Quaco wrote:This is a great example of changing tastes. Back "in the day" when I first heard these (circa 1978?), these three were not considered the obvious Big Three at all. Red was deleted in the US (had to seek it out on import, which I still have), and the other two weren't exactly considered all that brilliant either. I think Rolling Stone Record Guide (for what it's worth) gave them both three stars out of five. It was the debut that was considered The One, and it was vaguely downhill from there. Is this anybody else's memory too?
Similar but different. On Radio I agree. On LA FM in the seventies “In the Court of the Crimson King” was the one and only Crimson track that got “rotated” on L.A.Radio. You’d hear “Shchizoid Man” now and then but nothing like ITCOTCK. Local station KNAC played more prog than most before they went Metal. Still, you’d hear scattered tracks and mostly late at night.
Record collections were another matter. I’d flip through people’s stacks when i went to their houses and I’d often see “Poseidon” and “Lizard” when I did. “Islands” I only saw in used record stores. I saw KC on “Midnight Special” when “Larks Tongues..” was new and I thought they kicked ass.
A friend’s older brother was giving us a ride after school. “We just got the new King Crimson” they announced. “Is it good?” I asked from the back seat. My friend’s brother and the guy on the passenger seat both turned around and looked at me like I was some kind of idiot. “Uh, YEAH!” They said. that ride is when I heard side one for the first time.
the album was easy to find at the store - they were a “name” band. My Dad shot up off the sofa one day at the screeching end of “Taking Drum” and marched to the turntable. He yanked the tone arm of the record, threw the record across the room and told Me “don’t EVER play that shit in my house again!” Oddly enough I saw “Red” on his stack a couple of years later. In turns out a co-worker loaned it to him - it was his favorite record. I don’t think Dad ever listened to it but I did.
One day in 78 or 9 I saw stacks and stacks of “Red” 8-tracks on sale at “Pic & Save” so I’m sure it was deleted. Most things on sale at “Pic and Save” were.
I had a roommate who only listened to Zep & Crimson. Whenever he was home he was playing one or the other. This drove the girlfriends in the house crazy but it worked out well for me. I heard “red” everyday for at least three months and god damn did it grow on me.
uggy poopy doody.
