King Crimson Lizard LP DJ White Label Promo 1970 Jon Anderson Robert Fripp Rare
  $   70

 


$ 70   (best offer accepted)   Sold For
Dec 21, 2025 Sold Date
Feb 18, 2025 Start Date
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King Crimson – Lizard LP DJ White Label Promo 1970 Jon Anderson Robert Fripp Rare
This is one of my favorites most Crimson fans blow it off but the more I listen over the years this and Islands stand out to me This is a Rare Promo from WRMC - FM Vermont It plays well a few pops mostly at beginning of side 1
WRMC-FM (91.1 FM) is the full power, student-volunteer-run radio station of Middlebury College, Vermont.

Released in December 1970, King Crimson's third studio album, Lizard, is often viewed as an outlier in the pioneering British prog outfit's nearly half-century discography. It's not easily grouped with 1969's stunning In the Court of the Crimson King debut and 1970 follow-up In the Wake of Poseidon, and along with 1971's Islands it's considered a transitional release on the band's path toward the relative stability of the Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974) trilogy. There are plenty of Crimson followers who place Lizard at the very apex of the group's recorded legacy -- and with good reason. Seamlessly blending rock, jazz, and classical in a way that few albums have successfully achieved, Lizard is epic, intimate, cacophonic, and subtle by turn -- and infused with the dark moods first heard when "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Epitaph" reached listeners' ears the previous year.

Opener "Cirkus" is a cavalcade of menace, with vocalist Gordon Haskell intoning or declaiming Sinfield's phantasmagorical words over a kaleidoscopic musical backdrop, the song's ripping buzzsaw refrain alternating with warped funhouse jazz prominently featuring keyboardist Keith Tippett and saxophonist Mel Collins. "Indoor Games" is comparatively whimsical, with Collins' blurty sax almost comically up-front in the mix and crisp ensemble interplay in the middle section, while the singsongy "Happy Family" finds Sinfield's lyrics obliquely addressing the Beatles' breakup and "Lady of the Dancing Water" revisits the gentle terrain of "I Talk to the Wind" and "Cadence and Cascade." But the side-long multi-part title suite astounds the most. Guest Jon Anderson's choirboy vocals open "Lizard" with a feint toward the light and airy, but Haskell's brassy chorus suggests ritualistic precursors to dark goings-on. The suite then enters its "Bolero" movement, marked by Robin Miller's beautiful oboe and Fripp's swelling Mellotron, with a jazz interlude showcasing Collins, cornetist Mark Charig, trombonist Nick Evans, and a jagged and explosive Tippett, collectively free and even ebullient in their interplay but never fully breaking away from drummer Andy McCulloch's background rat-a-tat snare that foreshadows the howling maelstrom of "The Battle of Glass Tears." After the smoke clears, Fripp's sustained guitar notes cut through the funereal aftermath, dissolving into silence before the swirling "Big Top" coda brings the album full circle, suggesting Lizard's dark journey on an endless loop accelerating into the future. In 2016, lineup changes made it possible to include selections from this album in King Crimson's career-spanning live concerts, and with all the spectacular music on display, more than one audience member could be heard saying, "I came for Lizard."

King Crimson were an English-based progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp (guitars), Michael Giles (drums), Greg Lake (bass, vocals), Ian McDonald (saxophone, flute, clarinet, keyboards) and Peter Sinfield (lyrics, illumination). Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the band's history. The band drew inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, blues, industrial, electronic, experimental musicand new wave. They exerted a strong influence on the early 1970s progressive rock movement, including on contemporaries such as Yes and Genesis, and continue to inspire subsequent generations of artists across multiple genres. The band has earned a large cult following, especially in the 21st century.

The band's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), remains their most commercially successful and influential release. The next two albums, In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard (both 1970), were recorded during a period of instability in the band's line-up, before a settled line-up of Fripp, Sinfield, Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace recorded Islands in 1971. In mid-1972, Fripp disbanded this line-up, recruited new members Bill Bruford(formerly of Yes), John Wetton, David Cross and Jamie Muir, and changed the group's musical approach, drawing from European free improvisation and developing ever more complex compositions. The band reached what some saw as a creative peak on Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974). King Crimson disbanded at the end of 1974.

After seven years of inactivity, King Crimson was recreated in 1981 with Fripp, Bruford and new members Adrian Belew (previously a side man for Frank Zappa, David Bowie, and Talking Heads) and Tony Levin (already a prolific session musician for numerous top artists, including John Lennon and Peter Gabriel). Drawing influence from African music, gamelan, post-punk and New York minimalism, this band lasted three years, resulting in the trio of albums Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984). Following a decade-long hiatus, they reformed in 1994, adding Pat Mastelotto and Trey Gunn for a sextet line-up Fripp called "The Double Trio". The double trio participated in another three-year cycle of activity that included the album Thrak (1995). Fripp, Belew, Mastelotto and Gunn reunited in 2000 as a quartet,called "The Double Duo", releasing The Construkction of Light (2000) and The Power to Believe (2003). After another hiatus, the band reformed for a 2008 tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of their 1968 formation, with Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree being added, and Levin returning in place of Gunn.

Following another hiatus (2009–2012), during which Fripp was thought to be retired, King Crimson came together again in 2013, this time as a septet (and, later, octet) with an unusual three-drumkit frontline, and new singer and secondary guitarist Jakko Jakszyk. This version of King Crimson toured from 2014 to 2021. After the band's final show in 2021, Fripp commented that King Crimson had "moved from sound to silence."


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