Me and my journey through life, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and all wacky, funny, deep, depressing and interesting points in between. My interests are varied from one end of the spectrum to another. Basically, the disappointing side of mediocre.
In the Wake of Poseidon is the second studio album by the progressive rock group King Crimson, released on this day in 1970. The album was recorded during instability in the band, with several personnel changes, but repeats the style of their first album, In the Court of the Crimson King. Also like their first album, the mood of this album often changes from serene to chaotic.
Tracks: 1. "Peace – A Beginning" 2. "Pictures of a City" (including "42nd at Treadmill") 3. "Cadence and Cascade" 4. "In the Wake of Poseidon" (including "Libra's Theme") 5. "Peace – A Theme" (instrumental) 6. "Cat Food" 7. "The Devil's Triangle" (instrumental) I. "Merday Morn" II. "Hand of Sceiron" III. "Garden of Worm" 8. "Peace – An End"
Beat is the ninth studio album by the British rock band King Crimson, released on this day in 1982.
The album focused on the 25th anniversary of the publication of the novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The album makes several references to the writings of the Beat Generation.
Lizard is the third studio album by the British band King Crimson. It was the second recorded by a transitional line-up of the group that never had the opportunity to perform live, following In the Wake of Poseidon. This is the only album by the band to feature bassist and vocalist Gordon Haskell and drummer Andy McCulloch as official members of the band.
Haskell was previously a classmate of Fripp's at Queen Elizabeth's grammar school, the pair having subsequently played together in the local band, The League of Gentlemen. Haskell later contributed vocals to the King Crimson track "Cadence and Cascade" on In the Wake of Poseidon, after Greg Lake left the band to join Emerson, Lake & Palmer. In a desperate turn to maintain a personnel in the band, Fripp asked Haskell to become an official member of King Crimson for the recording of Lizard. Another supporting musician on In the Wake of Poseidon, saxophonist/flautist Mel Collins was also asked to become a full-time member of this line-up, as was drummer Andy McCulloch, who replaced Michael Giles. The group was then augmented with session musicians, including another In the Wake of Poseidon alumnus – the noted jazz pianist Keith Tippett – together with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson (!), and brass/woodwind players Robin Miller, Mark Charig, and Nick Evans. Due to the album's penchant for a more jazz-inflected sound in comparison to many of the band's other works, in addition to the idiosyncratic nature of many of its tracks, responses towards the album have been varied since its release. Allmusic's Bruce Eder, comparing Lizard to its two predecessors, described the songs saying "[they] are longer and have extensive developmental sections, reminiscent of classical music". He also deemed that Jon Anderson's presence on "Prince Rupert Awakes" made the album stronger. He finished his review saying that "At the time of its release, some critics praised Lizard for finally breaking with the formula and structure that shaped the two preceding albums, but overall it's an acquired taste." Music critic Robert Christgau rated the album a B−, saying that the "jazziness" of the album projected a "certain cerebral majesty" but criticized Peter Sinfield's lyrics, qualifying them as "overwrought". Bingo. Robert Fripp has himself been very critical of the album, calling it "unlistenable". I mostly agree. Aside from the Jon Anderson parts this album is annoying. I guess I haven't acquired the taste yet.
In the Court of the Crimson King (subtitled An Observation by King Crimson) is the debut studio album by the British rock group King Crimson, released on this day in 1969. The album reached #5 on the British charts, and is certified gold in the United States, where it reached #28 on the Billboard 200.
The album is generally viewed as one of the first works to truly embody the progressive rock genre, where King Crimson largely mixed together jazz and classical symphonic elements. In his 1997 book Rocking the Classics, critic and musicologist Edward Macan notes that In the Court of the Crimson King "may be the most influential progressive rock album ever released". The album was named as one of Classic Rock magazine's "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock". Track listing: Side One: 1) "21st Century Schizoid Man" (including "Mirrors") 2) "I Talk to the Wind" 3) "Epitaph" (w/"March for No Reason" and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow")
Side Two
4) "Moonchild" (I: "The Dream", II: "The Illusion") 5) "The Court of the Crimson King" (w/"The Return of the Fire Witch" and "The Dance of the Puppets")
Red is the seventh studio album by progressive rock group King Crimson, released on this day in 1974. It was their last studio recording of the 1970's and the last before the lead member Robert Fripp temporarily disbanded the group.
Tours in 1974 had seen King Crimson's musical approach becoming louder and more brutal, an approach primarily driven by bass player John Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford (guitarist and group leader Robert Fripp once compared their powerful playing to "a flying brick wall"). This had had the effect of drowning out the band's fourth member, violinist and sometime keyboard player David Cross and led to tension within the band. Deemed not strong enough as a musical personality, Cross was ejected from King Crimson after the end of its tour in summer 1974, reducing the group to the trio of Fripp, Wetton and Bruford. Having already begun to record Red with Cross, King Crimson finished the album with the help of former band-members Ian McDonald and Mel Collins.
This is from the YesYears box set and shows the many incarnations of Yes, and how they connect to other bands such as King Crimson, Asia, The Moody Blues, ELP and Genesis (up to 1991).
So, yeah, I missed a week. With the trains being shut down for refurbishment in the Magic Kingdom, most of us train peeps are using up all of our saved up vacation time. This year a group of us decided to do something together so we went on a cruise to the Bahamas. My first cruise ever (and yes I got me a magnet). So now that I am back on (semi) dry land, we can get back to our normally scheduled program:
Discipline is the eighth studio album by the band King Crimson, released on this day in 1981. This album was King Crimson's first album following a seven-year hiatus. Only founder Robert Fripp and later addition Bill Bruford remained from previous incarnations. The rest of the band was Adrian Belew and Tony Levin. The album resulted in a more updated 1980s new wave sound primarily resembling Talking Heads (with David Byrne style lyrics and vocals), with minimalistic funk-jazz-rock.
So today marks the end of July and how do we celebrate the end of a month that ends on a Friday around here? That's right, one song for every day of the month! So today instead of a Random 10 you get a Random 31! This ought to make the picture below hella interesting:
My lucky number has always been 13. I was my baseball jersey number in high school and college. So, Friday the 13th has always been a fun day for me. No bad omens here. However, I do realize tomorrow is "Singles Awareness Day" (i.e Valentine's Day massacre) and if you are out there and planning to propose you might want to hold off. Just saying. You have been warned. And I hope you went to Jared... In keeping with the ever growing and evolving list of traditions around here, this countdown will feature not ten, but thirteen songs. But first, as a quick review of last week, you can follow this link, or check out the cool picture below:
As always the rules and whatnot are up there ↑ at the top next to the Home tab.
Okay so I have been trying to decide what I wanted to do special for the Halloween version of the Random 10. My first thought was to expand it to thirteen for all the triskaidecaphobics out there. Then I realized that I reserve that for the Friday the 13th's that roll around occasionally. My only other option (since it is the last day of October) was to just go ahead and hit everyone with 31 songs. Consider it a giant grab bag of candy. I am sure everyone will find something that they like.
When I first got the idea for this post I just listed a bunch of songs down the page. I noticed a lot of music acts had done several that I like. So what I did was to limit everyone to just one appearance. Get it? Got it? Good. I'm sure I missed some obvious ones too, but here are my top ten favorite instrumentals:
So tonight is a special event at Disney called Night of Joy. It's a separate ticket event that has Christian music acts performing at various locations throughout the park. It's kinda cool if you're into that. I have enjoyed some of the music in the past. Anyway, the best part about this event is that the trains do not operate! We are done and off the tracks by 6:00. This gives me and all my train peeps a chance to hang out together since we are all off so early. The party is on. Good times! And now for the reason we are all here. Looking back at last week I see that RW is already banned for the month of September (shocker). And as usual the rules and whatnot are up there ↑ at the top. Let's roll the dice! 1) Gentle Giant/Mobile - This sounds like a bad Kansas rip off band. Viggle has no idea what this song is. 2) The Beatles/Dear Prudence - Great song. I loved what they did with it in the movie "Across the Universe". 3) Yes/New State of Mind - Decent song on a flat out awful, forgettable album. Not even worth showing the album cover. 4) Dream Theater/Learning to Live - Maybe a little heavier than I like my prog. I still haven't listened to them much. 5) RW/Sir Galahad AC/DC/Rocking All the Way - Not real familiar with this album, but I'll give it the album cover winner:
6) The Beatles/Wait - Great classic song that unfortunately gets them banned for next week. 7) Cherry Poppin' Daddies/Master and Slave - Swing away daddy-o! 8) King Crimson/Exiles - Always good stuff with them. I can kinda see why Bill Bruford left Yes for them. More experimental types of music. 9) Jimmy Buffett/Cheeseburger in Paradise - Classic Jimmy. Now I'm hungry. 10) Boston/The Star Spangled Banner - Live version that was included on their greatest hits CD. I don't know why. Well there it is. RW is banned for the month so I just ignored him. Too bad that it was actually from a great album of his. Hey, some of them had to be good right? The Beatles get banned for next week too. Misery loves company I guess. They seem to end up in exile together a lot. The STCS is Def Leppard/Stay with Me from the album of cover songs they did. Meh.
As always stay cool and dry wherever you are, and Roll Tide!
So the time has come to roll out another random 10. Sometimes it feels like a very short week in between doing these. Other times it feels like we week is just empty with nothing to blog about.
I mean I throw different things out there to see if any of them get any traction (like the polls). Also I have long term "projects" like the magnet challenge up top. Also up there is something new this week I'm trying with license plates. I'll see how that goes.
So basically if you have any ideas of something you would like to see every week just hit me with your suggestions. I'll probably make it mine in some weird way, but I will def give you credit for it.
Now let's get back to that music thing. Looking at last week, no one got banned so all is good. As usual the rules and whatnot are up top as well.
So it's been a week now and basically everyone has gotten over the 24 hours of madness thing at work. We all survived somehow, even if there was a bit of confusion at times. It was basically successful so that just means we will end up doing it again at some point in the future. Yay? Skip forward a week and school is winding down all over. My oldest graduated this morning actually (who the Hell has a graduation ceremony at 9 am? On a Friday? So Wrong!) Anyway, I digress. After all that craziness had subsided I actually have time to sit and churn out a random 10. Usual rules and whatnot up there ↑ at the top. Here we go!
Well another week has passed us by, unfortunately this week was filled with work instead of vacation. Me no likey. It's the reason this is coming out so late today. Anyway, let's get right to it. Looking back at last week I see that Yes gets banned again (I feel a Tarkus or two coming up), but I won't let that deter me any. As usual the rules and whatnot are up there ↑ at the top. Here we go!
_-_digipack.jpg)
