Favourite King Crimson Era?

Sweet thank you. I will check it out. I am trying to pace myself a tiny bit (not a reference to your share) but it's sooo easy to over do it nowadays with being able to get things so fast. Not like when I was a teen and you were lucky to get 2 or 3 records at a time.

I will 100% check that out.

I listened to all of Red and loved it. It'll be really fun as I go back and here it more times.

There's so many layers to King Crimson.

 

I voted Larks, but my honest answer is "all of them"

 

The Larks to Red period for me. I love all the King Crimson albums up to and including USA. Never really followed the reformed band and would argue they perhaps should have changed name. There is quite a difference in the Islands period to the Court of the Crimson King era. With the magnificent box sets and cd/dvd reissues along with the Collectors club stuff I feel very well served by Robert Fripp and his work on the bands legacy. 27 discs is it in Starless for about £100? Knocks the spots of Pink Floyd and their boringly titled early years. (I will be getting this as I am a big fan but you can buy the Larks, Starless and Red boxes combined for less!)

 

I threw in with the few here that voted for Thrak-ConstruKction-Believe period. Strong stuff that makes the pink slip given to Belew even more perplexing/frustrating. The Power to Believe is a great album!

 

I enjoy all of their eras but the four Peter Sinfield albums are my favorites. I think what he contributed to Crimson is a bit underappreciated and overlooked. I don't think King Crimson could have happened without him.

 

Belew fronted the band for over twenty years, far longer than any other Crimson frontman.

I was sad to see him go too, but Fripp seemed to want something different going forward.

Love what Belew brought to the table, though. Believe is amazing, and I think that's the high-water mark of modern Crimson.

 

Wow perfect timing to bring up The Power to Believe. I am listening to it for the first time right now. The first track is insane!!

 

Absolutely agree. A certain magic was lost when he left. His importance as a co-producer is clear when you consider the first Roxy Music album (their best, in my opinion). His lyrics may not have suited the second group, but would the second group have happened if he hadn't left? (I don't remember the circumstances of his leaving.) At any rate, his lyrics were better than those who succeeded him, but that's not saying much.

 

Love the version of the song "Eyes Wide Open" on there too.

 

Couldn't decide between the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th era but voted Thrak/Construction/Power era since that was their first trio of albums I owned. Level 5 and Dangerous Curves from TPTB are my favourites.

 

Yeah I don't know that they are better. They are certainly different. The production in the first Rosu album is the weakest of them all IMHO. No doubt Peter was an important collaborator with Fripp but I wouldn't oversell it.

 

My essential 4 KC albums show my dilemma:
COURT
RED
DISCIPLINE
THRAK
theses are my go to recordings and the others are my dips.

 

Love all eras, but the Wetton period wins, for me.

 

Improvisation is simply composition (songwriting) on the fly.

 

In Sid Smith's In The Court Of King Crimson, Sinfield's longtime partner stated that Fripp didn't want "fairies and unicorns" in the lyrics for Crimson any longer, in a manner of speaking.

I would say Sinfield did more than fine after Crimson, though I think For Your Pleasure is the best Roxy album.

 

I only like a couple of Sinfield KC lyrics. I'd have to agree with Mr Fripp.

 

I agree about For Your Pleasure, but Sinfield didn't produce that. He produced their self titled debut, also a strong album.

 

if you're reading the Smith bio, you probably know about this already, but for anyone who doesn't--Sinfield's 1973 solo album, still (reissued in 1993 as stillusion), is an interesting record. a bunch of crimson and other prog alumni appear on it, and it turns out that Sinfield's singing voice is tuneful and pleasant.

it's worth checking out if you're into the 'british pastoral' school of prog rock.

 

Larks/Starless/Red is my favorite era, the only time periods I haven't really checked out thoroughly enough would be post-THRAK.

 

I voted Larks/Starless/Red (the Wetton era KC pretty much rules my world), but I can't help but think that Lizard and Islands should be in their own group, as stylistically so different from Court and Poseidon.

 

If you like that era, I'd imagine you would also like the post-Thrak stuff, especially The Power to Believe.

I don't think they're very different stylistically. And if I had separated them, nothing but the Wetton era would have had a chance.

 

Court and Poseidon are definitely runner up favorite as its the beginnings and endings of the original band. I always found it a crime that the original lineup never reunited, much less had the staying power to remain as such. What they created on the debut is forever the cornerstone of what Fripp has managed to maintain and create throughout the course of its career, kudos to him.

@Zach Johnson- I've been meaning to get some of the second phase Belew/Mastelotto/Fripp/Gunn sometimes Levin/Bruford and I'd like to eventually obtain some of the latest stuff with Jakko Jakszyk and Gavin Harrison included. Crimson is one of those acts that just has never ending musical paths to explore with so much output available. Truly a treasure, imo.

 

I really like one album from each era with the others being distant runners up. So:
Court
Red
Discipline
Thrak

 

Yep, I'd read about this record in Smith's book, and kept seeing used at my record store. But at $15.99, I didn't want to chance it. I will check it out in some form though, I would be interested to hear it.

The offshoots of Crimson from around that era (like the spellbinding McDonald & Giles record) often hold their own charms and fascinations.

 

Guess I meant to state that I personally prefer For Your Pleasure to the debut. But the debut has more than it's share of stone-cold classics ("Ladytron", "2HB", and "Virginia Plain", the early single which was added to later releases).