I acquired my satisfyingly chunky copy of the revised version of Sid Smith's In the Court of King Crimson on my last foray to the Book Depository. Soon after it came into my clammy paws I decided not to indulge myself in a cover-to-cover read of what for me was the ultimate fanboy biog. And why not? Well, I'd read the original, published in 2001, a couple of times and was steeped in Crimson lore regarding the years up to the 1990s, so revisiting all this sequentially somehow wasn't so attractive. Indeed, I was keen to jump straight to the later years, and jump I did with fascination, such that it struck me that a very cunning plan might be to read the tome in a sort of random fashion. This would involve deliberately dipping in at a point when I just happened to be listening to something from that period and sort of randomly felt the need to know what lurked behind the musical treasure that unfolded from that particular version of the Beast.
This plan has proven exceptionally cunning in that it has served as a reminder of the inherent randomness of the making of great music. There's nothing inevitable about the right musicians coming together at the right time. When it happens we're lucky and need to celebrate that good fortune as a triumph against the odds.
Of course, it helps that Mr Smith writes so very well.
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