King In Crimson

This song clearly says "Satan is bad. Don't follow him or listen to him, or it will be too late when you're in trouble."

If that's true. Brucey sucks at the English.

"See his twisted sons and daughters Writhing slowly in Satan's mire "

The name "King in Crimson" is a loose synonym for Beelzebub, a derivation of the hebrew word "Ba'al-z'bub" meaning "Lord of the flies". In any case, it is referring to Satan, but not necessarily saying that Satan is bad, stay away from him. It's more likely saying Satan is all powerful, but evil nonetheless. The "Sons and daughters" part, I'm not quite sure of. And that's my analysis of this song.

Beelzebub is a separate entity from Satan, depending on your references. But still, the example Kaine_lawless pointed out is actually a pretty weak one because it can still make grammatical sense.

"See his twisted sons and daughters" comes before the reference to the King in Crimson, so while it could be referring to those of the King in Crimson, it could just as well be referring to the sons and daughters of man or God or about anything else. Going off of "The trembling world I now despise" in context with the rest of that verse it is easy to derive the same conclusion that Turbo came to, he once was drawn to this power however now hates it. The rest seems to be describing Hell and the power the King in Crimson has over everyone there.

Although all the references to satan seem to be the clear focus of the song (which it could very well be) I belive the song to be about a character from stephen kings novel series the dark tower named the crimson king. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimson_King This character has a resemblence to satan in his apearence and demeanor. Thus it is hard to decide which of the two it could be.

I came to read the lyrics to determine whether the song was based on The Dark Tower or not, and I have to conclude that it was not. There's nothing that would indicate any relation to the Stephen King series other than title of the song, which is a vague association. As someone else pointed out the album is at least partly based on William Blake's poetry, where King's original basis for The Dark Tower came from a poem by Robert Browning.

I thought I heard somewhere that this song was about fear.

I love Bruce's writing though! Starting with the crow (I assume to signify death) and moves into the courtyard, it sounds like a prisoner is being sent to the guillotine. The veil or hood is put on and the stone that sends him to Hell is brought down.

"As you scream into the web of silence / There is nothing that can save you now" Strikes me as being the most powerful line. There is such heavy imagery communicated there.

And then the ending where the same crow who witnessed the killing comes to your window... great song!

Bruce stated in an interview that each song has a frame in which it operates. The first song-this one-is framed by fear. The album has a loosely religious theme overall (its name and its title track are derived from the Rosicrucian manifesto 'The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz' by Johann Valentin Andreae, who was a German theologian who lived in the late 1500's/early 1600's).

This song uses the imagery of Beelzebub (or Satan), ravens (which in many cultures are bad omens/associated with death), nighttime/darkness and the concept of sin/coming doom to illustrate primeval fears. The lyrics are written as if by some nameless superstitious figure attempting to give warning to others.