An informative, insightful guide to the secret mechanics that power the mysterious music of King Crimson. It is generously illustrated with photographs and musical notation diagrams. This is a scholastic yet accessible work. Andrew Keeling's credentials as composer and academic are impeccable. He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester and has works published by Faber in the UK and PRB in the USA. His musical compositions have been performed, recorded and broadcast throughout the world.

This guide takes you through all the complexities of the music, stripping away layer after layer to reveal the inner workings of the exquisite machinery of harmony, counterpoint and rhythm that, seemingly so effortlessly, come together to make Lizard.

King Crimson's third album was recorded and released in 1970 during what guitarist Robert Fripp has termed 'the Interregnum' period of the band's history. At the time, King Crimson - primarily Fripp and lyricist Peter Sinfield - were off the road functioning as a recording unit. The Musical Guide seeks to unravel why the album is often seen as an unusual work in the band's recorded output; why it is that Fripp has only recently come to terms with 'the MUSIC within the music' in its complex musical structure and lyrical coding.

"Dr. Keeling's work uncovering the inside and outside of Lizard, personally and impersonally, within its musical and wider culture, is a triumph. I have learnt more here than from any other commentaries of my acquaintance." Robert Fripp.