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21st Century Schizoid Man
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Wikipedia article
"'21st Century Schizoid Man'" is a song by the progressive rock band King Crimson from their 1969 debut album 'In the Court of the Crimson King'. Often regarded as the group's signature song, it has been described by sources such as Rolling Stone as "a seven-and-a-half-minute statement of purpose: rock power, jazz spontaneity, and classical precision harnessed in the service of a common aim."
Lyrical content
The lyrics of "21st Century Schizoid Man" were written by Peter Sinfield and consist chiefly of disconnected phrases which present a series of images. All three verses follow a set pattern in presenting these images. The song criticizes the Vietnam War with the lyrics "Politicians' funeral pyre/Innocence raped with napalm fire". The line "Cat's foot, iron claw" is a reference to the French fable The Monkey and the Cat; while "death seed" in the final verse alludes what Sinfield calls the "harvest of bad things" brought about by Agent Orange. 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 last line of each verse is the song's title.
Before a live performance of the song on 15 December 1969, heard on the live album 'Epitaph', Robert 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
Clocking at nearly seven and a half minutes, the song is notable for its heavily distorted vocals, sung by Greg Lake, and its instrumental middle section, called "Mirrors". Most of the song is in either 4/4 or 6/4 time, save for the end of the song, which culminates in two bursts of noisy, abstract free jazz inspired by Duke Ellington Orchestra. Fripp explained his guitar solo to 'Guitar Player' magazine in 1974: "It's all picked down-up. The basis of the picking technique is to strike down on the on-beat and up on the off-beat. Then one must learn to reverse that. I'll generally use a downstroke on the down-beat except where I wish to accent a phrase in a particular way or create a certain kind of tension by confusing accents, in which case I might begin a run on the upstroke." The song encompasses the heavy metal,Fricke, David. . web.archive.org. Archived from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20071028164021/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/kingcrimson/albums/album/268735/review/5942988/the_power_to_believe original].Buckley 2003, p. 477, "Opening with the cataclysmic heavy-metal of '21st Century Schizoid Man', and closing with the cathedral-sized title track..." industrial, jazz-rock and progressive rock genres,. and is considered to be an influence on the development of progressive metal. The dissonant and almost atonal solo, was rated number 82 in 'Guitar World's list of the Top 100 Greatest Guitar Solos in 2008. 'Louder Sound' ranked the solo at No. 56 in its "100 greatest guitar solos in rock" poll.
Personnel
* Greg Lake bass, lead vocals
* Ian McDonald alto saxophone
* Robert Fripp electric guitar
* Michael Giles drums
* Peter Sinfield lyrics
Covers
Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band covered the song on their 1970 debut album 'Anywhere (Flower Travellin' Band album)'.
Canadian rock band April Wine released a version of the song on their 1979 album 'Harder ... Faster'.
Canadian heavy metal band Voivod released a version of the song on their 1997 album 'Phobos'.
Belgian thrash metal band Jason Rawhead released a version of the song on their 2002 album 'Time.Stopped.Dead'.
English heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne released a version of the song on his 2005 album 'Under Cover'.
Norwegian rock band Shining released a version of the song on their 2010 studio album 'Blackjazz'.
Canadian rock band We Hunt Buffalo released a version of the song of their 2011 studio album 'We Hunt Buffalo'.
British rock band Black Midi released a version of the song as a bonus track available in specific releases of their 2021 studio album 'Cavalcade'.
Punk rock band Bad Religion paid homage by incorporating most of the song's first verse in the outro of their similarly-titled track "21st Century (Digital Boy)".
Rock band Fuzz released a version of the song as a B-side to their 2013 single "Sunderberry Dream".
Sampling
*Kanye West sampled the song on "Power", from his 2010 album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'.
See also
* List of anti-war songs
References
*
Notes
Category:King Crimson songs
Category:1969 songs
Category:Songs of the Vietnam War
Category:Songs with lyrics by Peter Sinfield
Category:Songs written by Robert Fripp
Category:Songs written by Greg Lake
Category:Songs written by Ian McDonald (musician)
Category:Songs written by Michael Giles
Category:Song recordings produced by Greg Lake
Category:Island Records singles
Category:Atlantic Records singles
Category:1976 singles
Category:Jazz fusion songs
Category:British heavy metal songs
Category:Song recordings produced by Ian McDonald (musician)
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