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| KING CRIMSON A KING BEST TO FORGET |
King Crimson, line-up 1 (1968-1969):
The first incarnation of King Crimson was formed in London on 30 November 1968 and first rehearsed on 13 January 1969.[7][16] The band name was coined by lyricist Peter Sinfield as a synonym for Beelzebub, prince of demons. According to Fripp, Beelzebub would be an anglicised form of the Arabic phrase "B'il Sabab", meaning "the man with an aim" although it literally means "with a cause".[17] Historically and etymologically, a "crimson king" was any monarch during whose reign there was civil unrest and copious bloodshed; the album debuted at the height of world-wide opposition to the military involvement of the United States in Southeast Asia. At this point, Ian McDonald was King Crimson's main composer, albeit with significant contributions from Lake and Fripp, while Sinfield not only wrote all the lyrics but designed and operated the band's revolutionary stage lighting, and was therefore credited with "sounds and visions". McDonald suggested the new band purchase a Mellotron (the first example of the band's persistent involvement with music technology) and they began using it to create an orchestral rock sound, inspired by The Moody Blues.
Peter Sinfield, interviewed for Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements, described Crimson thus: "[W]e had an Ethos in Crimson... we just refused to play anything that sounded anything like a Tin Pan Alley record. If it sounded at all popular, it was out. So it had to be complicated, it had to be more expansive chords, it had to have strange influences. If it sounded, like, too simple, we'd make it more complicated, we'd play it in 7/8 or 5/8, just to show off".