Lizard

King Crimson's Lizard is one of the few supposed 'classic' prog albums that have never appealed to me. I'm curious as to what it is that makes people like it (and which I might be missing). So why do you like Lizard - or if you don't, why not? And please, if you can, avoid generalizations like "the compositions are great", "the musicianship is stellar" etc. All that may be true, but it tells us little about the specific qualities of the album.

Probably my second or third fav Crimson album (after the debut and tied with Islands.) As HolyMoly points out, Cirkus is the standout. I love the weird, creepy darkness that pervades the whole record. The textures are unusual and a little unsettling, and the use of jazz like motifs is very appealing to me. I find the album as a whole has a distant, dreamlike quality. It feels simultaneously Medieval and modern, and there is an indistinct haze around the songs that evokes the atmosphere of an old-fashioned night club very late when it's almost empty and the band is winding down. (I'm thinking of the trumpet entrance in Lady of the Dancing Water here.)

I don't know, it's just great.

I always thought that the LP cover perfectly complimented the music!  Also, Jon Anderson's vocals on "Prince Rupert Awakes" indicate what might have been if Fripp had accepted Yes' offer to replace Peter Banks when it was first made! 

Edited by cstack3 - November 06 2012 at 00:05

For me it's OK. Cirkus is nice, but it just sounds like it tries to be the new 21st Century Schizoid Man (just as Pictures of a City did on Poseidon) and just doesn't stand up to it. Lady of the Dancing Water is also nice, but it won't make the album. The rest of side A, I just don't really care about it. As for the title track, I liked the first two parts very much indeed, but I feel it doesn't really work as an epic because it really feels like 4 separate tracks, and parts 3 and 4 don't sound quiet so nice to me.

Dellinger wrote: For me it's OK. Cirkus is nice, but it just sounds like it tries to be the new 21st Century Schizoid Man

Thats funny how things can effect us diffrently, to me the only thing on Lizard that remotely sounds like anything they did before is "Lady of the ....", where the mood follows the trend from "Cadence and Cascade" and "I talk to the wind".

For years I considered it a poor album, but after a friend raved about it and suggested I needed to give it another chance, I picked up the remaster (whichever one it was at that time, about 2003 or 2004).  Well, I was quite surprised at how good it is.  The extensive use of acoustic guitar was something that you just don't hear from Fripp, before or since.  The odd arrangements and creepy atmosphere of the whole thing.  Frankly, I think it's one of their finest albums, and totally unique in their discography.  Find me another prog album that is even remotely similar........there just isn't one.  It's thanks to the influence of that album on Steve Wilson that spawned Grace For Drowning, so for that alone I think it's a very valuable album.  One of Fripp's most interesting works, IMO.

infandous wrote: For years I considered it a poor album, but after a friend raved about it and suggested I needed to give it another chance, I picked up the remaster (whichever one it was at that time, about 2003 or 2004).  Well, I was quite surprised at how good it is.  The extensive use of acoustic guitar was something that you just don't hear from Fripp, before or since.  The odd arrangements and creepy atmosphere of the whole thing.  Frankly, I think it's one of their finest albums, and totally unique in their discography.  Find me another prog album that is even remotely similar........there just isn't one.  It's thanks to the influence of that album on Steve Wilson that spawned Grace For Drowning, so for that alone I think it's a very valuable album.  One of Fripp's most interesting works, IMO.

Indeed what I thought of Grace for Drowning was that at last someone picked up what Fripp began with Lizard. I must say I like Grace for Drowing better than Lizard, however, I like "Prince Ruppert Awakes" and "Bolero" better than anything on Grace for Drowining.