EXPERIENCE ROCK HISTORY!
KING CRIMSON
In The Court Of The Crimson King
October 10, 1969
It’s late 1969, 00individual is at work at his first real job in an art department for SWRL (Southwest Regional Laboratories for Educational Research and Development) doing mostly production work.
With a personal drawing table and a second story window overlooking the plaza entrance below and with the L. A. International Airport within take-off and landing view; 00individual was groovin’. But that’s not all, . . . across from 00individual in the two-person office was his talented Hippie Boho Chick co-worker; they got along famously while they listened to the two major L.A. FM Rock stations; KMET and KLOS. Both stations ran neck and neck in popularity with equally hip DJs who spun the newly classic and the constantly newly-released albums and tracks all day and night.
On this particular late afternoon/early evening the radio airwaves suddenly scorched the office walls with a totally new sound that was savagely epic and it immediately consumed 00individual’s attention as he listened in awe as King Crimson crossed all Rock ‘n’ Roll boundaries with
“21st Century Schizoid Man“!
This is what we call an imprint, folks, a moment in time that is tattooed forever into the deepest canyons of the brain’s memory files but ready to be pulled-up in an instant.
That evening 00individual drove to Crane’s Records in Inglewood, thee place to get your vinyl fix, (and 00individual’s future workplace) - for he knew that if anyone had the album they would.
Fresh from the distributors, 00individual procured a sealed copy and hurried back to the beach pad to get high and take a ride on this new vinyl slab of excitement.
King Crimson’s debut album, “In The Court Of The Crimson King” was revolutionary!
The term “Progressive Rock” had yet to enter the general Rock Lexicon, so like most of the music that was creatively flooding the airwaves, we just appreciated it without categorizing it. It was Rock ‘n’ Roll – ever evolving, and it was good.
Every track and sound on the album was magical and mesmerizing and dramatic – remember, we had never heard anything like this before – this album was a perfect example of the high we were on with new kinds of music like this being invented every day.
On the Righteous Road of Rock History a definitive Iconic Landmark is emblazoned on the signpost up ahead, it reads:
King Crimson’s “In The Court Of The Crimson King”:
Side one
1. “21st Century Schizoid Man” (including “Mirrors”)
Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield 7:24
2. “I Talk to the Wind”
McDonald, Sinfield 6:04
3. “Epitaph” (including “March for No Reason” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow”)
Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield 8:49
Side two
4. “Moonchild” (including “The Dream” and “The Illusion”)
Fripp, McDonald, Lake, Giles, Sinfield 12:13
5. “The Court of the Crimson King” (including “The Return of the Fire Witch” and “The Dance of the Puppets”) McDonald, Sinfield 9:26
And then King Crimson closes-out their debut with the equally Iconic Masterpiece, “The Court of the Crimson King”; a gorgeous Rock Epic that became an instant classic.
IMPORTANT SYNCHRONISTIC NOTE
Since no one is going to connect the surreal yet important relativity dots of 1969 music -
00individual will.
On October 15, 1969, only five days after King Crimson’s “In the Court of the Crimson King” was released, so was the soundtrack album to the movie musical, “Paint Your Wagon” – another late ’69 imprint that went on to be the sixth highest grossing film of 1969.
Within those five days in October 1969, Greg Lake would “Talk to the Wind” and Clint Eastwood would “Talk to the Trees” – there was a synchronicity there. It’s the synergy and realization that no matter what era in history, our connection to nature is vital and prime – we all talk to the wind and trees at some point.
This meaningful coincidence reflects the psychological desperation in the air by the decade’s end.
It had been a historic stand-alone tumultuous decade with the most positive and negative highly-condensed life-changing and culture-changing events of the entire century.
So, in response to this atmosphere of desperation, people were writing and singing about the last vestiges that one has for consolation – in nature.
And therein reveals the deeper connection; we don’t talk to walls or buildings, but to trees, oceans, mountains and the sky; because there’s a natural, soulful connection that offers a reciprocal unconditional transference of live feelings to and from that which we know lives.
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Eastwood was no Lake, but he held his own quite well – nearly a Capella at times:
“I Talk To The Trees” – Clint Eastwood – October 15, 1969
Filmed in the gorgeous forests of the Pacific Northwest; 00individual loves Paint Your Wagon as a wholesome Psychedelic movie about the Gold Rush, Boomtowns and the people/adventurers of that era – all done with one of the most socially-accepted, but truly insane and surrealistic psychedelic film concepts and art forms ever created; choreography and song - within otherwise normal reality. Groovy!
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