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King Crimson: Starless and Bible Black

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Island Records
Released: 1974.03.29
Time:
 46:41
Category: Progressive Rock
Producer(s): King Crimson
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.king-crimson.com
Appears with: Robert Fripp, Tony Levin
Purchase date: 2015
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] The Great Deceiver (Wetton/Palmer-James/Fripp) - 4:02
[2] Lament (Wetton/Palmer-James/Fripp) - 4:00
[3] We'll Let You Know (Bruford/Cross/Wetton/Fripp) - 3:46
[4] The Night Watch (Wetton/Palmer-James/Fripp) - 4:37
[5] Trio (Bruford/Cross/Wetton/Fripp) - 5:41
[6] The Mincer (Bruford/Cross/Wetton/Palmer-James/Fripp) - 4:10
[7] Starless And Bible Black (Bruford/Cross/Wetton/Fripp) - 9:11
[8] Fracture (Fripp) - 11:14

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


John Wetton - Bass, Vocals, Producer
William "Bill" Bruford  - Percussives, Producer
Robert Fripp - Guitar, Mellotron, Featuring Devices, Producer, Remixing on [5,6]
David Cross - Violin, Viola, Keyboards, Producer

George Chkiantz - Engineer, Acoustic Co-ordination
Peter Henderson - Assistant Engineer
Simon Heyworth - Remixing on [5,6]
George Piros - Mastering
Tom Phillips - Cover Design
Tex - Equipment Coordinator

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1974 LP Island Records ILPS 9275
1987 CD Virgin Records 32VD-1123
2005 CD DGM 0506

Recorded at AIR Studios, London, January 1974.



Just as they were about to be classed among the living relics, Robert Fripp and friends have returned from a lengthy creative hiatus with an inventive new album. They've taken the disjointed pieces of Larks' Tongues in Aspic, infused them with some life, and woven them into a package as stunningly powerful as In the Court of the Crimson King, the LP that launched "mellotron rock."
Crimson displays a certain confidence here that hasn't before graced its efforts. William Bruford's multifaceted percussive offerings are particularly impressive in this light — he's finally mastered his distinctively eclectic style. David Cross's violin and viola are woven into the Crimson tapestry far more effectively than before, adding the counter-solist that Fripp needed to give variety to the band's sound.

The material relies on instrumental interaction, with Crimson now intent on exploring some of the frontiers charted by Yes. "The Great Deceiver" rocks out almost as maniacally as did "21st Century Schizoid Man," showing that where Yes would marvel at the world, Crimson prefers to grab it by the balls. But with "Trio" Crimson demonstrates that it's capable of maintaining the balance between aggression and introspection, using the juxtaposition of viola and mellotron-flute tape to evoke a hauntingly blissful serenity.

The two lengthy instrumental passages that comprise Side Two of Starless and Bible Black show Crimson at its best, relaxing into lengthy improvisational patterns that spotlight the virtuosity of each member. The ease with which these moves are carried off indicates that Fripp has finally assembled the band of his dreams — hopefully it'll stay together long enough to continue producing albums as excellent as this one.

GORDON FLETCHER - June 6, 1974
© Copyright 2009 Rolling Stone



Starless and Bible Black is even more powerful and daring than its predecessor, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, with jarring tempo shifts, explosive guitar riffs, and soaring, elegant, and delicate violin and Mellotron parts scattered throughout its 41 minutes, often all in the same songs. The album was on the outer fringes of accessible progressive rock, with enough musical ideas explored to make Starless and Bible Black more than background for tripping the way Emerson, Lake & Palmer's albums were used. "The Night Watch," a song about a Rembrandt painting, was, incredibly, a single release, although it was much more representative of the sound that Crimson was abandoning than where it was going in 1973-1974. More to that point were the contents of side two of the original LP, a pair of instrumentals that threw the group's hardest sounds right in the face of the listener, and gained some converts in the process. [Starless and Bible Black was remastered again for CD in the summer of 2000, in significantly improved sound that brought out the details (and surprising lyricism) of much of the material in far greater detail. The booklet included with the remastered version is not as impressive as some of the rest of the series entries in terms of information, but has great photos.]

Bruce Eder - All Music Guide



Coming as it does between the startling re-invention of Larks' Tongues In Aspic and the far-reaching repercussions of Red, when it comes to assessments of the King Crimson canon, Starless In Bible Black has often been overlooked. Yet even a cursory listen reveals this to be a powerful record, brimming with confidence borne out of the band's increasing mastery of the concert platform.

Though the public weren't aware of it when it was originally released in March 1974, Starless And Bible Black was in essence largely a live album, an experimental hybrid of in-concert material (much of it improvised) and studio recordings. Often the two are so finely dovetailed together it's difficult to tell them apart.

Only two tracks on the record (The Great Deceiver and Lament) were fully recorded in the studio. The Night Watch contained a live introduction, while the instrumental backing to The Mincer was excised from an in-concert improvisation with vocals overdubbed later. The rest of the tracks were taken from concert recordings from the UK and Europe with the audience carefully edited out.

Starless and Bible Black demanded the attention and concentration of the listener. Crimson's audience responded to the challenge, making it a much loved album by the band. As with the other recordings by the mid 1970s line-up, the intervening years have seen the album's reputation increase among fans & musicians alike, while the then unusual approach to using live performances as core elements of subsequent studio recordings has also become increasingly commonplace.

Robert Fripp once talked about an album being a love-letter and a concert a hot date. Arguably, "Starless" combined the best of both worlds, making it the most accurate representation of the band's uniquely powerful mid-70s identity.

As with other albums in the King Crimson CD/DVD-A series, the stereo CD features a new stereo mix by Robert Fripp & Steven Wilson, while the DVD-A features 5.1 mixes of the album by Steven Wilson, high resolution stereo mixes of the original & new stereo mixes, the full Law of Maximum Distress parts 1 & 2 improvs with The Mincer in their original unedited form/running order, Lament, The Night Watch & Fracture from the same Zurich concert, (completing the show presented in part on The Great Deceiver boxed set), a 1973 live recording of the concert favourite Dr. Diamond & an audio restored bootleg recording of the played once only Guts on my Side. The DVD-A also features live footage from New York's Central Park in 1973 of Easy Money & the improv Fragged Dusty Wall Carpet the track that formed the basis of Guts on my Side.



Possibly the only thing more challenging, unpredictable, and even befuddling, at times, than King Crimson’s otherworldly musical creations at the start of the ’70s was their ever-shifting personnel. By the end of the band’s first half-decade of existence, leader Robert Fripp had already gone through several lineups of musicians.

Thankfully, for Crimson’s sixth long-player, ‘Starless and Bible Black,’ which was released on March 29, 1974, they had found some measure of stability around Fripp, bassist/vocalist John Wetton, drummer Bill Bruford, multi-instrumentalist (violin, viola, keyboards) David Cross, and lyricist Richard Palmer-James, whose unorthodox wordplay capably filled the role vacated by Fripp’s longtime foil, Peter Sinfield.

Musically, though, King Crimson’s restless experimenting continued thanks to a renewed focus on improvisation that saw all but two of the new album’s songs recorded live in concert, then overdubbed and cleansed of crowd noise in the studio. Both of those studio-only creations kicked off ‘Starless and Bible Black,’ whose title was an allusion to Dylan Thomas’ ‘Under Milk Wood.’ The first melded skittish tempos and drastic soft/hard dynamics with a beautifully ethereal interlude lasting mere seconds, while the second, by comparison, opened gently and plainly, sweetened by Cross’ violin, but soon embarked towards darker realms on an ominous Wetton bass line.

Wetton’s instrument also starred alongside subversive guitar interjections across the understated ‘We’ll Let You Know,’ which then gave way to lusher, almost Spanish-flavored chords on ‘The Night Watch,’ a minimalist, virtually percussion-free instrumental (one of many) in ‘Trio,’ and finally static-encrusted lounge jazz for ‘The Mincer.’ And that was just side one.

The second half of ‘Starless and Bible Black’ bowed under the daunting weight of two epic instrumentals averaging ten minutes – edited down from their concert originals — of wanton improvisation. The title track slowly gained intensity around Fripp’s distorted, dive-bombing guitar-strangling until finally locking into a steady groove five minutes in, and then gradually decomposing again. By Fripp’s own admission, ‘Fracture’ challenged even his abilities with its complexity, and yet, the tight interplay between all involved throughout the song’s protracted ebb and flow is on display.

And to think that this quasi-telepathic musical synchronization was already being undermined by a new occurrence of lineup uncertainty — namely involving Cross, whose violin was losing the battle for expression and sheer volume vs. his more assertive bandmates. This, in the kill-or-be-killed world of King Crimson, meant his inevitable ousting (by unanimous vote, no less) prior to the following year’s excellent, ‘Red,’ which of course signaled another complete band collapse and a five-year hiatus.

Eduardo Rivadavia - March 29, 2014
UltimateClassicRock.com



Alternately trippy and thunderous, this 1974 LP (featuring Fripp, Bruford and Wetton) hit the U.S. charts almost a year to the day after Larks' Tongues in Aspic did. The Great Deceiver; Lament; The Night Watch; Trio this experimental gem managed to outdo the prog classic that preceded it; this reissue is full of alternate mixes and other special treats. The CD features a new stereo mix plus bonus tracks including the ultra-rare (performed once only) Guts on My Side . The DVD-Audio disc has the original and new mixes plus a 5.1 surround mix, 5.1 Lossless audio and stereo mixes, video footage of Easy Money and an improv from NY's Central Park ('73), audio extras including live cuts and radio edits and more!

Amazon.com



Starless and Bible Black is the sixth studio album by the British progressive rock band King Crimson, released in 1974. Much of the album was actually recorded live, but painstakingly edited and blended with studio material.

King Crimson's previous album, Larks' Tongues in Aspic (in which they'd moved decisively away from a more traditional progressive rock sound drawing on American jazz and soul, and towards the influence of European free improvisation) had been recorded by a quintet lineup of the band, including experimental percussionist Jamie Muir. Early in 1973, Muir abruptly left the band - ostensibly due to an onstage injury, but in fact due to an overwhelming spiritual need to retreat from music and spend time in a monastery (something which was not communicated to his bandmates). Muir's departure turned out to be permanent. The band's drummer, Bill Bruford, absorbed Muir's percussion role in addition to his own kit drumming, and the band continued to tour as a quartet.

These upheavals and the pressure of touring left King Crimson short of new written material when it came to the time to record their next album. Having increased their level of onstage improvisation during recent tours, the band opted to take advantage of this to solve the problem. New compositions tried out in concert and captured on several live recordings were presented as part of the new album material, alternating and in some cases blending with studio recordings.

The only songs recorded entirely in the studio were the first two tracks, "The Great Deceiver" and "Lament". "We'll Let You Know" was an entirely improvised piece recorded in Glasgow. "The Mincer" was another improvised piece, originally recorded in concert in Zürich but overdubbed with Wetton's vocals in the studio. "Trio", "Starless and Bible Black" and "Fracture" (the last of which Robert Fripp has cited as one of the most difficult guitar pieces he has ever played) were recorded live at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Also recorded at the Concertgebouw was the introduction to "The Night Watch" (the band's Mellotron broke down at the start of the next section, meaning that the remainder of the song needed to be recorded in the studio and dubbed in later). In all cases, live applause was removed from the recordings wherever possible (although the remains of it can be heard by an attentive listener). The complete Amsterdam Concertgebouw concert was eventually released by the band in 1997 as The Night Watch.

"Trio" was notable for being a quartet piece with only three active players - John Wetton on bass guitar, David Cross on viola, and Robert Fripp on "flute" Mellotron. Bruford spent the entire piece with his drumsticks crossed over his chest, waiting for the right moment to join in but realising that the improvised piece was progressing better without him. His decision not to add any percussion was seen by the rest of the band as a crucial choice, and he received co-writing credit for the piece. "Trio" was later included on the 1975 compilation album A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson, the performance credits of which cite Bruford's contribution to the piece as having been "admirable restraint."

Only four tracks on the album have lyrics. As had been the case with Larks' Tongues in Aspic, these were written by John Wetton's friend Richard Palmer-James (the former Supertramp guitarist who'd left the band after its first, self-titled album). "The Great Deceiver" refers to The Devil and is an ironic commentary on commercialism (Fripp contributed the line "cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary" after seeing souvenirs being marketed in Vatican City). "Lament" is about fame. "The Night Watch" is a short essay on Rembrandt's painting of the same name, describing the painting as an observer sees it and attempting to understand the subjects.

The phrase "Starless and Bible Black" is a quotation from the first two lines of poet Dylan Thomas's play, Under Milk Wood. The band's next album, Red, contains a song called "Starless", which actually contains the phrase "Starless and bible black", whereas "Starless and Bible Black" is an improvised instrumental. The title track is actually an edit of the original Amsterdam improvisation, which eventually appeared in its totality on The Night Watch in 1997 (for which sleevenotes indicate that it was cut short for the 1973 album "due to the constraints of vinyl").

The album art is by painter Tom Phillips. The phrase "this night wounds time", which appears on the back cover, is a quotation from Phillips's signature work, the "treated novel" A Humument (p. 222).

Rolling Stone called the album "as stunningly powerful as In the Court of the Crimson King," praising Bruford's mastery of his percussive style and the successful integration of David Cross's violin and viola as a counter-soloist to Fripp. They found the album's variety of tones and lengthy instrumental improvisations particularly impressive, and concluded, "Fripp has finally assembled the band of his dreams — hopefully it'll stay together long enough to continue producing albums as excellent as this one."

Allmusic also praised the album's variety of tones in their retrospective review, and remarked that the album's second side "threw the group's hardest sounds right in the face of the listener, and gained some converts in the process." Robert Christgau's review was more ambiguous, deeming it "as close as this chronically interesting group has ever come to a good album", though he would eventually give higher ratings to Red and USA.

Wikipedia.org
 

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