This day in 1970, King Crimson released their third effort, "Lizard". After having their previous effort, "In the Wake of Poseidon" (also 1970), an album which drove the original lineup apart, Fripp was forced to hire a new band to produce this controversial classic album. Retaining their jazz fusion influences, Fripp and company chose to ramp up the humor from the first two darker records (musically speaking) meaning "Lizard" was a wilder and denser ride. I absolutely love this record, from the front cover painting beautifully illustrated by Gini Barris and spelling the band name with each song representing a letter, to the scattered solo section of "Happy Family", the Mingus-esque wind / horn duel in the "Bolero" section and Keith Tippet's one note piano solo! Even Jon Anderson makes an appearance here in a an almost unrecognizable cameo! Unfortunately, after the release of this album, singer Gordon Haskell and drummer Andy McCulloch left the band, forcing Fripp to once again have to revamp the lineup (a theme of the early years) and he was not able to take the material on the road until the tour to promote the equally underrated followup, "Islands" (1971). Not exactly a universally loved record in the Crimson canon, but certainly one of my favorites. How about you guys?
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