In The Court of King Crimson: An Observation over 50 Years

Having missed out on the first edition of this book, I was excited to see news of its appearance in an expanded form to celebrate the band's 50th anniversary. It's a chunky tome, and the relatively small text size (and tight margins) means a hefty word count - 550 words per page is typical, compared to a paperback novel when you might get 250-300.The book is split into four parts, a long and excellent narrative of the band's history, biographies of the various players and what they did after their Crimson days, a chronological track by track analysis from North Meadow (GG&F) to The Power to Believe III & IV, and finally an Annotated Gigography from 1969 to 2003. After this the book abruptly comes to a halt; there's no index, which is a bit of a shame. That aside, everything combines to give the rightful impression that this is definitive stuff. Do bear in mind through that this is NOT a biography of Robert Fripp in any way, it's the biog of the band.One question remains unanswered, and to me it's one of the Great Mysteries of Rock / Pop Music from the 'golden age' of (say) 1965-75. Namely: how did the grouping of GG&F, plus McDonald and Dyble, which was noodling around with fairly twee pop songs like Under the Sky and Make It Today in the Summer of 1968, morph into The Mighty Crim within barely nine months? Of course there were significant changes in personnel, but to go from 'She is Loaded' (late October '68) to Schizoid Man (August 1969) is mind-boggling, breathtaking, almost off the scale of possibility. Was it group chemistry, or maybe The Good Fairy, or The Music playing the players? Answers on a postcard please. I remain awestruck by that progression, only made appreciable by Peter Giles' release of The Brondesbury Tapes in 2002.

Well written by the standards of books about rock bands. Detailed enough to give a good sense of what happened with this very odd band, and the author is not excessively adulatory.Of course there’s plenty on main man Robert Fripp, and his antics are always entertaining. His vast ego and tendency to glorify himself and KC at the expense of others makes Kanye West look like Dave Grohl. The author raises the question of whether Fripp actually believes this stuff or is knowingly hyping himself up, and concludes that he believes it, which unfortunately confirms he has the same narcissistic tendencies as, say, Donald Trump: “I said it three times so it must be true”.Then there’s the Gurdjieff influence, which the author sadly doesn’t probe in any depth. Everyone is a “sleeping machine”, but doesn’t realise it. I’m superior because I’m trying to “wake up”. Method: self-remembering, including self-observation. I am what observes, not the machine, therefore I will talk about myself in the third person. This makes me appear clever. Emotions are not real so I can behave insensitively to those around me.But it just goes to show that you don’t have to be well-balanced mentally and/or a nice guy to produce excellent music!

Sid Smith has surpassed himself with this updated biography of King Crimson. With a wealth of knowledge and information from many hours of interviews with all the members past and present he brings together the complete story and a multitude of insights into a band he clearly loves. A thoroughly good and engrossing read!

An excellent revised edition of the original 2001 publication. I am still reading it and it (as the previous edition) gives a great insight into the band that started the 'progressive rock' movement. No other band played music like this in 1969, it was either blues or R'n'B or pop. If you are not familiar with King Crimson then check out the first album 'In The Court of The Crimson King' and just remember that it was 50 years ago that this band made their debut. This is a great read for any KC fan young or old(as I am!) Thank you Mr Sid Smith !

A masterful account by a writer who is close to the subject.

Got an absolute bargain, very hard to get hold of this book to compliment the rarer earlier edition so i am well pleased, faultless seller and the delivery was spot on, happy all round great prezzie for Crimbo !

Item arrived with greasy fingerprints all over it. Well done Amazon.....

What a great read. If you like your rock music complicated then King Crimson were the guys. A really good insight into the band.