My boss owes me two cds, and I would like to flesh out my King Crimson collection, which sits at one album--their debut. Was wondering what else people would recommend. Also, I was looking at "Earth Bound" in the store, and on paper it appears amazing. 1971--last incarnation of the classis lineup--powerful song selection--live, but allmusic rated it very poorly. Was it only due to the sound quality? Anyone got the 411 on it, and whether its worthwhile to have in a collection?

I would go with Three Of A Perfect Pair and Beat, followed by Discipline. I've found this stuff to be the most accessible, and primed me for the later discs (Thrak, etc.)

I was a relative latecomer to KC, and 3oaPP was my first exposure. I can't get into the earlier stuff, it's a little too noisy for me.

I bought The 21st Century Guide To KC (Vol 2 1981-2003) when Tower was going out of biz, and it's perfect for me. Studio 1981-84, Live 1982-84, Studio 1995-2003 and Live 1994-2003.

Can't tell you why Earthbound was rated poorly, sorry. Never heard it.

Save Earthbound for when you've bought everything else. Sound quality is very poor, especially when you've got your pick of such incredible stuff released via DGM's Collector's Club and via download at DGMLive. I've been a huge KC fan for about 15 years and I think I've listened to Earthbound 3 times. The 1972 band is very, very well documented by Fripp in the Club and DGMLive - everything shows the power and creativity of this band in WAY better sound quality than this pretty awful release. It's basically for collectors only - Fripp put it out to shut the completists up. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure why I'm bothering to keep this stinker.

If you're looking for live material (and the various 70s incarnations of the band are absolutely incredible in a live setting) I would not hesitate to pick up USA. This is the monstrous Wetton/Bruford/Cross/Fripp lineup at their peak and has a couple of bonus tracks thrown in that never used to be on it that really fill it out. (If you like this, grab your credit card and get over to DGM's site to order The Great Deceiver and damn near every one of the Collector's Club discs from this period - this band NEVER missed. There's only one bum disc and that's the July 1, 1974 Central Park show because of sound quality (audience bootleg rather than the usual soundboard/broadcast source) and DGMLive also has a number of equally incredible shows from this period.

I'll second Discipline - it's a must-have. I also think Thrak is sadly overlooked by most people - it's a great, great album of a much heavier band. Also consider their most recent album, The Power To Believe, but I think the power of this band is even better experienced through the double-DVD set, Eyes Wide Open.

Aw, hell yeah. Good stuff. You'd be way remiss not picking this up.

Larks Tongue Aspic and Starless & Bible Black

isn't melissa into them?

I say Red. My personal favorite.

prog lol

Red, Starless, and Larks are all good albums, but I still say that once you hear these songs done live, you'll barely be able to listen to the studio material again. Were I just starting out, I'd rather be steered toward this far superior and dynamic live material than the studio stuff. This band really comes alive on stage like few others.