THE HARD STUFF REISSUES
King Crimson
In The Court Of The Crimson King Audio Diary 2014-2018 PANEGYRIC
50th-anniversary reissue, with alternative mixes and out-takes plus live recordings.
Released in 1969, In The Court Of The Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson) is a cornerstone of prog rock. That year, it eclipsed in its scope and ambition both Abbey Road by the dying Beatles and the debut album by the nascent Led Zeppelin. It was a demonstration that rock had the potential to mature, to meld with other genres. Pastoral and dystopian by turns, ranging in tone from 21st Century Schizoid Man to I Talk To The Wind, driven by the guitars of Robert Fripp, coloured in by the woodwinds and Mellotron of Ian McDonald, it confidently takes on elements of folk, jazz and classical, topped off by just a smidgeon of pomposity (one can’t imagine An Observation By The Anti-Nowhere League).
The out-takes included on this reissue, although intriguing, particularly for Crimson-heads, demonstrate just how finished an article the album was practically from the get-go, how quickly set. A solo vocal version of gives an undivided sense of the quality of Greg Lake’s vocals. The 5.1
