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Indie rock and new wave hits reimagined as pulpy 1950s ephemera


 
There’s a fellow out there named Todd Alcott who has put together an enchanting series of prints reimagining popular songs by some of the most vital musical artists of the 1970s through the 1990s as various graphical items mostly dating from before the rock era—e.g., pulpy paperbacks, “men’s life” mags, lurid sci-fi posters, and so on. They’re quite wonderful and you can procure them for yourself in his Etsy store. Each print will run you £19.78 (about $26) for the smallest size and prices escalate from there.

One endearing thing about Alcott’s images is that they are so clearly driven by the most beloved albums in his own collection—and his taste is excellent! So he transforms multiple songs by King Crimson, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, the Stones, David Bowie while also hitting a bunch of other faves (NIN, Nirvana, Fiona Apple) just the one time.

Alcott told Ayun Halliday of Open Culture that “these are the artists I love, I connect to their work on a deep level, and I try to make things that they would see and think ‘Yeah, this guy gets me.’”

My favorite thing about these pop culture mashups is Alcott’s insistence (usually) on working in as many of the song’s lyrics into the art as possible. That does admittedly make for busy compositions but usually in a way that is very true to the pulp novel conventions or whatnot.

According to his Etsy site, Alcott is also available for custom jobs should inspiration strike you! Here
 
More of these marvelous images after the jump…...
 

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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10.10.2018
08:57 am
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In the Court of the Talkshow King: Doc Severinsen covered King Crimson (in 1970!) and it’s amazing
05.02.2017
12:08 pm
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At one point—a very, very long point, several decades to be sure—Doc Severinsen would have needed no introduction, as the longtime bandleader (and frequent co-host) of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was the very definition of a “household name.” These days, though, there might be a bit of a generation gap when it comes to the trumpet player once well known for his loud and flashy fashion sense who led the NBC Orchestra until Carson retired in 1992 and turned the show over to Jay Leno. These days Severinsen is still going strong, and at the ripe old of age of 89 still plays a concert per week and I reckon that there are still tens of millions of Americans who could pick Doc out of a police line-up if asked. For a guy who hasn’t been on TV regularly for over 25 years, he’s still pretty famous.

Less well-known is his 1970 LP Doc Severinsen’s Closet in which the man who was many times called “the greatest trumpet player in the world” by Johnny Carson stretched out on a particularly left-field cover version of… King Crimson’s mighty 1969 prog classic “In The Court of the Crimson King.” And he actually kills it!
 

 
We posted this song once a long time ago and one of our readers called it to the attention of King Crimson leader Robert Fripp, asking if he knew about it:

From Mr. Fripp via email: “this is a well-known classic!” Apparently, it was licensed legally and Mr. Fripp enjoys it.

Hear Doc Severinsen’s epic cover version of King Crimson’s “In the Court of the Crimson King” after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.02.2017
12:08 pm
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King Crimson ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’ album cover reimagined in LEGO bricks
06.29.2016
01:05 pm
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Okay, so I found this extra special neato LEGO rendition of King Crimson’s iconic In the Court of the Crimson King by Deviant Art artist James O’Connell. Sadly there’s zero information on the site about how he created this fun piece. I wish there was a step-by-step guide or something on how to make it yourself. One of these would definitely tie the front rooms in my house together nicely.

Since I can’t own this LEGO masterpiece, I did find some other perhaps unexpected King Crimson items. Why they exist? I don’t know. But here they are, anyway. I put the links of where to purchase under each item.


A King Crimson shower curtain for $37.99 found here.
 

King Crimson pillowcases found here.
 

King Crimson umbrella found here.
 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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06.29.2016
01:05 pm
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King Crimson holy grail: Lost 1970 TV performance of ‘Cat Food’ found!
01.12.2015
03:30 pm
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This March 1970 Top of the Pops performance by King Crimson circa their In the Wake of Poseidon album was long thought to have been wiped by the BBC, but now some 45 years later, it’s turned up in black & white, taken from a Swiss-German TV series that often used TOTP clips called Hits a Go-Go.

Doing a lip-sync to their “Cat Food” single, this is the sole known footage of Greg Lake, Keith Tippett, Michael Giles, Robert Fripp and (a sharply dressed) Peter Giles together onstage.

To say that this is a King Crimson fan’s “holy grail” is a bit of an understatement, I should think!
 

 
Via WFMU/Darren Lock’s Other Channel

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.12.2015
03:30 pm
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‘Frontiers of Progressive Rock’: Five incredible jams with ELP, King Crimson, Yes, and others


 
Lordy lord, do I love footage from the old Beat Club program from Germany in the early 1970s. (The show later turned into Musikladen). Last week we brought you some smokin’ hard rock jams including MC5, Alice Cooper, and the New York Dolls that originally appeared on Beat Club. This week we move onto prog—and the results are nearly as sublime.

This compilation is known as Frontiers of Progressive Rock (and was originally released on a Laserdisc), features five excellent prog bands in their prime, just fucking shit up. Yes, Soft Machine, the Nice, King Crimson, and the biggest seller of them all, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer are each represented with an early gem, and all of them just go to town. My favorite moment comes when Keith Emerson, dressed in glittery blue and green, hurls himself over his second organ and then rocks it back and forth from behind before playing a few notes from the “wrong” side.
 

 
I also really love how much of a premium Beat Club placed on ridiculous video effects. The ELP number has oscilloscope readings projected onto the back wall, whereas the entire Soft Machine number is enring’d in an orange halo on the screen. Meanwhile, during the Yes song a kaleidoscope effect is used wherein the center of the image is “reflected” around itself—you have to see it to get it. For some reason the Yes track incorporates a large revolving head suspended over an old-fashioned chair of some sort…. anyway, I love the intensity with which the bands play their songs, I love the varied instrumentation (violin, saxophone, etc.), and I love the acid-freakout visuals. If you’ve got nothing else going on, I recommend turning this on and finding a pharmaceutical or two to help you enjoy the day.
 

 

Track listing:
Emerson, Lake & Palmer: “Knife Edge”
King Crimson: “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic”
The Nice: “Hang On To a Dream”
Soft Machine: “Composition Based On 3 Tunes” (Medley of “Out-Bloody-Rageous,” “Eamonn Andrews,” and “All White”)
Yes: “Yours Is No Disgrace”

 

Posted by Martin Schneider
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10.31.2014
11:54 am
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King Crimson: Incredibly heavy, yet somehow still gravity-defying live set from 1974
03.10.2014
05:11 pm
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As there is precious little live footage of the pre-80s incarnations of King Crimson—Beat Club, the poor quality fragment from Hyde Park in 1969 and the Central Park 1974 clip, not much—this extended 29-minute set from France’s Melody television show is a treasure (even with all of those goofy video effects, in fact, I think they enhance it nicely).

The line-up is Bill Bruford, John Wetton, David Cross and Robert Fripp.

1 - Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part II
2 - The Night Watch
3 - Lament
4 - Starless

Larks’ Tongues here is frighteningly good.

The quality is great, but it’s even better on the deluxe 40th Anniversary Series edition of Red that came out in 2009. That release, with Steve Wilson’s insane 5.1 surround mix of the album (done with Robert Fripp’s participation), sounds like a jet plane lifting off inside your living room skull. Red happens to be one of the heaviest rock albums of all time. Crank it up loud enough and the sonic power of that album can blow you away like a feather in the wind. Most King Crimson albums I find to be a bit spotty (some of them are really spotty, in fact) but when they lock into a serious groove, like on Red’s unfuckingbelievable title cut, well it’s awe-inspiring.

If you haven’t heard the Steve Wilson 5.1 surround treatment of the classic King Crimson albums and you’ve got a 5.1 set up for TV and gaming, they are simply superb. I recommend starting with the first King Crimson album, In the Court of the Crimson King, because it’s a great—indeed the perfect—place to start anyway, plus Wilson did such a crazy good job with it. Ditto with Lizard. Hell, I never even liked that album, but in Wilson’s mix the “rock band as symphony” aspect of the work is teased out nicely and envelops you like you’re standing inside of a large (and especially complex) audio equivalent of an Alexander Calder mobile.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.10.2014
05:11 pm
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In the Court of the Crimson King: Intelligent BBC documentary about Robert Fripp
01.16.2013
03:29 pm
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Contemplative 1985 BBC doc about Robert Fripp, who gives the cameras a real glimpse into his life in Wimborne—we even get to meet his mother—his career as a constantly traveling musician and his reasons for leaving King Crimson (and his worldly possessions) behind in the mid-1970s to study the work of philosopher JG Bennett.

Fripp also discusses working with David Bowie, living in NYC and having brunch with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Musically, he’s seen playing with Andy Summers and doing a solo Frippertronics piece.
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.16.2013
03:29 pm
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In the Court of the Talkshow King: Doc Severinsen plays King Crimson, 1970
12.19.2012
02:08 pm
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Wonders never cease. Here’s longtime Tonight Show (Johnny Carson era, natch) bandleader and frequent co-host Doc Severinsen stretching out on a fine rendition of the timeless prog classic In The Court of the Crimson King from his long-lost and never reissued 1970 LP Doc Severinsen’s Closet.

Fun for you and yer Grandma !
 
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Heeeeeeere’s Doc, Johnny and Ed.
 

 
Thanks Solo Goodspeed of Granada Hills,Ca !

Posted by Brad Laner
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12.19.2012
02:08 pm
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King Crimson performing ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic’ live on German TV, 1972
10.03.2012
01:20 pm
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Felted portrait of King Crimson circa 1972 by Wasawasawa

There’s not really all that much by way of film or video footage of the pre-80s incarnations of King Crimson. As in nearly none. Thankfully what does exist tends to be fantastic. Here’s an intense run-through of “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic” on Germany’s Beat Club TV show in 1972, with Robert Fripp, David Cross, John Wetton, Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir.

And speaking of Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, at the end of October, the album will be re-released as a “40th Anniversary Box Set,” a mammoth package with 13 CDs (including studio sessions and the first take of each song as it was laid down in the studio and 8 CDs of live audio, restored bootlegs and soundboard recordings), 1 DVD-A of Steve Wilson’s new 5.1 multichannel mix of the album, 1 Blu-Ray disc and more than 30 minutes of footage of the band in the studio, all contained in 12” box with booklet and other memorabilia and with a limited production run of just 7,000 units worldwide.

The album will also come out as a CD/DVD-A combo package with a new stereo mix and the 5.1 new surround mix, alt mixes by WIlson and the video footage; and as a more modest- priced two CD set.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.03.2012
01:20 pm
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LEGO King Crimson album cover

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Holy cow is all I have to say!

Via Goldmine: The Collectors Record And Compact Disc Marketplace

Posted by Tara McGinley
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06.29.2012
10:48 am
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Larks’ Tongues in Aspic: King Crimson live, 1974
09.22.2011
06:27 pm
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Courtesy of Dangerous Minds reader “Tiny Penguins” who left this in the comments, some utterly fucking phenomenal footage of King Crimson from 1974 (and in stunning quality, too).

The line up here is Robert Fripp, John Wetton, David Cross, and Bill Brufford. Setlist: “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Pt II,” “The Night Watch,” “Lament” and “Starless.” If you’re a Crimson fan, and you’ve not seen this before, then Christmas just came early this year.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.22.2011
06:27 pm
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King Crimson interview, French TV 1973
09.22.2011
04:19 pm
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There is precious little film and video footage of the various incarnations of King Crimson prior to the 1980s, so we have to take what we can get… in this case an interview with a French translator all over it from the Pop Deux television program from May 1973.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.22.2011
04:19 pm
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King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King
05.31.2010
11:50 pm
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Over the weekend, I picked up a copy of the 5:1 surround mix of King Crimson’s classic 1974 album, Red, but I didn’t have a chance to listen to it properly until this afternoon. And when I say properly, I mean loudly, as Red happens to be one of the heaviest rock albums of all time. Crank it up loud enough—as I did today—and it feels like a jumbo jet is taking off inside your skull. The sonic power of that album can blow you away like a feather in the wind at top volume. Most King Crimson albums I find to be a bit spotty (some of them are really spotty, in fact) but when they lock into a serious groove, like on Red’s title cut, it’s an awe inspiring thing to listen to.

This new surround version, mixed from the original multi-source mixdown tapes by Porcupine Tree’s Steve WIlson (with Robert Fripp’s participation) tends to put the listener in the middle of the mix, that is to say, it sounds like you are standing in the room as they are playing. I find that this approach worked great on Wilson’s redo of In the Court of the Crimson King in 5:1, but with Red, the violent onslaught of Fripp’s buzzsaw guitar riffs sounds emasculated somewhat (when compared to the familiar stereo version) unless the album is played at an almost ear-splitting volume. Me, I’m happy to oblige. Listen to it as loud as fuck and it sounds wonderful. I suppose that was the point. Who’s going slap on Red to listen at a background volume anyway?

There’s not much by way of film footage of pre-80s incarnation of King Crimson. As in nearly none. I did find two amazing clips, though. First an intense run-through of Lark’s Tongue in Aspic on what appears to be Germany’s Beat Club show.
 

 
Below, a 1973 performance in New York’s Central Park of Easy Money:
 

 
(Incidentally, the new leaked Kanye West single, Power, samples King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.31.2010
11:50 pm
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