally meant to be an instrumental, the band agreed that it needed vocals to feel complete. So, Adrian Belew took a letter his wife wrote to him about a painting she had done, added his own little part, and there were the lyrics to the song. Honestly a pretty amusing origin story. Moving on we got Thela Hun Ginjeet, an anagram for Heat in the Jungle. The song is about a guy being attacked by thugs in the city. There’s a really interesting backstory to the lyrics and p

roduction of the song, but that’s its own entry later down in the iceberg, so I won’t explain it here. Next up we have The Sheltering Sky, an new-age ambient instrumental notable for its use of synths and african drums. Its named after the 1949 Novel The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. Finally is the titular song Discipline, another instrumental. Like Frame by Frame, the song is inspired by Gamelan utilizes multiple guitars playing similar patterns but some dropping notes resulting in hectic time

signatures. I mean seriously it is insane. Here are all of the time signatures the two guitars play in at the same time. 5/8 and 5/8, 5/8 and 4/4, 5/8 and 9/8, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16, 10/8 and 20/16, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16, 12/16 and 12/16, 12/16 and 11/16, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16. Fripp said the song was called discipline because it was an exercise in discipline for all band members. Nobody could really just play the same tabs or fills to accompany a lead singer or

guitarist- everybody had an equal part to play in the song and each had to focus on their individual part while not getting ahead of the others. Truly impressive stuff. Adrian Belew You know Adrian Belew because I just introduced him in the entry about Discipline. Born in 1949, Belew initially was a drummer as a teenager before switching to Guitar. Self taught, he quickly became known for a unique style where he would often use his guitar to imitate noises made by animals or machines, such as t

he elephant noises in Elephant Talk. He’s worked with notable bands and Artists like David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and Talking Heads, and has been a member of King Crimson from 1981 to 2009. The contrast between him and Robert Fripp is quite funny, because even though both are excellent guitar players, Belew is much more of a charismatic performer. If you look at times where they perform together live, Fripp would be stoically sitting on his stool while Belew would be prancing and dancing across the

stage. John Wetton John Wetton was a member of the 70s King Crimson lineup. He was born in 1949, and as a child would play bass lines on the piano for classical music, which got him interested in playing the bass. After joining King Crimson in 1972, he became the band’s vocalist and led them into a direction with a heavier, darker tone. After the dissolution of King Crimson in 1974, another notable band he joined was the Prog Supergroup Asia in the 80s, from which he has had great success. Unfo

rtunately, he passed away from cancer in January of 2017, and left behind a wife and son. Larks’ Tongues in Aspic The Fifth Studio album by King Crimson, Larks’ Tongues in Aspic is a landmark album for the band in terms of style. The album featured an almost completely new lineup with Robert Fripp, John Wetton on bass, David Cross on violin, Jaimie Muir on percussion, and Bill Bruford on drumset. This incarnation focused more on experimentation, not only with Muir’s percussion but also with the

newly added violin, moving the band from more of a traditional jazz and rock sound to a more fusion jazz and even metal sound. The first song in the album is Larks Tongues in Aspics part 1, an instrumental starting off with this excellent percussion solo transitioning into this hard guitar riff, representing the awakening of the consciousness. Afterwards, the track launches into a variety of acts with lots of contrasting textures. The song itself is a dance between Cross’s sweeping, elegant viol

in and Fripp’s grungy aggressive guitar. The focus on the stark difference between loud and soft, intense and calm can represent a reoccurring theme through the album about the differences between and eventual conciliation of the masculine and feminine energies. This theme is shown in the album art, with the fusion of the sun and moon representing the fusion of masculinity and femininity. The next song is Book of Saturday, a much simpler song compared to the one that precedes it, but a sweet one

. The lyrics talk about a person who reminisces about the various memories he has about his loved one, and how they keep him tethered to her even when he tries to leave. The instrumental reflects the sweet yet somber nature of the lyrics, the speaker is clearly unhappy, but is reflecting upon happier times. Next is Exiles, which starts with this long, brooding mellotron intro before launching into the lyrical part of the song. The song is about someone who moves to a new land to try and seize th

e opportunity for success and fame, but struggles with fitting in with his new home. He reflects on his past and wonders if a simple life at home would make him happier. Next up is Easy Money, a very sleazy song about our worship for money, shown through descriptions of gambling and lust for a beautiful woman, and eventually uses the money gained from her unsavory lifestyle to fuel his own hedonism. Next up we have the Talking Drum, an instrumental which features some excellent percussion. It’s

notable to me because of how it builds up throughout the whole song, only to be paid off at the end by a couple seconds of jarring, ear-piercing violin. You’ll notice that King Crimson has a lot of these songs that are instrumentals which just build up for almost the whole duration of the song with very little to no drop, and this is an example of one of them. Finally, we have Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part 2, another instrumental. This is just an epic 7 minutes of pure contained chaos, immediatel

y starting with a powerful guitar rift leading into a ebbing melody for the first half of the song, while the second half just goes into full insanity, with the highlights being the violin maniacally screeching and the concluding cacophony of notes which last for almost a minute. After spending the entire album playing around each other, the masculine and feminine finally merge in one final, glorious climax. Larks’ Part 2 is one of King Crimson’s essential songs, as the album’s sound itself is a

landmark for the band and this song specifically has been frequently played by the band at most of their live shows, resulting in many different iterations of the song. In The Wake of Poseidon In The Wake of Poseidon is the second studio album from the band, releasing in May of 1970. It’s definitely the jazziest of all of King Crimson’s studio albums, which I respect, and I personally think that it’s quite the underrated album in the discography of the band. I also really like the album art, it

’s called the 12 Faces of Humankind, which features 12 depictions personalities which make up the human consciousness when combined, as well as the interplay between the elements of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. It is also possible that the characters on the album art could be representative of some of the characters mentioned in the track In the Court of the Crimson King, which is one of many things that make it an unofficial sequel to the debut album, both thematically and musically. The album

starts with a short song titled Peace- A Beginning. As opposed to all the instrumentals we’ve been seeing lately, Peace completely consists of vocals. The lyrics are esoteric, but the overall tone is, well, peaceful. The album immediately launches into the energetic next song, Pictures of a City. This is the jazziest King Crimson ever gets in their studio albums musically. The lyrics are disconnected words, no full sentences to be found. Personally, I think the lyrics talk about a couple going o

ut to enjoy the nightlife of downtown, getting drunk and unwisely deciding to go for a joyride afterwards. As a consequence, they crash their car and die. A dark interpretation, but hey, I just choose to enjoy the music. Next, we have cadence and cascade, a very calming and soothing song. The song is sung by Fripp’s old friend Gordon Haskell, making it the first song of King Crimson not to be sung by Greg Lake. The song also features soft piano, acoustic guitar, and a flute solo. Cadence is hone

stly one of my favorite songs due to how relaxing it is, which made it even more shocking when I learned the meaning of the lyrics. The song is about two of groupies, Cadence and Cascade, spending the night with a singer named Jade. Keeping that in mind, the rest of the song is pretty raunchy, filled with innuendo. I never really paid attention to the lyrics because I was appreciating the instruments, but now I’ll never be able to listen to the song in the same way. Afterwards is the titular son

g of the album, In The Wake of Poseidon. The lyrics explain a world on the verge of destruction, as well as what the inhabitants of this world do to cope. They either foresee the destruction stoically, grieve the upcoming loss, pray for salvation, try to consolidate what power they have left, or in the case of the madman, simply don’t care. All the while, the world lies delicately in balance. Like in the Court of the Crimson King, this song deals heavily with themes of war and how people react t

o it. Next, we’ve got a short interlude in Peace- A Theme, the second part to Peace- A Beginning. This part is completely instrumental, only featuring Acoustic guitar. Next is one of the fan-favorites of the band, Cat Food. I’m not going to explain it here since it gets its own entry later in the layer. After Cat Food, we have the Devil’s Triangle. This song is a remix of sort of Gustav Holst’s Mars, with a highlight being a sample from in the Court of the Crimson King peeking through at the end

amid chaotic instrumental. Finally, we have Peace- an end. A sort of combination of the previous two incarnations of peace, it combines the two, having both vocals and instrumentals. A nice, palette cleansing way to end the album. RadCrim RadCrim is the name used to refer to the latest era and lineup of King Crimson, from 2013 to the present. The era is characterized by a return to the sound of 70s King Crimson. While there haven’t been any actual studio albums released in this time period, the

era is defined by reimagined covers of older King Crimson songs, some covers of non-King Crimson songs like Heroes, and some live-performance only songs. The name is derived from the live album Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind. Released in 2016, this live album is arguably the greatest landmark of this modern era of King Crimson, acting as a great recap to not only the tour which the songs come from but also to King Crimson as a whole, as the album contains covers of many of Kin

g Crimson’s most iconic songs. Islands Islands is the fourth studio album of King Crimson, released in December of 1971. It is generally considered the weakest album of 70s era King Crimson, with many people saying that while the technical aspects of the album are good, they’re essentially just good performances on conceptually bad songs. However, the harsh criticism is because many were comparing Islands to the previous albums of King Crimson, which is a pretty high standard. In my opinion, its

still a great album. The album’s cover art is an image of the Trifid Nebula. I’ve always loved this album cover, not only because I just love images of space, but also because I feel like it encapsulates the feel of the music itself a lot better than other album art. The album has themes of journey and searching, with different points of your life acting as islands to stop along your journey. The album art invokes that in a roundabout way, with stars acting as islands. Also, Islands is very orc

hestral and instrumental heavy, and the standout tracks like Formentera Lady and the titular track let the vocals take a backseat to the soothing music. Listening to the album definitely invokes the feeling of getting lost in the grandiosity of space, at least for me. Islands may be considered the worst of 70s King Crimson, but the fact that it is still so unique and beautiful just goes to show how excellent King Crimson is. The album starts off with the song Formentera Lady. The lyrics describe

the location where the singer meets the Formentera Lady, a woman whom he falls in love with. The title of the song implies that the location is the Spanish island of Formentera. The song talks about wandering with her during the day, walking through the streets of a town in Formentera. And at night, they both attend a party together, listening to the music before spending the night together. The song is about love, which will be a recurring theme in this album- all of the songs with lyrics are

about different types of love and relationships. Formentera Lady is a typical love story- memories of meeting a lover in a beautiful setting. The song’s peaceful instrumentals and quietly sang lyrics help to create this sense of innocent, pure love. The next song is Sailor’s Tale, an instrumental. I’ve already established that several of King Crimson’s instrumental songs share the same structure. Like The Devil’s Triangle and The Talking Drum, Sailor’s Tale starts off soft and quiet before slowl

y building up to an intense and loud finale. However, I will say that Sailor’s Tale definitely has a stronger jazz fusion influence than the other instrumentals I’ve spoken about, making it stand out. After this we have the Letters. The lyrics tell a clear story- a woman, upon finding out her lover is actually married to somebody else, writes a letter to the wife of her lover, informing her that he is cheating. I often interpreted this as her helping the other woman to realize she’s married to a

bad person, but other people have said that the term poison pen means that this is the lover bragging to the wife, gloating that the husband prefers her. The wife reads this and understandably feels shocked and betrayed. In this state of high emotion, she writes a letter back. “I’m still, I need no life. To serve on boys and men. What’s mine was yours is dead. I take my leave of mortal flesh”. Once again, there are several interpretations of this. Almost everybody agrees that the wife ended her

own life, the last line makes that pretty clear. Its the line “What’s mine was yours is dead” that causes confusion. You can say that this means that the wife is talking about love for her husband- her love is dead, but now that love has been given to the lover. However, some others say that this actually refers to the husband- the husband was both the wife and the lover’s, and now he is dead, implying the wife killed him before writing the letter. Either way, its a highly emotional song, and t

he instrumental jarringly switches between quiet, almost ambient backing and loud parts with screeching saxophone, booming drums, and guitar performances that would make a metal band blush. The next song in the album is Ladies of the Road, a quite controversial song. Once again, the lyrics are straightforward- the song is about various women the band met on their travels across the world. As the verses go on, the lyrics become more and more sexually explicit- of course, it’s all draped in metaph

or, but the true meaning is obvious to anybody with any basic media literacy. For example, when one of the girls asks to feel the singer’s fender, I don’t think she’s talking about his guitar. The song also has some other bizarre choices that some consider problematic, such as the singer seemingly ignoring a woman rejecting him and continuing to undress her. Also, the chinese girl speaks in stereotypical broken english, which is also a yikes. And the entire chorus of the song compares women to a

pples you steal, which is an objectifying view of women and sex. Yes, there have been many other artists who’ve made songs much more explicit and objectifying, but a lot of King Crimson fans wouldn’t expect something like this from the band. What makes Ladies of the Road so frustrating is that despite the lyrics, the song’s sound itself is excellent. The slow driving bass accentuated by the sultry saxophone offers a deep backing to the verses, and the chorus is backed by a light, cascading instr

umental. It really is a beautiful song. The next song is another instrumental- Prelude: Song of the Gulls. Not much to say here except that it’s quite unique even amongst other King Crimson instrumentals- it’s basically just a classical piece, with almost no rock elements whatsoever. It’s characterized by plucky strings behind a soft woodwind melody. In fact, I’m pretty sure this song just uses an orchestra. Song of the gulls is recycled from the band Giles Giles and Fripp, which I will talk abo

ut in the next layer. It’s likely that they just needed more material to pad the runtime of Islands which is why they threw this in, but I’m not complaining. Finally, we have the titular track of the album, Islands. Personally, this is one of the most underrated songs from the band. The energy and feelings this invokes is just so cozy, warm, and perfect. The soft mellotron, laid back drums, piano that is just energetic enough, and the excellent cornet solo makes for a very pleasant listen. When

listening to this song, I imagine myself at a beach on a warm night, the waves softly crashing as I huddle next to a fire just to get even warmer while looking up at the stars. This song is Peter Sinfield’s last official contribution to the band, and talk about ending off with a bang. The themes of the album are made apparent, with the lyrics describing individuals as islands seemingly separated by a dark sea, but all connected to each other through love and peace. Seems cheesy now that I’m desc

ribing it, but it’s warming when listening to it. Many Krimson fans criticize Sinfield’s lyrics for being too poetic and not suitable for music, but Islands is an example of this style working. This album is less about showing off musical progression but rather invoking vivid feeling and imagery within the listener, in which case poetic lyrics are welcome. There are these things called pitchback playback events, which basically involve you sitting down in a pitch-black theater with no distractio

ns, putting on a mask to block even more light, and listening to an album played from a state of the art sound system. There have been such events for The Court of the Crimson King, but I think Islands, with its rich and varied instrumentals and emphasis on feeling, would be perfect for such an event. So yeah, if you didn’t get it by now, I absolutely love islands, even with its flaws, and this isn’t the last you’ll see of it on this iceberg. Three of a Perfect Pair Three of a Perfect Pair Three

of a Perfect Pair is King Crimson’s 10th Studio Album, released on March 27th, 1984. While I used to think of it as just one of the bands’ 80s albums that had some good songs but was no Discipline, learning about the thematic ties of the album made it much more interesting to me. There’s a lot of cool ideas at play here. So, the name ‘Three of a Perfect Pair’ shows how two people always have 3 sides to a story, one person’s truth, the other person’s truth, and an amalgamation of both, which is

the objective truth. The album art also represents this. It is another example of a melding between the masculine and feminine energy, with the phallic male symbol penetrating the feminine crescent symbol from underneath, forming a new, combined symbol. The music also plays with this idea of conciling dichotomy, as it is a self-referential jab at how the band at that point in time was struggling between making more accessible pop rock and making progressive, experimental music. So, they decided

to put both in the album. On the vinyl, side one, called ‘the left side’ by Fripp, is the accessible side, containing the more pop oriented songs. These songs were three of a perfect pair, model man, sleepless, man with an open heart, and nuages. On the other hand, side 2, or the right side, is excessive, containing the more classical progressive songs. These songs were Industry, Dig Me, No Warning, and Larks Tounges in Aspic Part 3. OF course, these two different sides of the album, representin

g the different sides of King Crimson, come together to form the complete album, the true King Crimson, Three of a Perfect Pair. It all fits together. Additionally, in future deluxe releases of the album, more tracks were added, with these being called the other side, further pushing the themes of three. The Other Side contains the King Crimson Barber Shop, Industrial Zone A, Industrial Zone B, and various remixes of Sleepless. With that out of the way, lets get into the songs themselves. We sta

rt with the titular track, Three of a Perfect Pair. The song details the story of a couple. This does not seem to be a happy couple at all, as both of them seem to argue a lot and have their own mental issues. Personally, I think the song is about the nature of relationships- at its core, a relationship is between two individual people, but the relationship itself also becomes its own entity, acting as a third force. There are 3 sides to the relationship in the song- the man’s truth, the woman’s

truth, and the relationship’s truth, a perfect mess of three sides. The relationship forces the problems and attributes of the individual onto the other person, meaning that everybody must work together to ensure the health of the two individuals and the relationship. This is how I interpreted the song. However, some fans have also proposed another theory. This stems from the line in the first verse they have their cross to share. This theory suggests that the cross represents God, and that the

three of a perfect pair are the man, woman, and god. Many devout Christians have the belief that marriage is not just between a husband and wife, but rather between a wife, husband, and god. This song could be a cynical jab at that belief, that there are only a pair of people in this relationship, but there are actually three of them as both believe that God is a part of their relationship. And then the repeating lines about Schizophrenic tendencies making the relationship complicated may be ta

lking about how the couple’s insistence to satisfy God, who has no actual physical presence in the relationship, is causing rough patches in the relationship. These darkly humorous lyrics are accompanied by a surprisingly upbeat instrumental and catchy vocals- this is a song that can get stuck in your head much easier than other Krimson songs, due to it being more formatted like a mainstream pop song than the other more progressive Krimson songs. Next up we have Model Man. Once again a song with

a repeating catchy chorus, this seems to be your typical love song, The protagonist talks about how he is not perfect at all, but will still do the best he can to be a good lover. Next up, we have sleepless. This is one of my favorites on the album, mostly because of the amazing bass line it begins with, but the catchy chorus doesn’t hurt it. The lyrics are inspired by Adrian Belew’s experiences with not being able to fall asleep during a stay at a flat. However, the lyrics are also a quite acc

urate description of sleep paralysis. Many people describe feeling fear as they almost think that they’re underwater while in bed, unable to move, as shadowy figures surround them. This is exactly what the song’s lyrics are about. After Sleepless, we have Man With An Open Heart. Another love song, this song almost tells the opposite story to Model Man. Man With An Open Heart talks about how even though a girl is not perfect, and even sometimes moody, angry, and illogical, a man should keep an op

en heart and still love her all the same. Of course, a message that should be obvious, but still a nice one. Finally, we have Nuages. I’m not really sure why this is on the Left Side, because this is a slow-burn instrumental that is almost the polar opposite of the other more pop songs on the side. The irregular percussion behind the distorted guitar definitely gives this song a unique feel. Now, we move on to side 2, the right side. First on the side is Industry. Another instrumental, Industry

lives up to its name, with distorted bass and methodical drums giving the imagery of a gray factory, and as the song progresses wailing guitar, slap bass, and what I think is a mellotron enter to add more of an ethereal feel to the song. The song is an absolute delight and an excellent start to the side. Next up we have Dig Me, which I personally think is the weakest song on the album. It tries again to create that industrial vibe of the previous song in the intro, but it just sounds messy here.

However, once the singing really kicks in around a minute 20 in, the song gets better, until the singing ends like 25 seconds later. I appreciate that they were trying to do something more experimental here, but it falls flat and isn’t pleasant to listen to. Next up, we have No Warning. This seems like it was an improvisation that made it in to the album, but its pretty fun. There’s not a lot I can say about this, other than that Fripp and Belew’s guitars playing off of each other sounds cool.

The final song on the side is Larks Tongues in Aspic, Part 3. Yeah, a title you didn’t expect to see. I bet that the fans of classic King Crimson in 1984 lost their minds when they saw this title. Joking aside, why even make a third part to Larks Tongues in Aspic a decade after the first two released? Well, because they could. This song was probably specifically made to answer the question of how would this iteration of King Crimson compose and play Larks Tongues? We see some similarities melody

wise near the beginning, but the song later diverges from the classic Larks’ sound, instead opting for the sound of the 80s band. However, one huge issue with this song is that it fades out. I never like when songs decide to end by just fading out, but its especially egregious here. It just feels like the song doesn’t finish and just ends in the middle. This isn’t really mitigated in the live versions of the song I listened to, as they just decide to immediately transition into the next song. R

eally brings down the whole song. This isn’t the last we’ll see of the Larks’ Tongues series, as there will be more additions from the 90s iteration of the band. However, that is it for the album. I know I’m missing the bonus tracks that some of you may be eager to hear about, but you’ll need to wait a bit for those. Jakko Jakszyk Michael Jakszyk, better known by the nickname of Jakko, is the lead singer and a guitarist of King Crimson’s most recent iteration. He was born on June 8th 1958 in Lon

don, and was later adopted by his parents less than two years after his birth. From a young age, he wanted to be an actor and musician. After a troubled home life, he was kicked out of his home at 16, after which he pursued his acting and music career while also working other jobs to stay afloat. Between the 70s and 2000, he was a member of many different bands, such as rapid eye movement, no not that one, The Kings of Oblivion, and the Kinks. He also had some solo projects. However, he becomes

relevant to the subject of this video around 2002, where he became a member of the 21st Century Schizoid Band, a group that played many of the classic King Crimson songs featuring many former King Crimson members. By 2010, his involvement with this group led to him getting close to King Crimson itself, and he struck up a friendship with Robert Fripp, playing with him and even working on some King Crimson projects. When the new King Crimson lineup was announced in 2013, Jakko was part of it as a

guitarist and singer, and he is still technically a member to this day. He is known for blending musical styles from various cultures and genres in his playing. Other Genre Classifications Of course, we’ve already gone over the fact that King Crimson is a Progressive Rock band. However, there are some other genre classifications that they could fall under, or at least some of their eras could fall under. For example, I talked about how they leaned into more of a prog pop genre in the 80s. Additi

onally, in the 90s and 2000s, some of their songs, especially those in The Power To Believe, can fall under a metal category. Also, a lot of King Crimson songs fall under Jazz Fusion. There are a lot of other genres they can fall under, like psychedelic rock, art rock, and new wave, and while there are distinctions between the genres, once you get super specific there’s a lot of overlap, and trying to categorize music by putting it into a box arguably goes against the whole point of constantly i

nnovating your technique and sound. Lizard Lizard is the third studio album by King Crimson, released on December 10th, 1970. This album took place in the same transitory period as their second album, with bassist and singer Gordon Haskell and drummer Andy Mculloh joining the band mostly just for this album. As such, this album stands out even amongst Krimson’s varied album sounds, having a more jazzy and almost medieval sound in some of their songs. However, despite the more unique and experime

ntal sound of the album, the album comes from a time where the band was not in a good place and still is considered controversial by fans. The band members themselves were miserable. For example, Haskell only joined the band for money, not necessarily for creative reasons, and really didn’t like the music he was playing. Of course, Fripp was always harsh on the players, which resulted in Andy Mculloh often breaking down in tears. However, even Fripp himself hated working on this album. In fact,

he referred to the album as unlistenable. While I think this is a bit harsh, I do have to agree with his assessment that the album tries to cram in too many ideas and lacks a unifying theme. It would be cool if they went all on in on the medieval, flowery feel a lot of the album has, but there are a couple songs that take you out of that. This medieval feel the album has is helped by the album art, which was a commissioned piece by Gini Barris. It looks like a medieval tapestry, with the words K

ing Crimson being painted in ornate font, with King on the back cover and Crimson on the front cover. The letters have their own little diorama in them. The letters of King depict the final song of the album, the titular Lizard. Meanwhile, the Crimson side depicts all the other songs on the album. So is Lizard really as bad as some say? Lets take a look at the songs. Lizard starts with the song Cirkus. This song is a pretty clear metaphor for the perceived debauchery of society at large, compari

ng it to a circus. I think the song’s first verse represents birth and growing up, before setting out into the adult world. Our protagonist enters the circus, where the ringleader urges him to join the parade. He sees various members of society, from policemen to politicians, parading along at the behest of the ringleader. Eventually, it all falls apart and the circus devolves into chaos, but the ringleader doesn’t care because he profits. A very cut and dry story about how societies tend to wor

k towards their own destruction just for the benefit of the few at the top. Next up we have Indoor Games. Playing off similar themes of the previous song, Indoor Games is basically a comedic roast of a rich man. The song basically talks about this rich man who thinks that he’s well respected, but his houseworkers laugh at how pathetic he is behind his back while his seventh wife hopes for him to die so that she can collect the money she married him for and his friends only pretend to like him le

st they offend him. His entire lifestyle is nothing more than indoor games. A fun fact about the song. It ends with a fit of laughter. This was not actually planned, apparently Haskell just started laughing after they rehearsed the song, thinking that they sounded terrible and that the lyrics themselves were awful. This laugh was kept and mixed into the final song. Third we have Happy Family. Tonally, it is similar to the previous song in that it’s more lighthearted. This song unexpectedly tells

the story of the breakup of the Beatles. They don’t use the actual names, but rather substitute names. Judas is Paul McCartney, Jonah is John Lennon, Silas is George Harrison, and Rufus is Ringo Starr. It simply tells the tale of how they rose to their insane fame before each going their own ways. One particularly funny line is Nasty Jonah Grew a Knife, Judas drew his Pruning Knife. This of course refers to John Lennon marrying Yoko Ono and how Paul McCartney often implies that Ono was a huge p

art of the band splitting up. The breakup of the Beatles happened in Spring of 1970 and was a huge topic of discussion, so it makes sense why King Crimson would make a song about it that same year. Next up we’ve got a Tonal Shift in the album with Lady of the Dancing Water. We start to get into the more calm, romantic, and atmospheric songs that we see in Islands. It makes sense that some of that style would be present near the end of Lizard- after all, Islands came right after Lizard. Lady of t

he Dancing Water is a romantic song about the narrator reminiscing about the titular lady- how he’d get lost in her glowing eyes and crave the soft touch of her fingers. However, that was in the past, as they no longer are together. The definition of short and sweet. Fripp did say that he enjoyed playing on this song, and the flute in this song is notably great. Finally, we have the titular Lizard. This is an absolute monster of a song, coming in at a runtime of 23 minutes and 20 seconds, making

it the longest song on a King Crimson studio album. Truth be told, its more like 4 songs just combined into one- Prince Rupert Awakes, Bolero, The Battle of Glass Tears, and Big Top. The lyrics are very flowery, but the basic gist of it is a revolution occurring in some medieval kingdom. However, the story isn’t really the point of the song here, but rather the almost 20 minutes of instrumental. I can’t do it all justice by just describing it here, as there is a variety of sounds and melodies p

acked into Lizard. I said near the beginning of this video that I liked the more psychedelic medieval feel of early 70s prog rock, and this track perfectly encapsulates that. Album Related Box Sets Box sets are these massive, expensive collections of music, each covering an era of King Crimson. These box sets typically contain vinyls, multiple CDs with several live and alternate versions of studio tracks, as well as projects and some improv. They also include guide books and physical memorabilia

. Of course, many of these boxsets are divided by album eras. There’s one for Court sharing the same title, Islands called Sailor’s Tales, which covers Wake, Lizard, and Islands, Larks, Starless, and one for Red called The Road to Red. The 80s trilogy only got one box set, called On and Off the road. The final album connected box set was for Thrak. There are other box sets, but not connected to albums, so we’ll talk about them later. Major Live Albums Live Albums are compilations of performances

of live shows. There are many of them from across the years, but here are some that I think are notable and that I won’t go into further detail about elsewhere in the iceberg. These live albums include Heavy ConstruKtion, Ladies of the Road, Live in Toronto, Epitaph, Absent Lovers, The Night Watch, VROOM VROOM, and the Great Deciever Parts 1 and 2. Cat Food As you already know, Cat Food is a song on the album in The Wake of Poseidon. This song is unique because before it was released as part of

the album, it was released as a single. This was King Crimson’s first attempt at making a pop single, a song that was more conventional for the time. Of course, the song was still quite unique, with its acoustic guitar, discordant piano, and funny lyrics providing a whimsical tone. Overall, the song is about how the consumption of processed food bought from places like supermarkets is not healthy for you, comparing it to cat food. Cat Food is a fan favorite of King Crimson’s and a must listen f

or anybody into the band. There’s also more fun facts about the song that I will explain in later entries. “I’m Wheels” This is referring to a lyric from the song Neil and Jack and Me. Adrian Belew starts the song with the lines I’m Wheels, I am moving wheels. I am a 1952 Studebaker Coupe. The absurd nature of these lyrics, as well as the comedic way it is delivered in the song, made this phrase into a meme in the King Crimson community. That’s really all there is to say about this. DGM DGM, or

Discipline Global Mobile, is a record label founded by Fripp and David Singleton in 1992. After over 2 decades of professionally recording Music, Fripp found himself frustrated with the state of record labels in the industry, so he decided to take control by making his own, as well as providing a more ethical alternative for other artists. So, working together with his acquaintance David Singleton, they founded DGM with the following five business aims. 1, to help bring music into the world whic

h would otherwise be unlikely to do so, or under conditions prejudicial to the music and / or musicians. 2, to operate in the market place, while being free of the values of the market place. 3, to help the artists and staff of DGM achieve what they wish for themselves. 4, to find its audience. And 5, to be a model of ethical business in an industry founded on exploitation, oiled by deceit, riven with theft and fueled by greed. The main point to take away from this is that it allowed artists to

retain all copyright to their work, which stood out amongst all the other record labels which require artists to sign over copyright to basically everything, including music and art. And they walk the walk, for example, the DGM logo on screen is not actually owned by DGM, but rather by the artist they commissioned to make it. No written contracts are signed, but agreements are rather made on a sort of trust honor system, which admittedly does make it riskier. However, DGM has had a positive impa

ct on the music industry, allowing for more experimental music that other labels wouldn’t take to be produced. Alongside King Crimson and several solo projects of its various members, DGM also has artists in many different experimental and alternate genres. Robert and Toyah Sunday Lunch Robert and Toyah’s Sunday Lunch is a series on Toyah’s official Youtube channel where the two would do an activity together, mostly playing music, and upload it. It was supposed to be a way for the two to stay ac

tive and interact with fans during the lockdowns of 2020. The series technically started on May 1st 2020, with a video called Toyah and Fripp: Swan Lake Sunday Lockdown Lunch. It featured the two dressed up as ballets dancing to Swan Lake. We’re already off to a strong start here, as for many King Crimson fans seeing the typically serious Fripp wear a tutu and frolick across the field was a huge shock. I believe that Toyah started the series because she wanted the world to see this side of Fripp

. Before, many knew him as a brilliant musician, but a serious, no nonsense one who would sit motionlessly when performing and rule over the other members of his bands with an iron fist. So telling King Crimson fans of even 5 years ago that one day we would see with our very two eyes Fripp dressed up as a bee being chased by a Toyah in a Dinosaur suit we would call you insane. This series really did a lot to change the public perception of Robert Fripp, and has been super successful as well- the

most popular videos on Toyah’s channel are the Robert and Toyah Sunday Lunches. While they did start with shorter skits, they’d later transition to covers of popular songs. They also started some other series like objects of desire and upbeat moments, which were more discussion based. The Sunday Lunch series still continues to this day. The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson is a compilation of some of the band’s best songs from across

all their eras. It had a physical release in 2006 as a set of 2 CDs, with the first CD focusing on the band’s late 60s to 70s era, and the second CD focusing on the 80s era and the post-90s era. It contains songs from every studio album except Lizard and The Construction of Light. The full album is available to listen on Youtube, so if you want to get a gist of the various eras and sounds of the band quickly, this is a good way to do so. However, keep in mind that a lot of great stuff is missing

and some of the tracks, like Starless, are abridged, so you’re not listening to the full thing. Fripp Solo Career Alongside his work with King Crimson and various other groups, Fripp has created many solo albums and projects. The first of these was released in 1979 and was called Exposure. Interestingly, this was more of a pop album than prog. Next up was the album God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners, released in 1980. This was a more experimental, ambient album, mostly focusing on improvisa

tion and a technique dubbed Frippertronics, which will be explained in greater depth in the next layer. Immediately after came Let The Power Fall, which was more Frippertronics. Then, there’s an almost 20 year gap to the Gates of Paradise, released in 1998. This was once again, more ambient work. He also has a project called music for quiet moments which is a collection of over 50 ambient soundscapes. If you’re wondering why a lot of Fripp’s solo career focuses on ambient music, this is probably

because Fripp collaborated with Brian Eno in the early 70s. Brian Eno is credited as the guy who created the ambient music genre, it’s not like other genres where it was an evolution of previously existing genres, no he literally created it. Fripp worked with him on two studio albums, called No Pussyfooting and Evening Star, both of which are ambient. Working with Eno must've definitely gotten him interested in ambient soundscapes, and we’re lucky for that. Court-Wake Similarities One of the bi

ggest criticisms of In the Wake of Poseidon is that it was too similar to the previous album, In the Court of the Crimson King, to the point of almost being self-plaigarism. I mean, just look at their names. Furthermore, the structure of the album and the songs on them are also quite similar, so lets go through them. If we ignore Peace, A Beginning, which doesn’t even last more than a minute, the album begins with Pictures of A City, which is definitely similar to 21st Century Schizoid Man. In f

act, if you want to stretch it, you can say that the quiet Peace, A Beginning leading into the loud opening notes of Pictures of A City mimics the near silence of the opening of 21st Century Schizoid Man leading into the loud jumpscare riff around 30 seconds in. Looking at the songs themselves, the case against Wake gets stronger. We have loud ascending notes repeated several times, like Schizoid Man. This is followed by vocals. These previous two steps are both repeated until the middle section

of the song, characterized by fast paced, loud instrumentals. Hell, the wailing saxophone sound is almost identical between the two, and the bassline here is very similar to Schizoid Man’s. However, to the credit of Pictures of A City, this instrumental middle does have a calmer section, which Schizoid Man Lacks. This instrumental section then climactically leads to the last part of the song, where the lyrical structure of the beginning of the song is repeated before escalating into a loud and

chaotic end. Well, so far, Pictures of A City does seem heavily inspired by Schizoid Man. The next songs of the albums respectively are I Talk to the Wind and Cadence and Cascade. Both of these are calm, slow paced songs to provide you with a breather after the chaos of the previous songs. Both of them also prominently feature the flute. Well, we’re two for two here and will soon be three for three. Although In The Wake of Poseidon is the album’s titular track, it doesn’t compare to Court’s titu

lar track, but rather Epitaph. Both of them are mellotron heavy, have somber vocals, have a prominent snare drum sound, and have a middle instrumental section that lead into the final lyrical verse with soaring mellotron. Furthermore, the songs are also about the exact same thing- both of them talk about people’s sombering reactions to seeing that the future only held the destruction of the world. This is probably the best example of self-plaigarism on the album, Wake is literally Epitaph at hom

e. However, the next pair of songs on the albums, ignoring Peace- A Theme, are quite different from each other. While Moonchild is a laid back, quiet, and somber peace with a long stretch of ambient, sparse improvisation, Cat Food is an upbeat, short, and silly pop song. These two songs are like night and day, so lets move on. The final songs of the respective albums, once again ignoring Peace- An End, are In the Court of the Crimson King and The Devils Triangle. Now, there are people who say th

ese two are similar, but I disagree. Devil’s Triangle is obviously inspired by Gustav Holst’s Mars, not Court, and unlike Court, which starts off loud and carries that energy throughout most of the song, Devils Triangle starts off soft and builds up to its loud climax over the course of several minutes. However, the choice to end off both albums with these larger than life, apocalyptic songs is a thematic similarity, and I can’t ignore the fact that Devils Triangle literally samples in the Court

of the Crimson King around 10 minutes and 45 seconds into the song. So, what’s the verdict here? Well, while there are differences, a lot of In The Wake of Poseidon was inspired by In the Court of the Crimson King. I think that this was due to circumstance at the time. When Wake was being created, it was a chaotic transitory period for King Crimson, so the band likely saw that their previous album was a hit and worked, so they decided to fall back on that reliable sound for Wake. It’s a shame,

because all of King Crimson’s studio albums, especially during that run in the 70s, were known for their unique sound compared to the others, except for Wake. However, being inspired by one of the greatest prog rock albums of all time is hardly a serious negative. The Stones in the Park This refers to the festival that happened in July of 1969. While the headliner band was the Rolling Stones, the festival also featured a new up and coming band called King Crimson as an opening act. King Crimson

hadn’t even released a studio album at this point, and were only invited to play because people were saying good things about their previous, more local live performances. Their setlist consisted of 21st Century Schizoid Man, In the Court of the Crimson King, Get Thy Bearings, Epitaph, Travel Weary Capricorn and Mars. The crowd in attendance numbered at over 600,000, making it the largest audience King Crimson has ever played to. Needless to say, the crowd loved their performance, and it helped

increase the rate of King Crimson’s rising popularity- their shows afterwards were packed. “I Repeat Myself When Under Stress” This is referring to a repeated line from the song Indiscipline. Like I’m wheels, this has become a meme in the King Crimson community, with many people referencing it or parodying it as a joke. That’s really all there is to this. Fracture is Hard Fracture is a song on the album Starless and Bible Black. I’ll go into the specifics of the song when I get to the album’s en

try on the iceberg, here I’ll just talk about the song’s notorious difficulty. Specifically, the guitar part. I’m not a guitar player, so I don’t know the full technical aspects of it, but the rhythm, tempo, and the actual frets and guitar pickings you need to play are super difficult. While a decent guitar player could probably play some individual parts with some practice, the difficult part comes with playing it all at once. Fripp himself said that Fracture is impossible to play. One thing I

can’t ignore here is the Failure to Fracture series by Youtuber Make Weird Music. In this series, he documents his story about how he learned to play the song over the course of 22 years. However, I will say that he goes way deeper into it than most, he truly tried to understand and master the song, which is a commendable effort. However, it is possible to actually learn the song in a much shorter time, as shown by the various covers people have made. One example is this cover by Maria Barbieri,

which was so impressive that Fripp himself commended her on his Facebook. I feel like I also have to talk about the song Frakctured here, it’s basically a sequel from the album the Construkction of Light. The guitar part in this song is just as complex- in fact, when listening to it, many people assume that it’s two guitars playing for most of the song, its not, Fripp is playing all that on his own. Fracture is a testament to the insane guitar skills of Robert Fripp. He not only developed the t

echnique to play it first, but he also practiced it enough to consistently play it over and over again during recordings and live shows. That is truly commendable, and why Fripp is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest guitar player. So that is it for part one of this iceberg. We covered less than ⅓ of the full iceberg, and I didn’t want to take on that herculean task all at once. I want to know if you guys liked this video, and if you are interested in me completing this series. S

o, with that being said, thank you for watching. Make sure to like, subscribe, and join the discussion down in the comments. I will see you next time.