The Mojo Collection. Various Mojo Magazine
King Crimson
In The Court Of The Crimson King
A bunch of unknown British jazz rock virtuosos and their pet wordsmith define prog rock with their ambitious debut.
Record label: Island (UK) Atlantic (US)
Produced: King Crimson
Recorded: Wessex Sound Studios, London; July–Spetember 1969
Released: October 10, 1969
Chart peaks: 5 (UK) 28 (US)
Personnel: Robert Fripp (g); Ian McDonald (reeds, woodwind, vibes, k, v, Mellotron); Greg Lake (b, v); Michael Giles (d, pc, v); Peter Sinfield (words, illumination)
Track Listing: 21st Century Schizoid Man (including Mirrors) (S); I Talk To The Wind; Epitaph (including March For No Reason; Tomorrow And Tomorrow); Moonchild (including The Dream; The Illusion); The Court Of The Crimson King (including The Return Of The Fire Witch; The Dance Of The Puppets) (S)
Running time: 43.54
Current CD: Discipline DGM0501
Further listening: Fripp and Sinfield taped the rest of the line-up’s material on In The Wake Of Poseidon (1970). Cirkus (1999) is a good 2-CD round-up of 30 years of Crimson
Further reading: In The Court Of King Crimson (Sid Smith, 2007); www.elephant-talk.com; www.disciplineglobalmobile.com
Download: www.dgmlive.com
This intense brew of classical melodies, jazz and hard rock, matched with fantastical lyrics – and housed in an intriguing, lurid sleeve – created the template for progressive rock. All the more remarkable, then, that the music was created in a week.
Michael Giles and Robert Fripp had briefly been together in a band called Brain and moved in a folky direction as a trio, Giles, Giles & Fripp (with Michael’s brother Peter), cutting one poorly-selling album, The Cheerful Insanity Of …, and a single which featured former army bandsman Ian McDonald as a guest. Greg Lake, a school friend of Fripp’s and former member of The Gods, joined, Peter Giles left and the new quartet scored a management deal, a John Peel session and a three-month residency at the Marquee Club in London under the name King Crimson. Pete Sinfield, an associate of McDonald’s, was recruited as a roadie and lyricist. They began work on the album shortly after appearing in front of 600,000 people at The Rolling Stones’ free concert in Hyde Park.
Because of Robert Fripp’s subsequent takeover of the group, In The Court Of The Crimson King is often wrongly assumed to be largely his record. But it was a collective effort. A session with Moody Blues producer Tony Clark fell apart and the band quickly concluded they could work better by themselves. Ian McDonald, who wrote much of the music, recalls: ‘We recorded it in eight days, very quickly. There was no argument about anything. We just knew if an idea was usable and if it wasn’t there was no fighting.’ They employed whatever came to hand in the studio: all the keys on an ancient pipe organ were jammed down to create the wheezy industrial noises that open the record. A Mellotron was used for the grandiose backdrop to the title track. McDonald grabbed a set of vibes for Illusion, the last segment of Moonchild. This meandering trilogy – which Fripp now admits should probably have been edited – was improvised when they realised they’d used all their original material but were reluctant to record a cover version.
The album was released to wide acclaim, Pete Townshend declaring it ‘an uncanny masterpiece’. But some pundits (and anyone who liked to dance) were suspicious; critic Lester Bangs condemned it as an unholy mix of ‘myth, mystification and Mellotrons’. Nonetheless, the album quickly climbed the charts. But within four months the line-up had fallen apart, exhausted by touring and the pressure of sudden success. Says Fripp, ‘Some of the musical vocabulary may seem dated now, but there’s still something remarkable there waiting for listeners.’
Frank Zappa
Hot Rats
Instrumental, jam-heavy fusion masterpiece.
Record label: Reprise
Produced: Frank Zappa
Recorded: Sunset Sound Studio, Los Angeles; August–September 1969
Released: October 10, 1969
Chart peaks: 9 (UK) 173 (US)
Personnel: Frank Zappa (g, octave b, pc); Ian Underwood (p, organus maximus, flute, clarinet, s); Captain Beefheart (v on Willie The Pimp); Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris, Jean Luc Ponty (vn); Max Bennett, Shuggy Otis (b); John Guerin, Paul Humphrey, Ron Selico (d); Cliff Goldstein, Jack Hunt, Dick Kunc (e)
Track Listing: Peaches En Regalia; Willie The Pimp; Son Of Mr Green Genes; Little Umbrellas; The Gumbo Variations; It Must Be A Camel
Running time: 47.17
Current CD: Ryko VACK 1209
Further listening: Uncle Meat (1969); Mystery Disc (1998)
Further reading: Waiting For The Sun (Barney Hoskyns, 1996); Frank Zappa In His Own Words (1993); The Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play (Ben Watson, 1996); The Complete Guide To The Music Of Frank Zappa (Ben Watson, 1998); enter the vinyl version versus CD version debate at: www.lukpac.org/~handmade/patio/vinylvscds/hotrats.html; www.zappa.com (official)
Download: HMV Digital
The arrival of Uncle Meat in the spring of 1969 made Zappa’s frustrations abundantly clear: his love of satire and talent for outrage were clearly denying him recognition as a composer. Its comparative simplicity, downplayed lyrics and a sleeve note advertising the joys of something called ‘overdubbing’ set the stage for its immortal successor six months later. The almost entirely instrumental Hot Rats was the perfect Zappa release for those intrigued by his music but bored – or possibly repulsed – by his wit and somewhat twisted worldview. It remains his biggest seller in the UK where its cover – GTO stalwart Christine Frka in an abandoned swimming pool – so perfectly captured the progressive mood of the period. Lured by the possibilities of its 16-track desk, Zappa repaired to Sunset Sound and installed the most accomplished collection of West Coast veterans that money could buy – Paul Humphrey had drummed with Wes Montgomery and Lee Konitz, bassist Max Bennett was a Hollywood studio legend who’d worked with Quincy Jones and Peggy Lee, Sugarcane Harris had pioneered R&B hits in the late ’50s as part of the duo Don & Dewey. Together they cut a series of superbly drilled compositions combining a fiercely hip (and uniquely American) technical proficiency and a peerless ability to improvise, much of its ornate embroidery the result of Zappa and Underwood’s jazz and classical influences.
‘It was extremely interesting because the music was interesting,’ Underwood reflects. It took two months of relentless multi-tracking to perfect, with many of Underwood’s original parts eventually erased by the composer. ‘Hot Rats was more about overdubbing than anything else,’ Zappa remembered. It also made much of that sonic device du jour, the wah wah pedal, of which Zappa was the absolute master. The only vocal on the entire album – the growling blues delivery of Willie The Pimp – was supplied by fellow art rock alchemist and former school friend Captain Beefheart the lyrics coming from an interview conducted by Zappa with a New York-based groupie called Annie. ‘It was kind of a turn from the way the (earlier) band had been,’ Underwood remembers. ‘It was a chance just to use a few studio musicians and try other routines out.’
Alexander Spence
Oar
Among the most enigmatic solo albums in all of pop music.