May 15, 1970 - In The Wake Of Poseidon

Just 7 months since their debut album, King Crimson released their sophomore effort "In The Wake Of Poseidon" on May 15, 1970. There are several personnel changes between this and their spectacular debut "In The Court Of The Crimson King", biggest of which is the departure of multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald. After their first tour following their debut release McDonald and drummer Michael Giles both quit the band. McDonald contributed some of the best parts of that first album and I am very sad to see he is no longer with the band. He does get a couple writing credits still, but he is someone that is irreplaceable. Greg Lake also quit after the others' departures to form a new band that we'll hear about later. This left guitarist Robert Fripp and lyricist Peter Sinfield as the only remaining members officially, but Fripp was able to convince everyone but McDonald to return as a session musician. Lake returns only as lead singer, and Giles drums while his brother, Peter Giles would play bass on this record. Mel Collins (formerly of Circus) plays flute and saxophone and Keith Tippett plays piano, while Fripp would play Mellotron in addition to guitars. This is quite a different combination than the first album, but I'm sure there is still great music to be heard. Let's see how it goes!

Side 1 begins with a song by Lake titled "Peace - A Beginning". It's about a minute long and is the first of three songs with the "Peace" title. It's just Lake singing and a few notes at the end. The next track "Pictures Of A City" definitely seems like this album's "21st Century Schizoid Man".  It's driven by an awesome saxophone riff by Collins but has great contributions from everyone. I can't get enough of Lake's screaming vocals and they are very similar style to "Schizoid". It just sounds amazing! There's a cool.saxophone bit before Fripp lets a wicked guitar solo go. After the 4 minute mark there is an awesome part, that also like "Schizoid" uses stop and start with the guitar and drums. It then moves to a different slower part led by bass and drums with Fripp on Mellotron in the background. The guitar cues the return to the opening riff as we get one more verse and a crazy trippy ending. While I think "Schizoid" is a better song, this one is most certainly awesome as well and if they made a whole album like this I would love it! Track 3 is titled "Cadence And Cascade" which is a soft acoustic ballad sung by Fripp's high school friend Gordon Haskell. Haskell has a nice voice that fits with the soft mood of this song. Fripp plays the celesta in the background and we also hear piano from Tippett for the first time. Collins delivers an excellent flute solo and the flute remains for the rest of the song, making it much better in my opinion. Side 1 closes with the title track "In The Wake Of Poseidon". It has some great drum fills by Giles and Fripp's Mellotron backs some more excellent singing by Lake. Fripp switches to a slow guitar riff in the background before there is a cool part with both it and Mellotron. There's another verse and the song has a very epic feel to it. There's some wordless vocals and lots more great drumming as they jam out the last couple minutes.

Side 2 begins with "Peace - A Theme", a short instrumental track with just Fripp doing a cool acoustic guitar bit. The next track "Cat Food" starts with some awesome jazzy piano. I sound like a broken record, but I just love how Lake's voice sounds. Whenever he yells like that it just sounds great. Tippett really goes insane on the piano, he's all over the place and it sounds awesome. Fripp joins in with a cool guitar riff for the third verse and there's a nice drum bit by Giles. More crazy piano ends the song and Tippett really shows off on this one. Track 7 is the 11+ minute instrumental "The Devil's Triangle". It begins with very quiet snare and Mellotron by Fripp. It's a very eerie song and it has many odd noises throughout. There's a huge noise like a foghorn around the 4 minute mark and then we hear the opening bit at a much louder volume. Tippett joins in around the 5 minute mark with some slamming piano. It gets very loud, and then a quiet hush with a wind-like noise. Around the 8 minute mark we start a new section (progressive rock ladies and gentlemen) with snare, trippy piano and other assorted noises. It's a very psychedelic bit and it sounds like noises are coming at you from everywhere. They even have a brief sample from "The Court Of The Crimson King" and the song ends with a flute-like Mellotron bit. The final song is "Peace - An End", and it begins with just Lake on vocals similar to the first song. It then has the guitar from the "Theme" part, but with Lake singing overtop and ends with a return to the opening part, but with Fripp's guitar this time, an interesting little combination of all the "Peace" songs.

That wraps up "In The Wake Of Poseidon", another solid effort from King Crimson. I really miss Ian McDonald, and while this is still a great album, I don't think it comes anywhere close to their debut "In The Court Of The Crimson King". The quality of songs on that first record are just phenomenal and it will.be tough for them to top, so no reason to feel bad! I still love that this is mostly the original line-up, as the next album will be vastly different. With Fripp and Sinfield the only official members, where will they go from here? I'll be there when they figure it out, 'til then!