Imagine being a rock fan in October 1969. You’ve got 30 shillings in your pocket, and your local record emporium has several new releases in stock. Albums out that month included Led Zeppelin‘s second, Frank Zappa‘s Hot Rats, Willy And The Poor Boys by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the debut album by Free.
Then, in the ‘K’ section, you spot something terrifying. There’s no band name on the cover, just a haunted, screaming face.
It is, of course, the debut album by the relatively unknown King Crimson, In The Court Of The Crimson King. And it’s an album that changed music.
It really did. Robert Fripp’s meticulous, fleet-fingered guitar. Greg Lake’s baritone vocals, as powerful as they were mournful. Ian McDonald’s sweeping Mellotron. Michael Giles’s jazz-inflected drumming. Peter Sinfield’s surrealist lyrics. It all coalesced into a collection of songs so far from the summer of love it may as well have been packaged with shards of shattered glass.
From the proto-metal fury of 21st Century Schizoid Man to the symphonic majesty of the title track, the album offered a dystopian, beautifully complex alternative to traditional rock. It was heavy, intelligent, entirely unprecedented and, the best part of six decades later, still King Crimson’s best-selling album.
Whether you’re a casual listener marvelling at the eerie serenity of I Talk To The Wind, a muso obsessed with the shifting time signatures of Epitaph, or a vinyl collector who knows every detail of Barry Godber’s iconic cover art, this quiz is designed to test your knowledge of In The Court Of The Crimson King.
Let us know how you get on in the comments.