In the world of the Crimson King

I have recently purchased ''In The Court Of The Crimson King'' by King Crimson. And after hearing it one time i soon came to the conclusion that is a great album. I really like the mellow trippy songs like ''I Talk To The Wind''.
One thing that puzzled me about the album is the 10 minutes of ''sounds'' at the end of Moonchild that sounds like what i did as a child on a cheap Casio keyboard. Why they put this on the album remains a big mistery to me.
Now i want to know what do you Crimson fans recommend a beginner like me for a next purchase? I have heard tracks like Islands and Starless and i really liked their mellowness.

Oh and BTW i have done a search and i couldn't find anything that could help me. So i decided to make a thread, i hope you can forgive me.

Yay lars, you picked a classic album to start off with! The tracks 'I talk to the wind' and '21st Century Schizoid man' are personal favourites of mine. I liked the albums 'Lizard' and 'Larks Tongues in Aspic' which came out in the early 70's, but they are a bit of an acquired taste and might need a few listens. Another interesting album was the album 'McDonald and Giles' ( 2 of the founder members) but I haven't heard it in years and it might seem a quite dated now.

It's a basic Crimhead fact that pretty much everyone hates Moonchild, and it's not worth it to wonder what the heck they were doing with that song. 21st Century Schizoid Man is decades ahead of its time, and the other songs are lush, bombastic, and grandiose and I love them! Greg Lake (later to sing in ELP) also does a mighty fine job on vocals on it. If you like Starless, get the great 70s triumvirat of Crimson albums: Lark Toungues in Aspic (my personal favorite), Starless and Bible Black, and Red. Also get the live set The Night Watch for their wicked awesome live improvisations! One interesting fact I read about KC was that Robert Fripp was offered to play in Yes after Peter Banks left. Imagine what they would have sounded like!

I bought "In the Court (...)" this summer, and I kinda liked every song. Moonchild as well.

I have been reccommended "Red" as my next purchase.

Good thread! I got "In The Court" over a year ago, liked it, listened to it a lot, then kinda got distracted by other things. I think I need to take it out again!

You sure do, it's an amazing album.

I've always meant to give it a listen, but never have.

if you like ' court ' you 'll also like ' in the wake of poseidon ' - which is mostly same line-up as first album

the 4 disc set ' epitaph ' is also a great live collection featuring the first band, & shows off a different side to them you don't hear on the studio records

I like Moonchild, but that long part gets kind of old. That's the only album I have. I've been meaning to get Red but I can't find it anywhere.

Red is great.

The opening two minutes of Moonchild are BRILLIANT. The vocals are lush and sexy.

"Discipline" was a pretty good album.

King Crimson's records are pretty hit and miss.

Are you looking for albums that sound like "In the Court..."? Crimso have a wide range of sounds, in the rock world. If you want to slowly progress through their career, after Court go with Larks Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, or Red. Actually get all three. That covers the best from the early stuff.

Then get Discipline from 1981.

Then get THRAK from 1995.

Finally, either The ConstruKction of Light from 2000, or The Power to Believe from 2003.

If you want to "get to the goods", get Discipline, And then The Power to Believe.

Also keep in mind that virtually everything they have done sounds better live. Absent Lovers covers the 80's stuff best, as does The Great Deciever for the 70's stuff. Vrooom Vrooom is an excellent disc from 95/96.

I could go on for hours on this...

Maybe later I will.

My first Crimson disc was the Cirkus live compilation, I thought that was pretty nice, had a good smattering of live stuff throughout their career.

It's a good introduction, but there is soooooo much more if you are interested. The live discs I mentioned earlier are great and that's where some of the "Cirkus" stuff comes from. There are basically 6 (!) different live line-ups and there are live compilations from each of them. Get them all. Alright, I'll list them:

Epitaph 4 cd's (69)
Ladies of The Road 2 cd's(71/72)
The Night Watch 2 cd's(73)
The Great Deciever 4 cd's(73/74)
Absent Lovers 2 cd's (81/84)
B'Boom 2 cd's (94)
Vrooom Vrooom 2 cd's (95/96)
Heavy ConstruKction 3 cd's (2000)
Elektrik 1 cd (2003)

Not to mention that www.disciplineglobalmobile.com currently has 27 "collectors club" cd's available spanning the band's history. Most of these discs are live as well.

Then get the studio stuff...