"In The Court of the Crimson King"

It's simply brilliant. This is the album that introduced me to the wonderful, colorful canon of KC and no matter how many times I listen to it, it never ceases to amaze me; I always hear something new in that album that catches me and makes me say, "That's GENIUS!"

That is absolutely my most favorite song. It makes me...emotional!

What's the line between album and box set? It's hard to tell with the deluge of (very welcome) releases from Discipline in the last 6 or 7 years.

If Absent Lovers doesn't count as a box set, then I'd have to go with that. Great setlist, and the 80s band really clicking. Sound is good for a live set.

If absent lovers is out of bounds, I'd have to go with three of a perfect pair. It was the album that got me to love King Crimson. I know that most people love Discipline most of all from the 80s, but I had to go back and buy that, and that was after months of just playing TOAPP to death. Just the intro with Adrian drawing out "sheeeee" It was like nothing I'd ever heard, and I was a talking heads fan.

the other side of the tape had in the court on it. I've come to appreciate it since, but it got ffwd'd through most of my freshman year in college, to go back to TOAPP.

Cat food a re-hash?NOT!Remember hearing it on the radio in the 1970's.That was some different sound after The Moody Blues.
I like their early works especially the Fripp and Mellotron treats,yum.It aged so much better thanELP or Yes out of that whole prog style.
Had to google it for the cover/songs.

Ahhh...so many choices, so many lineups, so much to hear. You only get one on the island, keep brooding... i think my intro to KC was In The Court of...

If the Crimson catalog was only done by ONE lineup, this would be an easier choice...
I chose RED, and I think I'll tell you all why...
....Bruford/Levin/Fripp/Belew is probably the BEST BAND, the late 60's outfits set the tone for all the others, and the recent setups from THRAK up to NOW, have put together some really EDGY stuff..But the best MATERIAL seems to come from the Wetton/Bruford/Cross/Fripp combo....and RED is the album that does the best job of getting its POINT ACROSS...the other two albums have songs on them that are ABSOLUTELY TOP SHELF...like both parts of Larks' Tongues, Easy Money, Exiles, The Mincer, Lament, and FRACTURE (one of the top 2 or 3 BEST that lineup produced, I believe), but none of them find their way from START TO FINISH as smoothly as RED...And there are details to the way that album is PLAYED that aren't on the others: That RIDE cymbal that really cuts thru the mix (especially on RED NIGHTMARE), the really heavy BUILD UP at the end of STARLESS that revolves around that BASS PATTERN(overall, I regard that song the SAME WAY I do Fracture), some of the most STRAIGHTFORWARD (but effective) playing Fripp ever recorded, and Wetton's sings on this album with more CLARITY and AUTHORITY than on the other 2.