IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

I dare say, this is one my personal Top 5-albums of all time. Sorry, no. It's my Top 1-favorite of all time. Not only did the cover captivate me as a child, the music, when I got around listening to it, blew me right off the face of the Earth. Now, I realise that for many a listener the later KC-albums tends to be more challenging and rewarding but for me "In the court..." is the perfect progrock-album. It holds all things dear to me. What you get with this album is not only, as I see it, the true birthplace of prog but certainly the most atmospheric, diverse and enchanting pieces of music ever recorded. Surely there are other albums worthy of such a description but remember this is 1969, the dawn of a much turbulent musical 70's. The songs sums up what seems to be hundreds of years of music, without giving away too much of it's inspirations. There's the proto-metal (how I dislike that term) of "21st century schizoid man" to the sweeping beauty of "Epitaph". There's that wonderful feeling of sagas, history, mystery and beauty. And in abundance at that. I realise now, when writing about the album, how much I love it. Actually, I love it so much I'm loss for words.