One of the most influencial albums of the psychedelic period could be King Crimson's debut record, In the Court of the Crimson King. Although other bands had already used the mellotron, a playback synthesiser keyboard, it was this album, and primarily Ian McDonald, which first made it a primary instrument in any kind of band, and the effect that it had on the progressive and psychedelic genres is profound. Each of the other instrumentalists makes a big effect also, although as this is the only album which contained Ian McDonald (and coincidentally, features the fewest Robert Fripp compositions), it stands alone somewhat among the Crimson repertoire. Perhaps I should explain what I'm talking about.
The first track is 21st century Schizoid Man. Immediately we are presented with heavy guitars and bass, and after a matter of seconds, Ian McDonald's alto sax screams over the top of that. After a couple of verses, we hear a long (four minute) avante-jazz improvisation, with the guitar and sax dueling at incredible speeds (and the rhythm section keeping up). A tremendous amount of noise, leading to a nearly flawless song.
This is all in stark contravention of the next track, I Talk to the Wind. This song is much slower and softer. It features synthesised strings and quite a large amount of flute. In fact towards the end it has quite a good flute solo. What's the only problem with it? It's glacial. It feels like much more than its six minute running time. Of course, the song itself is quite good so that isn't that much of a crime.
The third and final song of side two is Epitaph, which features a prominent use of singer Greg Lake. As great a singer as he is, and as great a lyricist as Peter Sinfield is, there isn't really that much to speak of in this song. After around three minutes it just sort of repeats itself. An incredibly boring song in other words.
Commencing the second side of the record is Moonchild. The first two minutes are rather good, although not much is noteworthy apart from the dual mellotrons. The remaining ten are all improvised, although this improvisation is somewhat uncontrolled (in a bad way). After listening to it you can understand why the band dropped the last section. If you really get involved in the song you can get a lot out of it. However, if you aren't willing to give it everything, it'll turn out to be a very unrewarding listen.
The final and climactic song of the album, the almost eponymous The Court of the Crimson King, starts before Moonchild really finishes. Mellotrons abound in these nine minutes, and the drumming is really quite spectacular in places. It's also surprisingly heavy, considering its lack of electric guitar. Towards the end, the song stops, and then immediately starts up again (which somehow still manages to surprise me). I think the only real flaw this song has is that it goes on for too long. But it serves its purpose in rounding out this mammoth record well.
As I said before this was a very influensive album, and so I should consider it similarly to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. However, the psychedelia is much more prevalent in this than in Sgt. Pepper, and this also featured (and perhaps invented) some of the qualities of the rising subgenres of progressive rock and heavy metal. As a result of this, the album is much harder to get into, and I wouldn't recommend it to most people. Psychedelic fans will however greatly appreciate its qualities, and rock history buffs would also enjoy what the album has to offer. More reviews