King Crimson formed in 1969, they were the first offical "progressive rock" act. Featuring Robert Fripp on guitar, Greg Lake on vocals & bass, Michael Giles on drums, Peter Sinfield on writing words and setting up lights, and Ian McDonald on Dlute, Saxes and Mellotron. Fripp and Giles had previously been in a trio by the name of Giles, Giles and Fripp, with Michael's brother, Pete on bass. Their only LP, released in 1968, was named, "The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles and Fripp." Greg Lake and Robert Fripp were childhood friends who took guitar lessons together. Pete Sinfield gave the band it's name. Lake and Sinfield were both guitarists but their skills were not needed with the presence of guitar legend, Robert Fripp. King Crimson's first gig was a tribute concert for the deceased Stone's guitarist in front of hundreds of thousands of people. They released their first LP, "In the Court of the Crimson King" in 1969. It used a new instrument by the name of the Mellotron, which was a sampler of sounds, mainly orchestral. The album influenced every prog-rock act to date. The music ranged to symphonic rock, metal and avant-garde experimentalism. Pete Townsend, of the Who, loved the album and referred to it as an uncanny masterpiece. In late 1969 the band came to the US. The last performance by this band was their first at San Francisco's Fillmore West in December 1969. Ian and Mike had left the group, and at that concert Greg Lake met Keith Emerson and would soon form ELP. Lake remained with the band another year to perform vocals on their second album, "In the Wake of Posedion." The first side was much like the first album, but the second showed a new musical direction. The last performance with Lake was on the British TV show, "Top of the Pops." On one song, Fripp's childhood friend, Gordon Haskell replaced Lake and he then became the group's lead singer. Later in 1970 the group released their third LP, "Lizard." The new lineup was: Gordon Haskell on bass and vocals, Mel Collins on flute and sax, Andy Mullouch on percussion and Fripp on guitar. The music relyed much more on classical and jazz musics, and had a large host of guest musicians on reeds and brass. About this time Fripp recieved several invitations from Yes to join and replace Peter Banks, he refused them. The title track, which was a side-long suite, is their longest work. The first section of the suite feature Jon Anderson on vocals. Fripp seems unfond of this album. This band broke up shortly and never had a chance to tour. In 1971 Fripp reformed the band. He auditioned several people for the lead singer, including Bryan Ferry but eventually chose Boz Burrell, feature Bad Company bassist. Boz couldn't play bass but Fripp taught him. The band of this time was shaped very much by Fripp & Sinfield, Fripp providing the music and Sinfield providing imagery. Ian Wallace joined on percussion. They toured Europe in 1971, and Peter Sinfield even the band on stage on a VCS3 synthesizer. In late 1971, Sinfield announced his depature from the band. Without Sinfield, the band went on to tour the US in 1972. This band released a live LP, "Earthbound." It mainly relyed on jazz improvisations, and featured only two album tracks. This LP had poor sound quality (a percentage of it was recorded in the back of a van in the rain on a tape recorder), it was soon discontinued. King Crimson was reformed later in 1972, with a completely different lineup and sound. Fripp remained on guitar and mellotron, and the new members: John Wetton on bass and vocals, David Cross on Violin and Keyboards, Jamie Muir on percussion and former Yes drummer, Bill Bruford on drums. This group's music was much louder and improvised, it is considered metal but it certainly is not. The music kept it's classical and jazz influences, and became even more experimental. In 1973 this band released it's first LP, "Larks Tounges In Aspic." The group toured, but Jamie Muir soon left to pursue being a Buddhist monk. While still working with King Crimson, Fripp released an album with Brian Eno. Called "No Pussyfooting" it featured two long pieces, using only Fripp's guitar being looped and Brian Eno on synthesizer. Brian Eno invented a system called frippertronics. The method was a guitar put through reel-to-reel tape players and then looped and layered hence resulting in several sounds from one guitar. In 1974 the group released, "Starless and Bible Black" it was improvised live material cleaned up in the studio. Shortly after this, David Cross left the band. The band continued on as a trio for a few months. They released, "RED" which is often considered their best work along side the debut. Original member, Ian McDonald played as a guest and was willing to join. At that moment Fripp decided to end the band. He claimed by the 1990 the world would go into a doomsday, and by then all government would colpase. In his own words, he said that the 1990's would make the 30's depression look like a sunday outing. Fripp continued his collabaration with Brian Eno, on his next album, "Evening Star." Fripp returned to the music scene in 1977. He worked on Peter Gabriel's first three albums, David Bowie's "Heroes" and "Scary Monsters", Daryl Hall's "Sacred Songs", and albums with Blondie and The Talking Heads. In 1978 Fripp began his plan known as the "Incline to 1981" featuring albums of Frippertronics and Discotronics. He released his first solo album, Exposure in 1979. In 1981 Fripp decided to reform King Crimson. He recruited Tony Levin on bass, who had worked with Peter Gabriel and Guitarist/Vocalist, Adrian Belew who has worked with The Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, NIN, just to name a few. They were going to be renamed, "Discipline" but then decided to keep the King Crimson name. This incarination was another vast change musically, the music remained progressive and experimental but had taken on likenesses of The Talking Heads and other new wave groups. The group released two more albums before they broke up in 1984, (Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair.) They toured a lot and once served as the opening act for fellowe prog-rockers, Genesis. Throughout the 80's, Fripp worked on projects with several people and his solo act, Belew put out solo albums, Levin worked with Yes and Pink Floyd and Bill Bruford continued his solo act and once did a reunion tour with Yes. The 80's and the 90's saw several box-sets and compliations to be released. Fripp remastered the entire KC catalouge to CD in 1989. Fripp invented an advanced method of Frippertronics in the early 90's called soundscaping which produced unimagineable sounds from just one guitar. In 1994 Fripp reformed KC in a double-trio format. Besides the quartet of the 80's, Trey Gunn (a guitar student of Fripp's)joined on bass and Pat Malessto (foremly a drummer in 80's group, "Mister Mister") joined on drums. They released an EP named, "VROOM" and next year released an expanded version of the album named, "THRAK" in 1995. They released an experimental improvised live album in 1996. King Crimson went on hiatus and three of the members formed a side project called, "The ProjeKcts." Throughout the 90's several archive recordings have been released, and you can buy even more recordings on Fripp's DGM website. The band has a huge and wonderful website, that the band members often post to. Earlier this year King Crimson reformed (without Tony Levin and Bill Bruford.) Titled, "The ContruKction of Light" it blends the best aspects of the many bands and shows King Crimson are the most progressive of the progressive rockers. The band is currently just completed with their European tour, later this year they embark on a tour of the US and Japan.
Bio written by: kingcrimson |
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