Going back to your comments on "Easy Money", one interesting thing that you obviously overlooked was that Wetton, playing bass and singing, has a bassline in 4/4 while his vocals are in 7/4, only to match up just in time for the chorus, thats an interesting aspect of that tune, for one. Crimson and Fripp have said many times that the studio was not KC's stage. Listen to any of the live recordings from the 1974 tours and try to tell me that the band is not at the peak that all bands wish to hit. Easy Money live in Glasgow, October 23, 1973 is just an awesome recording. Listen to it, do yourself a favour. Bruford and Wetton are on telepathic levels in the rhythm department, responding to Fripp and Cross' every move, as they do theirs. King Crimson was a band that needed to be heard live, that was the format.

Gentle Giant was always an 'interesting' band for me. A super talented band that wrote some amazing stuff. I love em, but you have to admit that many of their compositions end up in a very different place from their starting points. And to be honest, a lot of their material seems like a bunch of small ideas packed into one 'song'. Not to mention that though Derek Shulman was a good performer and writer, I never considered him to have an interesting singing voice and he relied heavily on repetitious vocal melodies that sometimes don't develop. Vocally, Crimson was always stronger, and especially if you are comparing Shulman to the voices of Greg Lake or John Wetton. Derek Shulman is also partly responsible for giving Nickelback and BonJovi record deals as he became a big record exec. Love GG though, with all that said.

To say that Fripp is not a virtuoso is the stupidest reason I have ever heard to not want to listen to KC. Who gives a sh*t? If being a virtuoso means being a stage hogging finger flapper then whatever, I don't care. I'm a music lover. If one expects virtuosity, then you are forming preconceptions for music that you haven't heard, and that is terrible. One thing that you can't take away from Fripp is that he sounds like Fripp. I can tell its him if he plays one note, and I can tell when players attempt to imitate him (The guitar solo in "Animal Bar" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers has Frusciante doing a great Frippian solo) Most players will never achieve that 'voice'.

To comment on the Rolling Stone list, everyone knows its a bunch of crap. However, I don't believe any guitar player in the prog genre could play like Johnny Ramone (here come the rebuttals). Hear me out: Johnny Ramone knew how to play Power Chords and some Minor chords. Not impressive I know, but what he accomplished with such little material is. Not to mention, the Ramones played way faster live, and Johnny downstroked all those chords for two hours a night. For those concerned with virtuosity, Johnny's ability to play those fast downstrokes was a technique learned over years of touring, in other words he would kick your ass at it. I don't know anyone that can do that, sorry. Don't attack Johnny Ramone because he's not Fripp, or Howe or Lifeson. He never tried to be something he wasn't. He knew he was crap and did the best he could do. and quite frankly prog got cheesy towards the end of the 70s and I'm glad punk washed away the crap.

Does he deserve a spot on the Top 100 list? No, and neither does any other music respecting guitarist. 

Are we fans of virtuosity or fans of music? They are not necessarily the same, because I believe most music being dedicated to virtuosity is awful (just listen to a victor wooten record, you'll think you were at the dentist)

Therefore neither album is better because it doesn't matter. For the record King Crimson piqued my interest in Prog music when I discovered ITCOTCK in my uncle's vinyl collection. Without that initial spark, I would have never been lead to Gentle Giant. Thats what music is about, discovery. Don't rob somebody of discovery by feeding people preconceptions they shouldn't have. 

The funny thing is I don't think you're being objective here at all but rather subjective. In the Court of the Crimson King is a prog rock masterpiece and it's place in history, whether you agree or not, has been secured.

In the Court of The Crimson King got my vote.