[5] "The Court of the Crimson King" was written by keyboardist/woodwinds player Ian McDonald and Sinfield for their earlier group The Creation, and started as a country and western song before its final progressive rock configuration.
[10][11] King Crimson opened for the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, London, in July 1969, before an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people, which brought them positive attention.
[14] In order to achieve the characteristic lush, orchestral sounds on the album, Ian McDonald spent many hours overdubbing layers of Mellotron and various woodwind and reed instruments.
I recently recovered the original from [managing label E.G. Records's] offices because they kept it exposed to bright light, at the risk of ruining it, so I ended up removing it.
[20] In the Court of the Crimson King was reissued several times in the 1980s and 1990s through Polydor and E.G. Records, with pressings made from copies that were several generations removed from the stereo sub-master tape.
[25] Three years later, in 2002, the original masters were discovered in the Virgin archives, with splicing tape still present between the various songs, and crossfade between "I Talk to the Wind" and "Epitaph" yet to be created.
[26][27][28] In October 2009, Fripp collaborated with musician and producer Steven Wilson to remix the original master recordings in a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix, released as the album's 40th Anniversary edition.
This edition was cut by John Dent at Loud Mastering, it was approved by Robert Fripp and included a download code for a 320 kbit/s transfer of the original 1969 vinyl.
"[44] Melody Maker also noted that the album did not fully capture the power of the band's live performances, but that it "still packs tremendous impact", and that "this is one you should try to hear".
[45] Disc and Music Echo described the album as "a brilliant mixture of melody and freakout, fast and slow, atmospheric and electric, all heightened by the words of Peter Sinfield".
[46] In the US, John Morthland of Rolling Stone said King Crimson had "combined aspects of many musical forms to create a surreal work of force and originality".
Further, Macan mentions that the album coalesces prog rock tropes and conventions, some of which are only established in the future, into a single congestable medium.
Individual and collective passages of arresting virtuosity and a rhythmic discontinuity bordering on the perverse are also components of an essentially tonal, approachable whole inoffensive to any classical or pop listener."
[52] In 2015, Rolling Stone named In the Court of the Crimson King the second greatest progressive rock album of all time, behind Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.
[54] Hip hop artist Kanye West used samples of "21st Century Schizoid Man" in his song "Power", from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.