A Look Back at Lizard

[BlueVino]

So I just got an iPod Touch & I'm loading it up with whatever I think I'd like to have on there & I got to King Crimson's albums. I got to Lizard & I remembered that I really didn't care for most of the songs on the album... EXCEPT for the title track.

I'm listening to it again & .... I can't help but want to use a ton of curse words to describe how mother f-ing good it is. Lizard is an AMAZING song. It's just good in every single way. How they made an entire album, but only got 1 great song out of it is beyond me. They got Jon Davidson to sing it & I'm wondering why they didn't try to get him to sing all the songs on the album. He has a wonderful voice. Especially for prog rock. It's just mystic sounding. Everything he sings sounds like there's a lore behind it. This song included.

[BlueVino]

Man... then they go into this total Jazz sax solo that's reminiscent of Coltrane! This song is friggin awesome!

[zravkapt]

Jon Davidson? I never understood why Fripp hated this album so much for so long.

[BlueVino]

Jon Davidson? I never understood why Fripp hated this album so much for so long.

LOL, Anderson. My bad. I just woke up. Drinking coffee & catching up to the waking world.

[BlueVino]

Man then they go into this other section where a baritone sax does this like... 40's detective flick riff. This song has everything.

[grego]

I think the songs on the first side are unique, totally experimental stuff.

[BlueVino]

I think the songs on the first side are unique, totally experimental stuff.

I don't take the other songs as seriously. I mean, jeeze, the guy singing the lyrics starts laughing because he thinks the lyrics are stupid & they left that in there. I dunno. To me I just don't feel like the band is all there if something like that is happening. I don't feel like they really care about what they're doing together.

[grego]

On Lizard suite you have rather banal lyrical theme for a starter, with hymnal chorus, which was a blueprint of art-rock song back in those days..the real treat starts with a Peacock Bolero, then fails with monotonious riffing on battle theme - though the guitar solo at the end is gorgeous.
Circus, Indoor Games, Happy Family, - you may don't like like the themes, but just estimate the arrangement. Pure novelty.

[happytheman]

Lizard is brilliant.. loved it first time I heard it.. just listened to it again today.. still gets an A from me..

[WytchCrypt]

Lizard was my 2nd Crimso album...Loved Cirkus straight away but didn't know what to make of the rest. As the years have gone by, it's become my clear favourite of the pre Wetton/Bruford era. I know he's later said he felt like an idiot singing Sinfield's words but I love Haskell's voice...especially the laugh after Indoor Games

[zombywoof]

Looks like we're both having revelatory Crim nights (for me, it's Starless - always been rather ho hum about that record, but really enjoyed it tonight). I've always loved the "Lizard" LP, by the way, even if the title track kind of disintegrates a bit after awhile. Great album; probably my favorite Crimson album when asked.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Quite the winner.

The only track I would throw away (if I had to for some reason) would be Lady Of The Dancing Water. I'm not saying its terrible, but merely average (surrounded by near [if not actual] excellence).

[Joe F.]

I mean, jeeze, the guy singing the lyrics starts laughing because he thinks the lyrics are stupid & they left that in there. I dunno. To me I just don't feel like the band is all there if something like that is happening. I don't feel like they really care about what they're doing together.

I've never took that to be the case.

I've always loved the laughing, especially when the it segues right into the brilliant opening of "Happy Family".

Lizard is my favorite of the first 4 albums. I love every minute of it.

[zombywoof]

Quite the winner.

The only track I would throw away (if I had to for some reason) would be Lady Of The Dancing Water. I'm not saying its terrible, but merely average (surrounded by near [if not actual] excellence).

Really ? The flute playing is just lovely on that track - unbelievable tone.

[bill g]

Really ? The flute playing is just lovely on that track - unbelievable tone.

Not only that, the song is beyond haunting. I mean the mood there is unbelievable. 'Dancing Water' is my favorite of the first side-the mood matches the cover perfectly. Like something written from a different 'world'. But I agree with Blue Vino about the 2nd half. I think the 'Bolero-The Peacocks Tale' section is my favorite KC piece ever.

If there was one piece I could do without, it would be 'Big Top'. The rest is essential, for me personally.

[cavgator]

I don't take the other songs as seriously. I mean, jeeze, the guy singing the lyrics starts laughing because he thinks the lyrics are stupid & they left that in there. I dunno. To me I just don't feel like the band is all there if something like that is happening. I don't feel like they really care about what they're doing together.

I'm with you on side one, although there are some nice moments there. But I love the title track.

When I was in junior high, some of us band geeks got together to arrange the piece and play it. We had a resident genius in the band who wrote out all the charts, then we went and rehearsed all spring, unveiling it before graduation. Our band director was a huge prog fan and helped put it into shape. It was great fun!

I remembered listening to it for the first time and was pleasantly surprised to hear Jon sing Prince Rupert Awakes. Then the bolero piece came in, followed by some sheer beautiful oboe playing. It simply went into so many directions, closing with that haunting guitar solo, what best sounded to my ears like the soundtrack to a movie scene of a battlefield after the battle, with corpses everywhere, no one alive, and a heavy mist which stretched for miles in every direction.

The carousel piece at the end only made the entire piece even more bizarre. I still enjoy listening to Lizard over 40 years after it wa released...

[WytchCrypt]

The carousel piece at the end only made the entire piece even more bizarre. I still enjoy listening to Lizard over 40 years after it wa released...

The Big Top is the perfect ending as it conceptually links to the opener Cirkus

[ScottAM]

Can't beat Cirkus in my book!!!

But seeing that Jon Davison sang on the album really is a revelation. I'm glad they didn't use Benoit for that one.

[Scrotum Scissor]

The whole album is great except for the "handclaps'n'singalong"-part of Davidson's contribution.

"Prince Rupert's Lament" is one of the very finest few minutes of the band's total oeuvre, IMO.

[zombywoof]

Personally, I think that the little bit that Jon Davidson sings is the best thing I've ever heard him sing. Usually he drives me bonkers with his intonation, but he sounds fine on Prince Rupert.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Really ? The flute playing is just lovely on that track - unbelievable tone.

Yep. Don't get me wrong...I do enjoy it, just not as much as the others. It's still on my iPod (and won't be taken off anytime soon).

[mogrooves]

The only track I would throw away (if I had to for some reason) would be Lady Of The Dancing Water. I'm not saying its terrible, but merely average.

Agreed. Fairly weak and incongruous with the demented vibe that surrounds it.

[neuroticdog]

Davidson's voice on this album is revelatory...I swear I just want to collapse in the cool green grass and weep after I hear him. I shit you not!

best
Michael

[Adrian]

"Prince Rupert's Lament" is one of the very finest few minutes of the band's total oeuvre, IMO.

Absolutely. It sends a tingle up my spine every time, even 25-plus years after first hearing it.

[happytheman]

Not only that, the song is beyond haunting. I mean the mood there is unbelievable. 'Dancing Water' is my favorite of the first side-the mood matches the cover perfectly. Like something written from a different 'world'. But I agree with Blue Vino about the 2nd half. I think the 'Bolero-The Peacocks Tale' section is my favorite KC piece ever.

If there was one piece I could do without, it would be 'Big Top'. The rest is essential, for me personally.

Dancing Waters kinda reminds me of Cadence Cascade from the 2nd album.. just re-listened to this album while I was out gardening.. Jon's voice is so Jon on Prince Rubert..