Rock history and appreciation (Ep. 2)

It is the year 1968. King Crimson takes shape. Guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Micheal Giles make the line-up of the band alongside bass player Peter Giles and Greg Lake on vocals and the multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald. Fripp, Giles and Giles (the two Giles are brothers) were old acquaintances, unsuccessfully trying to score their luck in 1967. They recorded one album "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp" under the Giles, Giles and Fripp formation. 

In 1969, with Lake and McDonald in place, they record the album "In the Court of the Crimson King" which was rapidly labeled as masterpiece. It reached #3 in british charts. The album stripped the blues outfit of the rock music, adding in return  a lot of jazz and symphonic elements. We cannot say that King Crimson is commercial because it scored success, but to say that King Crimson was highly appreciated by critique and public because of the new sound it produced, thus setting the symphonic prog scene, would be correct.

After the success of their first album, the band line-up suffered changes, but until today the band's components changed around Robert Fripp, the permanent member of the band.
I didn't start to listen to King Crimson very early, but rather late and I started with the end. I didn't understood them this way. Today, I still have a hard time understanding their music, the later albums I mean. In the Court of the Crimson King is the first album. A rather easy album you would say at the first hearing. Not! This is a prog gem!

  Here is the track listing of the original album:

1. 21st Century Schizoid Man (including Mirrors);

2. I Talk to the Wind

3. Epitaph (including "March for No Reason" and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow")

4. Moonchild (including "The Dream" and "The Illusion")

5. The Court of the Crimson King (including "The Return of the Fire Witch" and "The Dance of the Puppets")