King Crimson – Lizard [200g Vinyl LP]

King Crimson – Lizard [200g Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Reissue, Gatefold, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: KCLP3
• Barcode: 633367910318
• Genre: Progressive Rock / Art Rock / Jazz Rock
• Label: Discipline Global Mobile / Panegyric / Inner Knot
• Originally Released: 11 December 1970
• Reissue Released: 15th October 2012
• Pressing: 200 Gram Super-Heavyweight Vinyl
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

Lizard is King Crimson's third studio album — a singular, bewildering and deeply rewarding record that stands as one of the most adventurous and unusual entries in an already extraordinary catalogue. Released on 11 December 1970 via Island Records, it arrived in the wake of two landmark albums and yet sounded like nothing that had come before it, drawing on jazz, free improvisation, medieval imagery and orchestral complexity to create something that still resists easy categorisation more than fifty years later.

By the time Lizard was recorded, the original King Crimson lineup had essentially dissolved. Only guitarist and composer Robert Fripp and lyricist and visual artist Peter Sinfield remained from the group that had made In the Court of the Crimson King (1969). Fripp assembled an entirely new studio band around them — recruiting bassist and vocalist Gordon Haskell, drummer Andy McCulloch, and saxophonist and flautist Mel Collins — and supplemented them with a remarkable cast of jazz musicians: pianist Keith Tippett, cornet player Mark Charig, trombonist Nick Evans and oboist Robin Miller. Most strikingly, Jon Anderson of Yes was brought in to sing the opening section of the album's epic title suite.

The result is an album of extraordinary richness and strangeness. Side one opens with "Cirkus" — a dramatic, shifting piece that builds from sparse acoustic guitar to a ferocious full-band assault before retreating into eerie calm. "Indoor Games" and "Happy Family" are wilfully chaotic jazz-rock workouts, with Tippett's free piano playing colliding with Fripp's guitar in ways that are disorienting and thrilling in equal measure. "Lady of the Dancing Water" closes the side with a brief, achingly beautiful acoustic interlude.

Side two is given entirely to the 23-minute title suite "Lizard" — a four-part piece depicting Prince Rupert of the Rhine at the Battle of Naseby during the English Civil War. Opening with Jon Anderson's ethereal vocal on "Prince Rupert Awakes", it moves through the baroque grandeur of "Bolero – The Peacock's Tale", the thunderous, multi-movement "The Battle of Glass Tears", and the haunting, circular reprise of "Big Top". It remains one of the most ambitious and fully realised pieces in the progressive rock canon.

This reissue is newly cut from masters approved by Robert Fripp, pressed on 200g super-heavyweight vinyl, and housed in a faithful reprint of Gini Barris's original elaborate gatefold artwork — one of the most visually spectacular sleeves in rock history.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Cirkus (Including: Entry of the Chameleons)
2. Indoor Games
3. Happy Family
4. Lady of the Dancing Water

Side B

1. 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

Credits

• Robert Fripp – Guitar, Mellotron, Electric Keyboards, Electronics
• Gordon Haskell – Bass Guitar, Vocals
• Mel Collins – Flute, Saxophone
• Andy McCulloch – Drums
• Peter Sinfield – Lyrics, EMS VCS 3, Sleeve Conception
• Keith Tippett – Piano, Electric Piano
• Jon Anderson – Vocals (Side B, Prince Rupert Awakes)
• Mark Charig – Cornet
• Nick Evans – Trombone
• Robin Miller – Oboe, Cor Anglais
• Robin Thompson – Engineer
• Robert Fripp & Peter Sinfield – Producers
• Gini Barris – Outside Painting
• Label – Discipline Global Mobile / Panegyric / Inner Knot