In the Court of the Crimson King

King Crimson made their live debut on 9 April 1969 at The Speakeasy Club in London. Another concert at the Speakeasy Club circa August 1969, was disrupted by members of The Pink Fairies Drinking Club (including Steve Peregrin Took, hours before his flight out to the US for Tyrannosaurus Rex's August/September 1969 debut American tour) who were out celebrating the completion of Twink's solo album Think Pink. King Crimson opened for the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, London, in July 1969, before an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people, which brought them positive attention. Initial sessions for the album were held in early 1969 with producer Tony Clarke, most famous for his work with The Moody Blues. After these sessions failed to work out, the group were given permission to produce the album themselves. The album was recorded on a 1" 8-channel recorder at Wessex Sound Studios in London, engineered by Robin Thompson and assisted by Tony Page. In order to achieve the characteristic lush, orchestral sounds on the album, Ian McDonald spent many hours overdubbing layers of Mellotron and various woodwind and reed instruments. In some cases, the band went through five tape generations to attain deeply layered, segued tracks. == Composition ==

The music on In the Court of the Crimson King is considered by critics to be stylistically diverse and rhythmically complex. John Cunningham of WhatCulture said the album "threw the bluesy sound of rock at the time out the window. In its place, the group displayed a psychedelic hybrid style composed of acid rock, jazz and classical overtones." Sean Murphy of PopMatters assessed: "This was not a pose, and it was not reactionary; it still manages to seem somehow ahead of its time as well as—it must be said—out of time. Of course, it came out of an era and the minds from which it was conceived, a dark, sensitive, and undeniably psychedelic space." He said that musically, the album "speaks from the underground, but is grounded in history and looks forward, not backward". According to music historian Jeff Gold, "King Crimson abandoned most of rock's R&B roots to embrace a kind of guitar and Mellotron-based, crypto-classical style that went well beyond what Procol Harum and the Moody Blues had previously attempted." "21st Century Schizoid Man" has been called "perhaps the first alternative anthem" by Manish Agarwal of Time Out, and DeRogatis said Fripp "never rocked harder" than he did on the track, likening the stylings to heavy metal. According to lyricist Peter Sinfield, the song was influenced by Joni Mitchell; in a 1997 interview, he said it is still his favourite lyric that he ever wrote. == Artwork ==

Manish Agarwal of Time Out called the cover artwork "scary", and suggested it to be "best enjoyed on gatefold vinyl." == Release ==

In the Court of the Crimson King was released on the 10th of October, 1969. Upon its release, the album reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart this problem was compensated for by EQ until 2002. Fripp speculated that the problem was caused by incompetent mastering engineers or "some tapes were mastered in different countries on machines that were not very well maintained or from copies made in the source country (normally US or UK in the case of rock music) where the second machine was inadequately maintained/monitored. These tapes were then sent out to licensee countries who had no adequate measure of comparison and trusted the source material from the record company office. Tape machines running at different speeds occasionally resulted in albums being a couple of seconds shorter/longer". In 1982, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released a half speed mastered version of the album on vinyl, cut by Stan Ricker with the Ortofon Cutting System. In 1989 the album was remastered for its debut on CD by Robert Fripp and Tony Arnold; this version was part of "The Definitive Edition" series, which consisted of other remastered albums by the band. In 1999, in commemoration of its 30th anniversary, the album was remastered again, this time using 24 bit and HDCD technology by Simon Heyworth, Robert Fripp and David Singleton; this edition was part of the "30th Anniversary Edition" series, which consisted of remastered editions of King Crimson's back-catalogue for their 30th anniversaries. Three years later, in 2002, the original masters were discovered in the Virgin archives, with splicing tape still present between the various songs, and crossfade between "I Talk to the Wind" and "Epitaph" yet to be created. In 2004, a new remaster was done by Simon Heyworth using these first-generation stereo master tapes and it was released the same year with a 12-page booklet. This release was called "Original Master Edition" and used the same HDCD and 24 bit technology as the 1999 remaster. In October 2009, Fripp collaborated with musician and producer Steven Wilson to remix the original master recordings in a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix, released as the album's 40th Anniversary edition. The album was sold as three different packages: a two-CD set with the old and new stereo versions, a CD and DVD set with the new stereo and surround sound mixes, and a six-disc (5 CD/1 DVD) box with all mixes and bonus audio and video tracks. In 2010, the original 1969 stereo mix was remastered and reissued on 200-gram super-heavyweight vinyl. This edition was cut by John Dent at Loud Mastering, it was approved by Robert Fripp and included a download code for a 320 kbit/s transfer of the original 1969 vinyl. In 2019, the album was remixed in 5.1 and stereo by Steven Wilson once again for a 50th anniversary box set of the album. Wilson expressed satisfaction with his 2009 remix, but stated that his 50th anniversary mixes are a significant improvement, being more faithful to the original 1969 mix and benefitting from his 10 years of ensuing experience. The box set includes 3 CDs and a Blu-ray. The Blu-ray features the all-new 2019 stereo and 5.1 mixes encoded at 24/96 resolution, the 2004 "Original Master Edition" with the 1969 mix (also encoded at 24/96), a complete alternate version of the album comprising 2019 Steven Wilson mixes and 2019 instrumental mixes, while the three CDs in the box set feature the new 2019 stereo mix, an expanded edition of the alternate album in the Blu-ray and the "Original Master Edition" plus additional tracks. == Critical reception ==

In the Court of the Crimson King received acclaim in the British music press. In NME, Nick Logan said that although the album lacked the impact of their live concerts, the diverse musical influences from pop, jazz and classical music had produced a result that was "totally original and always captivating", and stating that "King Crimson, on this showing, have it in them to be huge." Melody Maker also noted that the album did not fully capture the power of the band's live performances, but that it "still packs tremendous impact", and that "this is one you should try to hear". Disc and Music Echo described the album as "a brilliant mixture of melody and freakout, fast and slow, atmospheric and electric, all heightened by the words of Peter Sinfield". The magazine stated that "this must be heard as a complete entity" and concluded that it would "establish King Crimson as a major talent". In the US, John Morthland of Rolling Stone said King Crimson had "combined aspects of many musical forms to create a surreal work of force and originality". Cashbox called the album a "tour-de-force" with "no loose ends" and also praised the band's musicianship, compositional skills, and arrangements. Record World listed the album as one of its album picks of the week in its 29 November 1969 publication and said that the album material was "tonsil scorching". Billboard highlighted the band's "towering sound and foreboding poetry" and singled out the title track as a song that reflected the band's "depth and deliberateness". Village Voice critic Robert Christgau called the album "ersatz shit". Paul Stump's History of Progressive Rock, published the same year, stated that "If Progressive rock as a discrete genre can be said to have had a starting point, In the Court of the Crimson King is probably it. All the elements that characterize Progressive's maturity are in place: jazz and blues influences are subservient to intense compositional rigour characterized by Mellotron-induced Western classical symphonic arrangements ... Individual and collective passages of arresting virtuosity and a rhythmic discontinuity bordering on the perverse are also components of an essentially tonal, approachable whole inoffensive to any classical or pop listener." Stump further commented that while the album is defined by avant-garde sensibility and subtle arrangements, it still communicates through the accessible language of rockers. == Legacy ==

In the book Turn On Your Mind, music critic Jim DeRogatis cited In the Court of the Crimson King as "the album that got the progressive ball rolling". The Who's Pete Townshend was quoted as calling the album "an uncanny masterpiece". In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came fourth in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums". The album was named as one of Classic Rock magazine's "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock". In 2014, readers of Rhythm voted it the eighth greatest drumming album in the history of progressive rock. In 2015, Rolling Stone named In the Court of the Crimson King the second greatest progressive rock album of all time, behind Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. The album is also featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It was voted number 193 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. Sean Murphy of PopMatters referred to the album as "The Rosetta Stone, and still the purest and most perfect expression of the progressive rock aesthetic." He further explained, "to fully fathom what In the Court of the Crimson King signifies, it's useful to consider it as less an uncompromised statement of purpose, and perhaps the first influential album that forsook even the pretense of commercial appeal. To understand, much less appreciate, what these mostly unknown Brits were doing you have to accept their sensibility completely on their terms." Bruce Elder of AllMusic referred to In the Court as King Crimson's "definitive album", and "one of the most daring debut albums ever recorded by anybody". He explained, "At the time, it blew all of the progressive/psychedelic competition out of the running, although it was almost too good for the band's own good – it took King Crimson nearly four years to come up with a record as strong or concise." John Cunningham of WhatCulture assessed: "Spitting in the face of British rock conventions, In The Court of the Crimson King is a landmark in prog rock history. [...] Surreal, dark and unpredictable, the album was unlike anything that had come before it at the time. [...] Arguably the original prog rock album, it remains one of the best to this day." The case was settled in May 2024. == Track listing ==

• After the end of "The Court of the Crimson King", there is a hidden track run from 9:41 to 10:00 on some pressings. • The timings on the inner sleeve of original pressings, giving a total album time of 42:00, are incorrect. ==Personnel==

King Crimson • Robert Fripp – electric guitar, acoustic guitar (3, 5), production • Ian McDonald – alto saxophone (1), flute (2, 3, 5), clarinet (2, 3), bass clarinet (3), vibraphone (4), Mellotron Mk II (3, 4, 5), reed organ (intro to 1, 2, 3, 5), piano (2, 3), harpsichord (5), co-lead vocals (2), backing vocals (5), production • Greg Lake – lead vocals, co-lead vocals (2), backing vocals (5), bass guitar (1, 2, 3, 5), production • Michael Giles – drum set, timpani (3), backing vocals (5), production • Peter Sinfield – lyrics, illumination, production Production personnel • Robin Thompson – recording engineer • Tony Page – assistant engineer • Barry Godber – cover illustrations ==Charts==