In The Court Of King Crimson: An Observation Over Fifty Years

★★★★ Sid Smith PANEGYRIC. £20

Revised version of the acclaimed 2001 biog now double its original length.

According to King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, Smith has become the “band’s historian”, but this book – with a new track-by-track account and extensive gigography – appears on the group’s own imprint without editorial interference. Smith modestly claims to offer no great analysis of the musicians’ individual characters – and he interviews most who have played with Crimson – but through this vivid and incisive account he allows them to reveal themselves, while plotting a steady authorial course through some occasionally choppy waters. The King Crimson story is remarkable in that even the unhappiest ex-band member was deeply affected by their tenure. Unique, too, in the fact that Fripp, the de facto leader and self-styled “raison d’être”, saw the band in metaphysical terms, like a muse he was obliged to serve, even if this single-mindedness alienated him from others or caused him “endless grief” battling with management and record labels. That 2019 found the group enjoying their significant birthday is, therefore, a cause for celebration.