Composer Reacts to King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man (REACTION & ANALYSIS) 

I've always thought that this song is what metal would be if it was more rooted in jazz instead of blues

My favourite band along with Tool. This came out in 1969. This was revolutionary at the time. It was as heavy as it got back then. It wasn't 'heavy metal' but a lot of bands were influenced by King Crimson including Tool. Jazz Fusion/prog rock whatever you want to call it. Fripp will tell you giving them a box they can't get out of is quite limiting. King Crimson's music goes beyond any genre. One of the greatest bands of all time. You need to listen to Starless. I regard this song as the best song ever made by any band or artist.

Crimson was suporting The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park in 1969. They opened the show with this tune and the the crowd went to shock. King Crimson is the father of prog IMO but this track has been covered by many Hevy Metal Bands.🤘

You need to do Starless already

Also the singer and bassist on this track is Greg Lake before he joined Emerson, Lake & Palmer

If this doesn't get blocked... it's a miracle!!!

Definitely proto-metal but KC are prog pioneers with a strong jazz influence. Highly jazz oriented but with an extremely unique KC spin that deviates a long way from Jazz Fusion. Every album sounds different. My favourite track of theirs is Larks Tongues in Aspic part one.

I LOVE the jazz fusion aspect of it. Younger me did not appreciate King Crimson like i do now.

When you're analyzing lyrics from this era, it's always worth considering a Vietnam connection. Might come in handy throughout this week depending on what other songs are on the docket.

KC are a progressive rock group, but this came out in 1969 (a year before Sabbath) and certainly helped shape some of the metal sound. It's fair to put this song in the origins, but I mean, you could even put Beatles Helter Skelter in metal origins.

Robert Fripp, funding member of the band, once described their music as "heavy mental"

One of the amazing things about this album and song is that you could argue that it’s proto-metal, early jazz fusion (It came out the same year as Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew), as well as the first progressive rock album. Black Sabbath might’ve had the deeper influence on metal specifically, but King Crimson’s influence was and still is incredibly broad ranging. They’re also a band that has never stopped evolving. Their only consistent member has been their madman/genius guitarist Robert Fripp, but they’ve consistently had a revolving line-up of virtuosos at every instrumental position. In each decade they incorporated influence from the new and most innovative bands of the time, as well as classical and jazz. They even invented math rock all the way back in 1980 on the album Discipline. This album was almost contemporary with Black Sabbath’s first album; this album came out in October 1969, while Sabbath’s first album was recorded in October 1969 and released in February 1970. The thing is that both King Crimson and Black Sabbath were influenced by many of the same artists, especially Cream and Jimi Hendrix, it’s merely that King Crimson were also influenced by contemporary jazz and classical. Personally, this is perhaps my favorite album of all time. It had an incalculable influence on my love of music. It introduced me to progressive rock and engendered my love for the genre. It’s probably the album I’ve listened to the most, as I just never tire of it; from the excitement of this track, to the folky beauty of I Talk to the Wind, to the epic melancholia of Epitaph, to the calm beauty (and later free improvisation) of Moonchild, to the moody and atmospheric The Court of the Crimson King… it’s just a perfect album and has only gotten better the more I’ve heard it. Combine that with its immense influence on bands/genres I love and it’s hard for me to argue myself that I would rate any album higher. The amazing thing about King Crimson is that, even though this album is a widely acknowledged masterpiece, many people would argue that many of their later albums, especially those of the 70s, are even better.

You're right to say they took what would become metal ideas in a completely different direction. This album, on release, really kicked off the progressive rock genre in 1969. There were bands prior that sorta did prog-lite or otherwise had albums that influenced prog (Moody Blues, The Beatles' "Sergeant Peppers'," Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds"), but this album is where most consider it all to have started. Despite this, the song is still heavily influential on metal as a developing genre. Personally I think schizoid personality disorder fits this song better than schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Given that this is a Vietnam protest song (perhaps the greatest), I could see the lyrics reflecting a withdraw from society and stunted emotional expression via the confusion of the instrumentation.

“Mirrors” is the middle instrumental section. The band had been led to believe they would receive royalties based on the number of song titles. So they added named sections to several of the songs. In terms of lyrics, Peter Sinfields lyrics have many layers to them. One of the few true poet lyricists. This song is heavily influenced by the Vietnam War.

Uh oh, watch it, before Fripp takes it down.

OK this song/ album released in 1969 became known as the FIRST TRUE definitive PROG ALBUM. There wasn't anything in Rock to compare at the time. Early YES members were so blown away after seeing them Live at a club that the lead singer knew they would have to practice more! On the other hand, Black Sabbath debut was 1970 which created the definitive heavy (Metal) sound at the time

King Crimson were pre Black Sabbath, a year earlier so Sabbath would likely have heard them. I remember reading a member of Deep Purple saying that Ritchie Blackmore after hearing King Crimson said that it showed him the way to go. 20th Century Schizoid Man is the only song on the Court of the Crimson King in that style. Second album has one similar track.

Larks' Tongues In Aspic (particularly parts 1 and 2 of the title track) are probably the most compositionally dense rock tracks I've ever heard. They're heavy, dark, ominous, but also uplifting and epic. Some of my favorite music

Huge influence on The Mars Volta

Part of the buzz about KC, when they first appeared on the scene, was the sheer volume at which they played. Their influence on metal is probably more related to that than the structure of the song writing. I wonder if that influenced the mix and how the bass and drums were left without their bottoms? Maybe the lower frequencies would start to distort at massive volumes. To give some context to how revolutionary KC was, compare it to the number one song at the time of release, “Sugar Sugar” by The Archie’s. KC is just a bit edgier…

The genre of King Crimson is King Crimson. There is just nothing else like it!

KC is that band that was always playing chess, while others played checkers

Definitely deserves to be in heavy-metal origins week. This was released in 1969.. KC's origins derive partly from psychedelic rock - as did Black Sabbath's. While KC was never "just" a metal band, and I'm sure Fripp would reject that as the only label - he himself understood his role in metal. I remember an anecdote from Fripp during one of his guitar classes, where he apparently marched around a room full of guitarists yelling "heavy metal!" This track, in particular, features many key heavy metal motif's: riff-based (during A-section), with a particularly distorted and dirty ponderous riff distorted screaming vocals slow to mid-tempo (typical of early metal, and even some later like stoner rock, Alice in Chains, etc) lyrics with dystopian theme While psychedelic bands had previously had some of these things once in a while, this TRACK was key in the further development of the heavy metal genre. (KC danced with metal its entire existence - its heaviest albums being Red, Thrak, The Power to Believe, and Contrukction of Light

A fusion of prog, jazz, and heavy rock - I have always considered this a timeless hard rock song. I think it would always be relevant in any era. Greg Lake's distorted vocal is absolutely killer!

This album is the prog rock prototype, the one that really started it all. But I do believe it it also counts as one for the origins of heavy metal. You need to remember that this came out in 1969in the middle of the hippie movement and flower power. At that time, it was a shock to audiences. No one else sounded like this at the time. Also, keep in mind that the live versions were way more intense. They played this as the first song in their set opening for the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park in July 1969 (so months before this album was released) and left the audience of nearly half a million people stunned. Bands like April Wine (1979) and Voivod (1997) covered this so its influence on metal is undeniable. But later King Crimson incarnations (80s lineup) influenced bands like Tool and other more modern metal bands more. As for its origins status, we also need to remember that, at the time, Led Zeppelin I was already released and t Led Zeppelin II was released in October 69 like this album. Born to be Wild had been released in 1968 as was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly are definitely metal origins bands). Shades of Deep Purple also came out in 1968. Trying to give you context here ;) So Crimson were certainly not the first. But Schizoid Man to me is notable for its intensity. The distorted vocals, the lyrics. It was unique at the time. When I first heard it, I already listened to Zeppelin, Deep Purple and others but this song hit me differently.

One of my favorite bands of all time! Better watch this quick before it gets blocked though...

Great reaction! Don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but the bassist/vocalist in this incarnation of KC is Greg Lake who would later go on to be in the "progressive" band Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Re the origins of Heavy Metal, most think the genre was inspired by the, so called, "Unholy Trinity" of British bands in the 1970's, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. This particular track is somewhat atypical of King Crimson's main body of work.

Please react to frame by frame or elephant talk by them, they have pretty cool tricks in those songs either using a chapman stick or crazy tricks using different time signatures

Any fans who haven't heard it already should check out disc 2 of the Ladies of the Road live album. It's got 12 different live performances of Schizoid Man from 1972 cut together into one hour long track. The sound quality can be rough on some of the recordings, but the musicianship is as great as always. I'm listening to it in the background while Bryan talks about the original track.

Legendary band

A friend once told me that, if you added up the collective album sales of every band every member of King Crimson has played with, it would be second only to the Beatles, if not more. (Foreigner, UK and Asia, ELP, Yes and Genesis, Bad Company, David Bowie and Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M and Throbbing Gristle, Peter Gabriel, the list goes on.) For a band that didn't have a consistent lineup from album to album until their third decade and ninth album... and all of their members were geniuses...

A lot of people cite this as early heavy metal and there are some aspects of it but my vote is early Jeff beck group for early heavy rock which inspired metal bands. This was King Crimson's first (self produced) album. I heard this in the middle of the night on WABX in Detroit when they first got the record and played the entire album. It WAS groundbreaking in 1969.

You should do Starless it's one of their best songs

As a composer you might appreciate the King Crimson album 'Lizard'. Earliest heavy metal I can remember is 'In a goda da vida' by Iron Maiden

One of my favorite bands! Perfect album! 😍

King Crimson was big for me about 10 plus years ago. My friends showed me Zeppelin and Floyd and I loved it and went off on my own and found them. Needless to say, I was looking for something a little more complex when I first really got into music.

The main riff has a heavy metal quality, but these guys were lightyears ahead of '60s and '70s metal bands in terms of musicianship and imagination. King Crimson's original lineup could go from free jazz to melancholic ballads to Beatlesesque harmonies at the drop of a hat. They were just using a heavy metal riff to establish a dystopian mood.

Yeah, and true enough - to me, this songs stands as the birthplace of both Metal and Prog. The initial explosion of brilliance that only existed for a moment before splitting into two separate things....

The extra movement title, "Mirrors", is an artifact of music publishing of the era: It counts as a separate song for publishing and royalty purposes. You see that throughout this album and all during the Prog era.

Saw this line-up live -jaw dropping and played even faster live!😊 Metal origins? HELTER SKELTER - THE BEATLES!

The final track is free jazz.

Check out Epitaph from this same album, as well as Starless from Red. This album, Red, Lark's Tongue in Aspic, and Discipline are all nearly perfect prog albums.

Everyone loves this track, it's a relic, but it is criminal that some people have never heard the live version on the first disk of "The Great Deceiver." The Wetton-Bruford-Cross lineup took this song to a new stratosphere.

This (expletive) song. Blowing my mind continuously, since 1969. I was 10. :)

interested in the primordial musical soup from which heavy metal emerged ? .. 1967 Captain Beefheart's Drop Out Boogie from the album Safe as Milk might have some relevance.

Origins more so for the prog scene, pretty much every prog metal artist will cite King Crimson as an inpiration.

Back in 1969, this piece was the first number of KC's gig in a Hyde Park festival, along with the Rolling Stones e.a. It was previosly unheard by anyone in the audience, the album still was not published and only a few people knew who or what King Crimson was. The opening Riff must have struck into the absolutely unprepared crowd like a bombshell, you can read it from the faces in the videos from that show.

Love this song. I listened to this album in like 10th grade back in the day and it blew my mind.

Excellent analysis. King Crimson then (and since) is best live, but the original lineup was perhaps the one that was never truly captured on a recording. The first studio album was produced by the band, their first, and on 8-tracks, I believe (maybe 16). The live recordings of the era also capture only a hint of their power, with the guitar often much quieter since it wasn’t run through the PA. Although the ‘71-2 live band is well represented by live recordings. It’s really not until the ‘73-4 live recordings that the Mighty Crim was really captured. Some of the improvs in particular from that era are stunning.

Excellent choice! I saw them do this live. I'm not sure EXACTLY where you are going with this theme this week, but I will give you my impressions as having lived through the period. It's always tough to definitively specify "origins" (see, e.g., comment below by ProgPer Ljungman). I tend to favor bands and songs which achieved a high degree of popularity, rather than which, from a purely musical point of view, may have been acoustically similar. The band that was prior in time to many of the developments was Steppenwolf with their song "The Pusher", and also the famous song "Born to be Wild" (again, I saw all of this live). The other major influence at the early time was Hendrix, especially "Purple Haze" and "Foxey Lady". Hendrix was in '67 and Steppenwolf was '68. Many people, including myself, would not consider the Stones as "heavy metal", and of course could not stand the Beatles (in many ways we considered heavy metal to be a reaction AGAINST the Beatles). Then in January '69 Led Zepplin with "Communication Breakdown" and "Dazed and Confused" was probably what we thought of as the real "beginning" of heavy metal. And fortunately for us there is a (famous) video of one of Led Zepplin's first concerts playing "Dazed and Confused" (link in "Reply" below). The reason WHY we can say "origins" for this is a bit weird: in the early days it has to be remembered that people were still coming off the Elvis era, and when you went to a concert people dressed conservatively, and SAT, and clapped politely, at the END of the song. There was no dancing or rushing the stage! The idea of really partying WITH the band would not come until a few years later. And you can see that in this video. Hope you have a chance to watch it or let us know if you've already seen it!

Ozzy Osbourne actually did a cover of this on his 2005 album "Cover This" and there's loads of other metal musicians honoring King Crimson as an influence because of their groundbreaking sound with occational heaviness unmatched before them (Sabbath debuted with their self titled the year after). But of course King Crimson has always first and foremost been a progressive band (very evident in this song as well!). It's just that in their search for new territories they happened to find sounds and styles that inspired others in other "genres". Arround this time though, I've been told groups like Sabbath and Zeppelin were also filed under "progressive" in Britain at least. That was before the term "heavy metal" was coined and established. Wonderful reaction and analysis! I can get your problems with it, which I think is partly due to "inexperience" with the sound of the time.

Frame By Frame and Larks' Tongue in Aspic Pt. 1! ...Changed my life when I first heard these tracks.

As one reactor to another.... I give this maybe 48 hours before it gets blocked. I gave up King Crimson videos a long time ago! Good stuff :)

This King Crimson album (1969) came out before Black Sabbath (1970).

Sensational track, even after all these years. Spot on, Bryan, when you mentioned the big band influence. Fripp started out playing jazz, as did the drummer, Michael Giles. Yeah, I think that mammoth riff qualifies as being an influence on metal.

The song lyrics were inspired by Spiro Agnew, then US VP and his comments on the Vietman War. This was really considered one of the best recordings at the time, and if you listen to the Steve Wilson Remix in 5.1, you will hear so much more. I hear Ian playing bari, tenor and alto saxes overdubbed on parts of the unison riffs. They recorded the track in one take and then did some of the overdubs (actually I think they did two takes, but only used the first one). This broke a lot of music out of simple chord changes and opened the ears of many. I was 19 when it came out and was totally blown away, and I had been listening to Pink Floyd and others for a couple of years. The studio they recorded at was a basic 4 track, and they did not have a lot of $ to do the months long recording sessions they do now. Also, I believe KC had no intention or thought of this as 'heavy metal', especially since it did not really exist as a form at the time. They wanted to do a hard, loud track and hit people over the head and get their attention. Many metal players have sited this song as one of their major influences, so people tend to label it as metal.

I always figured I was hearing the clarinet... Which is practically a saxophone; The sax was developed from the bass, or baritone clarinet... Thanks man, I appreciate the analysis. peace.

If and when King Crimson ever gets honoured like they deserve at the Grammys or something else, I always wondered what song they should play to blow the world away. I thought this would be a good choice. My favourite band with a collective resume that reads like “War and Peace “ still touring after 50+ years.cheers

super hard to do king crimson with all the copyright, not sure how you managed this one! but you gotta check out in the wake of poseidon by king crimson!

Old hippie friends of mine told me that they lived upstairs in a 2 story duplex, back in the early 70's. Whenever the land lord brought a prospective tenant to show them the lower floor unit they play 21st century schizoid man if they didn't like the look of the potential newcomers. It took a long time to rent the unit.

Such a great album. Discipline is my favorite KC album but this comes second. Know them for almost fifty years now.

A better Crimson song for a metal listen would have been Red or Larks Tongues pt 2. Perhaps even Great Deceiver. But KC in general are more in the Jazzy influenced side rather the blues or genre based in general. I've described them as being heavy, not in a metal or genre way but more like how Bach or Beethoven could be intense and chaotic

Name anyone else as proficient on the Chapman stick as Tony Levin.

One thing to consider... Fripp was/is an electronics wizard who invented a bunch of devices called frippertronics. He even owns/owned a company of that name. Many of those devices altered the sound of the guitar. Maybe the metal folks liked what he was doing with the altered heavy sound and used that. The band itself was prog in all its permutations.

My vote goes to Fracture from the Starless and Bible Black album. Even Robert Fripp has said that the guitar lead part on the song is almost impossible to play. One of King Crimson's heaviest, blistering songs

Prog as heck, but a massive influence on early heavy metal (and the more recent progressive metal bands) for sure. Actually Enslaved (that you checked out an early song of lately) have covered this live many times.

As others have said, this album is widely considered Ground Zero of progressive rock, mainly because how it synthesizes rock, jazz, and classical ideas and sounds. If you listen to it all the way through you'll discover this song is a bit of an outlier. The rest of the album ranges from pastoral romanticism to free jazz improv to symphonic bombast, but it doesn't return to this kind of heavy riffing. In fact, KC wouldn't fully explore that kind of music again until the mid-70s band, culminating in the album Red (1974). That album (and era) were heavily influenced by early Mahavishnu Orchestra, and has been cited as an influence on Kirk Cobain and other early grunge musicians. So that's a stronger link to metal, IMO. IMO metal and prog never really intersected until bands like Dream Theater came along in the late 80's. Final note: Before recording this album, KC were courted (pardon the pun) by the Moody Blues' management to join their new label. They turned them down because they knew it would mean getting the Moodies' production style on their debut. And if you think the drums weren't well served by *this* recording... the drums here sound clear and spacious by comparison.

finally my man listens to one of the best songs ever made!

Only discovered this a few months ago - The album is bloody brilliant! King Crimson should be much more celebrated!

For Metal origins you should listen to King Crimson One More Red Nightmare ,Magma De Futura , Death Politicians in my mind

Yeah so interesting. My own feeling about this track has evolved since the 70's when really i just was interested in Fripp's guitar distortion which comes from my love of rock and metal at the time. No one sounded like Fripp at this time. He seemed to me like he loved sometime to describe a juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness. But anyhow the further i get from those years, the more i simply hear jazz. Elements remind me of a lot of the 'free jazz' that used to hear in gigs in North London. And other elements as you say reminds me of big band jazz. Oh yes and the voice, maybe thats the closest in 'feel' to a Sabbath from back then. I wish you were covering the whole album

KC was ahead of their time, and was a foundation for many 70's rock bands. The musical textures, instruments, and mild Jazz influence seemed very "experimental" at the time. Thus, a very progressive rock sound. If you want early heavy metal, check out Steppenwolf. The words "heavy Metal thunder" were words used in their famous song "Born to be Wild".

King Crimson's " In The Court Of The Crimson King " came out in 1969 while "Black Sabbath" came out in 1970 . King Crimson offered wide range of proto-metal inspiration in "21st century Schizoid Man" . Black Sabbath picked up and developed the heaviest part of it and turned it into heavy metal.

It has been said that this song had a lot of influence on Heavy Metal bands in the 70s and 80s. But that album is more recognized as one of the first Prog Rock album.

The lyrical "key" is Vietnam

that weird ambient album/song intro reminds me meshuggah's future Breed machine intro as well as tool's intro to lateralus/the grudge.... :)

other proto-metal you should look into: Deep Purple, "Machinehead" - "Highway Star" key track, but the whole album is a good proto-metal example Blue Oyster Cult, "Tyranny and Mutation" - contains not only proto-metal, but porto-punk. Judas Priest, "Sad Wings of Destiny" - key tune "Victim of Changes" Common thread: all these bands had their roots in psychedlic rock

As someone who has played something very similar to a saxophone, and pretty much could have played one if I wanted, you can go from no fingers to all, except like one that keeps the instrument up (you use neck strap too) and in the right direction etc. It sounds complicated and difficult, but it's not like guitar, it's actually more like trumpet, as you got one grip with both hands and the fingers rest over the buttons. The initial learning curve is twofold. The blowing (haha), you need good lungs for this, and the blowing has a technique with a vibrating thin piece of wood, very different from trumpet. The other is memorizing what buttons does what, but it's pretty much in scale order. The higher the open holes are and the more of them, the higher the pitch. You pretty much just hold down one more button for each lower note. I believe there is also at least one button you can hold down to open a hole higher up, giving you higher pitch, and it works the same way there, that you'll want to keep every other button down for the lowest of those pitches and release to get higher pitch. Yeaaah.... I promise it's not that complicated. hehe The higher pitches are more tricky to play, usually, more technique.

It's interesting you'd mention the bass, because from late 50s and early 60s you had a band like The Shadows enjoying great success with what is called surf rock. There a thick guitar, or bass would be the center of the sound. This was before The Beatles, and they played with Cliff Richard, one of the most selling artists ever, even having a number one hit in UK in five consecutive decades. Anyway, it's definitely worth checking them out. I recommend Apache, Wonderful Land, or Atlantis... yeah, there's more.....

and the drums? Some of the most truly innovative for this style of music ever. Nothing since can truly compare. 53 years ago...Does that count for something? The Beatles were still making records..You could but this or Abbey Road. Some of us bought both.

There are 3 songs that I know, that are completely influenced by this. Black Sabbath Iron Man, Blue Oyster Cult Cities on Flame and Rush Working Man

Another great video man! February 1969 Pink Floyd "The Nile Song" Totally not typical Floyd but very very "Proto-metal" .... I think? And months even before Black Sabbath made it a real thing 😉

Yup. Crimson and Black Sabbath, it's hard to say which band has done more to influence heavy metal (or prog). Even in the 1990s Crimson was heavier than Pantera. Sabbath was brilliant and heavy. Crimson was beyond brilliant and very heavy at times, though they've been far more far-reaching in how they'd adopted the genres of the time.

This is considerred by many as the birth of Prog Rock/fusion. I've never heard this song or band being included in any heavy metal discussion. Maybe the vocals are a foreshadowing of heavy metal vocals but other than that this is pure prog. So yes your right it's not considered heavy metal, but I could see some eventual metal band members as teens in the 70's being influenced by King Crimson.

Hiii, jazz/metal or whatever I luved it! The chaotic musical phrasing was fascinating throughout. And the first thing that struck with the lyrics was horrific Vietnam war vibes…barbed wire, innocents, napalm(“I love the smell of napalm in the morning” Apocalypse Now came to mind). Chaos. Whatever genre it is it’s awesome! Cheeers❣️🤗🌿

Behold their Royal Awesomeness , you love it

In the court of the crimson king came out in 1969 and this track has what I like to call heavy jazz, although the main riff is very metal like. Black Sabbath wer signed in 1969 and first first single came out in 1970 followed shortly by their first album.

Bryan, Thx for creating this interesting commentary. I’m sure that some heavy metal artists may cite this as an influence. Although, from my perspective this is not heavy metal. From my early ‘70’s perspective when I first heard this I would have called this jazz rock fusion(rock-jazz fusion?). The prog rock category/label did not exist for me then. Now, yes, let’s put King Crimson into the prog rock category Amongst some of the aforementioned groups, a band that I would consider to be early heavy metal would be UFO. Anybody….can/is prog rock broken down into sub-genres?

Afaik, the song is not about a person specifically having schizophrenia, but a person that lives in the 21st century paranoid about a war that is coming or already happening. The album cover also shows the 21st century schizoid man with the crimson king on the back of the vinyl. Also the reason why it sounds like there are alot of instruments is that they layered multiple melotron recordings over each other. (altough maybe that was on the song "the court of the crimson king", not sure)

Thanks for your thoughtful reaction. This is more prog rock than it is metal.

If you want some early metal check "Futilist's Lament" by High Tide.

KG per se is not a percursor of metal. But their guitarrist, Robert Fripp, is.Fripp invented so many guitar technics, harmonies and what not that influenced so many genres. Remember Larks Tongues in Aspic? The guitar part? I think no one dommhad done that yet...a heavy distorted guitar, reminds heavy industrial rock. Later, Adrian Belew joined the band and he was a phenomenal guitarrist. Hope one day you listen anything with Fripp and Belew stringing.

Bob AND Toya live near me

i discovered this album when i was 13 years old. It's a masterpiece. 1969 baby!

You must listen to the next song in sequence to cool down

As far as the production is concerned, this was 1969 and they were wrestling with the limitations of 4 track recording. It was a time when studios were just learning to produce rock music. This was an extremely difficult record to record and mix. By the early 1970s, rock recording had gotten down being able to separate all of the instrumentation to the point where if you were listening on headphones, you could hear everything that was going on. Wonderful analysis of the music.

I wouldn't call this band heavy metal origins but we can see some influence on heavy metal for sure.

This is like 1969 no Heavy Metal,and Black Sabbath Drummer jazz guy when they speed up,you heard the classical side In BlackSabbath creates Doom

It's Prog, Bryan, with a strong Jazz Influence...BUT if one album of them should be in the Heavy Metal sources theme, it has to be their album "RED" (1974), and to start with the instrumental "Red", Period...I think no one had so much sharp as a razor saturated guitar sound like that at this time, a sound we'll find almost only as such (production wise too, it is ultra clean) in SCORPIONS's album "Love Drive" (1979) a few years later, for instance & of course in AC/DC before but differently. Besides, a song within a masterpiece of an album it is (& also full of genres influences & even with some pre-Hip Hop ideas as well in one song) should be covered by your channel absolutely, it is "Starless" a 12.25 mn piece which showcases all that the band could do & a complex & epic song too...a shock at first hear for me. This is one of the most inspirational, powerful & avant-garde albums I ever heard, and one of the few in which I felt "these guys can do absolutely do what they want, technically & emotionally", from the sweetest quiet moments to full fury unleashed....something you will find in "Starless" for instance.../PS: forgot to say for me BLACK SABBATH is not Heavy-Metal, but Hard-Rock, Heavy-Metal starts with JUDAS PRIEST imho & is "personified"in late seventies by for instance IRON MAIDEN (2 guitars playing at the same time, either one in rythm guitar, one is solo guitar, or both playing together same notes is Heavy Metal).

Discipline.