1970 KING CRIMSON RARE UK ISLAND Mellotron Psych Prog

$

89

RARE British vinyl pressing on pink rimmed ISLAND records

            KING CRIMSON

                    LIZARD        

...UK - pink rimmed ISLAND - ILPS 9141 

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IN TOP M- condition, this old & scarce BRITISH vintage vinyl edition with laminated gatefold sleeve on the pink rimmed ISLAND Records label....

"LIZARD" was highly avant-garde and demanding of its audience when it was released in 1970, and it remains a powerfully unique, almost disquieting listening experience to this day. While IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON's sardonic "Cat Food" may have hinted at the path about to be explored, nothing could have fully prepared fans for the truly bizarre, almost eerie "colours" of abstract "sound paintings" like LIZARD's first three songs, "Cirkus," "Indoor Games," and "Happy Family." Much of the credit for the feel of these tracks must be accorded to new vocalist Gordon Haskell, who had supplied the almost ethereal vocals for Poseidon's lovely "Cadence and Cascade." With Greg Lake departed for ELP, Haskell gets the space to reveal a voice of power and depth, that is by turns intimate, theatrical, scornful, fey and raving. The end of "Indoor Games" finds him cackling like a madman, but the delicately pretty "Lady of the Dancing Water" (the disc's most immediately accessible song) sees him don the guise of a sensitive poet-troubadour, paying court to his lady-love on the bank of a laughing stream. The second "half" of the disc (the old LP's "side two") is given to the title suite. The first section of this MASTERFUL three-part song-cycle features Jon Anderson of Yes on vocals, providing yet another savory flavour for LIZARD's exotic musical mélange. There is less of the jazzy experimentation heard on previous tracks; the direction here is more conventionally "progressive rock," with grandiose mellotrons, "courtly" subject-matter, and "classically"-oriented arrangements -- at this point almost a welcome respite from (or counter-balance for) the overt strangeness of the first half. The final installment, "Big Top," fades up to repeat the "Cirkus" theme, before diminishing hauntingly away, thus neatly "framing" this unique work of art. (Indeed, as art, this album is the total package -- the cover artwork is breathtaking, and the Pete Sinfield lyrics, with lines such as "Night, her sable dome scattered with diamonds," are some of the best poetry he has ever written.)

LIZARD may be an acquired taste, but it has stood the test of time as a lustrous example of early progressive rock at its most inventive.

• 1. Cirkus(including Entry of the chameleons) (6:28)
  2. Indoor games (5:41)
  3. Happy family (4:16)
  4. Lady of the dancing water (2:44)
  5. Lizard:
  a) Prince Rupert awakes (4:36)
  b) Bolero - The peacock's tale (6:39)
  c) The battle of the glass tears (10:58)
  i) dawn song
  ii) last skirmish
  iii) Prince Rupert's lament
  d) Big top (1:13)

CONDITION: The cover is clean M- very solid,

The vinyl is glossy smooth clean M-  

keeper!

 A  GREAT ADDITION  TO ANYONES COLLECTIBLES!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for more & more of similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record