King Crimson Biography
King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London. The band drew inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, blues, industrial, electronic, experimental music and new wave. They 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 earned a large cult following.Founded by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield, the band initially focused on a dramatic sound layered with Mellotron, McDonald's saxophone and flute, and Lake's bass and powerful lead vocals. Their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), remains their most commercially successful and influential release, with a potent mixture of jazz, classical and experimental music. Following the sudden simultaneous departures of McDonald and Giles, with Lake also leaving very shortly afterwards, the next two albums In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard (both 1970) were recorded during a period of instability in the band's line-up. A settled band of Fripp, Sinfield, Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace recorded Islands in 1971, though in mid-1972, Fripp let go of this line-up and changed the group's instrumentation and approach, drawing from European free improvisation and developing ever more complex compositions. With Bill Bruford, John Wetton, David Cross and, briefly, Jamie Muir, they reached what some saw as a creative peak on Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974). King Crimson disbanded at the end of 1974. After seven years of inactivity, King Crimson was reborn in 1981 with another change in musical direction. The new band comprised Fripp, Bruford and new members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin. They drew influence from African music, gamelan, post-punk and New York minimali...