Every self-respecting King Crimson fan needs a copy of this CD. No, it doesn't sound a bit Crimson-esque, but this is where it all began, folks. The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles and Fripp. This is the only record that trio put out before adding McDonald and Lake and forming King Crimson.
The style of this music is ... well, it's all over the place. There's plenty of late '60s psychedelic pop, there are a few tracks such as the very baroque "Suite No.1" that hint at what would become the sound that defined a genre. There are a few serious, moments, and there are whacky Python-esque vocal interludes that speak to the album's title. There are hints of Syd Barrett, there are moments that recall The Beach Boys, there are dozens of Beatles references, and there are times when it sounds more like insubstantial post-war music hall entertainment. It's a bit eclectic - so it's appropriate that it was Eclectic Discs who re-mastered this release and put it together with wonderful packaging, enhanced artwork and a batch of bonus tracks.
The first section has interludes of a silly, offbeat narrative about a boy named Rodney Toady:
Rodney was a sad young man because he was fat and ugly and no-one liked him.
Children ran up to him in the street and pointed and shouted
"Rodney is a sad young man because he's fat and ugly"
And then they ran away laughing...
..and so it goes on, never going anywhere, never really being funny. And Giles, Giles and Fripp were trying to be funny. They were trying to be pop. They were trying to be the Moody Blues ("Thursday Morning," and "Under The Sky"). They were trying to be experimental ... in fact, it seems that they were trying to find themselves. That musical identity would finally settle on them two years later when they grew into Crimson, and launched In The Court Of The Crimson King - to which so many elements of modern progressive music owe their very existence.
This one's a collector's item.
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Originally Posted by dpt3
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