King Crimson

condition (record/cover): NM / VG+ (ring wear)

With original innersleeve.

The middle record of the Discipline-era trilogy, Beat (1982) is the King Crimson album most directly concerned with the Beat Generation itself. Adrian Belew's lyrics ("Neal And Jack And Me", "Heartbeat", "Two Hands", "The Howler") reference Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsberg and the cultural moment of the late 1950s. The line-up is unchanged from Discipline: Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Bill Bruford.

The musical territory has shifted, though. Where Discipline had been austere and pattern-driven, Beat leans toward song. "Heartbeat" is the closest Crimson ever came to a straightforward radio single, a Belew-fronted three-minute pop song. "Neal And Jack And Me" and "Two Hands" continue the band's interlocking-guitar vocabulary but with more vocal melody. The instrumental "Sartori In Tangier" is Levin's Chapman Stick showpiece. "Requiem" closes the album on six minutes of Fripp solo Frippertronics over a quiet rhythm section, the most ambient passage Crimson had committed to tape since Lizard. Belew has spoken candidly about the difficulty of the sessions (the band were creatively at odds), and the album is sometimes treated as the trilogy's weakest entry. The songs themselves do not always agree with that consensus.

The original vintage European Polydor / Editions EG pressing of 2311 156. Beat is the bridge record between Discipline and Three Of A Perfect Pair, and the album that proved the new King Crimson could write actual songs.