Sid Smith
IN THE COURT OF KING CRIMSON
Helter Skelter Books,
London 2002.

Writing a book encompassing King Crimson's lifespan and history was not an enviable task to accomplish: this explains why books dealing with this English group are few. Not only in Italy, where the only one dates back to 1982 (Alessandro Staiti, Robert Fripp & King Crimson, Lato Side), but in Great Britain as well, even though this country is home to many publishers specializing in rock-related issues.
Writing a book on King Crimson, as I said, was not easy, but journalist Sid Smith, author of "In the Court of King Crimson", did prove successful.
His book was published by Helter Skelter, a London-based publishing house dealing with rock only.
A first-time fan of the group, Smith wrote a book where thoroughness and readibility balance very well.
The book collects many first-hand testimonies and rare documents.
Year by year, track by track, the complex parabola of King Crimson is explored in each aspect.
Also, Smith's work includes a discography, a "gigography" (list of concerts) and a useful section detailing what former KC-members have done in recent years, ranging from poet Pete Sinfield to Gordon Haskell, singer and bass player in Lizard, who hit the big time in recent years.
In 1969, when Fripp, Lake, McDonald and Giles released In the Court of the Crimson King, rock myths were called Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.
The group did propose a new sound, enabling "rock" music to overcome rock'n'roll-imposed limits.
The continuous evolution of Fripp and his crew did not raise old fans' enthusiasm: many of them, when listening at KC's gigs, still dreams of old albums like Lizard or Islands.
Regretting old times, however, is wrong. Crimso style was always mobile, changing, unforeseeable. Locking the group into a cage labelled "progressive rock" would deny its very nature.

Alessandro Michelucci