Those Watershed Moments, #2

Even though the Rush experience I wrote about before really started everything, the second moment I want to share would eventually have more of an impact than any other thing in my life, musically speaking. I had been a Rush freak for many years, through high school and well into college, but other than that I hadn't branched out too much. I had discovered other bands, like Pink Floyd, The Talking Heads, and The Beatles, and I listened to a lot of classic rock on the radio, but I didn't really know all that was out there. I was convinced that Rush was as musically "far out" as it got.So one day a friend plays me the album Discipline by King Crimson. I thought it was pretty good. Sounded sort of like Talking Head's Remain in Light, I thought (and still do, at times). Pretty good. Nothing monumental (it would only be months later that that album really hit home for me, and now it's one of my favorites). Anyway, the local popular music store started selling King Crimson cassettes in its bargain bin for two bucks, so my friends and I started buying them. We went through a few and each one was pretty good, but nothing that really shook me, ya know? So one day, my friend brings back Starless and Bible Black and plays it. If you've never heard this album before, then you've never heard the first song "The Great Deceiver." This is one of the most intense songs ever written, IMO, by any band, complete with everything that made mid-70's KC amazing. All wrapped up into a couple of munites!! I was hooked. My jaw dropped, I listened to the album, then immediately headed to the store to buy my own copy. Except, of course, they were out, and it took my days to find myself a copy. Rush very quickly became second fiddle to Robert Fripp and all that he had to offer, and I've never been the same since,The reason this is such an important event is that it was through KC that I learned about everything else. It was my doorway to Yes, Genesis, and other symphonic prog, which led to Gentle Giant and others, which led to Magma and zeuhl, which led to Can and krautrock, which led to Univers Zero and RIO, which led to Henry Cow and Canterbury . . . All of this is a big part of what makes me who I am musically today, and it all can be traced back to this one album. So that's why this album is such a big part of my life, and one of the five albums that changed my life!