Customer Reviews

Starless and Bible Black - 30th Anniversary Edition Remastered

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This 1974 release by King Crimson presents a nice mixture of studio tracks and live tracks. With respect to the live tracks, We'll Let You Know was a purely improvisational piece taken from a concert held in Glasgow Scotland, while The Mincer (another improvised jam) was recorded in Zurich, Switzerland and overdubbed in the studio. Three tracks including Trio; Fracture; and Starless and Bible Black were recorded at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as was the introduction to The Night Watch (the remainder was recorded in the studio). For those of you that are curious, the complete Amsterdam Concertgebouw concert was released by the band as The Night Watch, which is a fantastic sounding 2-CD document of this powerful lineup live.

The lineup on this album is considered to be the finest Crimson lineup assembled and I do not disagree. The players at this point included David Cross (violin, viola, mellotron); Robert Fripp (electric guitar; mellotron; and devices); John Wetton (electric bass guitar; lead vocals); and the incredible Bill Bruford (drums and percussion). The performances on the live tracks are out of this world and amply demonstrate the power of this group as an improvisational unit of considerable power and imagination. Robert Fripp turns in some excellent performances throughout (his complex, cross-picking technique really shines on the closing track) and seems to favor a heavily distorted tone played at bone-crushing volumes - he is however, capable of some delicate playing as well. John Wetton seems to favor taking the same approach on the bass guitar and his thunderous bass lines rumble throughout - like Fripp, John is also capable of some fairly delicate playing. I was also happy to hear David Cross and his delicate violin/viola parts emerge from the chaos - unfortunately, his playing really took a back seat on the follow-up album Red (1974).

The eight tracks on the album range in length from 3'46 to 11'14" and include a few studio tracks (The Great Deceiver and Lament) and the aforementioned live tracks. Although some of the live tracks generate enough raw explosive power to blow the earth up ten times over, Trio is a very tranquil piece that just features violin, bass guitar, mellotron, and flute. Apparently, Bill Buford felt that Trio was perfect as it was and decided not to add drums during the live performance - in fact, the band appreciated this gesture and gave him a co-credit. The Night Watch is another quiet and mellotron saturated piece that breaks things up nicely. Although the studio tracks are nice and present a wide range in dynamics, it is the crushing volume and avant-garde tendencies of the improvised tracks that really hold my attention.

All in all, this is a good album released during a very creative period for King Crimson along with Lark's Tongues in Aspic (1973) and Red. Although I can't say that I like this album as much as the other two from this period, this is still high quality progressive rock and is recommended along with In the Court of the Crimson King (1969); Lizard (1970); Lark's Tongues in Aspic; and Red.

In 1974, King Crimson released the followup to 1973's Larks Tounges In Aspic, Starless and Bible Black. I am surprised this album is not considered among Crimsons best, as only three other albums come close to it in the Crimson catolouge. All of the members of this lineup are virtuoso's at their instruments, and the instrumental interplay between the group is amazing. Robert Fripp is in a league of his own. His guitar playing is absolutely stunning, and this is probably the Crimson album that best shows off his abilities. Bill Bruford is also amazing, his style of drumming is very original and really is the only thing that keeps this album from being complete and total chaos. David Cross and John Wetton, are also great at their instruments, in fact John Wetton was the best Bassist to ever play in Crimson.

The opening number "The Great Deciever" is a classic rocker that features some great violin playing. "Lament" starts out as a ballad but eventually rocks even harder than the song before. From this point on all the songs were recorded live, and for the most part are instrumental. "We'll Let You Know" is a great improv piece, with great playing from the entire band. The next two songs "The Night Watch" and "Trio" are extremely beautiful, with David Cross contributing great violin. The next three songs, are some of the darkest improv pieces ever laid to tape. "The Mincer" sends chills down your spine, the title track is extremely unsettling, and then there is one of King Crimson best songs "Fracture", there is probably no greater an example of Fripps mastering of the guitar than this eleven minute instrumental, there are places where it sounds like there are perhaps three guitarists playing at once, and you have to remind yourself it is just Fripp.

I hold "Starless And Bible Black" in extremely high regard. It is however not the best place to start your Crimson collection, get "In The Court Of The Crimson King" and "Red" first, but Starless proves that many of the more inaccesable albums tend to also be more rewarding.

They came a long way from the Moonchild improv 5 years prior to the recorded live Fracture & Starless improvs. The improvs are now their strength instead of the weakness. This may be their best

This review is for the Starless and Bible Black album in general. This is album has had several "re-issues", including the 30th, the box set live recordings of this tour called The Great Deceiver - (a must if you love this period), and The Night Watch (which is a concert recording that was used for the basis of much of this album, and part of the reason for my very favorable review.)

Lark Tongues In Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, and Red (and the live album USA to be complete). Other periods of Crimson are great and wonderful as well (In the Court.., Islands, Discipline, Thrack - the great double trio! -The ConstruKction of Light), but I want to limit my review to this era of KC.

This trio of albums is really, in my opinion, one long work - a three part epic, a trilogy. If you want to taste this era of KC you must get all three.

Lark's Tongues is a masterpiece. Great songs, great concepts, great improves, and overall a masterful album of conceptions and executions. Bringing in Richard Palmer-James as lyricist was a stroke of genius, as Pete Sinfeld's concepts and wordplay would not have worked with this line-up. Richard Palmer-James's excellent english symbolism is perfect for this interplay of "impressionistic" progressive rock. Wetton, Bruford, Muir and Cross were the most perfect additions any band could ever hope to have. How Fripp managed to revive KC after the near-death experience of Earthbound is utterly amazing. Not that Islands was bad, in fact in my review I list it as a great album (in many ways it pointed to these next three albums), but the band and Fripp were not on the same page at all. Still, stealing Bruford from Yes, Wetton from Family and asking Muir to join, and that it actually happened - well how many bands make an all time classic record like "In The Court.." breakup a couple of times, and then come roaring back so hard that a third lineup is actually it's classic line-up. Amazing!

But chances are you already know about that part of the story. So, now about why Starless and Bible Black is the best of the three..

First of all, I don't really like saying one is better than another when I love them all equally. However, there are some differences that make Starless and Bible Black stand out. Lark's Tongues has perhaps the best songs of the three, but it suffers from two things - one, the band was new and they were (especially Wetton and Bruford - the two most important new members), holding back, dipping their feet in and finding their place, and you can hear it. Wetton's tone was great but reserved, as was Bruford's. Bruford sounded like he was still in Yes, and Muir had not quite yet rubbed off on him (as would be evident on the following album - Starless and Bible Black). Also, I believe Lark's Tongues was recorded at Air Studios (a fine studio indeed), but the production suffered a bit with a thin sound at times. Wetton's bass not quite booming and distorted enough. Fripp's guitar tone a little harsh. Bruford a little thin too. But despite these two faults, Lark's Tongues is a perfect album. (Edit: Perhaps the 30th or 40th Anniversary Editions have rectified this somewhat, but still they're playing wasn't as big as it would be on the next album).

Let me skip to Red for a moment. Another great record that was HEAVY, scary, beautiful, and sexy. Yes, it was certainly RED (Edit: See the 40th Anniversary Edition for jaw dropping heaviness, not to mention 5.1 mixes). However, I find a couple of faults here too. My main problem with Red is that it is too short. There are basically four really great songs and one misplaced improve, Providence, that would have been better placed on Starless and Bible Black (but actually not good enough for that album either). Red is sequenced as good as it could be, but imagine a couple of more songs on side B and Red would be the winner. But Red was recorded so loud that either they couldn't fit any more songs on the vinyl, and/or because they had broken up, they didn't have any more new material. I'm afraid both are the case. Red had moved on from Starless and Bible Black and they couldn't put older material on that album. Anything they were to put on that album had to be new. Side A represents that new sound well. The last track (oddly named Starless) was from the Starless and Bible Black touring period, but it made a great ending to this band's existence. Starless contained musical elements of both the current KC, and the original KC, complete with an appearance by Ian McDonald. How perfect is that? Fripp, McDonald, Wetton and Bruford (with Mel Collins and David Cross to boot!). A KC supergroup!

Now to my point. What Starless and Bible Black is the best. While maybe not quite conceptualized as well as Lark's Tongues (although it's equal really, it's just that Lark's Tongues' was planned out and arranged very strategically), and maybe not as heavy and accessible as Red, Starless and Bible Black had a couple of things going for it that the others did not. The production AND conceptualization are 100% perfect. The recording (at Command studios I believe, but I may have Lark's Tongues and Starless reversed), is massively huge. The ebbs and flows of energy and ambience are as perfect as could be. Great songs to start off the album in The Great Deceiver and Lament. Powerful and beautiful improves in We'll Let You Know, Trio, The Mincer, a beautiful ballad in The Night Watch, and then there is side two. Shear power. The title track Starless and Bible Black starts ominously quite but begins to build, ever stronger and stronger until it's a full out power jam with Wetton and Bruford in a total hypnotic fury, and then it settles down - like a storm brewing and the slamming you only to leave you and the destruction it caused. Stunning! As if that's not enough, then comes another storm, another masterpiece in Fracture. Again, quietly coming, building, changing, and then again slamming you hard, this time with Fripp in overdrive (with his Whole-tone Scale goodness), and Wetton and Bruford again in a total hypnotic fury! Brilliant.

Starless and Bible Black may or may not have a running time longer than Lark's Tongues, certainly more so than Red, but it feels longer because there is so much there. Part of all this magic is due to that band recording the tracks live and singing and doing overdubs in the studio (not the whole album, but parts of it), and it really brings out the power and sound of this band. Red captured it too, but too briefly.

Starless and Bible Black is a prog masterpiece. Any aspiring band that wants to be a good live band must listen to this record. Buy all three. But let this middle album sink in. Put some studio quality headphones on and turn off the lights late at night. You WILL be taken to places that you may or may not wish to go.

Good luck!

This album is one of the worst King Crimson pieces as far as conception, but also has some of their best music.

What a quandry: "Great Deceiver," "Lament" and "Nightwatch" are three of Crimso's best tracks. That art funk they started to establish was truely edgey--edgey as the most underground prog, such as Henry Cow and about thrity Vertigo bands I could list. "Fracture" and the title track are even more exciting. They feature some of Fripp's best work as a composer and improviser, and Wetton's bass playing is increadibly athletic and adventurous--from the sound of his hands around that Fender Persicion thick neck, remind me never to pi-s John Wetton off.
Even the Mincer and We'll let you know are nice snippets of what this and could do live, and make no mistake, this was a killer live band

The problem is, none of this really cohears. Crimson should have probably done what Pink Floyd did with Ummagumma-one great studio album and one great live one, realeased as a classic double set. This would have worked much better than the patchwork that keeps this album from being top flight.

Minor quibbles can be made about every record King Crimson has ever released, unsurprising as their output has been spread over 39 years and numerous lineups. However, the astonishing recordings of Trio and Fracture elevate this to the pantheon; how many bands have, or will ever have, the range and vision required to produce this music? Recommended listening for any musician who wishes to understand the possibilities of improvisation.

king crimson is the byfar the greatest & one of the most creative "prog" rock bands to come out of the late 60s/early 70s next to pink floyd & ELP. this album is no less. it doesn't top larks' tongue in aspic or in the court of the crimson king, but it stands next to them, for sure & openly defines this band as a milestone in the more experimental/art rock of the early 70s.

if you are unfamiliar to king crimson's sound, than i'd recommend picking up the latter albums i previously stated. even to this day, king crimson still does not get the recognition they deserve, but in this day in age, maybe it was better that way. they still have countless fans the world around & are one of the most influential rock bands in past 40 years.

long live the crimson king

Having bought this LP way back in 1974, I have always considered (and still do) that what on the LP was Side 2 (Starless and Bible Black and Fracture) are authentic masterpieces and have always been amazed by the fact that they were live improvisations!
Side 1 is good too!
I hope this is also released in the future in 5.1 surround... I think I can die after that!

"This Night Wounds Time"

"Lark's Tongues in Aspic", "Starless and Bible Black", and "Red" are all equally superb. I've been a fan from the first album through the current lineup , it's hard to have favorites.... BUT.... these three albums are (for me) just the best of the lot. For those unfamiliar with this era of Crimson, all of these works have pretty much the same lineup (core of Wetton, Fripp, and Bruford).

There is a very good reason that this era of Crimson has been given so much live documentation (legal and bootleg): there is a spine chilling dynamism that never lets up. Progressive rock would never see these heights again.

This is perhaps my favorite KC album. As a drummer I appreciate what BB is trying to accomplish: musicality, tonality and melody. These terms not usually associated with the drumset but BB is a musician who plays percussion with the keyboard in mind. He listens, anticipates, complements and defines passages. For a better, more developed grasp of this concept check out his current band Earthworks. There is ample room and spacing; changes in speed, volume, textures. I agree that this is Fripp's best KC work. The guitar sounds paint images of internal struggle. Not much light stuff here! Wetton's bass is tight and musical. David Cross (violin) provides additional, mesmerizing sounds to Fripp's concerto. Buy it, listen to it, pay close attention to sound details. For drummers the lessons are simple: 1-music comes first; 2- breath; 3- listen carefully; 4- use the set in multiple conceptual ways; 5. play solid and clean.