21st Century Schizoid Man

"21st Century Schizoid Man"
Song by King Crimson from the album In the Court of the Crimson King
Released	October 12, 1969
Recorded	August 1 & 20–21, 1969
Genre	Progressive rock, jazz fusion, heavy metal[1][2]
Length	7:20
Label	Atlantic Records
Writer	Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, Michael Giles, Peter Sinfield
Producer	King Crimson
In the Court of the Crimson King track listing
"21st Century Schizoid Man" "I Talk to the Wind" "Epitaph" "Moonchild" "The Court of the Crimson King"
King Crimson singles chronology "The Night Watch" (1974) "Epitaph" / "21st Century Schizoid Man" (1976) "Matte Kudasai" (1984)

"21st Century Schizoid Man" is a song by progressive rock band King Crimson from their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King.

Personnel

• Greg Lake – Vocals, bass guitar
• Ian McDonald – saxophone
• Robert Fripp – guitars
• Michael Giles – drums
• Peter Sinfield – lyrics

Lyrical content

Unlike the lyrics to the overwhelming majority of songs, which can be broken down into complete or near complete sentences, "21st Century Schizoid Man" consists chiefly of disconnected phrases which present a series of images. All three verses follow a set pattern in presenting these images. The first line of each verse presents two relatively vague images (e.g."iron claw", "death seed"). The second line is a single image, often more specific than the first two, and the third line approaches an actual sentence. The fourth and final line of every verse is "21st century schizoid man".

The song makes reference to the Vietnam War as exemplified in the lyric "innocents raped with napalm fire" and "politicians' funeral pyre." Before a live performance of the song on December 14, 1969 (as shown in the live album Epitaph), Fripp remarked that the song was dedicated to "an American political personality whom we all know and love dearly. His name is Spiro Agnew."

Musical structure

Musically, the song is notable for its heavily distorted vocals sung by Greg Lake, a driving mechanical rhythm and piercingly loud saxophone and guitar, along with its instrumental middle section, called "Mirrors". Most of the song is in either 4/4 or 6/8 time, save for the end of the song, which is in free time.

Performances

King Crimson continued to perform it in their live act after Greg Lake left King Crimson in 1970 to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It appeared on four live albums from different versions of the band, first sung by Lake on Epitaph, then by Boz Burrell on Earthbound (1972), by John Wetton, on USA (1974), and by Adrian Belew on Vrooom Vrooom (2001, recorded in 1996). In 1993, Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded a version for their 1993 box set The Return of the Manticore.

Covers

• Flower Travellin' Band, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Entombed, Edge of Spirit, Von Hertzen Brothers, Voivod, Unrest, Afterhours, Rorschach, The Tangent, and Savage Republic have all covered the song, as have Forbidden on their album Distortion, and Suck on Time to Suck.^[3] Omaha, Nebraska band Cursive is also known to end their live shows with the song.
• Canadian rock band April Wine covered the song on their album Harder ... Faster released in 1979.
• Croatian alternative rock band Let 3 covered the song on their album Peace released in 1994.
• Italian grindcore band Cripple Bastards covered the song on their album Your Lies In Check released in 1996.
• Les Fradkin who recorded a MIDI Guitar version for the album "Hyper MIDI Guitar" in 2010.
• The song was performed by King Crimson member Greg Lake with Gary Moore on guitar on Lake's album Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1981, released in 1996.
• American hard rock band Talas covered the song on their album If Only We Knew Then What We Know Now released in 1998.
• The song was covered by Ozzy Osbourne on his album Under Cover in 2005.
• The song was released in 2009 as a digital download by The Human Experimente, featuring performances by Jeffrey Fayman, Robert Fripp, and Maynard James Keenan.
• Norwegian band Shining covered the track on their 2010 album Blackjazz.
• Gov't Mule on 2010's release of their live show from December 31, 1999.
• The song was sampled by Kanye West for the song "Power", the first track released from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.^[4]
• Noir Désir on 2005's release of their live performances "En Public".
• A part of the lyrics appeared in the outro of "21st Century (Digital Boy)" by punk rock band Bad Religion. The song was released on the albums Against the Grain and Stranger Than Fiction.
• The String Cheese Incident performed the song to close the first set of the second night at the Electric Forest Festival in Rothbury Michigan on July 2, 2011.

References

• Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. London: Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-201-2. 

Notes

1. ^ Fricke, David. "King Crimson: The Power To Believe : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". web.archive.org. Archived from the original.
2. ^ Buckley 2003, p. 477, "Opening with the cataclysmic heavy-metal of '21st Century Schizoid Man', and closing with the cathedral-sized title track,"
3. ^ Time to Suck Suck Allmusic.com François Couture
4. ^ Kanye West Samples King Crimson on Raging New Track "Power"^{[dead link]}