Music Banter - View Single Post - I know what I like: Trollheart's History of Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal

Trollheart · 06-05-2021, 01:15 PM

Album title: Lizard
Artist: King Crimson
Nationality: English
Label: Island/Atlantic
Chronology: Third
Grade: A
Landmark value: I don’t think much, other than it was the only King Crimson album to feature Graham Haskell on vocals.
Tracklisting: Cirkus (including Entry of the Chameleons)/Indoor Games/Happy Family/Lady of the Dancing Water/Lizard (a) Prince Rupert Awakes (b)Bolero - the Peacock’s Tale (c) The Battle of Glass Tears (i) Dawn Song (ii) Last Skirmish (iii) Prince Rupert’s Lament (d) Big Top
Comments: My relationship so far with KC has been tenuous at best, fractious at worst, so when I read this album is more jazzy than their previous efforts, my heart kind of sinks, but we’ll see. Starts nicely, with a kind of fairy-tale feel before Fripp’s growling guitar, doing almost a police siren, tears it apart then allows “Cirkus” to settle back into its groove. Some lovely soft sax from the great Mel Collins and lush keys from either Peter Sinfield or Fripp himself, never easy to work out with King Crimson. Overall a slowish song that ushers the album in well, and then “Indoor Games” seems to utilise some small effects on Haskell’s voice, and is more in the realm of hard rock I feel than prog - not seeing jazz influences yet I must say. Maybe a little in the sax, the guitar possibly?

Okay I hear it now on “Happy Family”, and it’s pretty annoying; quite discordant at times, sort of a squelchy funk going on too. Don’t like this much. “Lady of the Dancing Water” is much better, gives me a feel of mid-seventies Alan Parsons, the little flute bursts just about right, the piano lovely, the vocal low-key and melodious compared to how it was on the previous track. Jon Anderson makes a guest appearance on the opening of the final and title track, a four-part suite that runs for over twenty-three minutes, making it a contender for longest prog rock track of the era, alongside “Supper’s Ready”, "Close to the Edge" and “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers”. I have to say, the class Anderson brings to the album is marked, and I suspect if Yes had not been a thing then Fripp might have asked him to join permanently.

He is though only on the first movement, as it were, “Prince Rupert Awakes”, which only accounts for four and a half minutes of the epic. It’s powerful and cinematic, with great piano flourishes, marching-style drums and a real punch in it. Collins’ sax takes us into the second part, “Bolero - The Peacock’s Tale”, with a kind of Spanish style in it, the parts seeming to get progressively (sorry) longer as they go, with this taking up six and half minutes, including some really nice oboe and clarinet too, and I would imagine an instrumental section. Gets a bit annoyingly jazzy then in the midsection, which kind of ruins it for me and does not seem to fit, notwithstanding my bias against jazz.

Into the longest section we go, and the eleven-minute “The Battle of Glass Tears” is itself split into three sections, the first, “Dawn Song”, an oboe-led introduction with strangely serpentine (lizardesque?) overtones and a very sotto voce vocal, dark and quite dismal. Hardly puts me in mind of any dawn, though maybe the dawn of a battle? The distant rolling of militaristic drums backs this up (to say nothing of the title of course) and then big heavy organ and pounding percussion takes us into what I assume to be the second part, “The Last Skirmish” (hard to say, as they’re not shown separately, at least, not with running times) and a VDGG-style horn section with dancing flute as things kick up a little.

This is quite jazzy but reminds me both of the aforementioned Generators of the Van der Graaf, and also later Pallas, particularly on “Queen of the Deep” and “The Ripper”. Maintains a basic motif on the sax throughout the section, with a not unreasonable amount of improvisation going on too. An instrumental part, in case I forgot to mention. This all fades away for the final part, “Prince Rupert’s Lament”, slowing down to a hollow, almost funereal sound with the faintest of what sound like bagpipes just about audible (probably Fripp though) then a rising single guitar wailing against the echoing slow drumbeat. That leaves us with a minute and a half of “Big Top”, a sort of future echo of Waits in a circus or carnival-style instrumental to close.

Favourite track(s): Lady of the Dancing Water, Lizard
Least favourite track(s): Happy Family
Overall impression: Definitely a decent album, nothing wrong with it, however it’s not the one to move me from my position of “King Crimson are a good band” to “Wow! King Crimson are the shit!” Not yet anyway. The jazz influences in the album I found to be quite sporadic, certainly not enough to spoil it for me, and overall a good proggy record which does nothing to dim my hope that I may eventually see why everyone rates this band.
Personal Rating:

Legacy Rating:

Final Rating:

06-05-2021, 01:15 PM	#203 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Album title: Lizard Artist: King Crimson Nationality: English Label: Island/Atlantic Chronology: Third Grade: A Landmark value: I don’t think much, other than it was the only King Crimson album to feature Graham Haskell on vocals. Tracklisting: Cirkus (including Entry of the Chameleons)/Indoor Games/Happy Family/Lady of the Dancing Water/Lizard (a) Prince Rupert Awakes (b)Bolero - the Peacock’s Tale (c) The Battle of Glass Tears (i) Dawn Song (ii) Last Skirmish (iii) Prince Rupert’s Lament (d) Big Top Comments: My relationship so far with KC has been tenuous at best, fractious at worst, so when I read this album is more jazzy than their previous efforts, my heart kind of sinks, but we’ll see. Starts nicely, with a kind of fairy-tale feel before Fripp’s growling guitar, doing almost a police siren, tears it apart then allows “Cirkus” to settle back into its groove. Some lovely soft sax from the great Mel Collins and lush keys from either Peter Sinfield or Fripp himself, never easy to work out with King Crimson. Overall a slowish song that ushers the album in well, and then “Indoor Games” seems to utilise some small effects on Haskell’s voice, and is more in the realm of hard rock I feel than prog - not seeing jazz influences yet I must say. Maybe a little in the sax, the guitar possibly? Okay I hear it now on “Happy Family”, and it’s pretty annoying; quite discordant at times, sort of a squelchy funk going on too. Don’t like this much. “Lady of the Dancing Water” is much better, gives me a feel of mid-seventies Alan Parsons, the little flute bursts just about right, the piano lovely, the vocal low-key and melodious compared to how it was on the previous track. Jon Anderson makes a guest appearance on the opening of the final and title track, a four-part suite that runs for over twenty-three minutes, making it a contender for longest prog rock track of the era, alongside “Supper’s Ready”, "Close to the Edge" and “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers”. I have to say, the class Anderson brings to the album is marked, and I suspect if Yes had not been a thing then Fripp might have asked him to join permanently. He is though only on the first movement, as it were, “Prince Rupert Awakes”, which only accounts for four and a half minutes of the epic. It’s powerful and cinematic, with great piano flourishes, marching-style drums and a real punch in it. Collins’ sax takes us into the second part, “Bolero - The Peacock’s Tale”, with a kind of Spanish style in it, the parts seeming to get progressively (sorry) longer as they go, with this taking up six and half minutes, including some really nice oboe and clarinet too, and I would imagine an instrumental section. Gets a bit annoyingly jazzy then in the midsection, which kind of ruins it for me and does not seem to fit, notwithstanding my bias against jazz. Into the longest section we go, and the eleven-minute “The Battle of Glass Tears” is itself split into three sections, the first, “Dawn Song”, an oboe-led introduction with strangely serpentine (lizardesque?) overtones and a very sotto voce vocal, dark and quite dismal. Hardly puts me in mind of any dawn, though maybe the dawn of a battle? The distant rolling of militaristic drums backs this up (to say nothing of the title of course) and then big heavy organ and pounding percussion takes us into what I assume to be the second part, “The Last Skirmish” (hard to say, as they’re not shown separately, at least, not with running times) and a VDGG-style horn section with dancing flute as things kick up a little. This is quite jazzy but reminds me both of the aforementioned Generators of the Van der Graaf, and also later Pallas, particularly on “Queen of the Deep” and “The Ripper”. Maintains a basic motif on the sax throughout the section, with a not unreasonable amount of improvisation going on too. An instrumental part, in case I forgot to mention. This all fades away for the final part, “Prince Rupert’s Lament”, slowing down to a hollow, almost funereal sound with the faintest of what sound like bagpipes just about audible (probably Fripp though) then a rising single guitar wailing against the echoing slow drumbeat. That leaves us with a minute and a half of “Big Top”, a sort of future echo of Waits in a circus or carnival-style instrumental to close. Favourite track(s): Lady of the Dancing Water, Lizard Least favourite track(s): Happy Family Overall impression: Definitely a decent album, nothing wrong with it, however it’s not the one to move me from my position of “King Crimson are a good band” to “Wow! King Crimson are the shit!” Not yet anyway. The jazz influences in the album I found to be quite sporadic, certainly not enough to spoil it for me, and overall a good proggy record which does nothing to dim my hope that I may eventually see why everyone rates this band. Personal Rating: Legacy Rating: Final Rating: __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018