Weirdest Album by the Big Six

Opus Avantra (1974) definitelly, is not a álbum what to play in soundbox...

Edited by ELPmasters - July 19 2025 at 20:59

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: cstack3 wrote: ...if they weren't "weird," they wouldn't be progressive! I'd be more tempted to point out "weird sides" or "weird songs" than entire albums. "We Can't Dance" by Genesis, "Love Beach" by ELP, "Cirkus" by KC are all somewhat weird in my book. "The Ancient" by Yes gets my vote for their weirdest side, and "Circus of Heaven" for song. "We Can't Dance" is an album not a song. You are probably thinking of the song "I Can't Dance." I don't think the album WCD is weird but I can see the song ICD being considered as weird.

Read my post again, I meant what I said. All three (WCD, LB and C) were LPs.

projeKct wrote: cstack3 wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: cstack3 wrote: ...if they weren't "weird," they wouldn't be progressive! I'd be more tempted to point out "weird sides" or "weird songs" than entire albums. "We Can't Dance" by Genesis, "Love Beach" by ELP, "Cirkus" by KC are all somewhat weird in my book. "The Ancient" by Yes gets my vote for their weirdest side, and "Circus of Heaven" for song. "We Can't Dance" is an album not a song. You are probably thinking of the song "I Can't Dance." I don't think the album WCD is weird but I can see the song ICD being considered as weird. Read my post again, I meant what I said. All three (WCD, LB and C) were LPs. C is not an album. You probably mean L.

OOPS, thanks!   

cstack3 wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: cstack3 wrote: ...if they weren't "weird," they wouldn't be progressive! I'd be more tempted to point out "weird sides" or "weird songs" than entire albums. "We Can't Dance" by Genesis, "Love Beach" by ELP, "Cirkus" by KC are all somewhat weird in my book. "The Ancient" by Yes gets my vote for their weirdest side, and "Circus of Heaven" for song. "We Can't Dance" is an album not a song. You are probably thinking of the song "I Can't Dance." I don't think the album WCD is weird but I can see the song ICD being considered as weird. Read my post again, I meant what I said. All three (WCD, LB and C) were LPs.

I don't need to re-read it. You said you would be more tempted to point out songs and sides than albums so I wasn't expecting albums to be mentioned. That plus the fact that "Cirkus" is a KC song and not an album (although I think it is a bootleg album too but didn't think you meant that) is what threw me for a loop.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - July 20 2025 at 15:52

YES - Relayer

GENESIS - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

E.L.P. - Love Beach

PINK FLOYD - Ummagumma

KING CRIMSON - Larks Tongues in Aspic

JETHRO TULL - A Passion Play


Sound Chaser is probably the weirdest Yessong.

The Lamb certainly captures Peter Gabriel's weirdness unlike any other album.

Love Beach is a whole 'nother kind of weird, and not in a good way. Very disturbing, right down to the album cover.

Ummagumma is so weird, I had to play it for my grandparents, who were completely shocked that living humans would do something like that, not to mention that their grandson would expose them to that kind of thing.

All King Cwimson albums are wonderfuwwy wiewd according to Elmer Fudd.

Tull is never particularly weird, but A Passion Play is certainly out there, and in a great way; the hare properly honors the intermezzo, which served as a farcical intermission during many great baroque and classical operas. There's a reason the intermezzos didn't go down in history like their enveloping operas.

When I first heard Supper's Ready I thought it was really weird especially the part in the middle that sounded like it was from some musical. Overall, definitely the Lamb though. I do find the PG era has far more weirder stuff than the PC era though (although parts of Abacab are weird and also "mama.").


The following in particular are weird Genesis songs (imo):

The Knife
Harold the Barrel
Get Em Out By Friday
The Battle of Epping Forest
The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
The Waiting Room
Also the entire Lamb album (especially lyrically) and even the first one FGTR are weird.
Who Dunnit
Mama




Weird Yes songs:

Astral Traveller
Perpetual Change
We Have Heaven
Siberian Khatru
Ancient (Giants Under The Sun)
Ritual (especially the version on Yesshows)
Sound Chaser
The Gates of Delirium (well the middle part anyway)
Arriving UFO



King Crimson:

21st Century Schizoid Man
Moonchild
Cat Food
Devil's Triangle
Indoor Games
Happy Family and really almost all of Lizard
Formentara Lady
Sailor's Tale
Ladies of the Road
Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 1
Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 2
Easy Money
Thela Hun Ginjeet
Elephant Talk
Industry
Dig Me

I'm having trouble thinking of anything really weird off of Beat but I'm not as familiar with that one as the others and ditto for anything after TOAPP.

Other songs are dark or maybe a little out of the ordinary but not necessarily weird. For example, I almost put in Machine Messiah but it didn't quite make the cut. Most of Trespass might also fit this category. I did put the Knife in but it's actually not that weird compared to the others I listed.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - Yesterday at 02:06

chopper wrote: What's weird about Perpetual Change?

You know, I knew someone was going to challenge that. To me the weird part is the part in the middle with the funky rhythm section and then the panning of speakers from one side to the other before the synth solo kicks in.Many might not call it weird but that funky part in particular just seems to come out of nowhere. Watch you tube reaction videos of it and you see a lot of wtf responses (well, at least one anyway since I haven't seen that many).

Steve Wyzard wrote: A Crimson Mellotron wrote: Yes - Union Thanks for mentioning this one. As Steve Howe would tell us, a lot of the material for this album was originally intended for solo projects. "Angkor Wat" is one the strangest things the band has ever done.

I never thought of Union as being weird, just bad! I need to give it another listen sometime.