'Cadence and Cascade' - King Crimson

Song of the Week | Week 4

Appearing on King Crimson’s second studio album In the Wake of Poseidon (1970), ‘Cadence and Cascade’ is a benign, enchanting prog-folk song. It is my personal favourite King Crimson track - here are some words on it.

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In the Wake of Poseidon album cover art

After the band’s extraordinary musical break-through with 1969’s In The Court Of The Crimson King, King Crimson had already set the bar sky-high when composing their next album. In The Wake of Poseidon has been noted as having a similar structure to its predecessor, with strident musical changes from ‘Pictures Of A City’ to ‘Cadence and Cascade’ mirroring that of Crimson King’s ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’/'I Talk To The Wind’ shift. However, this ‘replication’ does not make In The Wake of Poseidon deserving of any less respect.

I’ve always been so intimately drawn to King Crimson’s softer tracks - ‘I Talk To The Wind’, ‘Peace - A Theme’, and ‘Matte Kudasai’ grand relics of my progressive rock library. Yet, there is something vibrantly mystical about ‘Cadence and Cascade’ which makes it my favourite - whether that be specifically attributed to Keith Tippett’s beautifully haunting piano segments, tender vocals from Gordon Haskell (a school friend of Fripp), or Michael Giles’ masterful drum playing.

King Crimson, circa 1970

The lyricism is sparse yet, typical in Crimson form, deeply mediative and meticulous:

“Sliding mystified

On the wine of the tide

Stared pale-eyed

As his veil fell aside.

Sad paper courtesan

They found him just a man.”

With Haskell’s tender, quiet vocals, ‘Cadence and Cascade’ creates a truly ancient atmosphere - taking the listener away into the past, for a brief moment - from the clamour of the other tracks.