In The Court Of King Crimson

I was initially a little uncertain about this book however as I began to chomp my way through it, it just got better and better and better. I am a long term KC nut and know a good deal of the history but this fills all the gaps. The style took a little getting used to but Sid obviously has his dictionary for breakfast every day. Sometimes a little verbose and overly ebullient but generally excellent and the interpretation and insight into the underpinning of some of the tracks is exceptional. I listen to the stuff routinely and I am a drummer but how the hell did he pick out stuff like "the guitar riff is in 12/8 and the engine room is driving a 7/8 and 5/8 to match with the drums on a different downbeat to the bass before reversing into opposing rythms" Who else could possibly have heard the comment from Fripp about not knowing what Mastelloto was playing other than it fitted - the reply from Pat was obviously " why do I need to play the same as the guitars , I am on drums"Excellent stuff. My only question to Sid Smith would be "when is part two coming out ?" This obviously stopped before the demise of Boz and the loss of Ian Wallace so, Mr Smith, your narrative has a 10 year catch up please.

Sid Smith has done an excellent job with this book. From the supplier I chose (via Amazon) my copy was about ten years old, but was in 'time capsule' condition and looked like it was printed last week! As you can tell by this and other reviews, the title is long since out of print and an update would be appreciated. I corresponded with Smith as regards this matter a few years ago (mid noughties) and as I recall he was at the time trying to retrieve the rights to his book from the original publisher. As of 2014 I have not seen a new edition though and that's why I took the plunge with the original here. If I've one criticism it's over the photographs. These are just printed in the 'normal' ink on the text pages (not glossy). They are often of poor quality and a bit 'grainy', but this may of course be because of the source material and not the printing methods of the book. However, the insights into the band more than make up for this!

Brand new, well packaged and a lot cheaper than any others for sale. great book as well. happy bunny !

Beautiful book, in good condition and at a reasonable price.

excellent

Perfect, mint condition.

A self-confessed Crim nerd, Smith has followed King Crimson since the early 1970s, and his biography of the band is a work of obsessive fandom. Here he gives us a chronological account of Crimson, from the pre-Crim days in the Bournemouth area, through the numerous iterations of the 1970s band, then on to the 1980s stable line up and up to 2000 and the release of “The Construkction of Light”. Each chapter largely follows the same template, one album (sometimes two) serving as the focal point around which the reader is given details of line-ups (and line-up changes), the song-writing and recording process, and accompanying tours. Smith has interviewed not only various members of Crimson over the years, but also some of their friends and collaborators. These anecdotes are often quite revealing, and some people come out of them better than others. Obsessive fans might also delight in the appendices: an extensive discography, gigography and set of post-Crim biographical sketches. (Those who wonder whatever happened to Jamie Muir will be enlightened.)At times one wishes Smith would push his interviewees a bit further, but perhaps he feared creating friction in what has often been something of a dysfunctional outfit. A greater shortcoming in my view is the lack of contextual discussion and analysis. Of Fripp’s highly distinctive guitar style and sound, Smith has next to nothing to say. And though the influence of jazz and modern classical music are mentioned, there is no discussion of just how they have inspired Fripp et al. Repeatedly Crimson go into the recording studio with less than an album’s worth of material, fumbling around trying to fill up the minutes, but Smith does not call on anyone to consider the effect of this problem, nor does he explore it himself. More frustratingly, the interregnum between the albums “Red” (1974) and “Discipline” (1981) appears to have been a highly important time in Fripp’s life, both personally and musically, but it is skated over in just a few pages, and its influence on his later life and music is not adequately considered. Finally, the book is let down by truly appalling editing – indeed, the non-sequiturs, copy-editing and proof errors that litter the book would suggest no editor has been near it.Of all the groups representative of “progressive rock”, Crimson are perhaps the only one that has remained truly progressive. Rather than settle for playing AOR and “dad rock” in large stadiums, they have continued to make innovative music off and on over a period of fifty years. Smith’s book gives us some insight into this, but Crimson are deserving of a more critically aware and probing author. Hopefully one day one will come along.

As semi-authorised biographies go, this is damn good. Sid Smith seems to have interviewed most if not all of the many people who've passed through the ranks of King Crimson, not least the Crimson king himself Robert Fripp, who provides an Olympian but puckish running commentary on the recollections and assessments of his bandmates. There's a track by track assessment of all Crimson's songs up until 2000's 'The Construkction of Light' (sic), and Smith is not scared of saying when he finds a given track disappointing.The story is essentially a tragicomic one, about a band whose only constant member (guitarist Fripp) hates to think of himself as the 'leader' but also reserves the right to say when anybody else's contribution is or isn't appropriate. To say that, over the course of King Crimson history, this attitude has led to some friction, is to understate considerably. But besides being a hopeless control freak, Fripp is also a wise, erudite and often very funny commentator on his own inadequacies, as well as a drop-dead demon-from-hell guitar player. This book is a tribute to the band which he has for almost forty years, if not exactly led, then at least navigated. It's also full of amusing rock anecdotes and unwitting self-revelation by the less self-aware participants (Greg Lake and Peter Sinfield in particular come across as insufferably self-important.)Great fun for KC fans, but maybe a revised edition is called for? KC has only brought out one proper album since 2000 but the band's history has been no less turbulent and fascinating in the meantime.