KCII Islands

It is no exaggeration to say that the winter of 1970 was one of the bleakest periods in King Crimson’s turbulent history. Even Fripp himself wasn’t sure if even he would continue with the band.

After months of struggle, a new Crimson line-up at last took shape. Firstly when Keith Emerson suggested to Fripp that one of his lodgers, Ian Wallace, fill the vacant drum stool. And secondly, when newly recruited singer Boz Burrell picked up a bass guitar that had been left behind by Rick Kemp who had quit KC to join Steeleye Span. It still seems astonishing that, after auditioning countless bass players, Crimson should finally settle on someone who couldn't play at all. But it was agreed that Burrell should be given a week to see how things worked out. "We had had plenty of competent professional musicians come along to audition but they didn't have the feel. Boz felt the bass parts while he was singing, whereas the musicians could play it but couldn't feel it,” Fripp told the NME's, Nick Logan.

In just eleven weeks, Burrell was playing sufficiently well for the new quartet of Fripp, Collins, Wallace and Burrell to go out on a short UK tour, preceded, in April 1971, by four warm gigs at the Zoom Club in Frankfurt, later released as part of the King Crimson Collectors Club.

King Crimson in 1971

The bulk of the studio album “Islands” was recorded in between Crimson’s gigs at Command Studios during September with most of the overdubbing and mixing completed in early October. “It is difficult to convey the level of exhaustion during this last week” explains Fripp. “I’d get home about 3-4 in the morning from the studio, pull out a pencil and write orchestral parts for Song Of The Gulls, before getting to bed anywhere between six and eight. Up around ten to leave for the studio for noon. The final night began around 18:00 and never ended for me — Peter bailed in the early hours and I carried on. Then the van arrived after lunch. I got in, fell asleep, we drove to the first show of the tour, and I woke up shortly before we arrived.” 

The final night that Fripp refers to was the same evening that overdubbing on Sailor’s Tale was finished. “The solo was, and is, from some other world” notes Fripp. “Technically, the right hand could only have been developed by someone familiar with the banjo..Other references would include Sonny Sharrock (notably with Herbie Mann) and the idea of Peter Townshend’s flailing…But none of this seems relevant somehow. Late at night, faced with a solo to be played, for which there was no solo available, something happened: a young guitar player was confronted by necessity. And then something remarkable happened.”  The solo makes a break with the symphonic and jazz-inspired leanings of previous albums, clawing its way into a spikier, fractious metal-edged territory. It’s the sound of Fripp hammering out a new map of where he wanted to explore next.   

There are many other standout moments on this musically diverse album; Formentera Lady’s laid-back sunny dreamscapes with lyrics inspired by Sinfield’s recent holidays in the Balearic islands; the free-jazz tussle within The Letters’ chilling melodrama and heavy chorus; the emotional reverie of the title track; the skewed, mutant blues guitar licks and raucous sax of Ladies of the Road, featuring a fine vocal from Boz, heroically singing into a studio fire bucket as he suffered from a raging hangover.

Islands

Numerous live recordings by this line-up have been released. "Earthbound", a live album of this group final tour in the Spring of 1972, was possibly the first official bootleg album in rock, using cassette recordings taken from the mixing desk. At the time it received much criticism die to the record’s sound quality, but it has subsequently become a cult classic. Other live shows have followed through the King Crimson Collectors Club, DGMLive and the extensive collection in the Sailors’ Tale boxed set.


KEY ALBUMS

Just For You
ARTICLES

Managing America.

Dee Anthony was King Crimson’s heavyweight manager in the US...

MORE

The Earthbound Tour on Nugs.

18 concerts from 1972 are now available to download, stream...

MORE

The Academy of Music, New York, 1972.

Going live today, two shows from the same day in New York Ci...

MORE

Remembering Ian Wallace

OTD in 2007 Ian passes away

MORE

Islands at 51

Celebrating 51 years of Islands

MORE

Pictures of two cities

New Stormy Selection

MORE

Mr.Stormy's Monday Selection

21st Century Sailor's Tale

MORE

Happy Birthday Peter Sinfield

Ex-KC lyricist birthday today

MORE

Islands Complete

Studio sessions for KC's 4th studio album

MORE

Islands at 50

KC's 4th studio LP notches up half a century

MORE

Ladies instrumental

Stormy's alternative mix

MORE

Boz and Islands

Remembering the Islands band

MORE

Earthbound at 49

Controversial live album celebrated

MORE

Crimson covered

KC71 in latest Prog mag

MORE

Love Islands

Mister Stormy's Monday Selection

MORE

Formentera edit

Stormy's Monday Selection

MORE

Happy Birthday, Mel

KC sax man 73 today

MORE

KC - The best of British?

Crimson commentary chronicles band history

MORE

Keith Tippett RIP

KC collaborator dies at 72

MORE

Earthbound released 48 years ago

Live album revisited

MORE
DIARIES

BampB Quite Acceptable Chagford Devon

08.10

B&B Quite Acceptable, Chagford, Devon.<...

MORE
DOWNLOADS

Academy Of Music New York

King Crimson
Academy Of Music
12 Feb 1972

MORE

Kemp Coliseum Orlando United States

King Crimson
Kemp Coliseum
27 Feb 1972

MORE

KC 50 7 Ladies of the Road (Remix)

King Crimson
DGMHQ Soundworld 1
22 Feb 2019

MORE

Auditorium Cavea

King Crimson
Auditorium Cavea
22 Jul 2018

MORE

Formentera Lady (Instrumental Edit)

King Crimson
DGM Sound World I
2 Nov 2020

MORE

The Barn Peoria United States

King Crimson
The Barn
10 Mar 1972

MORE

Command Studios Prelude

King Crimson
Command Studios
2 Oct 1971

MORE

PNC Arts Centre

King Crimson
PNC Art Centre
4 Sep 2021

MORE

The Elements 2014 Tour Box

King Crimson
DGM Sound World I
1 Sep 2014

MORE

Summit Studios Denver United States

King Crimson
Summit Studios
12 Mar 1972

MORE

St Augustine Ampitheatre

King Crimson
St. Augustine Amphitheatre
24 Jul 2021

MORE

Orchard Hall

King Crimson
Orchard Hall
28 Nov 2018

MORE

Ladies of the Road

King Crimson
DGM Sound World I
12 Nov 2002

MORE

Edinburgh Playhouse

King Crimson
Edinburgh Playhouse
13 Nov 2018

MORE

Orpheum Boston United States

King Crimson
Orpheum
27 Mar 1972

MORE

Auditorium Miami Beach United States

King Crimson
Auditorium
25 Feb 1972

MORE

KC 50 25 Islands (Jakko Jakszyk Vocal)

King Crimson
DGMHQ Soundworld 1
28 Jun 2019

MORE

Hyde Park London England

King Crimson
Hyde Park
4 Sep 1971

MORE

Command Studios Checking Levels Ladies Take 1 Jam Ladies Takes 2 To 4

King Crimson
Command Studios
25 Aug 1971

MORE

The Egg Albany 2

King Crimson
The Egg
9 Nov 2017

MORE
ARTISTS

Robert Fripp

MORE

Mel Collins

MORE

Boz Burrell

MORE

Ian Wallace

MORE

Peter Sinfield

MORE
PHOTO GALLERY