For many of the Metal music world is concerned, there are only a handful of albums that came out of the 1960's that really had an impact on Metal and helped shape it. Of course you have
Led Zeppelin and
Deep Purple that would bring thick, distorted guitars to the forefront, but it was
King Crimson that would bring the "thinking man's" perspective to Metal, being the first band to use neo-classical compositions, improvisation to solos, and deep lyrical concepts to the whole music world.
Considered by many the first album that was "Progressive Rock," reasoning behind this is that Crimson was the first band to really establish this style. Even though other bands that would later make a name for themselves as Prog-Rock icons already had existence in the music world, Crimson could be seen as the influence for many "Art Rock" prototypes to expand their horizons. After all, at this point, most Progressive bands weren't really progressive at all yet;
Yes was still in a garage-rock mode,
Jethro Tull was still performing their own brand of mutant blues, The Moody Blues were still playing edgy British pop, and Genesis was still in their British-Folk phase. But what was this music, the term "Art-Rock" was too broad; was it jazz, was it psychedelic rock, was it Heavy Metal, was it classical played with rock instruments; nobody at the time knew how to categorize it.
When the album was released in 1969, the whole world was sick and tired of the 1960's "flower power/hippie generation," which would come to an end that year, the Vietnam war was still enraging, many people had enough of the protest songs as well as the war itself. Radio in America was dominated by syrupy pop brought forth courtesy of easy listening soft pop/rock bands such as Bread and The Carpenters, so to many, this form of music (along with early Metal from
Black Sabbath and Zeppelin) was an alternative to all of the political bullshit dominating popular culture. When you look at the alignment of Metal and Prog, at the time, many people that owned a Crimson album owned a
Black Sabbath album as well.
When you look at the record, you have five extended tracks, a structure that really didn't exist on many records; it was really something that no one had ever heard before. The album starts out with the aggressive
21st Century Schizoid Man, whereas the jarring riff of Robert Fripps' guitar playing could scare the pants off any hippie. The cut came complete with screaming saxophones and organs; complex drumlines, jazz improvised jamming, and even distorted vocals, provided by future ELP frontman, Greg Lake. It remains one of the most aggressive songs ever written. Lyrically, the album is deep, with psychedelic sci-fi lyrics rivaled at the time only by Syd Barrett.
"I Talk to the Wind" slows the album's pace down, with it's somewhat free-jazzed, moody and folky feel to it, with woodwind player Ian McDonald standing out as the main soloist.
"Epitaph" is where the album takes the dark turn, with the Mellotron, taking center stage, providing the string sounds that would dominate the Crimson sound.
"Moonchild" follows the same suit, but turns into a jam session with more of an avant-garde approach to it.
The title track is an epical tale that set the standard for many conceptual masterpieces that would come, and the proof of the album's influence on the Metal world is within this song, for another influential band,
Saxon covered it on their 2001 release, "Killing Ground." You can even hear traces of Crimson on the new
Opeth record
Although the band would break up and reform many times, changing their sound from time to time, they endure to this day, remaining influential and respected as they did back when this album was released; adding fuel to a new form of counterculture that emerged due to the existence of
FM radio and people who just wanted something different. The album received overmodest success in the U.S.; it even went to number 5 on the U.K. LP charts. But like many influential albums, it still stands out to this day without having a dated note on it.
Written by
Hashman Monday, August 4, 2003
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