Released: 1968
Tracks: North Meadow; Newly-weds; One in a Million; Call Tomorrow; Digging My Lawn; Little Children; The Crukster; Thursday Morning; How Do They Know; Elephant Song; The Sun is Shining; Suite No. 1; Erudite Eyes; She Is Loaded; Under the Sky; One in a Million (mono single version); Newly-weds (mono single version); Thursday Morning (mono single version); Thursday Morning (stereo single version)
Best track: I have no clue, they’re all pretty good
Track to skip: the single versions of Newly-weds and Thursday Morning are pretty useless
I guarantee you’ll care nothing about this unless you’re a King Crimson/Robert Fripp fan. Musically, you should give it a try, since it’s good, but it’s primarily an historical footnote in the history of King Crimson. Another way of putting it is that this is the pre-King Crimson first album. Obviously, it has KC guitarist Robert Fripp and original KC drummer Michael Giles, as well as Peter Giles on bass (who played bass on Crim’s 2nd album). The usual word of warning: Crimson fans seeking this out should keep in mind this sounds NOTHING like KC. Here and there, yes, you can tell this would become Crimson in the next year, but mostly it’s Giles, Giles and Fripp, NOT King Crimson.
For the most part the songs are what I call 60’s Jazz-Pop. And also this album is VERY British. It’s taken me a few years to figure out all the jokes here. Knowing what Fripp and Giles did the following year (In the Court of the Crimson King), the mass humor here comes as a bit of a shock. Fripp, being silly? Never! Yes, they’re all silly; pretty much this whole thing is silly. The two sides of the album are two kind of suites. Not really in the songs, just in the in-between bits. The first side (through Thursday Morning) is called The Saga of Rodney Toady which is written and narrated by Fripp. It’s basically a tale about a fat, dorky kid who gets picked on. Funny Stuff. The 2nd side, Just George, has the phrase “I know a man and his name is George” said in many different ways in-between the songs.
All of the songs are really tongue-in-cheek things and aren’t too serious. Lots of jazz guitar work from Fripp here, the highlight being Suite No. 1, a very impressive guitar display. The bonus tracks are here for the CD issue of the album and show the way that the group was pointing. Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield joined the group after the album proper was recorded, but appear on the bonus tracks. Under the Sky (written by McDonald & Sinfield) sounds like a 1969 Crimson outtake, the only thing missing is Greg Lake’s voice. The bonus version of One in a Million is useful since it has different lyrics, but the single versions of Newly-weds and Thursday Morning aren’t needed. Oh well. You know, I like this. It threw me for a big shock when I first bought it, but it turned out to be pretty good.
Rating: 86
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