History Music / KingCrimson

* {{Improv}}: From beloved ("Asbury Park") to almost universally despised by fans ("Providence").

* [[Music/{{Yes}} Bill Bruford]] (1972 - 1998): drums, percussion

** The whole Wetton, Cross and Bruford line-up could be considered this. ''Starless and Bible Black'' is probably every bit as edgy as ''Red'' but just not quite as heavy.

* TitleTrack: An unusual case, in that all but one of their studio albums have title tracks (and even the one that doesn't, ''Beat'', has a song called "Heartbeat"). It appears that Robert Fripp finds the inclusion of a title track vitally important. The most amusing example of this is the album ''Starless and Bible Black''--although they had begun writing a song whose chorus included the titular phrase, it was eventually rejected from the album, and a live improv was just added in its place and titled "Starless and Bible Black". The originally intended title track made its way onto ''Red'', where it was entitled just "Starless"

* RockMeAmadeus: "The Devil's Triangle" has some obvious similarities to "Mars, the Bringer of War", but [[TheJimmyHartVersion different enough to not be a copyright violation]]. (They either didn't ask for permission or were denied permission to record it at that time. Later on, some archival live albums such as ''Epitaph'' included recordings of their adaptation of "Mars, the Bringer of War" that they performed live in 1969, titled simply "Mars".)

*** TheHero: Robert Fripp

*** TheSmartGuy: Ian [=McDonald=]

* ShoutOut: TheBeatles, JimiHendrix and RupertBear are depicted on the cover of ''Lizard''.

* David Cross [[hottip:*:No, not ''that'' DavidCross]] (1972 - 1974): violin, Mellotron, piano

** YourMileageMayVary with "Providence". The first minute and a half contains some excellent SilenceOfTheLambs-styled violin work from Cross and Wetton provides one of the best bass solos in music history in the last three minutes. The improv section of "Moonchild", on the other hand...

-->'''Bruford''': In Music/{{Yes}}, there'd be arguments about whether you can play an F over an E major. In Crimson, you were just supposed to know.
-->'''Bruford''' (on joining King Crimson): It was like climbing over the Berlin Wall... [[{{Dissimile}} into East Germany]].

Their music is characterised by really impressive instrumental technique, EpicRocking, pretty extreme dynamic contrasts, lots of {{Improv}}, lyrics that usually [[WordSaladLyrics sound cooler than they read]] (when [[Music/{{Instrumentals}} they appear]]), and a large percentage of tunes that seem specifically designed to ''[[MindScrew fuck with your head]]''.

* Music/{{Instrumentals}}: Lots of them. Some King Crimson fans resent that they do songs with vocals at all.

** Since 1997, they do not fit this trope.

** Lizard:

** Larks' Tongues In Aspic:

*** TheSmartGuy: Ian Mcdonald

*** TheTagalongKid: Gordon Haskell

*** TheBigGuy: Andy McCulloch

** The ITCOTCK era:

* EpicRiff: "21st Century Schizoid Man", "In The Court of the Crimson King", "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two", "Red".

** The whole Whetton, Cross and Bruford line-up could be considered this. ''Starless and Bible Black'' is probably as edgy as ''Red'' but just not quite as heavy.

Their music is characterised by really impressive instrumental technique, EpicRocking, pretty extreme dynamic contrasts, lots of {{Improv}}, lyrics that usually [[WordSaladLyrics sound cooler than they read]] (when [[Music/{{Instrumentals}} they appear]]), and a large percentage of tunes that seem specifically designed to ''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel fuck with your head]]''.

* [[FrankZappa Adrian Belew]] (1981 - present): guitar, vocals

* [[PorcupineTree Gavin Harrison]] (2007 - present): drums

* [[{{ptitlee7e3e3u6}} Greg Lake]] (1969-1970): bass, vocals

* [[BadCompany Boz Burrell]] (1971 - 1972): bass, vocals

* [[{{Yes}} Bill Bruford]] (1972 - 1998): drums, percussion

* [[{{Yes}} Jon Anderson]] (1970): vocals

* [[RoxyMusic Eddie Jobson]] (1975): violin, piano, recruited to add violin to the live album ''USA'' whenever Cross' contributions were lost to technical issues

* David Cross (1972 - 1974): violin, Mellotron, piano