Composer Reacts to King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

[@arthionne3725]

I've always thought that this song is what metal would be if it was more rooted in jazz instead of blues

[@TheAxel65]

You'll then probably like this coverversion by the norwegian jazz/metal band Shining: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWHNZYqhpKmlqsk

[@Micropterus06]

Goated comment

[@jameshotchkin8438]

My favourite band along with Tool. This came out in 1969. This was revolutionary at the time. It was as heavy as it got back then. It wasn't 'heavy metal' but a lot of bands were influenced by King Crimson including Tool. Jazz Fusion/prog rock whatever you want to call it. Fripp will tell you giving them a box they can't get out of is quite limiting. King Crimson's music goes beyond any genre. One of the greatest bands of all time. You need to listen to Starless. I regard this song as the best song ever made by any band or artist.

[@miksogtriks5354]

Agreed, Starless is an essential listen for any prog enjoyers. That song takes me on a journey

[@wojciechdraminski3035]

Don't listen to tool man

[@spiderbass65]

Have you heard Maynard sing this? It’s awesome!

[@jameshotchkin8438]

@@spiderbass65 no I haven't. You have a link?

[@vtv123here6]

@@wojciechdraminski3035 why not?

[@paivikosonen7559]

Also the singer and bassist on this track is Greg Lake before he joined Emerson, Lake & Palmer

[@ianmc8671]

Definitely proto-metal but KC are prog pioneers with a strong jazz influence. Highly jazz oriented but with an extremely unique KC spin that deviates a long way from Jazz Fusion. Every album sounds different. My favourite track of theirs is Larks Tongues in Aspic part one.

[@trismegistus7638]

Larks Tongues is their most metal album

[@atleast400demogorgons3]

@@trismegistus7638 Their two latest are quite metal too. Their heaviest stuff are the improvisations they were doing live in the early 90s, as well as some stuff they were playing live in the 60s.

[@tabbycrumch3062]

@@atleast400demogorgons3 yup, I definitely think The Construkction of Light & Power To Believe are some of the heaviest shit they ever released. Like seriously, to the other guy above, listen to "Level Five". Earth-shatteringly doomy and HUGE

[@jefe828]

That and 3 of a perfect pair.

[@KazBodnar]

@@trismegistus7638 Also Red!

[@rolfjamne8922]

Crimson was suporting The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park in 1969. They opened the show with this tune and the the crowd went to shock. King Crimson is the father of prog IMO but this track has been covered by many Hevy Metal Bands.🤘

[@InsaneCarville]

It's funny because I agree with the claim of them being the fathers of prog but not only does Robert not feel great about it but Bill Bruford dislikes term prog in general as, in his words, every song progresses or has a type of progression. Then again, in the same interview I'm quoting he also spoke pretty lowly of The Beatles and other pop acts of the 1960s so I don't know.

[@NewBritainStation]

@@InsaneCarville I think the key is that neither feel that KC continued in the same direction that prog took. It’s not that this doesn’t fit the genre, but that any Crim that followed (other than perhaps “Poseidon), no longer fit the mold. More importantly, their penchant for improvisation and their live performances in general were really more along the lines of what KC was all about, which was very different from the direction progressive rock took.

[@garygomesvedicastrology]

​@@InsaneCarville They were the solidification of the Prog image in its stereotypical form. Other groups like the Nice were the fathers and other bands before KC. KC was the first real commercial success of what later became genre-fied as Prog. But it existed as part of underground music before Yes and other groups had big hits in what would be called prog. I think you may be used to cluttered production in which every space is taken up. That's bad production to me.

[@Z_E_B_O]

and they ended the show with a heavy metal rendition of Holst - Mars with a siren going off on stage.

[@progperljungman8218]

If this doesn't get blocked... it's a miracle!!!

[@CGMiller]

lol right? Fripps coming...

[@MaartenT]

Yeah, I'm not taking any risks with them. I'm downloading the reaction at the moment. Will probably watch it later this evening/night.

[@BayouMaccabee]

Yup, that's why I clicked on it as soon as I saw it. Let's see if I can finish it before it gets taken down. 🤞

[@TedinCalgary1952]

@@MaartenT Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I CONCUR!!

[@danalawrence4473]

Ditto that!

[@dampersand]

When you're analyzing lyrics from this era, it's always worth considering a Vietnam connection. Might come in handy throughout this week depending on what other songs are on the docket.

[@CriticalReactions]

I'll keep that in mind.

[@dampersand]

@@PeterMoore66 But... this very song you are commenting on was about Vietnam.

[@PeterMoore66]

@@dampersand Ah - apologies - I'd somehow missed the "napalm" line every time I've listened to the song and thought it was a song that was more generally anti-hawkish politicians. A quick look at Wikipedia and I can see how the references apply more specifically.

[@cybore213]

@@dampersand Before a live performance of this song in December 1969, Fripp said that the song was dedicated to "an American political personality whom we all know and love dearly. His name is Spiro Agnew". But that may have been Fripp being flippant. Of course there is the reference to the Vietnam War, but there is more even with the minimalist lyrics, such as the line "Nothing he's got, he really needs", referencing excess consumerism. I have always liked Peter Sinfeld's lyrics with KC and ELP.

[@cybore213]

@@PeterMoore66 Another example of the influence of the Vietnam War on British bands would be "Yours Is No Disgrace" by Yes. I'm sure there are many more.

[@goldenboy140]

You need to do Starless already

[@antoniocarlin5026]

The RED full album!!

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

One of the amazing things about this album and song is that you could argue that it’s proto-metal, early jazz fusion (It came out the same year as Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew), as well as the first progressive rock album. Black Sabbath might’ve had the deeper influence on metal specifically, but King Crimson’s influence was and still is incredibly broad ranging. They’re also a band that has never stopped evolving. Their only consistent member has been their madman/genius guitarist Robert Fripp, but they’ve consistently had a revolving line-up of virtuosos at every instrumental position. In each decade they incorporated influence from the new and most innovative bands of the time, as well as classical and jazz. They even invented math rock all the way back in 1980 on the album Discipline. This album was almost contemporary with Black Sabbath’s first album; this album came out in October 1969, while Sabbath’s first album was recorded in October 1969 and released in February 1970. The thing is that both King Crimson and Black Sabbath were influenced by many of the same artists, especially Cream and Jimi Hendrix, it’s merely that King Crimson were also influenced by contemporary jazz and classical. Personally, this is perhaps my favorite album of all time. It had an incalculable influence on my love of music. It introduced me to progressive rock and engendered my love for the genre. It’s probably the album I’ve listened to the most, as I just never tire of it; from the excitement of this track, to the folky beauty of I Talk to the Wind, to the epic melancholia of Epitaph, to the calm beauty (and later free improvisation) of Moonchild, to the moody and atmospheric The Court of the Crimson King… it’s just a perfect album and has only gotten better the more I’ve heard it. Combine that with its immense influence on bands/genres I love and it’s hard for me to argue myself that I would rate any album higher. The amazing thing about King Crimson is that, even though this album is a widely acknowledged masterpiece, many people would argue that many of their later albums, especially those of the 70s, are even better.

[@wojciechdraminski3035]

Actually it came out a year before the Bitches Brew

[@kanglongshankz3313]

KC are a progressive rock group, but this came out in 1969 (a year before Sabbath) and certainly helped shape some of the metal sound. It's fair to put this song in the origins, but I mean, you could even put Beatles Helter Skelter in metal origins.

[@j800r_aswell]

Along with Hendrix and blues. They all influenced it, sure, but Sabbath’s self-titled track is easily the first true Heavy Metal track in terms of putting everything together.

[@philshorten3221]

Exactly.... And Pink Floyd (of all bands) recorded "The Nile Song" in February 1969 Not typical Floyd but very proto metal 😉

[@alejandrobustos2268]

@@philshorten3221 Pink Floyd is proto pop. Ridicoulous band.

[@Pjaypt]

And Jeff Beck

[@antoniocarlin5026]

@@philshorten3221 and dont forget "Take carefully with this Axe, Eugene"...proto black metal!!

[@TheVanillaQueen]

You're right to say they took what would become metal ideas in a completely different direction. This album, on release, really kicked off the progressive rock genre in 1969. There were bands prior that sorta did prog-lite or otherwise had albums that influenced prog (Moody Blues, The Beatles' "Sergeant Peppers'," Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds"), but this album is where most consider it all to have started. Despite this, the song is still heavily influential on metal as a developing genre. Personally I think schizoid personality disorder fits this song better than schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Given that this is a Vietnam protest song (perhaps the greatest), I could see the lyrics reflecting a withdraw from society and stunted emotional expression via the confusion of the instrumentation.

[@InsaneCarville]

It's amazing given all that's happened with each era of warfare ever since, how much I can relate to the lyrics seeing as I was born in the 1990s and it's the 21st century.

[@reneelyons6836]

I LOVE the jazz fusion aspect of it. Younger me did not appreciate King Crimson like i do now.

[@StephaneBergeronPixelyzed]

This album is the prog rock prototype, the one that really started it all. But I do believe it it also counts as one for the origins of heavy metal. You need to remember that this came out in 1969in the middle of the hippie movement and flower power. At that time, it was a shock to audiences. No one else sounded like this at the time. Also, keep in mind that the live versions were way more intense. They played this as the first song in their set opening for the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park in July 1969 (so months before this album was released) and left the audience of nearly half a million people stunned. Bands like April Wine (1979) and Voivod (1997) covered this so its influence on metal is undeniable. But later King Crimson incarnations (80s lineup) influenced bands like Tool and other more modern metal bands more. As for its origins status, we also need to remember that, at the time, Led Zeppelin I was already released and t Led Zeppelin II was released in October 69 like this album. Born to be Wild had been released in 1968 as was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly are definitely metal origins bands). Shades of Deep Purple also came out in 1968. Trying to give you context here ;) So Crimson were certainly not the first. But Schizoid Man to me is notable for its intensity. The distorted vocals, the lyrics. It was unique at the time. When I first heard it, I already listened to Zeppelin, Deep Purple and others but this song hit me differently.

[@NewBritainStation]

“Mirrors” is the middle instrumental section. The band had been led to believe they would receive royalties based on the number of song titles. So they added named sections to several of the songs. In terms of lyrics, Peter Sinfields lyrics have many layers to them. One of the few true poet lyricists. This song is heavily influenced by the Vietnam War.

[@josedebayres321]

Robert Fripp, funding member of the band, once described their music as "heavy mental"

[@johnthursfield3056]

King Crimson were pre Black Sabbath, a year earlier so Sabbath would likely have heard them. I remember reading a member of Deep Purple saying that Ritchie Blackmore after hearing King Crimson said that it showed him the way to go. 20th Century Schizoid Man is the only song on the Court of the Crimson King in that style. Second album has one similar track.

[@mawtymawty9010]

Larks' Tongues In Aspic (particularly parts 1 and 2 of the title track) are probably the most compositionally dense rock tracks I've ever heard. They're heavy, dark, ominous, but also uplifting and epic. Some of my favorite music

[@CriticalReactions]

I've heard Part 1 already. Have not had a chance to hear Part 2 yet.

[@mawtymawty9010]

@@CriticalReactions I prefer Part 2 as a guitarist, and because of the length. Robert Fripp described it as Jimi Hendrix meets Bartók

[@TheAxel65]

You should give _Fracture_ a listen, from the Starless & Bible Black Album. Probably the most insane guitar techniques I've ever heard

[@wendellwiggins3776]

OK this song/ album released in 1969 became known as the FIRST TRUE definitive PROG ALBUM. There wasn't anything in Rock to compare at the time. Early YES members were so blown away after seeing them Live at a club that the lead singer knew they would have to practice more! On the other hand, Black Sabbath debut was 1970 which created the definitive heavy (Metal) sound at the time

[@markdrechsler5660]

Part of the buzz about KC, when they first appeared on the scene, was the sheer volume at which they played. Their influence on metal is probably more related to that than the structure of the song writing. I wonder if that influenced the mix and how the bass and drums were left without their bottoms? Maybe the lower frequencies would start to distort at massive volumes. To give some context to how revolutionary KC was, compare it to the number one song at the time of release, “Sugar Sugar” by The Archie’s. KC is just a bit edgier…

[@papacarl2002]

A wee bit…

[@WastedMotorcycle]

"I wonder if that influenced the mix and how the bass and drums were left without their bottoms?" Nah, the first album just was recorded poorly. This was King Crimson's first album and they weren't given much to work with. They put it all in though! This album is filled with overdubs.

[@liimlsan3]

A friend once told me that, if you added up the collective album sales of every band every member of King Crimson has played with, it would be second only to the Beatles, if not more. (Foreigner, UK and Asia, ELP, Yes and Genesis, Bad Company, David Bowie and Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M and Throbbing Gristle, Peter Gabriel, the list goes on.) For a band that didn't have a consistent lineup from album to album until their third decade and ninth album... and all of their members were geniuses...

[@markheatley2117]

Old hippie friends of mine told me that they lived upstairs in a 2 story duplex, back in the early 70's. Whenever the land lord brought a prospective tenant to show them the lower floor unit they play 21st century schizoid man if they didn't like the look of the potential newcomers. It took a long time to rent the unit.

[@stpnwlf9]

A fusion of prog, jazz, and heavy rock - I have always considered this a timeless hard rock song. I think it would always be relevant in any era. Greg Lake's distorted vocal is absolutely killer!

[@Rich_N_1]

Great reaction! Don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but the bassist/vocalist in this incarnation of KC is Greg Lake who would later go on to be in the "progressive" band Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Re the origins of Heavy Metal, most think the genre was inspired by the, so called, "Unholy Trinity" of British bands in the 1970's, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. This particular track is somewhat atypical of King Crimson's main body of work.

[@grahamthompson2594]

As a composer you might appreciate the King Crimson album 'Lizard'. Earliest heavy metal I can remember is 'In a goda da vida' by Iron Maiden

[@Gnizzle97]

I think you mean Iron Butterfly but I def agree

[@grahamthompson2594]

@@Gnizzle97 whoops, that was a bit brain dead. I don't even like Iron Maiden

[@cybore213]

@@grahamthompson2594 LOL! Is this where the word irony comes from, confusing Iron Maiden with Iron Butterfly?

[@BazyarCodes]

Definitely deserves to be in heavy-metal origins week. This was released in 1969.. KC's origins derive partly from psychedelic rock - as did Black Sabbath's. While KC was never "just" a metal band, and I'm sure Fripp would reject that as the only label - he himself understood his role in metal. I remember an anecdote from Fripp during one of his guitar classes, where he apparently marched around a room full of guitarists yelling "heavy metal!" This track, in particular, features many key heavy metal motif's: riff-based (during A-section), with a particularly distorted and dirty ponderous riff distorted screaming vocals slow to mid-tempo (typical of early metal, and even some later like stoner rock, Alice in Chains, etc) lyrics with dystopian theme While psychedelic bands had previously had some of these things once in a while, this TRACK was key in the further development of the heavy metal genre. (KC danced with metal its entire existence - its heaviest albums being Red, Thrak, The Power to Believe, and Contrukction of Light

[@dampersand]

Any fans who haven't heard it already should check out disc 2 of the Ladies of the Road live album. It's got 12 different live performances of Schizoid Man from 1972 cut together into one hour long track. The sound quality can be rough on some of the recordings, but the musicianship is as great as always. I'm listening to it in the background while Bryan talks about the original track.

[@papacarl2002]

That’s amazing- thanks for sharing that KC info. Will have to check it out. I’m sure it’s very different, but the concept reminds me of Neil Young’s “Arc” ⚡️ 🤘🏼🎧🤟🏼

[@itkojecockot]

KC is that band that was always playing chess, while others played checkers

[@RÅNÇIÐ]

Uh oh, watch it, before Fripp takes it down.

[@rudolphpyatt4833]

The extra movement title, "Mirrors", is an artifact of music publishing of the era: It counts as a separate song for publishing and royalty purposes. You see that throughout this album and all during the Prog era.

[@CGMiller]

King Crimson was big for me about 10 plus years ago. My friends showed me Zeppelin and Floyd and I loved it and went off on my own and found them. Needless to say, I was looking for something a little more complex when I first really got into music.

[@dampersand]

One of my favorite bands of all time! Better watch this quick before it gets blocked though...

[@joaolima3032]

Please react to frame by frame or elephant talk by them, they have pretty cool tricks in those songs either using a chapman stick or crazy tricks using different time signatures

[@ShiroiNekoDotCom]

The genre of King Crimson is King Crimson. There is just nothing else like it!

[@spikestoyou]

Check out Epitaph from this same album, as well as Starless from Red. This album, Red, Lark's Tongue in Aspic, and Discipline are all nearly perfect prog albums.

[@Jarednhk]

Everyone loves this track, it's a relic, but it is criminal that some people have never heard the live version on the first disk of "The Great Deceiver." The Wetton-Bruford-Cross lineup took this song to a new stratosphere.

[@bofad6074]

That live album is genuinely one of my favorite records of all time

[@Jarednhk]

@@bofad6074 I know same! All the tracks are just as good as the studio performances or better and all the new improv material is killer. It’s the definitive KC record for that era(as Absent Lovers is for the Discipline-3 of a perfect pair era).

[@raidervillalobos6457]

Huge influence on The Mars Volta

[@mijmijrm]

interested in the primordial musical soup from which heavy metal emerged ? .. 1967 Captain Beefheart's Drop Out Boogie from the album Safe as Milk might have some relevance.

[@FergusonFiller]

super hard to do king crimson with all the copyright, not sure how you managed this one! but you gotta check out in the wake of poseidon by king crimson!

[@JimNewstead]

As one reactor to another.... I give this maybe 48 hours before it gets blocked. I gave up King Crimson videos a long time ago! Good stuff :)

[@CriticalReactions]

Thanks for dropping by. And yeah, this is my third KC track and the other two are blocked. I have a nice system for blocked videos though so it doesn't bother me too much. Still a bit irritating though 😅

[@cybore213]

It's still here, 4 days later! Amazing!

[@JimNewstead]

@@cybore213 well I’ll be jiggered!!!!

[@JimNewstead]

This is still up? How????

[@dogboy8679]

@@JimNewsteadstill up lol

[@dlafond336]

The song lyrics were inspired by Spiro Agnew, then US VP and his comments on the Vietman War. This was really considered one of the best recordings at the time, and if you listen to the Steve Wilson Remix in 5.1, you will hear so much more. I hear Ian playing bari, tenor and alto saxes overdubbed on parts of the unison riffs. They recorded the track in one take and then did some of the overdubs (actually I think they did two takes, but only used the first one). This broke a lot of music out of simple chord changes and opened the ears of many. I was 19 when it came out and was totally blown away, and I had been listening to Pink Floyd and others for a couple of years. The studio they recorded at was a basic 4 track, and they did not have a lot of $ to do the months long recording sessions they do now. Also, I believe KC had no intention or thought of this as 'heavy metal', especially since it did not really exist as a form at the time. They wanted to do a hard, loud track and hit people over the head and get their attention. Many metal players have sited this song as one of their major influences, so people tend to label it as metal.

[@xavierbonilla1164]

One of my favorite bands! Perfect album! 😍

[@TedinCalgary1952]

Excellent choice! I saw them do this live. I'm not sure EXACTLY where you are going with this theme this week, but I will give you my impressions as having lived through the period. It's always tough to definitively specify "origins" (see, e.g., comment below by ProgPer Ljungman). I tend to favor bands and songs which achieved a high degree of popularity, rather than which, from a purely musical point of view, may have been acoustically similar. The band that was prior in time to many of the developments was Steppenwolf with their song "The Pusher", and also the famous song "Born to be Wild" (again, I saw all of this live). The other major influence at the early time was Hendrix, especially "Purple Haze" and "Foxey Lady". Hendrix was in '67 and Steppenwolf was '68. Many people, including myself, would not consider the Stones as "heavy metal", and of course could not stand the Beatles (in many ways we considered heavy metal to be a reaction AGAINST the Beatles). Then in January '69 Led Zepplin with "Communication Breakdown" and "Dazed and Confused" was probably what we thought of as the real "beginning" of heavy metal. And fortunately for us there is a (famous) video of one of Led Zepplin's first concerts playing "Dazed and Confused" (link in "Reply" below). The reason WHY we can say "origins" for this is a bit weird: in the early days it has to be remembered that people were still coming off the Elvis era, and when you went to a concert people dressed conservatively, and SAT, and clapped politely, at the END of the song. There was no dancing or rushing the stage! The idea of really partying WITH the band would not come until a few years later. And you can see that in this video. Hope you have a chance to watch it or let us know if you've already seen it!

[@TedinCalgary1952]

Here is the link to that video: "Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused (London 1969 Live Good Quality)" @ kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3SZhKqwjdussNk. (3,755,023 views as of today).

[@CriticalReactions]

I'll check this out sometime this week. Thanks

[@progperljungman8218]

Ozzy Osbourne actually did a cover of this on his 2005 album "Cover This" and there's loads of other metal musicians honoring King Crimson as an influence because of their groundbreaking sound with occational heaviness unmatched before them (Sabbath debuted with their self titled the year after). But of course King Crimson has always first and foremost been a progressive band (very evident in this song as well!). It's just that in their search for new territories they happened to find sounds and styles that inspired others in other "genres". Arround this time though, I've been told groups like Sabbath and Zeppelin were also filed under "progressive" in Britain at least. That was before the term "heavy metal" was coined and established. Wonderful reaction and analysis! I can get your problems with it, which I think is partly due to "inexperience" with the sound of the time.

[@CriticalReactions]

Ozzy doing a cover sounds neat. I might need to track that down. You bringing up Sabbath being labeled as progressive for a while is something that I've been wanting to talk about on the channel. Progressive typically just means taking an idea in a new direction and can often be a placeholder for a genre name before one gets coined. It doesn't surprise me that Heavy Metal was just progressive....whatever.....for the time.

[@rolfjamne8922]

The live version on their album Eartbound is Epic👌

[@spiderbass65]

@@CriticalReactions Ozzy cut out all the difficult parts. That’s just one of the differences between progressive and metal.

[@progperljungman8218]

@@spiderbass65 Yup. Which aslo goes to show that it's kind of a "metal track" stripped down to those parts 😊

[@ganazby]

Sensational track, even after all these years. Spot on, Bryan, when you mentioned the big band influence. Fripp started out playing jazz, as did the drummer, Michael Giles. Yeah, I think that mammoth riff qualifies as being an influence on metal.

[@CriticalReactions]

It totally makes sense that jazz was a major part of some of the member's musical background. It shines through the KC stuff I've checked out so far.

[@papacarl2002]

@@CriticalReactions haven’t seen all your reactions, but you must check out KC when Bill Bruford 🥁 joined after leaving Yes… Lark’s Tongues, Red, and then Discipline in the 80’s

[@yes_head]

@@CriticalReactions Also, prior to KC, sax/keys player Ian MacDonald played in the UK army band, which I'm sure involved a fair amount of big band music. Really, Greg was the only one of them who didn't have much interest in jazz. He could deliver a convincingly jazzy bass part, although most bassists back then had that as part of their toolkit.

[@NewBritainStation]

Excellent analysis. King Crimson then (and since) is best live, but the original lineup was perhaps the one that was never truly captured on a recording. The first studio album was produced by the band, their first, and on 8-tracks, I believe (maybe 16). The live recordings of the era also capture only a hint of their power, with the guitar often much quieter since it wasn’t run through the PA. Although the ‘71-2 live band is well represented by live recordings. It’s really not until the ‘73-4 live recordings that the Mighty Crim was really captured. Some of the improvs in particular from that era are stunning.

[@MarionJInce]

This King Crimson album (1969) came out before Black Sabbath (1970).

[@ajej27]

One thing to consider... Fripp was/is an electronics wizard who invented a bunch of devices called frippertronics. He even owns/owned a company of that name. Many of those devices altered the sound of the guitar. Maybe the metal folks liked what he was doing with the altered heavy sound and used that. The band itself was prog in all its permutations.

[@primateinterfacetechnologi6220]

I always figured I was hearing the clarinet... Which is practically a saxophone; The sax was developed from the bass, or baritone clarinet... Thanks man, I appreciate the analysis. peace.

[@alejandrobustos2268]

The final track is free jazz.

[@lewj8]

Love this song. I listened to this album in like 10th grade back in the day and it blew my mind.

[@rdrummer322]

and the drums? Some of the most truly innovative for this style of music ever. Nothing since can truly compare. 53 years ago...Does that count for something? The Beatles were still making records..You could but this or Abbey Road. Some of us bought both.

[@klausschneider1045]

Back in 1969, this piece was the first number of KC's gig in a Hyde Park festival, along with the Rolling Stones e.a. It was previosly unheard by anyone in the audience, the album still was not published and only a few people knew who or what King Crimson was. The opening Riff must have struck into the absolutely unprepared crowd like a bombshell, you can read it from the faces in the videos from that show.

[@andreletourneau]

It has been said that this song had a lot of influence on Heavy Metal bands in the 70s and 80s. But that album is more recognized as one of the first Prog Rock album.

[@Distortion360]

Frame By Frame and Larks' Tongue in Aspic Pt. 1! ...Changed my life when I first heard these tracks.

[@jaset362]

King Crimson's " In The Court Of The Crimson King " came out in 1969 while "Black Sabbath" came out in 1970 . King Crimson offered wide range of proto-metal inspiration in "21st century Schizoid Man" . Black Sabbath picked up and developed the heaviest part of it and turned it into heavy metal.

[@alicec1533]

The lyrics of the song are paining a picture of man's life in the 21st century (i.e., the next century to them, ofc). So the images of war, political authoritarianism, madness and consumerism are their image of the new millenium. 'Epitaph', another song on this album also acts as a warning of the future with images of a post-nuclear war, at which the protaganist fears that tomorrow he will be crying. "Confusion will be my epitaph"

[@christophermoebs5514]

A lot of people cite this as early heavy metal and there are some aspects of it but my vote is early Jeff beck group for early heavy rock which inspired metal bands. This was King Crimson's first (self produced) album. I heard this in the middle of the night on WABX in Detroit when they first got the record and played the entire album. It WAS groundbreaking in 1969.

[@yes_head]

As others have said, this album is widely considered Ground Zero of progressive rock, mainly because how it synthesizes rock, jazz, and classical ideas and sounds. If you listen to it all the way through you'll discover this song is a bit of an outlier. The rest of the album ranges from pastoral romanticism to free jazz improv to symphonic bombast, but it doesn't return to this kind of heavy riffing. In fact, KC wouldn't fully explore that kind of music again until the mid-70s band, culminating in the album Red (1974). That album (and era) were heavily influenced by early Mahavishnu Orchestra, and has been cited as an influence on Kirk Cobain and other early grunge musicians. So that's a stronger link to metal, IMO. IMO metal and prog never really intersected until bands like Dream Theater came along in the late 80's. Final note: Before recording this album, KC were courted (pardon the pun) by the Moody Blues' management to join their new label. They turned them down because they knew it would mean getting the Moodies' production style on their debut. And if you think the drums weren't well served by *this* recording... the drums here sound clear and spacious by comparison.

[@palantir135]

Such a great album. Discipline is my favorite KC album but this comes second. Know them for almost fifty years now.

[@billholder1330]

Yeah, and true enough - to me, this songs stands as the birthplace of both Metal and Prog. The initial explosion of brilliance that only existed for a moment before splitting into two separate things....

[@pascalg16]

Legendary band

[@matty1953565962]

The main riff has a heavy metal quality, but these guys were lightyears ahead of '60s and '70s metal bands in terms of musicianship and imagination. King Crimson's original lineup could go from free jazz to melancholic ballads to Beatlesesque harmonies at the drop of a hat. They were just using a heavy metal riff to establish a dystopian mood.

[@markaubuchon]

My vote goes to Fracture from the Starless and Bible Black album. Even Robert Fripp has said that the guitar lead part on the song is almost impossible to play. One of King Crimson's heaviest, blistering songs

[@amogernebula3983]

You should do Starless it's one of their best songs

[@cuz_i_sedso9574]

50 yrs later i didnt even catch it until you said "big band"

[@mika9578]

The lyrical "key" is Vietnam

[@rdrummer322]

Name anyone else as proficient on the Chapman stick as Tony Levin.

[@brianalpert2383]

As far as the production is concerned, this was 1969 and they were wrestling with the limitations of 4 track recording. It was a time when studios were just learning to produce rock music. This was an extremely difficult record to record and mix. By the early 1970s, rock recording had gotten down being able to separate all of the instrumentation to the point where if you were listening on headphones, you could hear everything that was going on. Wonderful analysis of the music.

[@Z_E_B_O]

Afaik, the song is not about a person specifically having schizophrenia, but a person that lives in the 21st century paranoid about a war that is coming or already happening. The album cover also shows the 21st century schizoid man with the crimson king on the back of the vinyl. Also the reason why it sounds like there are alot of instruments is that they layered multiple melotron recordings over each other. (altough maybe that was on the song "the court of the crimson king", not sure)

[@InsaneCarville]

A better Crimson song for a metal listen would have been Red or Larks Tongues pt 2. Perhaps even Great Deceiver. But KC in general are more in the Jazzy influenced side rather the blues or genre based in general. I've described them as being heavy, not in a metal or genre way but more like how Bach or Beethoven could be intense and chaotic

[@InsaneCarville]

PS. Hearing this song and Goliath by Mars Volta back to back tells an interesting tale. KC have another track called Easy Money that I can hear a lot of early Mars Volta in as well.

[@topcrakhead]

finally my man listens to one of the best songs ever made!

[@IshwaraYogaNET]

Yeah so interesting. My own feeling about this track has evolved since the 70's when really i just was interested in Fripp's guitar distortion which comes from my love of rock and metal at the time. No one sounded like Fripp at this time. He seemed to me like he loved sometime to describe a juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness. But anyhow the further i get from those years, the more i simply hear jazz. Elements remind me of a lot of the 'free jazz' that used to hear in gigs in North London. And other elements as you say reminds me of big band jazz. Oh yes and the voice, maybe thats the closest in 'feel' to a Sabbath from back then. I wish you were covering the whole album

[@kentrichardson9070]

If and when King Crimson ever gets honoured like they deserve at the Grammys or something else, I always wondered what song they should play to blow the world away. I thought this would be a good choice. My favourite band with a collective resume that reads like “War and Peace “ still touring after 50+ years.cheers

[@curioponics]

Prog as heck, but a massive influence on early heavy metal (and the more recent progressive metal bands) for sure. Actually Enslaved (that you checked out an early song of lately) have covered this live many times.

[@swirll360]

This is considerred by many as the birth of Prog Rock/fusion. I've never heard this song or band being included in any heavy metal discussion. Maybe the vocals are a foreshadowing of heavy metal vocals but other than that this is pure prog. So yes your right it's not considered heavy metal, but I could see some eventual metal band members as teens in the 70's being influenced by King Crimson.

[@nickagero]

Origins more so for the prog scene, pretty much every prog metal artist will cite King Crimson as an inpiration.

[@infowarriorone]

Yup. Crimson and Black Sabbath, it's hard to say which band has done more to influence heavy metal (or prog). Even in the 1990s Crimson was heavier than Pantera. Sabbath was brilliant and heavy. Crimson was beyond brilliant and very heavy at times, though they've been far more far-reaching in how they'd adopted the genres of the time.

[@alexanderduncan3347]

Bryan, in the late 60s much of the music written was strongly influenced by the drugs (especially LSD) that the musicians and their audience were taking. When you are analysing the music from this period it is important to take psychedelia into account. Also, with regards to this album, I would point out that the digital transfer from the original analogue leaves the music a little bit muddy and I would recommend that you relisten to it from a vinyl source using a high-end turntable like a LINN SONDEK. The sound quality will be greatly enhanced; as will your appreciation.

[@edgarsnake2857]

Thanks for your thoughtful reaction. This is more prog rock than it is metal.

[@MMasterDE]

As someone who has played something very similar to a saxophone, and pretty much could have played one if I wanted, you can go from no fingers to all, except like one that keeps the instrument up (you use neck strap too) and in the right direction etc. It sounds complicated and difficult, but it's not like guitar, it's actually more like trumpet, as you got one grip with both hands and the fingers rest over the buttons. The initial learning curve is twofold. The blowing (haha), you need good lungs for this, and the blowing has a technique with a vibrating thin piece of wood, very different from trumpet. The other is memorizing what buttons does what, but it's pretty much in scale order. The higher the open holes are and the more of them, the higher the pitch. You pretty much just hold down one more button for each lower note. I believe there is also at least one button you can hold down to open a hole higher up, giving you higher pitch, and it works the same way there, that you'll want to keep every other button down for the lowest of those pitches and release to get higher pitch. Yeaaah.... I promise it's not that complicated. hehe The higher pitches are more tricky to play, usually, more technique.

[@grahamhowes6904]

Saw this line-up live -jaw dropping and played even faster live!😊 Metal origins? HELTER SKELTER - THE BEATLES!

[@BazyarCodes]

other proto-metal you should look into: Deep Purple, "Machinehead" - "Highway Star" key track, but the whole album is a good proto-metal example Blue Oyster Cult, "Tyranny and Mutation" - contains not only proto-metal, but porto-punk. Judas Priest, "Sad Wings of Destiny" - key tune "Victim of Changes" Common thread: all these bands had their roots in psychedlic rock

[@billholder1330]

This (expletive) song. Blowing my mind continuously, since 1969. I was 10. :)

[@MMasterDE]

It's interesting you'd mention the bass, because from late 50s and early 60s you had a band like The Shadows enjoying great success with what is called surf rock. There a thick guitar, or bass would be the center of the sound. This was before The Beatles, and they played with Cliff Richard, one of the most selling artists ever, even having a number one hit in UK in five consecutive decades. Anyway, it's definitely worth checking them out. I recommend Apache, Wonderful Land, or Atlantis... yeah, there's more.....

[@mikeloomis687]

KC was ahead of their time, and was a foundation for many 70's rock bands. The musical textures, instruments, and mild Jazz influence seemed very "experimental" at the time. Thus, a very progressive rock sound. If you want early heavy metal, check out Steppenwolf. The words "heavy Metal thunder" were words used in their famous song "Born to be Wild".

[@ericjohnson2137]

There are 3 songs that I know, that are completely influenced by this. Black Sabbath Iron Man, Blue Oyster Cult Cities on Flame and Rush Working Man

[@peteharper2687]

In the court of the crimson king came out in 1969 and this track has what I like to call heavy jazz, although the main riff is very metal like. Black Sabbath wer signed in 1969 and first first single came out in 1970 followed shortly by their first album.

[@johndavids4780]

As a man in his mid 70's I saw this progression first hand. (Please don't over think the lyrics). This was all about confusion which inspires 2nd level thinking. There was a side road of what you may call fantasy rock with a lot of progressive differences. Bands like Uriah Heep and the Moody Blues where the message was more etheral and frankly mad to be listened to with headphones after a joint of bowl of Hasish. , where you just lay back and disappear into the music. You had to be there. It isn't the same as just getting stoned and rocking out. It was much more thoughtful and elegant than that. You should explore the Moody Blues to understand the essence.

[@_portis]

i discovered this album when i was 13 years old. It's a masterpiece. 1969 baby!

[@BicyclePhil]

Bryan, Thx for creating this interesting commentary. I’m sure that some heavy metal artists may cite this as an influence. Although, from my perspective this is not heavy metal. From my early ‘70’s perspective when I first heard this I would have called this jazz rock fusion(rock-jazz fusion?). The prog rock category/label did not exist for me then. Now, yes, let’s put King Crimson into the prog rock category Amongst some of the aforementioned groups, a band that I would consider to be early heavy metal would be UFO. Anybody….can/is prog rock broken down into sub-genres?

[@peterwebster9577]

Bob AND Toya live near me

[@ravenking1953]

Behold their Royal Awesomeness , you love it

[@francoispitre6292]

For Metal origins you should listen to King Crimson One More Red Nightmare ,Magma De Futura , Death Politicians in my mind

[@EdwardBast]

King Crimson doesn't do single metal music, heavy or otherwise. It's always multiple elements from ethereally light to molten lead. They draw on everything from Bartok to blues. But as for whether it figures in the prehistory of heavy metal, I'd say the only way to answer that would be to ask the heavyweights of metal whether it was on their radar and if it affected them or their music in any way they're aware of. All else is idle speculation, fun but ultimately unsatisfying.

[@Coolnesski]

You must listen to the next song in sequence to cool down

[@NewBritainStation]

This was the debut album, and produced by them. Michael Giles (pronounced “Jiles” rhymes with isles) never like the drum sound they got. Although not the absolute best version (I would say Providence ‘74), this is a great representation of it live, albeit with a different lineup: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJzcnmeFltp4irM

[@ganazby]

They definitely had a conductor: Robert Fripp.

[@davidbonar5190]

that weird ambient album/song intro reminds me meshuggah's future Breed machine intro as well as tool's intro to lateralus/the grudge.... :)

[@billparsons9119]

In my humble opinion, King Crimson is Progressive Rock. I do hear Metal in some of their music, but for the most part they are a Prog Rock band.

[@progperljungman8218]

At the time, "all" bands going outside of the box of "standard pop music" at the time were regarded "progressive". Even Sabbath. It was about stretching and exceeding established boarders and inventing new stuff. The band's who kept inventing kept being called progressive when the ones who sticked to new "straight" genres got labeled by them as they were coined. Then after some years "progressive" started to become more identifiable as a type of music rather than bands being constant inventors. The word still means forward moving rather than sticking to a formula though - and that doesn't only go for the ones playing what we identify as "prog" style today 😊

[@MMasterDE]

Hehe, the "perfection" part... idk... I'm actually not a fan of the "refined process" or the "perfection". Once you've heard some of that, it's all feels so similar, it gets generic. Often early stuff did more experimental and different things. There's a reason why some of this stuff was so influential, it had stuff that made it great that wasn't just the "refined". Also, the production stuff, I think you've started to catch up on that a bit more. I always see composers want production a certain way, usually pretty clean and clear etc, when what many listeners and fans of the music really hear is the feeling it leaves them with. The production can create an atmosphere and be an instrument all by itself. In like early death metal, you had like one guy in Florida that did all the production work for so much of the classic albums. Similar, in Norway there was one guy who produced most of the classic black metal stuff. Everyone in those scenes knew who that guy was who could create the sound, mix and atmosphere they wanted. ooo, and a good example, Sweden is more known for a (melodic) death metal scene. Some of that is due to bands like At the Gates, that is very influential with their Slaughter of the Soul album and how clear the sound really is for it's time while still being death. I personally heavily favor their first album, The Red in the Sky is Ours. Very different in terms of production. TRitSiO is way more prog and even has classical elements, experiment so much and got some fine bitter sad melodies with like a feel of the past. I'm not sure that album would have been better had it had "better" production... ooo, I got another example. Compare original Demon's Souls OST with the remake... so much of the atmosphere and feel of the original is lost with the remake, but you'd probably say the remake has way "better" production.

[@CriticalReactions]

You mentioned frequently seeing composers wanting clearer production and I think a lot of that comes from how we're approaching this as well as our training in general. People who self-define as composers typically come from classical backgrounds despite anyone writing music being a composer. Metal bands are groups of composers but you'd so rarely hear that words tossed around in those circles. So mix that classical background with the fact most of us are taught orchestral or active listening and not only are trained to listen for individual elements but the music we learned to listen like this to was classical which traditionally has clarity in the production/recording. I can't speak for every composer out there but at least for me I understand what less clear production can bring to the table, the atmospheric properties and emotional charge it can add to a song. In fact, I enjoy some music with more heavily compressed sounds that make it difficult to hear the instruments separately. But when I'm doing these reactions I'm engaging muscles and entering a mindset that absolutely wants that clarity. And maybe I should keep more of this in mind during my breakdowns and discuss the positives of the production when I feel it's helping to tell the story or add a certain emotion (despite it making it difficult for me to hear what's going on 😅)