King Crimson
"King Crimson is, as always, more a way of doing things. When there is nothing to be done, nothing is done: Crimson disappears. When there is music to be played, Crimson reappears. If all of life were this simple". Robert Fripp
The only band of its generation, and one of the very few of any period, to be continually influential and innovative throughout its career, King Crimson's musical adventure continues
The current line-up of King Crimson is Robert Fripp (guitar), Adrian Belew (guitar, lead vocals), Trey Gunn (touch guitar) and Pat Mastelotto (drums), projecting forward the musical energy of Crimson's past which has influenced bands such as Nine Inch Nails and TOOL.
Through November and December, 2001, the band toured North America on the Level 5 tour in support of The Level 5 EP, which includes material from King Crimson's 2001 summer tour with TOOL. They entered the studio twice in the spring and summer of 2002, recording the EP, Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With (released October 2002), and the current album, The Power to Believe, released early 2003.
Now in its fourth decade of existence, each line-up created, and still provides, a platform for propulsion, evolution and mutation into the next.
The first incarnation of King Crimson, according to founder member Robert Fripp, was conceived in 1968 and born on January 13th 1969 in the Fulham Palace Cafe, London (Fripp/Ian McDonald/Greg Lake/Michael Giles/Pete Sinfield). The band stole the show when supporting The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park in 1969 and went on to produce In The Court Of The Crimson King (1969) described by Pete Townshend as "an uncanny masterpiece" and became an iconic title in rock music history.
Although hailed as "the next Beatles", King Crimson spent the next 30 years evading, intriguing and consistently surprising fans with each new project and album, such as In The Wake of Poseidon (1970), Lizard (1970), Islands (1971), Earthbound (1972), Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973) and the posthumous studio album Red (1974). Band members along the way included Jazz maestro Keith Tippet, Boz Burrell (Bad Company), Ian Wallace (Dylan/Don Henley), John Wetton (Family) and Bill Bruford (Yes/Genesis).
Following Red, Fripp declared "King Crimson is completely over for ever and ever", and beganworkon solo projects and collaborations with artists such as Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Daryll Hall, Blondie and later with David Sylvian. He then reappeared in a reinvented King Crimson alongside Belew (Zappa/Bowie/Talking Heads), Levin (Paul Simon/Lou Reed/John Lennon/Peter Gabriel) and Bruford in 1981. At this point, Fripp felt, "the bleak Crim view lightened" and musical boundaries and vocabulary widened. Albums which followed include Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three Of A Perfect Pair (1984) all now part of the recently remastered series, along with Cirkus (1999), which celebrates the 30th anniversary of Crimson.
After tortuous but successful legal struggles with his management, Fripp set up his own record label, Discipline Global Mobile, through which King Crimson, now joined by Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto (Mister Mister), and the ProjeKcts (Crimson's "alter-ego" band) continue to produce albums and archive releases; from Vrooom (1994), B'Boom (1995), THRaKaTTak (1996), Heavy ConstruKction (2000) to Vrooom Vrooom (2001), which features live tracks from the band's performances in Broadway, New York and Mexico City 1995/6.
"King Crimson lives in different bodies at different times and the particular form which the group takes changes. When music appears, which only King Crimson can play then, sooner or later, King Crimson appears to play the music" Robert Fripp."
21st Century Schizoid Man
Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
Twenty first century schizoid man.
Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid man.
Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man.
The Court Of The Crimson King
The rusted chains of prison moons
Are shattered by the sun.
I walk a road, horizons change
The tournament's begun.
The purple piper plays his tune,
The choir softly sing;
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
For the court of the crimson king.
The keeper of the city keys
Put shutters on the dreams.
I wait outside the pilgrim's door
With insufficient schemes.
The black queen chants
the funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the crimson king.
The gardener plants an evergreen
Whilst trampling on a flower.
I chase the wind of a prism ship
To taste the sweet and sour.
The pattern juggler lifts his hand;
The orchestra begin.
As slowly turns the grinding wheel
In the court of the crimson king.
On soft grey mornings widows cry,
The wise men share a joke;
I run to grasp divining signs
To satisfy the hoax.
The yellow jester does not play
But gently pulls the strings
And smiles as the puppets dance
In the court of the crimson king.
Epitaph
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams.
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams.
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
As silence drowns the screams.
Between the iron gates of fate,
The seeds of time were sown,
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known;
Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules.
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools.
Confusion will be my epitaph.
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back and laugh.
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying,
Yes I fear tomorrow I'll be crying.
Moonchild
Call her moonchild
Dancing in the shallows of a river
Lonely moonchild
Dreaming in the shadow
of the willow.
Talking to the trees of the
cobweb strange
Sleeping on the steps of a fountain
Waving silver wands to the
night-birds song
Waiting for the sun on the mountain.
She's a moonchild
Gathering the flowers in a garden.
Lovely moonchild
Drifting on the echoes of the hours.
Sailing on the wind
in a milk white gown
Dropping circle stones on a sun dial
Playing hide and seek
with the ghosts of dawn
Waiting for a smile from a sun child.
I Talk To The Wind
Said the straight man to the late man
Where have you been
I've been here and I've been there
And I've been in between.
I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.
I'm on the outside looking inside
What do I see
Much confusion, disillusion
All around me.
You don't possess me
Don't impress me
Just upset my mind
Can't instruct me or conduct me
Just use up my time.
I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.
