New Observations about In the Court of the Crimson King

I think that this essay is proving to be a great opportunity for me to exercise my current knowledge of prog as well as to develop new observations. Yesterday, I wrote that I told my professor that if he's going to listen to In the Court of the Crimson King, he should listen to the first track while studying the cover artwork. I explained that the artwork is basically an illustration of the first track. Let me put it this way: If the first track had a face, the cover art would be its face. I remember the story Greg Lake told when I saw him back in 2012 about the day he and the rest of the original King Crimson members saw the album cover for the first time. Greg described it like this: When they saw the image, they knew that they were staring directly into the face of the Schizoid Man. That's a powerful idea to me.

I even gave the album a complete listen last night on my turntable to make sure that it was a good album to write about in my essay. My opinion about it has not changed: It's too important to not write about, or at least mention. Now that I think of it, I can't name a book, article, or documentary about prog that doesn't mention that album at least once. To do so would be to skip a landmark moment in prog history. It would be like not talking about Dark Side of the Moon or Fragile. That's just my opinion.

Anyway, while I was listening to "21st Century Schizoid Man," I started to think something I hadn't thought of before. Whenever I describe the artwork, I always say something along the lines of it being the face of fear and terror. The lyrics to the song never made much sense to me and they still don't really today. However, I began to think the following: When we are afraid of something or terrified of something, more often than not, we don't think clearly when we speak. When I look at the lyrics to "Schizoid Man" I start to think it sounds like they were written by someone (or at least from the perspective of someone) who was afraid and not thinking clearly. Now, that's not to say that I think the lyrics are poor in quality. I think they're very interesting, mainly because they don't seem to make much sense. I think about them almost the same way I think about Yes lyrics. They are kind of like their own language. It's a language that not many can understand. The words may not make much sense, but they fit well with the music.

3/7/16

I met with my English professor this afternoon to talk about my prog essay. He's really excited about it and can't wait to read it. I have to say that I am too. I initially brought my books about prog with me for my own amusement. I never thought I would actually get to use them for an assignment.

We talked for a while. We discussed when the beginning of prog was, landmark albums, and specific songs/pieces that I feel truly help define what prog is and why it was created. I told him that it was sort of a rebellious movement, a deviation from the normal 3-minute pop songs everyone was used to. when we talked about landmark albums, one that came up quite a bit was In the Court of the Crimson King. He knew about King Crimson after reading my first essay but didn't know their music. I said it was a wonderful album, but part of what makes that album so special is the artwork. Without giving too much away, I basically told him that the artwork was an image of fear. If fear had a face, that is what it would look like. He thought that sounded really interesting and asked me to email him the names of some of the albums I was considering writing about in my essay. I chose Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson, Fragile by Yes, and Nursery Cryme by Genesis. I chose Sgt. Pepper as one of them because I have noticed, both in the books I have read and in the documentaries I have watched, that Sgt. Pepper is frequently referred to as the first real "prog" album, or even the first concept album. I also attached a jpg of the artwork for In the Court of the Crimson King. In the email, I urged him to listen to the first track on the album while studying the artwork in order to truly capture the emotions of the image.

I'm looking forward to hearing his thoughts on this.

3/5/16

I can't believe I forgot to mention this in my last entry! For my final essay for English class, we have to write about a concept of our choosing. My professor said it would be best if we wrote about something that interested us. I emailed him asking if it would be ok if I wrote about the concept of progressive music. He wrote back saying that would be a great idea.

I happen to have with me some books that I brought originally just to read on my own time. I never thought I would actually get to use them for an assignment, so I'm really happy about that. They're both written by Will Romano, interestingly enough: Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock, and Prog Rock FAQ. Both of these books are great and really informative, so I think they will work really well for this essay. I spent tonight looking through them and taking notes based on suggestions my professor made as to what I should focus on. He suggested writing about historical aspects, cultural significance, and musical analysis. I'm having a little trouble finding information on cultural significance, but I gathered a lot of information about the other two aspects from my two books as well as from a few documentaries.

I'm meeting with my professor on Monday to talk more about this. I'm really looking forward to it.

Week 9 Update

I'm sorry I haven't written anything in well over a month and a half. Can't believe it's already March and the middle of Week 9 of the winter quarter. Finals begin next Saturday for me. I have two on that day. Terrible day to have a final (let alone two!) if you ask me. We barely get any time to prepare for them.

Anyway, a lot has happened since I last wrote here. Firstly, I added a few more shows to my concert calendar for the rest of the year. On June 12 (on the one year anniversary of the Steven Wilson show in Anaheim!) I will be seeing Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills with my friend Xhana. I'm really looking forward to that because I haven't seen Justin since 2013 when I saw The Moody Blues at the NOKIA Theater in L.A.. Plus The Canyon Club is so close to my house. This will be my first time driving to a concert by myself. I've been on the freeway that goes to the venue many times in the past, so it's a pretty easy drive. I noticed that the Anderson Ponty Band will also be playing there in May I believe, but I saw them in November, so I'm ok with missing that.

A couple other acts are said to be coming to LA in October: Ian Anderson with his new rock opera called Jethro Tull and the Anderson, Rabin,Wakeman project. I think the statement that ARW will be in LA in October was just a rumor, but if it's true, I would definitely see that over Ian. From the reviews I read about the Jethro Tull rock opera, people either loved it or hated it. The most common complaint I read was the condition of Ian's voice which, I will admit, is not what it used to be. However, I will also say that the good reviews drastically outweighed the bad ones, so there's that too. I don't know. We'll figure it out when we find out for sure when the ARW shows are.

On February 20, I saw my first concert of the year: Al Stewart at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. He played two nights there, both of which were sold out soon after my Dad got tickets for the second show. It was a Saturday night so it was perfectly timed. It was a nice guitar shop. Business hours for the shop were closed so we couldn't look at any of the instruments, but they had a lot to offer. It saddens me that these types of places are so hard to find these days, with places like Guitar Center putting them out of business. Anyway, Al is 70 years old. However, I was blown away by how great his voice sounded. Literally, his voice sounds just like it did 40 years ago. Nothing about it has changed. That's amazing, considering that I've noticed that the voices of a number of older singers have reduced in quality. But Al's voice has held up amazingly. As expected, he played most of his biggest songs, like "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages." I think he played about half of the Year of the Cat album. After the show, I picked up an Al Stewart Broadway Hotel poster as well as a CD copy of his 2005 album A Beach Full of Shells. I got both of them signed by him and talked to him for a bit. He was really nice to me fortunately, and said that I had the look of a singer songwriter. I found that interesting. No one had ever said that to me before. I realize that one could probably say that to anyone, but I still appreciated hearing it.

This July, I will be traveling to Portland, Oregon to spend some time with my friend Dylan. He's been getting me into the music of Phish since the middle of last year. I've only heard a couple of their albums but I think they're a really good contemporary American prog band. Dylan texted me one day telling me that Phish were playing two nights this July at his favorite concert venue, The Gorge Amphitheater in Washington. From the pictures I've seen, it looks like a really nice outdoor venue. Outdoor venues are generally not my favorite, but Dylan insists that this one is unlike any other, so I will take his word for it. Anyway, on the Phish website, fans can enter for a chance to win what are called Phish "lottery tickets." If you win, you get these cool ticket stubs to the show you're going to that have interesting artwork printed on them. If you lose, then you have to hope that you're lucky enough to get tickets off of regular ticket retail websites before they sell out. Apparently, when general tickets went on sale, Dylan told me that it took less than 2 minutes for them to sell out. We got lucky with those lottery tickets. I have my plane ticket now and I'm really looking forward to this.

My record collection is continuing to grow every week. I try not to overdo it with the vinyl, as I only have so much space in my dorm. I've really been interested in exploring more of Stevie Wonder's albums. I managed to find an original copy of Songs in the Key of Life last month. That was really cool, considering that original Stevie Wonder vinyl hasn't been the easiest for me to find, at least not at the stores I've been to. On CD, I also got Music of My Mind. Yesterday, Dylan sent me what he calls a "rare" Stevie album called Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta. I gave it a listen last night. It features Stevie's first wife Syreeta Wright entirely on vocals. If Dylan hadn't told me, and I had just happened to hear a song off that album, I probably never would have guessed it was a Stevie album. So far, I like all of the Stevie Wonder albums I have heard. I look forward to hearing more soon.

Aside from Stevie, I've also been getting more familiar with David Bowie's music. I'm liking Blackstar more and more each time I listen to it. I've also heard Diamond Dogs, Hunky Dory, Space Oddity, Heathen, and "Heroes." There's still a ton of music left to go through by him, but I have gathered that he really was a special part of the music world. He's been gone for almost two months. Hard to believe. Time really does just keep on going, no matter what happens. I just keep reminding myself, that his body is what's gone. He is still very much alive through the music. That's what makes music (and any kind of art, really) so special. Even long after the artists are gone, the art doesn't die with them. In this way, the artist lives on.

R.I.P. David Bowie

Yesterday morning, a little after 9:30, I received the following text: "David Bowie has died." However, knowing that people on the Internet have been known to make up stories about celebrities dying, I had to see the news form an official source before I believed it. I've seen it happen to people like Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones. Unfortunately, on the official David Bowie Facebook page, the following statement was made. :

"January 10 2016 - David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief."

So there was no way to deny it. The news was in fact true. Like most people, I was utterly shocked.  I had no idea that he had been struggling with cancer, but I understand that he kept the illness 

under wraps. Ironically, on January 10, I casually went to the local record store near campus and bought a CD of his new album Blackstar. Again, I didn't have the slightest clue that Bowie had cancer. I just bought the album out of pure interest. I never really dove into Bowie's massive discography like my dad did, but that doesn't mean I wasn't interested.

I gave Blackstar a complete listen last night, only to realize how dark it actually was. Reading the lyrics to some of the songs, particularly on the title track and the song "Lazarus," I realized that this was Bowie's way of saying goodbye to the world. I found myself completely inspired by that. Instead of dwelling on his illness, he decided to take all his strength and put out one last album for the world to enjoy. According to a statement made by someone who worked with him, he kept fighting until the very end. That's a true artist to me. Throughout the rest of the day, my Facebook feed was full of tributes posted by friends and many of my favorite artists, including Steven Wilson, Adrian Belew, Brian May, and Rick Wakeman.

David Bowie had a massive impact on many musicians I look up to. He was one of the first Arcade Fire fans, and even bought copies of their first album to give to his friends. Brandon Flowers of The Killers told a story when I saw him at the Wiltern last September about the day he heard Bowie's song "Changes." This was the song that inspired him to start a band that would eventually become The Killers. Brandon talked about how much he enjoyed albums like Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. 

I admired Bowie's constant deviation from the norm. He taught me and many others that weird is cool. Every album he put out had its own unique sound to it. He was not just a performer. He was a spaceman, a glam rock king, a Thin White Duke, a goblin king, and many other things that I can't recall at the moment. We will miss you, Ziggy!

R.I.P. David Bowie

First Day of the New Quarter

Had my first class of the second quarter today. It was an English class. This class is focusing more on writing essays that allow you to develop your own voice, which I like. It also focuses on analyzing messages found in music, movies, and various novels. The first thing we analyzed today was a song. That song turned out to be Another Brick in the Wall Part 2! I was thrilled for that. for our first essay, I need to write about a particular memory that had a significant impact on me as a person. It has to be an event that took place over the course of a few hours, and something that resonated with me in a very special way. I instantly thought of the King Crimson concert I went to, since that night taught me the importance of embracing the moment in a world full of distractions. This is going to be fun!

New Year Message

Well, friends, it's the last day of 2015. It's time for me to reflect back on this year in terms of what happened musically. First of all, I think it's important to acknowledge that we lost a number of people in the music world, notably B.B. King, Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Chris Squire of Yes. These losses were quite shocking and had a major impact on the music world

On a more positive note, there were many good records that were released this year, like The Desired Effect by Brandon Flowers, Hand Cannot Erase by Steven Wilson and, best of all, Rattle That Lock by David Gilmour. I've got about five shows I plan to go to next year (two of them being David Gilmour shows), the longest wait being for Marillion on 22 October.

This year, I saw the most concerts I have ever seen in one year, the grand total being 9. All were worth it, but the absolute best was Brandon Flowers at the Wiltern in September. 2016 looks like it's going to be an eventful one for concerts, as many artists are going on tour.

I also gained more new members to this group than I ever have since I started it. Thanks so much to everyone who asked to join. I really hope you are enjoying it. I was hoping to make it to just 100, so I certainly wasn't expecting to reach 118 members, but I am so grateful that I did. I look forward to sharing more concert experiences with all of you as the year unfolds as well as sharing my thoughts on any new albums that I listen to and making new friends.

Happy New Year prog buddies! Here's to a great 2016! :)