Customer Reviews

Concise King Crimson

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

DO NOT BUY THIS ALBUM unless you are prepared to submit to the undying need to hear the entire KC collection! It is an embarassment to the Classic Rock Station Community that I had to be turned onto this group while working a weekend third shift AM/FM job in Green Bay, WI playing "Golden Oldies". This was the album I started out with after being a hardcore highschool metalhead and gradually moving on:) to classic and progressive rock with blues, jazz, and reggae thrown into the mix for good measure. This is a great starter album that covers an unmeasurable 15+ years of work...

I purchased Sleepless: The Concise King Crimson because I was thoroughly impressed with the track listing. Although an abridged version of "In The Court Of The Crimson King" and "Starless" are here, this is still a worthwhile compilation for introduction to the sometimes schizophrenic world of King Crimson. I highly recommend it!

While a couple of the songs are edits and nothing from Larks Tongues appears, this still gives a better example of King Crimson than The Compact King Crimson. Fripp seems to have gotten over his adversion to some of the early KC stuff and here we get a more well rounded release. The sound quality is also much better on this one on the band's then new label Caroline. This is the one for people who want a good short introduction to the band.

This CD replaces the now discontinued COMPACT KING CRIMSON, which was an excellent compilation of Phase-3 Crimson (Fripp-Bruford-Levin-Belew) plus the best-known tracks from the very first album, IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING. Now at last, we have a single CD compilation of Crimson material that includes something from the outstanding RED, one of the top 10 progressive albums of all time (so far). But still there's nothing from LARK TONGUES or a host of other excellent Crimson albums. Such is the brevity of the CD medium and the depth of the Crimson back-catalogue.

This album provides a superb illustration of the range of cutting-edge musical styles that Crimson has implemented since 1969. No artist has so utterly reinvented himself as Robert Fripp has done in creating new formations under the 'King Crimson' brand.

With this album you get a fantastic introduction to the band's output, but it will be very hard to stop at purchasing this one. For me, RED is totally unavoidable, and that should be your next purchase. IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING is also widely regarded as a classic, but actually you get nearly all its great tracks on this CD.

Garnering some of the best songs of King Crimson's history from 1969 to 1993, this package is barely a tittilating taste of what this band has accomplished. Half of the first album, "In The Court Of The Crimson King" is here with only one jazzy crackpot song from "In The Wake Of Poseidon" ("Cat Food").

The early seventies is well covered with the sexy, salacious "Ladies Of The Road" while "Starless", "Red" and "Fallen Angel" show the revolutionary spunk of the mid-late seventies. The latter three being some of the best work, but inexplicably missing anything from the tantamount "Larks Tongue In Aspic". That's a major point and one that shows the immense amount of work that is missing.

"Elephant Talk" is a goofy, clever bopping song while "matte kudesai" is a rare and dreamy, breezy outtake. Adrian Belew gains a lot of momentum on his vocals and lyrics with "Three Of A Perfect Pair", but it's "Sleepless" that brings the entire band together. It contains some of King Crimson's best collaborative works. The lyrics and vocals are unique and inventive, the bass is plucky and wired as heck and the percussion is full of nice surprises. It's a great finish to a 'very, very' concise King Crimson. Buy the entire fleet!

This is a fantastic way to explore the works of one of the best bands of rock history.
They are an acquired taste indeed,but if you devote some of your time you will never regret it.
Here we have the very beginning of the band,the one with the awesome Greg Lake on it.A lyrically enchanting phase.Folk and prog rock at its best.SOngs like "Epitaph"deserve every pennie of this compilation alone.
The second phase most documented is the trio Fripp-Wetton-Bruford,a marvellous band which cut three beautiful albums,being the best "Red"(the title track is out of this world).
Finally,we can witness the works of the most "commercial"(to say so)band,with Adrian Belew."Matte kudesai" or "Frame by frame" are timeless pop compositions,being the former one of the best ballads ever made.It can draw tears from the blackest soul.I could die listening to it and don't even notice it.BEAUTIFUL!
Make yourself a favor and enter at the court of the Crimson King.It is a special journey.You all are welcome!

get "the compact king crimson"used for the full versions of the songs,the abridged ones are good,but not as tripped-out!

This is a pretty good album for those who want to be innitiated into King Crimsom music , this is a band not very easy to listen or to follow because of the complicated train of lyrics and musical variations wich is so rich that you need to dedicate several listening sessions; the order of the tracks is chronological wich helps to appreciate a lot more the creatve progression and evolution of this legends of progressive rock, the addition of elements that goes from blues, Heavy Metal, ambient music, and jazzy rythms are evident as you hear track by track, and you get fascinated for this unique creativity that still provides to this days new inspiration for new eclectic and non eclectic bands, a priceless musical document
HM

In Fripp's words, this is a pocket edition of the 4-CD compilation Frame by Frame, and serves as an introduction to the studio work between 1969-1984. As you know, KC history is hard to follow, with amazing personnel changes (in who? and how many?), being founder Robert Fripp the only survivor. Sleepless is an excellent overview for the initiated, as I was when I purchased this CD. The songs have been cleverly selected and digitally remastered. Due to their prolific catalog, one song per album was chosen, except for their most relevant ones. 3 tracks from the debut In the court of the Crimson King, and other 3 from Red. In this CD you can appreciate how diverse and complex was (and still is) KC music. Going from the crazy jazz-driven 21st century Schizoid Man, to the mellotron-ballads Epitaph and Starless, through early hard rock in Red. After Red (the album, 1974), KC disbanded, being reformed in 1981. You can obviously notice the difference in the music after the 7-year intermission, going from the Starless to Elephant Talk. From 1981 to 1984, the band remained surprisingly without personnel change, and this is reflected in the tracks 9 to 14. My only complaints are the songs that could not fit in the CD. No songs from Lark's Tongue in Aspic, neither from the 90's era, when the band was reconstrukcted in the double-trio. Another complain is the lack of pictures of the different band members. Fortunately, it does have information of the band players for each song, and the albums where they come from. Nevertheless, these complaints do not subtract any star. This is only for the initiated, then it will make craving for more.

I attempted to wimp out and get all the good King Crimson songs on one CD, and I did, technically, I'm just partial to everything after Adrian Belew joined the band.

I would have been better off buying "Three of a Perfect Pair" and "Discipline" separately.

Still, I've learned to enjoy several of the older songs, just not quite as much.