In the Court of King Crimson Review

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(More customer reviews)This is an excellent book, carefully researched and, with the exception of scattered and persistent typos, an enjoyable read. Sid Smith has done an outstanding job of making the story of King Crimson inclusive, with plenty of background information on the many talented and singular musicians who found themselves a part of one of the longest running experiments in rock. It also comes across as a very fair book, in that many of these musicians seem to have more of a voice on these pages than they had in the band.
The indices include a comprehensive discography and gig list. Combined with the 30th anniversary reissues and the King Crimson Collectors Club CDs, a thoroughly documented record of Crimson is readily at hand. We get a good ration of quotes, dates, pictures and descriptions, but we don't get a whole lot closer to the music.
Instead, the reader is brought face to face with the story of the personalities, the business and money issues, the touring, the deadlines, the feeling of elation and exhaustion happening all around the music. The story revealed is one of almost random action and reaction, opportunities lost and flat-out short-sightedness on the part of just about everyone in and around Fripp's experiment. I say Fripp's experiment because, following the departure of McDonald and Giles, the notion that King Crimson was a band in the traditional sense of the word no longer applies.
Despite frequent quotes from Fripp explaining or justifying his rejection of the contributions of others -- or his rejection of others entirely -- by saying that their ideas weren't "Crimson enough", we are never told what "Crimson" is, was, or will be. In light of Fripp's persistence in sticking with this codified response, we can only assume that what is "Crimson" is obviously flexible enough allow some pretty questionable music to be mixed in with some unquestionably remarkable music, as along as Robert is in charge. Readers are left to conclude, given the comparatively small and at times scatter-shot nature of the King Crimson catalog, that perhaps Fripp didn't know what "Crimson enough" meant either. (I say small because, when compared to other groups and musicians pushing 30, once you take away the live releases King Crimson's studio work looks a little skinny. Especially next to, say 47 albums of original work by Peter Hammill.)
Mr. Smith provides us with thoughtful and accurate descriptions of each recorded piece, partly illuminated by details of the recording process and the nearly always strained relationships between whomever the current line-up happened to be. But they are only descriptions. What is lacking is any access to or speculation regarding the thinking behind the music. We are not made privy to the impetus behind a piece as powerful as "Epitaph" or as artificial and strained as the medieval "Lizard". The idea for "Lark's Tongues" is mentioned as arriving before the recording of "Islands", but we don't learn what that idea happened to be. We're only told it was "an idea". The absence of such an orientation to the writing -- to really take on the music rather than simply describe it -- is a flaw because, more than any well-known band, Crimson seemed to offer listeners a genuine aesthetic. An aesthetic that sadly remains unarticulated, at least by verbal or written language. And perhaps the book's approach is a practical one, since it is safe to assume that most readers will be more concerned with human flaws rather than the hard work of creating flawless music.
So, we are left where we begin. With the music. Books like this one deal exceedingly well with the events and the documents, but they do not reach to the heart of the music. That King Crimson's music continues to provide us with glimpses of a fierce intelligence leaves us to conclude that the people that make the music insist that the understanding we seek is available only through listening. And, rightly, that the music is all that really matters.

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King Crimson's 1969 masterpiece In The Court Of The Crimson King, was a huge U.S. chart hit. The band followed it with 40 further albums of consistently challenging, distinctive and innovative music. Drawing on hours of new interviews, and encouraged by Crimson supremo Robert Fripp, the author traces the band's turbulent history year by year, track by track.

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