King Crimson

condition (records/cover): NM / EX- 

Gatefold sleeve.

A record so early that the field of progressive rock can fairly be said to begin with it. King Crimson's debut was released on Island (ILPS 9111) in October 1969, recorded across three weeks that summer at Wessex Sound Studios. The line-up: Robert Fripp (guitar, Mellotron), Greg Lake (bass, vocals), Ian McDonald (reeds, woodwinds, Mellotron, keyboards, vibes), Michael Giles (drums, vocals) and Peter Sinfield (lyrics, lights). Five tracks across forty-four minutes, every one of them a manifesto.

"21st Century Schizoid Man" opens with a treated vocal scream and a sax-and-guitar unison theme that has been cited as the founding gesture of progressive metal. "I Talk To The Wind" is the gentler counterweight, McDonald's flute and Lake's voice over Fripp's quiet chords. "Epitaph" is the Mellotron showpiece. "Moonchild" stretches twelve minutes across a delicate vocal section and a long collective improvisation. The title track closes the record in pure Mellotron majesty. Sinfield's lyrics, Barry Godber's screaming-man cover (Godber would die before the album reached most listeners): the whole package arrived as a single, indissoluble object.

The pressing on offer is the European Polydor pressing of 2310 516, distributed across continental Europe under the EG catalog system. Not the original 1969 Island UK first issue, but the version that circulated across Europe through the 1970s and 1980s. The record that opened the door, in the form most European collectors first encountered it.