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A Caring Man Seemingly a hostile landscape, the world can be an overwhelmingly terrifying prospect to think of: famine, disease, war, genocide, and nuclear catastrophe. History has displayed these atrocities that man can cause onto itself as reality. It would be a lie to say that we have entered a new age free of these acts. As our modern world appears to grow more imperialist, corrupted by greed, and seemingly unchangeable by the day, it’s difficult to not to feel a sense of melancholy, hopelessness, and disillusionment with the world. These feelings are all present in, In the Court of the Crimson King (CCK) by King Crimson. CCK is a prog rock album that tackles these heavy themes of melancholy, hopelessness, and disillusionment, with genius musicianship, brilliant lyrics, and an emotionally intelligent perspective. It is with these traits that In the Court of the Crimson King tackles these nuances of worldly existentialism and provides a way to get past them. Released in 1969, CCK features five tracks at 43 minutes long. It was released at the height of anti-Vietnam war sentiment, amid the cold war’s nuclear testing, and when imperialism was on the rise. Being produced in London with guitarist/mellotron player Rober Fripp, bassist Greg Lake, drummer Michael Giles, and vocalist/saxophonist Ian Mcdonald; CCK was recorded in just ten days and was released to commercial success with mixed critical reviews. Today however, the album is touted as a classic within the prog rock genre. With its themes being portrayed by following the loose narrative of the “schizoid man”. A man who’s been desensitized and broken into pieces by his environment. The schizoid man represents when a man has been stripped of himself and left with only his body. CCK tracks this schizoid man through desensitization, apathetic observation of the world, despair, revitalization, and finally, a
battle. It is in these story beats that the themes of despair, hopelessness, and disillusionment can be found, and the cautionary tale of the schizoid man be told. Each of the five songs on the album represents an arc for the schizoid man. The first two both represent feelings of melancholy and disillusionment with the world. To begin, the first song, “21st Century Schizoid Man” is his creation. Opening with an eerily quiet droning, the song thumps to life as guitar, saxophone, and drums come center stage. Lyrics soon follow with, “cat’s foot iron claw, neurosurgeons scream for more, at paranoia’s poison door, 21st^ century schizoid man.” These short phrases evoke a feeling of insanity that allow the listener to produce the imagery of clawing blades, bloody surgery, and the descent into paranoia. The instrumentation matches this descent perfectly with its proto-metal guitars, erratic drumming, distorted vocals, and a piercing saxophone. The song permits for two more lyrical verses, both following the same rhyme scheme as the first. Both portray the man's desensitization in different ways. In the second verse, “innocents raped with napalm fire” is a clear reference to the Vietnam war; In the last verse, “poet’s starving, children bleed, nothing he’s got he really needs” is referencing western society in contrast to lesser developed regions. All three verses end in “21st century schizoid man” clearly denoting how the schizoid man is created. The second song on the album, “I Talk to the Wind” represents an apathetic observation of the world from the schizoid man’s perspective. Touting the lyrics, “I'm on the outside looking inside, what do I see? much confusion, disillusion” as well as, “I talk to the wind, the wind does not hear, the wind cannot hear”. It is from these lyrics that the schizoid man is portrayed as a tired observer without power against the noise that is the world. Featuring soft woodwind instruments, calm restrained drums, and a humming piccolo in the back of the mix, the instrumentation supports the lyrics in its relaxed apathy. This provides a stark contrast to the first song’s horrified mania. These two songs
corruption, as she is, “sailing on the wind in a milk white gown,” once again, referring to the world as the wind. The song then follows the end of this verse with quiet rumblings of instruments. A simple tom hit here, a short guitar passage there, for ten minutes this continues. This represents the schizoid man realizing humanity is still alive and should be fought for. The song ends with a bell chyme as it leads into the last track on CCK, “The Court of The Crimson King”. The last song on the album and easily the most beautiful yet tragic. The instrumental on this track features the wide mellotron, an overdubbed vocal layer creating a choir affect, thumping drum fills, electric and acoustic guitars, and a piccolo solo. The story within this song is structured as the schizoid man fighting in and around the court of the crimson king. The crimson king, embodying what it is to be evil. However, the schizoid man yet waits “outside the pilgrim’s door with insufficient schemes,” proving that, though he is ill-equipped for this fight, he is going to continue forward. Referencing the schizoid man walking on “a road, horizons change, [as] the tournament’s begun,” and with this second line in the song, it is clear the fight has commenced. The rest of the song is this tournament playing out over the course of ten epic minutes. However, the song ends with the lyric, “the yellow jester does not play, but gently pulls the strings, and smiles as the puppets dance in the court of the crimson king.” The yellow jester representing a higher power who enjoys the struggle of the schizoid man as well as his fight against the crimson king. However, this does not mean that the schizoid man has been manipulated by some yellow jester the entire time. Each song is written from his perspective and because the jester is smiling at the plight of the schizoid man. It can be gleaned that the schizoid man failed in his attempt to change the world and feels as though his life is a joke. It is with these last two songs that the tragedy of the schizoid man has been revealed. One man cannot bear the burden of the world and try to fix it. For it leaves him insane and without himself.
All in all, In the Court of the Crimson King proves itself to be more than just an album with good music. It has something very important to say about the role of the individual within the context of a global scale. Although the world makes it easy to become melancholic, hopeless, and disillusioned with it, an individual cannot solve the world's problems. Trying to bear the weight of the world is a task no one person is fit for. It may be easy to identify problems in the world, and maybe even come up with solutions for them. But a single person has no way to change the world on a whim. The reason the moonchild was happy was not because she was young, it was because she went with the wind. Yet at some point we all recognize that there is a way to live in a better world; we all leave the wind eventually. To stay there is to stay ignorant. This album materializes what it means to go against the wind in order to change it: hopelessness, melancholy, and disillusion are all symptoms of caring about the world. But there is a healthy amount of caring to be had. This is how In the Court of the Crimson King deals with worldly existentialism. Through an emotionally intelligent perspective, brilliant lyrics, and genius musicianship. In this way, In the Court of the Crimson King proves itself a beautiful piece of art that leaves the listener with a very factual message: it is not the responsibility of the individual to solve the world’s problems, one must help themself, before they can help others.
