In the Court of the Crimson King (subtitled An Observation by King Crimson) is the debut album from the English rock band King Crimson, released on 10 October 1969 on Island Records in England and Atlantic Records in America. The album is one of the first and most influential of the progressive rock genre, where the band largely departed from the blues influences that rock music was founded upon and combined elements of jazz, classical, and symphonic music. The album reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 28 on the US Billboard 200, where it was certified Gold. The album was reissued several times in the 1980s and 1990s using inferior copies of the master tapes. After the masters were located in 2003, a 40th-anniversary edition of the album was released in 2009 with new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes by Steven Wilson.
The group's definitive album, and one of the most daring debut albums ever recorded by anybody. At the time, it blew all of the progressive/psychedelic competition (the Moody Blues, the Nice, etc.) out of the running, although it was almost too good for the band's own good – it took King Crimson nearly four years to come up with a record as strong or concise. Ian McDonald's Mellotron is the dominant instrument, along with his saxes and Fripp's guitar, making this a somewhat different-sounding record from everything else they ever did…
Recorded over a period of 10 days in August 1969 & released on October 10th of the same year In The Court Of The Crimson King stands as one of the defining albums of British rock music & one of the finest debut albums of all time. Described at the time as "an uncanny masterpiece" by Pete Townshend, the album has achieved legendary status over the years. It is the only studio document of an extraordinary year in the life of King Crimson; a year that began with the group's first rehearsals on January 13th, included a residency at the Marquee Club, a concert in Hyde Park with The Rolling Stones, the recording and release of the album and ended with the dissolution of the lineup at the close of Crimson's 1st American tour in December.
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
Almost unarguably the first, most quintessential prog-rock album ever, Court virtually came out of nowhere, and almost single-handedly defined "prog-rock" at its infancy.
Released in December 1970, King Crimson's third studio album, Lizard, is often viewed as an outlier in the pioneering British prog outfit's nearly half-century discography. It's not easily grouped with 1969's stunning In the Court of the Crimson King debut and 1970 follow-up In the Wake of Poseidon, and along with 1971's Islands it's considered a transitional release on the band's path toward the relative stability of the Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974) trilogy. Plus, the Lizard sessions were difficult and the core group lineup acrimoniously collapsed immediately afterward, as bandleader/guitarist Robert Fripp, with lyricist Peter Sinfield, continued brave efforts to save King Crimson from disintegrating as the group's lengthy history was just getting underway…
Described by Variety magazine as "really about as good as rock documentaries get", the long-awaited, official King Crimson documentary by Toby Amies will be released in Limited edition form as an 8 Disc boxed set containing 2 Blu-Rays, 2 DVDs and 4 CDs. The set includes the full film, an early edited version of the film, live and studio performances from the 50th anniversary tour plus a plethora of additional footage. It also includes the music from the original soundtrack and more over 4 CDs - many tracks previously unreleased and/or new to CD. The film appears in DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround on Blu-ray 1 and in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround on DVD 1. The film and other material on Blu-ray 1/DVD 1 - the final performance of 'Starless from December 2021, an early edit of sections of the film and a set of trailers/shorts, appear in LPCM 24/48 Stereo on both formats. Blu-ray 2/DVD 2 feature: Tring, Rock In Rio, 38 minutes backstage footage and more.