History Music / KingCrimson

* ''Three of a Perfect Pair'' (LP, 1984) - "Three of a Perfect Pair", "Sleepless", "Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part III"

* ''Red'' (LP, 1974) - "Red", "Starless" [[note]]The song "Providence" was recorded live in Providence, RI (natch) during the tour for ''Starless And Bible Black''.[[/note]]

* GrandFinale: "Starless" was originally intended to be King Crimson's final song, as the group disbanded soon after. While a dramatic and epic finale for the band, they reunited in 1981. It can still be seen as the finale of the lineup at the time, as most members would not return.

* TwelveBarBlues: Even King Crimson has written a twelve-bar blues, in an UncommonTime, to boot. "Cat Food". "Matte Kudasai" isn't twelve bars (it's ''five'') but it's blues-inspired and has a shuffle feel.

* GrandFinale: "Starless" was originally intended to be King Crimson's final song, as the group disbanded soon after. While a dramatic and epic finale for the band, they reunited in 1981. It can still be seen as the finale of the lineup at the time, as most would not return.

** The live performance of “21st Century Schizoid Man” from Meltdown: Live in Mexico City featured a sax solo that briefly played the melody of “Take the A Train.” The drum solo also mimicked the riff from “Smoke on the Water.”

** ''Discipline'' has a foundation in NewWaveMusic without completely abandoning ProgressiveRock. The band also incorporated WorldMusic influences, adding up to a sound that was similar to Music/PeterGabriel's ''Music/{{Melt}}'' and Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/RemainInLight'' released the previous year. It's not that surprising when you know that Tony Levin and Robert Fripp have a long history of playing with Gabriel (both Levin and Fripp even play on ''Melt''), Adrian Belew played on ''Remain in Light'', and Belew's voice is a dead-ringer for Music/DavidByrne. Fripp is also a BigNameFan and collaborater with Talking Heads. The band additionally makes occasional delves into more experimental material heavily rooted in Belew's previous experiences working with Music/FrankZappa, particularly the proggier tracks on Zappa's ''Music/SheikYerbouti''. The next two albums, ''Beat'' and ''Three of a Perfect Pair'', mined the same vein.

!! Tropes:

** ''Discipline'' has a foundation in NewWaveMusic without completely abandoning ProgressiveRock. The band also incorporated WorldMusic influences, adding up to a sound that was similar to Music/PeterGabriel's ''Melt'' and Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/RemainInLight'' released the previous year. It's not that surprising when you know that Tony Levin and Robert Fripp have a long history of playing with Gabriel, Adrian Belew played on the latter, and Belew's voice is a dead-ringer for Music/DavidByrne. Fripp is also a BigNameFan and collaborater with Talking Heads. The band additionally makes occasional delves into more experimental material heavily rooted in Belew's previous experiences working with Music/FrankZappa, particularly the proggier tracks on Zappa's ''Music/SheikYerbouti''. The next two albums, ''Beat'' and ''Three of a Perfect Pair'', mined the same vein.

* Gordon Haskell (1970): bass, vocals

* Keith Tippett (1970–71): piano

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

* Theo Travis (2019- ): keyboards [[note]]Was briefly set to play during the 2019 tours as Bill Rieflin takes another sabbatical to take care of family matters. However, after one day of rehearsal, the band decided to instead perform as a seven-piece for the tour, with no musician taking Rieflin's place.[[/note]]

King Crimson is a band that began in 1968 in London, from the first generation of ProgressiveRock groups. They've pretty much existed ever since, despite some pretty regular break-ups and reformations (1968–74, 1981–84, 1994–2004, 2007–08, 2013–). [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure Also debatably proof that time travel is real.]]

Current band members:

Former band members:

Additional musicians:

Studio album discography and notable songs:

"[=ProjeKct=]" studio album discography:

** ''Discipline'' has a foundation in NewWaveMusic without completely abandoning ProgressiveRock. The band also incorporated WorldMusic influences, adding up to a sound that was similar to Music/PeterGabriel's ''Melt'' and Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/RemainInLight'' released the previous year. It's not that surprising when you know that Tony Levin has a long history of playing with Gabriel, Adrian Belew played on the latter, and Belew's voice is a dead-ringer for Music/DavidByrne. The band additionally makes occasional delves into more experimental material heavily rooted in Belew's previous experiences working with Music/FrankZappa, particularly the proggier tracks on Zappa's ''Music/SheikYerbouti''. The next two albums, ''Beat'' and ''Three of a Perfect Pair'', mined the same vein.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The vocal sections of "Thela Hun Ginjeet" come straight from Adrian Belew's frazzled story of being confronted by gangsters just minutes earlier. As Belew began his story, Robert Fripp [[ThrowItIn signaled to the studio engineer to begin recording.]] This was lampshaded when the band performed on an old American TV Show.

Has spawned two bands, 21st Century Schizoid Band and [[https://www.facebook.com/thecrimsonprojekct/ The Crimson ProjeKCt]], comprised of former and current members who also play the band's repertoire. Four of the current eight-piece band are in these units as well, putting the status of both effectively on hold. While Fripp for the most part gives his blessing to these groups, his reaction to them is mixed depending on how well they represent the band's aesthetic. A [[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/king-crimson-robert-fripp-press-conference-819254/ underwhelming]] Crimson [=ProjeKCt=] show Fripp attended in 2014 almost prompted him to retire the band again.

* [[Music/{{Ministry}} Bill Rieflin]] (2013–2016, 2017-2019): drums, keyboards [[note]]Rieflin took a sabbatical in 2016, but the band announced his return in January 2017 while also keeping Stacey. Since then, he has been relegated to playing only keyboards.[[/note]]

* Peter Sinfield (1968–72): VCS 3 synthesizer, lyrics

* NonActionGuy: Peter Sinfield, despite being considered an official member of the band, almost exclusively contributed lyrics and played very little instrumentation(he only did very brief synth parts).

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** ''Discipline'' has a foundation in NewWaveMusic without completely abandoning ProgressiveRock. The band also incorporated WorldMusic influences, adding up to a sound that was similar to Music/PeterGabriel's ''Melt'' and Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/RemainInLight'' released the previous year. It's not that surprising when you know that Tony Levin has a long history of playing with Gabriel, Adrian Belew played on the latter, and Belew's voice is a dead-ringer for Music/DavidByrne. The next two albums, ''Beat'' and ''Three of a Perfect Pair'', mined the same vein.

* IAmTheBand: For all intents and purposes, King Crimson lives and dies by the breath of Robert Fripp, who has been in control of the band's direction and mercurial activity status for nearly all of its life. Most of the breakups, hiatuses, and reformations were solely the result of Fripp losing and regaining motivation for keeping the band going. Worth noting is that Fripp is the only consistent member of King Crimson's [[RevolvingDoorBand equally fickle lineup]] throughout its entire 50+ year history, though that's not to say that his bandmates are worthless.

** The ''Islands'' era contains probably the most of this in terms of KC live performances; the live version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" from ''Earthbound'' is nearly twelve minutes long, while "Groon" lasts for fifteen minutes and thirty seconds. The 40th Anniversary re-issue of the album also includes a version of "Sailor's Tale" lasting over fourteen minutes.
** Probably the single longest composition by any lineup is the improv "Zoom Zoom" from the KCCC release ''Live at the Zoom Club''. Its running time? '''Almost forty-five minutes'''. And there's ''another'' improv from the same show lasting twenty-two minutes, which is almost as long as the Lizard suite. Other improvs from the Wetton-era lineups can get quite long, with a handful over twenty minutes.
* EverythingIsAnInstrument: Jamie Muir, an experimental percussionist, had a knack for this. A far-reaching selection of items from bells, wooden blocks, scrap metal, children's toys, and a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbira thumb piano]] were used to record Larks' Tongues in Aspic.

* IAmTheBand: For all intents and purposes, King Crimson lives and dies by the breath of Robert Fripp, who has been in control of the band's direction and mercurial activity status for nearly all of its life. Most of the breakups, hiatuses, and reformations were solely the result of Fripp losing and regaining motivation for keeping the band going.

** ''THRAK'' incorporates elements of ProgressiveMetal into the sound of the Belew-led lineup's previous three albums, resulting in an overall harder sound without outright abandoning the NewWaveMusic elements that defined the band's output in the 1980's, effectively acting as a modernization of ''Larks' Tongues in Aspic''. The progressive metal elements would then come to completely envelop the band in 2000 with ''The [=ConstruKction=] of Light''.