21st Century Schizoid Man
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "21st Century Schizoid Man" | ||
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| Song by King Crimson | ||
| from the album In the Court of the Crimson King | ||
| Released | October 10, 1969 | |
| Recorded | 1969 | |
| Genre | Progressive rock | |
| Length | 7:20 | |
| Label | Atlantic Records | |
| Writer(s) | Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, Michael Giles, Peter Sinfield | |
| Producer(s) | Robert Fripp, Peter Sinfield | |
| In the Court of the Crimson King track listing | ||
| "21st Century Schizoid Man" (1) |
"I Talk to the Wind" (2) |
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"21st Century Schizoid Man" is a song by progressive rock band King Crimson from their debut album In the Court of the Crimson King. To date it is one of their best-known songs.
[edit] Lyrics
The song has strong ties into the Vietnam war talking of napalm fire.
[edit] Music
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 3/4 time signature, save for the percussive section in Mirrors which alternates between 1/4, 2/4 and 5/8.
[edit] Performances
Even after Greg Lake left King Crimson in 1970 to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the song was maintained in Crimson's live act. It appeared on three live albums from different versions of the band, first on Earthbound (1972), sung by Boz Burrell then on USA (1974), sung by John Wetton, then on VROOOM VROOOM (2001, recorded in 1996), sung by Adrian Belew.
The song has recently been covered by Ozzy Osbourne on his live album Under Cover. Flower Travellin' Band, Voivod, Rorschach and April Wine have also covered this song, as have Forbidden on their album Distortion
Bad Religion made a respectful parody of the song called "21st Century (Digital Boy)" in it they refer to the original song several times with lyrics such as "innocents raped with napalm fire" and "21st century schizoid boy".
