“I saw a recent video on YouTube on the 10 precursors to heavy metal, and Schizoid Man wasn’t among them. That’s absurd”: Robert Fripp explains how King Crimson paved the way for heavy metal

Robert Fripp’s genre-amalgamating prog giants, King Crimson, might not have had the same rough-and-tumble aggression as the heavy metal bands that followed in their wake, but there was a heaviness to their music that helped bridge the gap between rock and its louder, angrier cousin, Fripp believes.

The guitarist has scoffed at the fact that the band doesn’t always get its due for helping set the scene, despite Ozzy Osbourne’s well-documented love of the group.

By 1971, Fripp began to butt heads with their chief lyricist, Peter Sinfield, who, inspired by a holiday to the Spanish island of Formentera, envisioned a gentle, Miles-Davis-goes-Mediterranean sound moving forward. It influenced their fourth album, Islands, but with its follow-up, 1973’s Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Fipp tells Guitar World that his “metal voice” was beginning to find its volume.

Even on their 1969 debut LP, In the Court of the Crimson King, the band's penchant for heavy was apparent – 21st Century Schizoid Man “was about as metal as it gets,” Fripp says (indeed, GW included it on our list of the 20 heaviest songs before Black Sabbath). But on Larks, that sound grew more prominent.

“I saw a recent video on YouTube on the 10 precursors to heavy metal, and …Schizoid Man wasn’t among them,” Fripp tells Guitar World. “That’s absurd. I mean, Ozzy Osbourne not only recorded it on a solo album [2005’s Under Cover, which included a guest spot from Joe Bonamassa], but he was always generous enough to acknowledge Crimson.

“The powerful, metallic element has always been there in Crimson,” he underscores. “For me, it became increasingly articulated in the simple question: What would Jimi Hendrix have sounded like playing a Béla Bartók string quartet?”

One man’s simple question is another’s mind-boggler, I suppose.

“In other words,” he then adds, “the sheer power and spirit of the American blues‐rock tradition speaking through Hendrix’s Foxy Lady or Purple Haze.”

King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man (BBC Radio Sessions, 1969) - YouTube

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King Crimson does get their share of love from certain factions of the metal community – a cover of Larks Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2 is a bonus track on Dream Theater’s Black Clouds and Silver Linings, for instance.

Voivod have also covered Schizoid Man, and Between the Buried and Me's take on Three of a Perfect Pair is another standout. But just how much their harem scarem heaviness is acknowledged in the genre’s folklore is often understated at Fripp's behest.

For the full interview with Robert Fripp, pick up a copy of Guitar World issue 600, on sale now.