# What's your favourite King Crimson album?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 26, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059 "2010-09-26T00:08:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/1 "2010-09-26T00:08:23Z")
Poll to follow shortly. Studio and live releases included, compilations not. Discussions encouraged.
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### Author:  [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/2 "2010-09-26T00:21:55Z")
Holy sh!t! I didn’t realize there were **that** many live albums released between Three of a Perfect Pair and Thrak!
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/3 "2010-09-26T00:50:46Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#):
>
> Holy sh!t! I didn’t realize there were **that** many live albums released between Three of a Perfect Pair and Thrak!
There are a _lot_ more live albums than are listed here. The number of King Crimson Collectors’ Club releases alone is into the 40s.
Mine will not be a popular choice, but I consider _Lizard_ not only the best Crimso album, but one of the three greatest albums ever made by anyone.
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### Author:  [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/4 "2010-09-26T01:24:43Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#):
>
> Mine will not be a popular choice, but I consider _Lizard_ not only the best Crimso album, but one of the three greatest albums ever made by anyone.
Interesting! I don’t hate it, not by a long road, but I don’t consider it their strongest work. I do remember playing the second side until I near wore it out… What is it makes you so passionate about that one?
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### Author:  [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/5 "2010-09-26T02:08:43Z")
I was enjoying Lark’s Tongues and Islands, starless and Bible Black and In the Court of the Crimson King well enough but then Discipline came along and those other albums practically ceased to exist. Discipline was revolutionary.
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### Author:  [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/6 "2010-09-26T02:08:53Z")
Admittedly, I only own seven of the albums listed (_ItCotCK_, _Poseidon_, _Larks’_, _Starless_, _Red_, _Discipline_ and _Power to Believe_), but of those, _Discipline_ is, for me, the easiest to just put on and enjoy whenever.
_Larks’ Tongues in Aspic_ is probably the best, but I voted for _Discipline_.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/7 "2010-09-26T02:12:40Z")
_Discipline_, with _Lark’s Tongues_ a close second. I was first exposed to Crimso as the opening act for Steve Miller at Winterland. It may be cliche, but KC blew everyone away that night. After they finished, many of us were in shock. One of the most powerful performances I have ever seen.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/8 "2010-09-26T03:52:12Z")
King Crimson is so erratic that this was a difficult vote.
I picked _ **Discipline** _ because I think that’s the Crimson album with the most consistently strong material. But there are several Crimson albums with multiple tracks that I like better than anything on _ **Discipline.** _
The problem is, as good as much of their debut album was, I CAN’T overlook the ten minutes of pointless noise that follow the pretty 2 minute beginning of “Moonchild.”
Side Two of _ **Starless and Bible Black** _ was as awful as Side One was awesome.
Crimson’s best stuff is brilliant… but the bad stuff reeks, and it tends to go on for a very long time.
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### Author:  [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/9 "2010-09-26T11:58:56Z")
I suspect most voters will be split into one of the two camps: either the early traditionally prog albums, or the later - how can I put it - more atonal ones.
I’m in the first camp, but the choice is very hard. _Court Of The Crimson King_ is majestic, particularly the production. The drums have a unparalleled, deep rich sound. My favourite track is the title track of their second album, but it has a weedier sound than its predecessor. I also love parts of _Islands_.
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/10 "2010-09-26T12:12:49Z")
I think that the track Court of the Crimson King is one of the most haunting songs ever written.
Mind you I have always been a Fantasy fan.
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### Author:  [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/11 "2010-09-26T12:50:37Z")
Had to go with _Red_ on this one. Especially for “Starless.” Great stuff.
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/12 "2010-09-26T14:35:18Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#):
>
> > [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#):
> >
> > Mine will not be a popular choice, but I consider _Lizard_ not only the best Crimso album, but one of the three greatest albums ever made by anyone.
>
> Interesting! I don’t hate it, not by a long road, but I don’t consider it their strongest work. I do remember playing the second side until I near wore it out… What is it makes you so passionate about that one?
More than I can say. But briefly…
The _colors_–those incredible, meticulously detailed arrangements incorporating trombone, oboe/English horn, cornet, and Mel Collins’s multiple saxophones and flute, yet with very little in the way of traditional “horn section” writing, plus the Mellotron, the VCS3, Fripp’s unique guitar sounds (including a rare use of acoustic in a Crimso context, very unusually handled) and that celestial electric piano vs. Keith Tippett’s scattershot grand, the weirdly miked drum kit, Haskell’s strange “non-singer” voice…no other album _sounds_ even remotely like this one.
The dynamics–the barely audible tinkling of the electric piano that opens the album as if emerging from a cosmic void, delicate as a spider’s footfalls, joined by the voice whisper-chanting a creation myth, slowly coming into solid focus as the reverb recedes, and then the _SLAM_ of the drums and the see-saw riff…or the build up and release to the incredible symphonic “reels of dreams unrolled” at the climax of “Prince Rupert’s Lament,” the chaotic texture of “The Last Skirmish” suddenly stopping dead for a moment of stunned silence, resuming briefly with even greater intensity, and then finally falling off a cliff into the muted boom of “Prince Rupert’s Lament”…
The playing–fabulous, endlessly fascinating improvisations from members of London’s free jazz community (Tippett, Evans, Charig), McCullough’s busy snare work, Collins’s fluid woodwinds, Fripp’s unique picking on “Cirkus” and typically grinding electric work, the expert deployment of the Mellotron…
Of course, the _songs_…weird, surrealistic, magnificently constructed, deeply moving, frightening, funny, full of elusive and elaborately symbolic lyrics (check out Sinfield’s [commentaries](http://www.songsouponsea.com/Promenade/home.html) if you’ve got a few weeks free to plow through it all).
This album is part of my blood.
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/13 "2010-09-26T16:26:44Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#):
>
> the build up and release to the incredible symphonic “reels of dreams unrolled” at the climax of “Prince Rupert’s Lament,”
I meant “Prince Rupert Awakes” there.
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### Author:  [@I-VI-ii-V](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I-VI-ii-V)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/14 "2010-09-26T18:07:58Z")
_Red_, especially Bruford on “One More Red Nightmare”.
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/15 "2010-09-27T02:20:33Z")
I think **Lark’s Tongues** would be my desert island disc. Genius from end to end. \*\*In the Court of \*\*and **Starless** have great great moments but far too much of the slow contemplative stuff that I’m sure seemed like a good idea at the time but just comes across as dull and featureless now.
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/16 "2010-09-27T17:01:51Z")
This is a tough one because the various albums are so different. It’s hard for me not to pick _In the Court of the Crimson King_ or _Larks’ Tongues in Aspic_… the former was my first exposure to the group, in high school, and it just seemed to occupy a stratum above just about everything else I had heard up to that point… the latter was what really turned me into a rabid King Crimson fiend, in college; it seemed to be just what I had been waiting for without knowing it. But in the end, I have to go with _Lizard._ It’s the Frippiest of all the “original” ('69-'75) Crimson albums. Also, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for it just because it’s not one of the obvious choices, and with Crimson, I think that’s a good thing.
I also kind of wish I could vote for _Islands_… to me, it doesn’t quite measure up to the ones described above, but it does have its own special appeal, particularly the drifting, peaceful, trancelike feel of “Formentera Lady”/“A Sailor’s Tale” and the title cut… there’s no other album on which they achieved that particular vibe quite so well.
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/17 "2010-09-27T17:07:51Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> Side Two of _ **Starless and Bible Black** _ was as awful as Side One was awesome.
Well, I would have to respectfully disagree. I think “Fracture” is one of Crimson’s most powerful achievements.
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### Author:  [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/18 "2010-09-27T20:25:19Z")
I’m going to have to think about this.
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### Author:  [@LS04](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LS04)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/19 "2010-09-29T01:31:56Z")
I saw them record “Live in Central Park”. It was at the Wollman skating arena during The Schaffer Music Festival. Tickets were 3 dollars back then. When they closed with Red they had two huge red filtered spotlights pointing out to the aud, and as the song progresed the spots got brighter till all you could see was red. What a great effect for a great song. I believe they broke up shortly after this show
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### Author:  [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-king-crimson-album/555059/20 "2010-09-29T21:42:03Z")
> [@cjepson](#):
>
> I think “Fracture” is one of Crimson’s most powerful achievements.
Agreed.
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