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| Lizard | 
 enlarge | Artist: King Crimson
Label: Discipline Us
Category: Music
List Price: $15.98
Buy New: $8.09
You Save: $7.89 (49%)
New (39) Used (8) Collectible (1) from $8.09
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 32231
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.2
MPN: 503
UPC: 633367050328
EAN: 0633367050328
ASIN: B00065MDS6
Release Date: December 20, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, factory sealed. Fast shipping!
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| Tracks:
| • | Cirkus (Including Entry of the Chameleons) | | • | Indoor Games | | • | Happy Family | | • | Lady of the Dancing Water | | • | Lizard: Prince Rupert Awakes/Bolero: The Peacock's Tale/The Battle of G |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
2004 reissue of the band's 1970 album. Discipline.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 The Pivot-Point Around Which Early Crimso Revolves November 24, 2006
28 out of 29 found this review helpful
Please understand that I came upon King Crimson just as Crimso Mk. I was laid to rest, in 1973 or so. I was a lonely, too-sensitive fifteen-year-old growing up in Alabama, and newly in love with prog-rock. I "learned" the King Crimson oeuvre chronologically, starting with ItCotCK, then ItWoP, then "Lizard."
"Islands" had just been released that very year; KC broke up immediately after the conclusion of the "Islands" tour, and I therefore had missed my opportunity ever to see them live--or so I thought.
Having put my POV in context, please know that upon first hearing I knew that "Lizard" would be my favorite of all the KC Mk. I albums, and so it remains to this day. There is truly no accounting for taste, of course, and I am sure that mine is the decidedly minority view, but the opinion formed in my sixteenth year is concurred with in my fiftieth.
First, "Lizard" is saturated with jazz fusion - another of my musical loves that lingers to this day. Many of the "sidemen" on the album, including Mel Collins and Keith Tippett, continue to produce experimental jazz, and they never sounded better than on this record. The complex, interwoven layers are, in fact, much more dense than what groups like Weather Report and Return to Forever were laying down in that era, and I would suspect that even the grand-daddy of Fusion, Miles Davis himself, was probably impressed with the complexity and breadth of "Lizard" (though I have no way of knowing this).
Half of the album (Side Two on the original vinyl) is a "concept piece," and the remainder is a loosely conjoined bit of psychedelic free-association that hangs together just as well. The sound is even more dense than the Mellotron-saturated first two albums, yet so much more sophisticated.
"Lizard" appears to have been a "perfect storm" of sonic bliss. The following offering, "Islands," featured most of the same ensemble - and has some flashes of the same brilliance - but is nowhere near as satisfying (and in fact, is the weakest of the four early Crimso works).
The hell of it is, even after KC was resurrected in 1974, with "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" (and the KC Mk. II era that would last to nearly the end of the seventies begun), it was obvious that the "Lizard" sound would never be heard again. It remains like a prehistoric insect in fossilized amber, and shines just as brightly.
Thank goodness for modern audio engineering and the wonderful world of the "Digital remaster." "Lizard" never sounded better, and I highly recommend it to anyone dedicated enough to King Crimson to procure the very best the band has to offer.
A CURIOUS ORPHAN April 24, 2006
11 out of 18 found this review helpful
It just occurred to me that this, the least file-able album by King Crimson, finds itself completely without representation on the fairly recently issued "The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson, Volume One 1969 - 1974". Now, why is that?
During its recording, Fripp was famously and curiously preoccupied with the mammoth undertaking of producing Centipede's "Septober Energy". With its ginormous number of musicians, some finding themselves pressed into service on "Lizard" and following behind the original line up -- with its now precedent-setting break-up -- the constituents of this King Crimson did not linger long therein. Coupled with the complexity of being the band's second first album, so to speak, problems are almost painfully apparent. Especially when compared with the near-flawless coherence and sheen of their debut. But concealed within its border-line wretched excess, melodramatic film-score cliches and medieval preoccupations, "Lizard" retains an exotic and even hurtful allure.
There are some inherently moving Cor Anglais passages amid the battlefields of the title track, and some outright hilarious lyrics in the Beatles send-up, "Happy Family". But more importantly it has been said -- and written -- that it was during work on "Lizard" that the initial ideas which would some years later flourish on "Lark's Tongues in Aspic" found their origin, here within the folds of "The Peacock's Tale" and strewn hither and yon amid the debris left by "The Battle of Glass Tears".
Commercial success has a tendency to set in motion any and all sorts of indulgence, hubris and countless hours of bad work. Setbacks tend to either force an end or force another solution. "Lizard" exists on that curious ledge that intimates the outlines of failure. Yet stepping off that particular ledge ultimately lands one within earshot of another solution. Here, the will and desire to reach that most elusive place where great and powerful music can exist is everywhere and nowhere. And as such, "Lizard" proves to be that most crucial and pivotal work in the catalog of a band that remains always so unsettled: music that is not an end, but the means to a future stronger still.
Buy everything from 1969-1975 June 20, 2006
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
I feel that every album from King Crimson circa 1969-1975 is essential. They were at their creative peak here before turning into minimalist, machine music in the 80s.
In response to a top 500 reviewer:
reviewer: "I may not be the best judge for the record, I'm not a huge fan of the 'progressive rock' sound"
Well, spare us your opinion since King Crimson *is* 'progressive rock'. We won't mind, I promise.
reviewer: "For Crimson fans, completionists, and maybe the occasional prog fan who likes this kind of stuff."
Translation: Buy this album if you like King Crimson or want to own all their albums or you are somebody who would like King Crimson. Hey, thanks for the advice!
 For the true KC/prog fan May 31, 2006
7 out of 18 found this review helpful
If you're not familiar with King Crimson and are looking for a good place to start, this is definitely not it. I'd suggest looking elsewhere, perhaps their debut "In The Court of the Crimson King" for their early works, Larks' Tongues in Aspic for the '70s, or Discipline for the '80s. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.
I've owned all of King Crimson's catalogue from the '60s through the '80s as long as I can remember. Lizard is the one that never truly struck a chord with me. It's not that I disliked it. I enjoy everything they did through the '80s and even the '90s. The problem with Lizard, though, is that it's just too scattered. There is no cohesive theme, and most of the music just sort of ambles on. Before you know it, it's over, and you've already forgotten what you heard.
If you like this sort of jazz/classical/progressive fusion that Fripp concocted during this period, I would absolutely steer you away from Lizard directly to their next release, "Islands", which is incredible.
This record is most definitely for those among us who are King Crimson completists. If that's your goal, by all means go out and pick this up. Otherwise, I'd pick up just about anything else by Crimson first.
Menacing Themes With Strange, Uncontrollable Laughter August 31, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
After Gordon Haskell sang on "Cadence and Cascade" for King Crimson's "In the Wake of Poseidon," Robert Fripp asked him to become an official member of the band for the recording of "Lizard." Also asked to join the new line-up were saxophonist/flautist Mel Collins and drummer Andy McCulloch. This group was then augmented with some interesting supporting players, including another "In the Wake of Poseidon" alumnus - the noted jazz pianist Keith Tippett - together with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, and the brass/woodwind players Robin Miller, Mark Charig, and Nick Evans (who also supported Soft Machine).
As a result, "Lizard" is arguably King Crimson's most jazz-inflected album, developing further the direction suggested by the track "Cat Food" on "In the Wake of Poseidon." The powerful opening track, "Cirkus", is the most reknowned track on the album, begining with a hushed verse from Haskell before launching into the menacing theme played by Fripp on the mellotron. The track boasts some of Fripp's most impressive acoustic guitar playing, not to mention a soaring saxophone solo by Collins. With memorable lyrics by Sinfield rich in theatrical imagery, the track builds to a cacophonous climax.
The next two tracks, "Indoor Games" and "Happy Family", are simultaneously offbeat and humorously full of mischief - the former with lyrics evoking disparate forms of hedonism, and the latter with lyrics concerning the dissolution of the Beatles. Haskell's vocals are distorted on both "Indoor Games" and "Happy Family", the two tracks being separated by the sound of Haskell laughing in a strange, uncontrollable manner.
"Lady of the Dancing Water" is a more tranquil piece, whose lyrics and instrumentation have a medieval feel, reminiscent of "Moonchild" on "In the Court of the Crimson King," or "Cadence and Cascade" on "In the Wake of Poseidon." Mel Collins' atmospheric flute playing provides much of the beauty on this track.
Concluding the album is the bombastic title track, "Lizard" (though divided into several sections, there is a narrative running through its entirety concerning a prince who takes part in an epic battle), the first fully-composed "side-long" piece to be recorded in rock history.
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