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Lizard | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 11 December 1970 | |||
Recorded | September 1970 [1] [a] | |||
Studio | Wessex, London | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 42:30 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | ||||
King Crimson chronology | ||||
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Lizard is the third studio album by British progressive rock band King Crimson, released on 11 December 1970 by Island Records in the UK, [4] and in January 1971 by Atlantic Records in the United States and Canada. It was the second consecutive King Crimson album recorded by transitional line-ups of the group that did not perform live, following In the Wake of Poseidon . This is the last of two albums by the band to feature Gordon Haskell (and the only one where he was both the lead singer and the bass guitarist as he only sang one song on the previous album) and the band's only album to feature drummer Andy McCulloch.
Haskell was previously a classmate of Robert Fripp at Queen Elizabeth's grammar school in Wimborne near Bournemouth, the pair having subsequently played together in the local band The League of Gentlemen. Haskell later contributed vocals to the King Crimson track "Cadence and Cascade" on In the Wake of Poseidon , after Greg Lake left the band to join Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Fripp asked Haskell to become an official member of King Crimson for the recording of Lizard. Another In the Wake of Poseidon musician, saxophonist/flautist Mel Collins, was also asked to continue with the band. New member Andy McCulloch replaced Michael Giles on drums. The group was then augmented with session musicians, including another In the Wake of Poseidon alumnus, the noted jazz pianist Keith Tippett, together with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, and brass/woodwind players Robin Miller, Mark Charig, and Nick Evans.
Haskell and McCulloch had an unhappy experience recording Lizard, finding it difficult to connect with the material, especially Haskell as a devotee of soul and Motown music. During rehearsals for a prospective tour following the album's completion, Haskell left King Crimson. He sought legal redress for the next 19 years because he believed he had been cheated out of royalties owed him for the album. Shortly after Haskell left the group, McCulloch did likewise. The press release drafted by Sinfield to promote Lizard wryly quoted Max Ehrmann's poem "Desiderata", which contains advice on how to chart a true course through confusion.
Collins, on the other hand, remained in King Crimson with Fripp and Sinfield for the recording of the group's next album, Islands . Haskell was replaced with Boz Burrell on bass guitar and vocals, while McCulloch was replaced with his sometime housemate Ian Wallace. The Islands line-up of the group would finally give some of the Lizard material a live airing, with "Cirkus" and "Lady of the Dancing Water" becoming part of King Crimson's touring repertoire. "Cirkus" would also later become part of the touring repertoire of the 21st Century Schizoid Band, whose members included Mel Collins and Jakko Jakszyk.
In 2016, for the band's biggest European tour since 1974, "Cirkus" was included in the repertoire, as well as "Dawn Song", which is part of the "Lizard" suite and was played live for the first time ever. For the 2017 North American tour, "Dawn Song" was expanded to the entire "Battle of Glass Tears" section (adding "Last Skirmish" and "Prince Rupert's Lament", neither of which had ever been performed live). The "Bolero" section was added to the live repertoire for the band's 2018 European tour.
Lizard's outside cover art is by Gini Barris, who was commissioned to produce it by Peter Sinfield. The inside cover consists of the song lyrics and credits printed over a marbled pattern, credited to Koraz Wallpapers, a company run by Barris' boyfriend at the time. [5]
The album's outside cover consists of the words 'King Crimson' spelled out in ornate medieval illuminated or historiated lettering, the word 'King' on the back cover and the word 'Crimson' on the front cover, with each letter incorporating one or two discrete images. These images in turn represent Sinfield's lyrics from the album – the images in the word 'King' representing the lyrics of the various sections and subsections of track 5, "Lizard"; while the images in the word 'Crimson' represent the lyrics of tracks 1–4. Whereas the images representing "Lizard" are medieval in content – depicting Prince Rupert, his environs (including a peacock), and the Battle of Glass Tears – the images representing the other four tracks juxtapose medieval and contemporary scenes. The image around the letter 'i' in 'Crimson', for example, depicts the Beatles, corresponding with their pseudonymous appearance in the lyrics to "Happy Family". Around the "n" on the front cover, there is a depiction of Rupert the Bear piloting a yellow aeroplane. Another notable feature below the letter "n" depicts a trio of Peter Gabriel (then the lead singer for Genesis), Ginger Baker (ex-drummer from the power trio Cream), and Jimi Hendrix.
In his book Prog Rock FAQ, Will Romano called Barris' work "one of the era's most beautifully strange pieces of album cover artwork". [5] In an interview with Romano, Barris said that Lizard was "one of my first jobs" since studying graphics at the Central School of Art and Design in London. She contacted Sinfield after hearing he needed an artist to produce a cover for Lizard. When she suggested creating medieval miniatures, a passion of hers, Sinfield "went for it" and commissioned her to do the job. [5] Barris recalled that she did not hear the music until after the album's release, but worked from the lyrics Sinfield had given her. She cited the Lindisfarne Gospel and Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry illuminated manuscripts as inspiration for her work. [5]
Released on 11 December 1970 by Island Records (catalog no. ILPS 9141), Lizard reached number 29 in the UK Albums Chart. [6] The album was released in the United States and Canada by Atlantic Records in January 1971 (catalog no. SD 8278), where it would reach number 113 in Billboard. [7] Lizard was released by Atlantic at the same time as two other albums on the label featuring ex-King Crimson members: Emerson, Lake & Palmer's debut album (featuring Greg Lake), and the lone release by Ian McDonald and Michael Giles.
The album had CD releases in 1989 and 2001, each newly remastered by Fripp at the time. The newest version was released in October 2009, containing a 5.1 Surround Sound mix on DVD-Audio, created by British musician and producer Steven Wilson in collaboration with Fripp, as well as a new stereo mix based on the surround one.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [8] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B− [9] |
Classic Rock | [10] |
MusicHound | 2.5/5 [11] |
Since the album is more jazz-inflected sounding than many of the band's other works and many of its tracks idiosyncratic, responses towards the album have been varied since its release. Music critic Robert Christgau rated the album a B−, saying that the "jazziness" of the album projected a "certain cerebral majesty" but criticized Peter Sinfield's lyrics, qualifying them as "overwrought". [9]
In his retrospective review, AllMusic's Dave Lynch described it as, "Seamlessly blending rock, jazz, and classical in a way that few albums have successfully achieved, Lizard is epic, intimate, cacophonic, and subtle by turn – and infused with the dark moods first heard when "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Epitaph" reached listeners' ears the previous year." [8] Classic Rock reviewer described Lizard as "a decidedly Miles Davis-influenced hodgepodge of classical and jazz influences brought to their logical, near-chaotic end" and defined its music "mind-bending, unclassifiable creative stuff." [10]
Robert Fripp has been very critical of the album, calling it "unlistenable" and lovers of it as "very strange". [12] However, he revised his opinion upon listening to Steven Wilson's surround-sound mix of the album for the 40th anniversary reissue, proclaiming, "For the first time I have heard the Music in the music." [13]
In 2011, PopMatters named the title track at #13 in the list "The 25 Best Progressive Rock Songs of All Time." [14]
All songs written by Robert Fripp (Music) and Peter Sinfield (Lyrics).
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Cirkus" (including "Entry of the Chameleons") | 6:27 |
2. | "Indoor Games" | 5:37 |
3. | "Happy Family" | 4:22 |
4. | "Lady of the Dancing Water" | 2:47 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
5. | "Lizard"
| 23:25 |
Chart (1970-1971) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [15] | 19 |
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [16] | 60 |
UK Albums (OCC) [17] | 26 |
US Billboard 200 [18] | 113 |
King Crimson were an English-based progressive rock band formed in London in 1968. Led by guitarist Robert Fripp, they 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 has earned a large cult following, especially in the 21st century.
Robert Fripp is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session musician and collaborator, notably with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall, the Roches, Talking Heads, and David Sylvian. He also composed the startup sound of Windows Vista, in collaboration with Tucker Martine and Steve Ball. His discography includes contributions to more than 700 official releases.
Peter John Sinfield was an English poet and songwriter. He was best known as a co-founder and lyricist of King Crimson. Their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King is considered one of the first and most influential progressive rock albums ever released.
Larks' Tongues in Aspic is the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock group King Crimson, released on 23 March 1973 through Island Records in the UK and Atlantic Records in the United States and Canada. This album is the debut of King Crimson's third incarnation, featuring co-founder and guitarist Robert Fripp along with four new members: bass guitarist and vocalist John Wetton, violinist and keyboardist David Cross, percussionist Jamie Muir, and drummer Bill Bruford. It is a key album in the band's evolution, drawing on Eastern European modernist classical music and European free improvisation as central influences.
In the Court of the Crimson King is the debut studio album by English progressive rock band King Crimson, released on 10 October 1969, by Island Records. The album is considered one of the earliest and most influential of the progressive rock genre, with the band combining musical influences that rock music was founded upon with elements of jazz, classical, and symphonic music.
In the Wake of Poseidon is the second studio album by English progressive rock group King Crimson, released in May 1970 by Island Records in Europe, Atlantic Records in the United States, Philips Records in Australia, and Vertigo Records in New Zealand. To date the album is their highest-charting in the UK, reaching number 4.
Islands is the fourth studio album by English band King Crimson, released in 3 December 1971 on the record label Island. Islands is the only studio album to feature the 1971–1972 touring line-up of Robert Fripp, Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace. This would be the last album before an entirely new group would record the trilogy of Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red between 1973 and 1974. This is also the last album to feature the lyrics of co-founding member Peter Sinfield.
Red is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band King Crimson, released on 6 October 1974 on Island Records in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Records in North America and Japan. The album was recorded at Olympic Studios in London in July and August 1974, and produced by the band themselves.
Live at Plymouth Guildhall is a live album by the band King Crimson, released through the King Crimson Collectors' Club on the Discipline Global Mobile label in December 2000. The album was recorded at the Guildhall in Plymouth, UK on 11 May 1971.
Ladies of the Road is a live two CD set by the band King Crimson, recorded in 1971 & 1972, released in 2002, and reissued in 2008 in Japan. It is named after a song on the Islands album.
"Matte Kudasai" literally "Wait, Please" in Japanese, is a ballad by the progressive rock band King Crimson. Featuring vocals by Adrian Belew, it was released as the first single from the album Discipline (1981). In the UK, the single just missed the chart.
Frame by Frame: The Essential King Crimson is a 4-CD retrospective box set by the band King Crimson, released in 1991.
21st Century Schizoid Band were a King Crimson alumnus group formed in 2002.
Gordon Haskell was an English musician and songwriter. A pop, rock, jazz, country and blues vocalist, guitarist, and bassist, he was a school friend of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. The two first worked together in Fripp's mid-1960s teenage group the League of Gentlemen.
Centipede were an English jazz/progressive rock/big band with more than 50 members, organized and led by the British free jazz pianist Keith Tippett. Formed in 1970, it brought together much of a generation of young British jazz and rock musicians from a number of bands, including Soft Machine, King Crimson, Nucleus and Blossom Toes.
The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume One – 1969–1974 is the first of two 4-CD sets of compilation albums, showcasing the entire production of the British progressive rock band King Crimson. This set of discs contains both studio and live performances ranging from the beginnings of the band in 1969 to their first dissolution in 1974.
The Condensed 21st Century Guide to King Crimson is a compilation by progressive rock band King Crimson, released in 2006. It contains select studio tracks from the two box sets, The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume One – 1969–1974 and The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson – Volume Two – 1981–2003.
Live at the Orpheum is a live album by the band King Crimson, released by Discipline Global Mobile records in 2015. The album was recorded on 30 September and 1 October at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, California on the band's The Elements of King Crimson US tour of 2014.
Sailors' Tales (1970–1972) is the seventh of the major box set releases from English progressive rock group King Crimson, released in 2017 by Discipline Global Mobile and Panegyric Records.
It would be followed by the avant-jazz masterwork Lizard,