Stoakes’ Song of the Week
Today is the final Saturday in September, which means that ‘Prog Month’ here at Stoakes Media is coming to an end. I have to say, I’ve enjoyed exploring some great Prog rock songs over the past few weeks. And delivering to you some equally good Prog Rock bands, but this week has to be special. This week has to be something genre defining!
So, who to pick… As you all know, we don’t do obvious here at Stoakes Media, so mainstream is definitely out… That’s Pink Floyd and Yes out the window. What about the band who has been credited as being a major influence across the genre and has influenced the likes of Yes and Genesis? Their debut album, remains their most successful and influential and combine blues rock with elements of jazz, classical and symphonic music. I’m talking of course about ‘King Crimson’ and the album ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’.
But which song to choose from such an iconic album? How about Epitaph…
Epitaph is the third track on the album. Written by members Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake and Michael Giles with the somewhat dystopian lyrics written by Peter Sinfield. The song reflects the fears of the time, in particular a nuclear apocalypse, and the confusion and despair of the narrator as a result. Noted as well is the heavy use of the mellotron in the instrumentation.
Initial sessions for the album were held in early 1969 with producer Tony Clarke, however these sessions failed to work out. The group were given permission to produce the album themselves. The album was recorded on a 1″ 8 channel recorder at Wessex Sound Studios in London, engineered by Robin Thompson and assisted by Tony Page. In order to achieve the characteristic lush, orchestral sounds on the album, Ian McDonald spent many hours overdubbing layers of mellotron and various woodwind and reed instruments. In some cases, the band went through 5 tape generations to attain deeply layered, segued tracks.
Some time after the album had been completed, it was discovered that the stereo master recorder used during the mixdown stage of the album had incorrectly-aligned recording heads. This misalignment resulted in a loss of high frequencies and introduced some unwanted distortion. Consequently, while preparing the first American release for Atlantic Records, a special copy was made from the original 2-track stereo master in an attempt to correct some of these anomalies. From 1969 to 2003, this second-generation “corrected” copy was the source used in the dubbing of the various sub-masters used for vinyl, cassette and CD releases over the years. The original, “first-generation” stereo masters, however, had been filed away soon after the original 1969 mixdown sessions. These tapes were considered lost until 2003 when they were located and then a new 40th anniversary edition was released in 2009, mixed by Steven Wilson.
The album reached Number 5 in the UK charts, however received mixed reviews. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau called the album “ersatz shit” however Rolling Stone magazine said King Crimson had “combined aspects of many musical forms to create a surreal work of force and originality” The Who’s Pete Townshend called the album “an uncanny masterpiece” and the album has been featured in numerous lists including “50 Albums That Built Prog Rock” and in 2015, Rolling Stone named In the Court of the Crimson King the second greatest progressive rock album of all time, behind Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon
King Crimson have just completed their 50th anniversary tour which included three nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London. As part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, they have also, for the first time, made all their music available on Spotify…. So get listening and if you like it… Buy some albums!!
