King Crimson were <!-- Do not change to "was". "were" is the correct grammar for UK English. See WP:ENGVAR. --> an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Guitarist and leader Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the band's history. The band drew inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, blues, industrial, electronic, and experimental music. They also exerted a strong influence on the early 1970s progressive rock movement, including on contemporaries such as Yes and Genesis, and continue to inspire subsequent generations of artists across multiple genres.
The band's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), remains their most commercially successful and influential release, and is frequently cited as one of the most significant albums of the progressive rock genre. Following the breakdown of the original line-up, the next two albums, In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard (both 1970), were recorded during a period of instability in the band's personnel, before a settled line-up of Fripp, Sinfield, Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace recorded Islands in 1971. In mid-1972, Fripp disbanded this line-up, recruited new members Bill Bruford (formerly of Yes), John Wetton (formerly of Family), David Cross and Jamie Muir, and changed the group's musical approach, drawing from European free improvisation and modernist classical music and developing ever more complex compositions. The band released three more albums, Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black and Red (both 1974), before Fripp disbanded King Crimson at the end of 1974.
After seven years of inactivity, King Crimson was recreated in 1981 with Fripp, Bruford and new American members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin. Drawing influence from African music, gamelan, post-punk and New York minimalism, this band lasted three years, recording the albums Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984). Following a decade-long hiatus, they reformed in 1994, adding Pat Mastelotto (formerly of Mr. Mister) and Trey Gunn for a sextet line-up Fripp called "The Double Trio". The double trio undertook another three-year cycle of activity that included the EP Vrooom (1994) and the album Thrak (1995). Fripp, Belew, Mastelotto and Gunn reunited in 1999 as a quartet, called "The Double Duo", releasing The ConstruKction of Light (2000) and The Power to Believe (2003). After another hiatus, the band reformed for a 2008 tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of their 1968 formation, with Levin returning in place of Gunn and Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree being added.
Following another hiatus (2009–2012), during which Fripp was thought to be retired, King Crimson came together again in 2013, this time as a septet with an unusual three-drummer frontline, and new singer and secondary guitarist Jakko Jakszyk. This version of King Crimson, which expanded to an octet in 2017, toured from 2014 to 2021. After the band's final show in 2021, Fripp commented that King Crimson had "moved from sound to silence".
History
1967–1968: Giles, Giles and Fripp
In August 1967, brothers Michael and Peter Giles, drummer and singer/bassist respectively, and professional musicians in working bands since their mid-teens in Dorset, England, advertised for a "singing organist" to join a new group they were forming. Fellow Dorset musician Robert Fripp – a guitarist who neither sang or played organ – responded, and Giles, Giles and Fripp was born. The trio signed to Deram Records and recorded one album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp, released in 1968. They hovered on the edge of success, but were never able to make a commercial breakthrough.
Attempting to expand their sound, the three recruited Ian McDonald on keyboards and woodwinds. McDonald brought along two other participants: his then-girlfriend, former Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble, whose brief tenure with the group ended when the two split, and lyricist, roadie, and art strategist Peter Sinfield, with whom he had been writing songs – a partnership initiated when McDonald had said to Sinfield (regarding his band Creation), "Peter, I have to tell you that your band is hopeless, but you write some great words. Would you like to get together on a couple of songs?" Fripp, meanwhile, saw Clouds at the Marquee Club in London, which spurred him to incorporate classical-inspired melodies into his writing and utilise improvisation to find new ideas.
No longer interested in Peter Giles's more whimsical pop songs, Fripp recommended that his old friend, fellow guitarist and singer Greg Lake, could join to replace either Peter or Fripp himself. Peter Giles later called it one of Fripp's "cute political moves". Sinfield coined the band's name in "a moment of pressured panic". Sinfield had already used the term "crimson king" in a set of lyrics before his involvement with Giles, Giles and Fripp. Sinfield insisted that the name did not refer to Beelzebub, prince of demons, and that a "crimson king" was any ruler during whose reign there were "societal rumblings" and "sort of the dark forces of the world". According to Fripp, King Crimson is a synonym for Beelzebub, which is an anglicised form of the Arabic phrase "B'il Sabab", meaning "the man with an aim", to which he related.
At this early point, McDonald was the primary composer, with vital contributions from Fripp and Lake, while Sinfield wrote all the lyrics on his own, and also designed and operated the band's unique stage lighting, being credited with "words and illumination" on the album sleeve. Inspired by the Moody Blues, McDonald suggested the group purchase a Mellotron keyboard, and this became a key component of the early Crimson sound. Sinfield described the original Crimson thus: "If it sounded at all popular, it was out. So it had to be complicated, it had to be more expansive chords, it had to have strange influences. If it sounded, like, too simple, we'd make it more complicated, we'd play it in 7/8 or 5/8, just to show off".
King Crimson's first live performance was at the Speakeasy Club in London on 9 April 1969 (with Yes guitarist Peter Banks and David Bowie among the audience). Their big breakthrough came on 5 July 1969 by playing as a support act at the Rolling Stones' free concert in Hyde Park, London, before an estimated 500,000 people. Its opening track "21st Century Schizoid Man" has been described as "proto-metal" and the song's lyrics criticise the Vietnam War. In contrast to the blues-based hard rock of the contemporary British and American scenes, King Crimson presented a more Europeanised approach that blended antiquity and modernity. The band's music drew on a wide range of influences provided by all five group members. These elements included classical music, the psychedelic rock spearheaded by Jimi Hendrix, folk, jazz, military music (partially inspired by McDonald's stint as an army musician) and free improvisation. creative tensions were already developing. To keep the band together, Fripp offered to resign himself, but McDonald declared that King Crimson was "more (him) than them" and that he and Giles should therefore be the ones to leave. McDonald later said he "was probably not emotionally mature enough to handle it" and made a "rash decision to leave without consulting anyone". released a self-tiled album in 1971. Giles would go on to work as a session drummer, while McDonald would co-form Foreigner in 1976.
1970: In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard
King Crimson spent 1970 in a state of flux with various line-up changes, thwarted tour plans, and difficulties in finding a satisfactory musical direction, while Fripp was learning and developing as a songwriter during the writing process of the next three albums. As well as guitar, Fripp took on keyboard duties, while Sinfield expanded his creative role to operating synthesizers.
Following McDonald's and Giles's departure, Lake, unsure of the band's future without them, began discussions with Keith Emerson of the Nice about possibly forming a new band together. With Fripp and Sinfield planning the recording of the second King Crimson album, and Lake's position uncertain, the band's management booked Elton John to sing on the album, a decision cancelled by Fripp after he listened to John's then-only album, Empty Sky, and deemed his singing style to be not right for King Crimson. Lake agreed to stay with the band until Emerson had completed remaining commitments with the Nice, at which point he left to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer with Emerson and Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster. On the resulting In the Wake of Poseidon album, Lake provided all the lead vocals except on "Cadence and Cascade", which featured Fripp's old school friend Gordon Haskell. The sessions also included Michael and Peter Giles on drums and bass respectively, saxophonist Mel Collins (formerly of the band Circus), and jazz pianist Keith Tippett. With no set band to perform the new material, Fripp and Sinfield brought Mel Collins and Gordon Haskell in as full-time members, with Haskell doubling as lead vocalist and bassist and Collins playing woodwinds and keyboards, while Andy McCulloch joined as the band's new drummer. and two members of Tippett's band, Mark Charig on cornet and Nick Evans on trombone. Oboe and cor anglais player Robin Miller also appeared, while Jon Anderson of Yes was brought in to sing a section of the album's title track, "Prince Rupert Awakes", which Fripp and Sinfield considered to be outside Haskell's natural range and style. Lizard featured stronger jazz and chamber-classical influences than previous albums. the album had been made by a group in disagreement over method and taste. The more rhythm-and-blues-oriented Haskell and McCulloch both found the music difficult to relate to, and tedious and confusing to record. Collins disliked how his parts were composed, while both Fripp and Haskell detested Sinfield's lyrics. The position eventually went to Raymond "Boz" Burrell. Rick Kemp (later of Steeleye Span) rehearsed with the band, but declined the final offer to formally join. Fripp decided to teach Burrell to play bass rather than continue the labored auditions. Though he had not played bass before, Burrell had played enough acoustic guitar to assist him in learning the instrument quickly. Wallace was able to further instruct Burrell in functioning on the instrument in a rhythm section.thumb|272x272px|King Crimson in 1971. From left: [[Robert Fripp, Mel Collins, Ian Wallace, Boz Burrell, and Peter Sinfield]]With a line-up now complete, King Crimson began touring in May 1971, the first time they had played live since the original line-up's last show on 14 December 1969. The concerts were well received, but musical differences and the somewhat wilder lifestyles of Collins, Wallace, and Burrell alienated the non-drug-taking Fripp, who began to withdraw socially from his bandmates, creating further tension. Islands featured the instrumental "Sailor's Tale", with a droning Mellotron and Fripp's banjo-inspired guitar solo; the raunchy blues-rocker "Ladies of the Road", a tribute to groupies which featured Wallace and Collins singing Beatlesque backing vocals; and "Song of the Gulls", which was developed from the instrumental "Suite No. 1" from Giles, Giles & Fripp's 1968 album and would be the only time the band would utilize an orchestra. In January 1972, the remaining four members broke up acrimoniously in rehearsals, owing partially to Fripp's refusal to play a composition by Collins. Better-quality live recordings from this era would be released in 2002 as Ladies of the Road and in 2017 on the Sailors' Tales (1970–1972) box set.
By this time the musical rift between Fripp and the rest of the band had grown very wide. Wallace, Burrell, and Collins favoured improvised blues- and funk-influenced music; Fripp would later describe the 1971–1972 line-up as more of a jam band than an "improvising" band, an opinion with which Wallace disagreed. Personal relations, however, improved during the tour to the point where most of the band wanted to continue; nonetheless, Fripp opted to part company with the other three and reconstitute King Crimson with new musicians, as he felt the other members would not fully engage with the musical direction he now had in mind. Collins went on to join Camel, Burrell co-formed Bad Company, and Wallace became a session musician, most notably playing on several Bob Dylan albums and the Traveling Wilburys' first album.