In The Wake Of Poseidon. A Discussion.

Prompted by Paul's 5 KC song thread, I've always felt that the album, while not as strong as it's predecessor, has many many positives, such the stunning title track, Keith Tippet's jazzy piano on many songs, and the fact that the band carried on after losing two key members. Your thoughts.

Edited by SteveG - April 15 2024 at 03:32

Excellent album, "Cat Food", Devils Triangle" and "Pictures of a City" are all favorites.

moshkito wrote: Hi, I'll make a point of listening to it ... hardly remember the album!

  O'tay panky.

Edited by SteveG - April 15 2024 at 09:54

I wrote a short review of this one a long time ago. Praised it a bunch. Been praising it for 55 years.  This and Lizard being my favorites.

I always appreciated this album. For many years I remained curious as to exactly how King Crimson's second album would have sounded like if McDonald and Giles had stayed with the group.

I recall being obsessed with making comparisons and actually making cassette tapes which combined tracks from McDonald and Giles with In The Wake Of Poseidon. What boosted me to go that far? It was the fact that several songs on McDonald and Giles had been written while King Crimson were on tour in 1969. Which reveals that some of those songs would have been included on King Crimson's second album had McDonald and Giles stayed.

I was curious how the Birdman Suite would have fit the flow of the album. An excerpt from Birdman Suite was actually a song titled Trees that King Crimson had played on the 69' tour. I recall reading in a Rock magazine ...in another lifetime..that Greg Lake had written Lucky Man while in King Crimson...so I used to imagine how that would have altered the situation.

To think that King Crimson's second album could have been emotionally different than what we know as In The Wake Of Poseidon is unusual and rare to occur in Prog history. It's telling that much of the material written for King Crimson...and of course written prior to any of the members deciding to leave ...surfaced on other albums in 1970. The reality of that always left me baffled about the outcome if the original band had stayed together. Aside from all that obsession I still like In The Wake Of Poseidon for what it is or what we know it to be and I still occasionally give it a spin...

^ One of the main reasons they left is they didn't want to tour anymore.

Easy Money wrote: ^ One of the main reasons they left is they didn't want to tour anymore.

Thanks for that, John. It's kind of ironic as I'm sure that McDonald did non stop touring during his tenure with Foreigner. Lack of funds must have been a good motivator. Lol.

Saperlipopette! wrote: I love every second of In the Wake of Poseidon - and the McDonald & Giles-Lp too. I really like the singing on the latter album. And I'm far too busy enjoying the drumming and basslines to miss any "impressive guitarplaying". It was a wonderful bonus discovering it a decade or two later, and I'm just happy that these two albums exist in the versions they do.  -but I can understand that those of you who were alive - or rather a young person, in 1970 - experienced Crimson's second outing differntly. Me, I first heard/bought In the Court... and in some strange way it felt like coming home. Lifechanging. As soon as I could afford more albums Lizard and In the Wake of Poseidon were to follow on the same day I think. I noticed strong similarities as well as huge differences. To me they offered a perfect mix of familiar and new. Did I welcome a couple more songs in the style of the best music I had ever heard? Yes, please. Did I welcome something unexpected and new? Yes of course. For me "The Devil's Triangle" opened musical portals in my mind in similar ways as the "Lizard-suite" did (like their debut had done before). I simply immersed myself in all this fantastic music from the near past, which felt more exiting than everything I had heard up till then. No questions asked, no what if's. Just: Where have you been all my life? I think Red was next and (needless to say) for a while there KC were my one favorite band. They're still a favorite of mine and will always be, but I have so many.

Sean Trane wrote: Easy Money wrote: ^ One of the main reasons they left is they didn't want to tour anymore. Actually, it's much more than that, IMHO. The ITCOTCK  rockumentary DVD of two years ago shows  that there were major disagreements  and tensions in that original line-up, not just two guys not wanting to tour anymore and another going to ELP. At about midway through the film (29 minutes mark), Jakko talks of someone being an "ultimate cùnt" in the original line-up and Fripp agrees wholeheartedly, but they name no-one; thus leaving us whether it is Greg, Peter, Michael or Ian. However, the next image shows Peter Giles not in a particularly good mood entering the rockumentary for the first time, thus pointing the finger on him - which should come a bit as a surprise, since most of us would've guessed that either Peter (given the major dissent between him and Fripp) or Greg (his overly narcissism and egotism) might've been El c**to Maximo. Greg not being alive anymore (no possible defense), Sinfield and Ian appearing the first time some few minutes later than Michael, thus leaving him (MG) as the obvious/prime suspect in "c**tosity". Ian will actually tearfully apologize to Fripp in the film for not continuing in the band, and Peter seems totally untouched by the accusation (not sure any of them suspects were aware of the accusation at the time of shooting the footage). In any case, Giles is unable to answer (since not aware) and made look like an arsehole (next to the "cùnt") in the film, so one guess that the ill-tempers are still alive nowadays with Fripp. What amazed me at first is that why Jakko was asked and leave that passage in the rockumentary, if not intended to take a very cheap shot at Giles (not the rigid Peter on bass), if Fripp wasn't precisely intending on it. Jakko is/was married to Giles' daughter and there were major disagreements and fights (this bled into the Schizoid Band - where Jakko forced Giles to be ousted), to the point that Michael did not see his grandchildren for decades - maybe that plight is over since the daughter is now divorced from Jakko. So we now know why Jakko has an egg to peel with Giles, but Fripp obviously let it out in the open. .

It seems that old wounds die hard, unfortunately. Very interesting though.

Edited by SteveG - April 16 2024 at 03:35