I think my favorite all-time band has always been King Crimson, for reasons I cannot explain. In Twitter-size bites with Sid Smith, I decided it might be time to explore some of them.

I began my affinity around 1974-75, when In The Court of the Crimson King was larger than my young life, with mellotrons, big ranges and drama.  Jewels glowing in the heat of pools of magma, consuming all in militaristic drum and brass.  Larks Tongues,  Red, and Starless and Bible Black soon followed into the queue, adding menace on the bass line and vocals while the percussion simply exploded through this incredibly controlled guitar.  Control and tension.  Cadence and Cascade.  Seeds of lightning.  I was hooked.

At this time I was also listening to Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Tarkus); Frank Zappa (Overnight Sensation); Jeff Beck (Blow By Blow), and was listening more to bands like Gentle Giant; YES; Renaissance; Genesis, Premiata Forneria Marconi and Banco from Italy, and Quiet Sun, from the U.K.  Strings and wind were as vital as electrified/amplified instruments, in addition to rhythms and assertive vocals.

These were the spectra I viewed the world through, as I left Boston with my family for a couple of years in Iran as civilian ex-pats.  All of these friends came along, in my suitcase.  I've made new friends, but kept the old, as every one of these spin on my playlist at monthly or more often today (OK, except Renaissance and Banco; the Ayatollah got my record collection and these two fell off of the replacement list.)

Throughout, the cleanest, rawest, "most real" recordings played the most were those Crim records.  John Wetton (RIP) became the Voice of Authority, full of anger  and hopeand regret as he made Easy Money (irony) being the "dangerous" member of his generation of Crim.  Gosh, I loved hearing him sing.

Not that he was the only one; Greg Lake (RIP) and Boz Burrell (RIP) were both good voices for the Crim.  Adrian Belew who is thankfully still rocking was a GREAT voice for Crimson, both in vocal and guitar, since his guitar "speaks" Crim-ean.  None of these had the edge and menace of Wetton, though Ade set a new standard for Control and Tension, Cadence and Cascade with a wider vocal register, keeping edge while replacing menace with wit.