Vinyl Sunday - In the Court of the Crimson King
When my mom was in her early twenties, she painted a large scale version of the extended album cover of In the Court of the Crimson King by a British rock group called King Crimson. Complete music heads and hippies to the core, my parents devoured the most obscure, progressive and revolutionary music of their youth. As an ode to one of their favorite bands, my mom (a recent art grad) reproduced this incredibly expressive and sometimes terrifying album cover on a large canvas. Sadly, having next to no money at the time, my mother was forced to trade the piece for some furniture. Over the years, my sister and I have often heard how incredibly accurate her rendition of the album cover was to the original cover by artist, Barry Godber (who himself was merely a computer programmer).

In the hopes of reviving lost art and as a tribute to my mother, I persuaded her to join me in chalking this album cover out on the streets of downtown Raleigh during last week’s artSPARK event (as part of SPARKcon). Our experience was rewarded by droves of passers-by taking photos, shaking our chalk-stained hands, sharing their love of King Crimson’s music and reminiscing about the band’s epic concerts.
The Sunday after artSPARK while I strolled down Fayetteville Street with a couple of friends, I spotted the evil street washer making his way toward our precious psychedelic artwork. Monday was soon approaching which meant mom’s and my 5 x 5 foot King Crimson album cover would be removed from the hot asphalt. We hurried over for a long last look. It seemed so appropriate that upon the final visit, we found a couple from New York at the foot of the square holding their cell phones up in the air, blaring the song “21st century Schizoid Man,” eyes closed, bobbing their heads in tribute to the band they called “the best fucking group ever.”
Obscure and considered extremely progressive from the point of its release in the late sixties, In the Court of the Crimson King was hailed by music critics and renown rockers as a masterpiece and among the most influential progressive rock albums ever released . [via]
