THE YOUNG PERSONS GUIDE TO KING CRIMSON

When I was 10 years old and picked this album out of my dad's large collection, I almost totally got sucked into King Crimson!!!!

I was amazed that Robert Fripp was the only permanent member in the band's many line- ups, but even so, every line-up was very professional and I felt this album did a good job of naming all the best tracks off of their first seven studio albums. But why was Lizard overlooked? And where was "21st Century Schizoid Man"?

Vinyl copies of this album came with a booklet featuring a concise chronology of Crimso and several photos of the 1969-1975 era. I had never seen many vinyl compilations that had that kind of treatment before. Another odd thing about my dad's copy was that it was a Canadian pressing on Atlantic Records (an American company), yet the album was never released Stateside. It only found release in Europe (where it was compiled) and Japan!!

I won't bother to describe ALL the tracks (I'll be saving those for when I review each Crimso album individually), but this double-disc set had some treats to make it worthwhile to those who already owned the entire Crimso output within: a previously unreleased faster-tempo version of "I Talk To The Wind" featuring lead vocals by ex-Fairport Convention vocalist Judy Dyble and "Groon," a Hendrix-esque instrumental rocker that found its way on the B-side of the British "Cat Food" single. Fortunately, since this album was never released on CD (albeit for a short time in Japan), those tracks can be found on a Giles, Giles & Fripp anthology and any King Crimson box set respectively.

It's the order of the tracks (non-chronological!!) and the quality of the tracks that makes me want to rate this album with five stars.

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