Since then Fripp has remained the sole constant. The pair abandoned that trio’s whimsical pop in the pursuit of more headstrong – or head-fuck – music, and brought in multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, bassist/vocalist Greg Lake and lyricist Pete Sinfield. Their mid-70s drummer Bill Bruford once called Crimson “a terrifying place”, and that’s perhaps the best description of the band started by guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles, when their previous band Giles, Giles And Fripp ceased to be of interest to them.
This most exhaustive and exhausting of prog rock bands have had nearly two dozen full-time members across five decades.
#THE LAST WORDS ROCK BAND ARCHIVE#
King Crimson on a French TV show in 1974 (Image credit: GAB Archive / Getty Images)įorget a linear career there’s nothing stable or logical about the way King Crimson have conducted themselves since forming in 1968. Watch: Roxy Music - Virginia Plane (opens in new tab) Their contribution to rock was cemented when they were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. Combined with their powerful songwriting and the band’s devotion to individuality, it was a potent combination that ripped up the rule book of what it meant to be 'rock', and we were all the better for it.
Roxy’s stylised glamour was catnip to the new romantics, their sense of provocation a beacon to the punks. Fearless and with a taste for overt experimentation, Roxy were radical and exciting, pushing boundaries without any concern for commercial compromise. A band of "inspired amateurs" (again, Manzanera's words), they were essentially a band of punks five years ahead of schedule. The group where a young Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno cut their teeth, they dominated Britain’s glam-era pop scene in the first half of the 70s, despite having next to nothing in common with Slade, Sweet et al and not being a pop group – or even a rock group.
0 kommentar(er)
