KC-- Ladies Of The Road

This song is amazing. The song is harsh, but warm, hard, but sentimental.... The lyrics are so raw, sung so well, they are so explicit, so outright chauvinist that they come all the way round and are bizarro-world feminist.

Does anyone here find the song offensive, or find it out of place? I sense real desperation about the whole thing thematically, very well presented, it kind of is an inversion of all the chauvinistic rock songs, in the sense that is a chauvinistic rock song which negates the usual rock songs, because the singer/lyricist is regretful, but wistful, and knows that these girls he took advantage of as a rock star are like "apples we stole in our youth." Its a vicious little ditty.

 
  

So what are the thoughts and reactions to this, and would you want anyone to know you enjoyed this song?


Edited by RoyFairbank - March 31 2012 at 19:20

It is a great song from a great album. Not only do I want people to know I like this song, I want them to know I love King Crimson, so I play KC at work all the time. I was playing this very album 3 days ago and after this song played my boss asked what band it was. She liked the way the song sounded, but I doubt she'd like the lyrics if she read/heard them. She also commented how she always asks what band it is whenever KC is playing, but never can recognize it because each period of KC sounds so different.  I also prefer 80-90's Crimson, so it definitely is a big change when I play an earlier album.

HolyMoly wrote: Love it. Powerful song. And just enough self awareness to keep it in safe harbor, unlike, say, Hot Blooded.

Pair it with Tull's Back Door Angels

Sailor's Tale and Formentera Lady create a beautiful, contrasting duo. It's the linkage between the two songs that makes Islands so special to me.

My personal favourite on Islands is the title track. I'm not that big about Formentera Lady, but I love Sailor's Tale and Ladies Of The Road. It is a really beautiful album, but one of the things I don't like about it, though, is that a fair amount of it revolves around noodly improv, especially Formentera Lady.

I love all of "Islands". "Ladies of the Road" is an excellent track. Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so!

sagichim wrote: Another thing i really like and isn't mentioned are the great vocals by boz burrel, i think he really suits the creepy, disturbing vibe of the music. I prefer him on Adrian Belew and Gordon Haskell any day.

Same here. Probably the most underrated of Crimson's vocalists. Not quite as dynamic as Lake or Belew, but could have been had Fripp kept that lineup together for a tad longer.

I was looking at some sites and most critics don't seem to like this one. Don't see why. I like the whole Southern European seaside vibe I get from it.

KingCrInuYasha wrote: sagichim wrote: Another thing i really like and isn't mentioned are the great vocals by boz burrel, i think he really suits the creepy, disturbing vibe of the music. I prefer him on Adrian Belew and Gordon Haskell any day. Same here. Probably the most underrated of Crimson's vocalists. Not quite as dynamic as Lake or Belew, but could have been had Fripp kept that lineup together for a tad longer. I was looking at some sites and most critics don't seem to like this one. Don't see why. I like the whole Southern European seaside vibe I get from it.

Because most critics hate everything that's any good.

I like the album.