King Crimson Album Poll: “Starless and Bible Black” (1974)

Tracklisting:

1. The Great Deceiver (4:02)
2. Lament (4:00)
3. We'll Let You Know (3:46)
4. The Night Watch (4:37)
5. Trio (5:41)
6. The Mincer (4:10)
7. Starless And Bible Black (9:11)
8. Fracture (11:14)

Personnel:

Robert Fripp - Guitar, Mellotron, Devices
Bill Bruford - Drums, Percussion
John Wetton - Bass, Vocals
David Cross - Violin, Viola, Keyboards

Additional information:

Released in March 1974, the bulk of Starless And Bible Black is a live album with all traces of the audience skilfully removed. Coming between the startling inventions of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, and the far-reaching repercussions of Red, Starless And Bible Black is a powerful and experimental album mingling live recordings with stand-alone studio tracks. Brimming with a confidence borne out of the band’s increasing mastery of the concert platform as a basis for inspired improvisations, the sparse, pastoral beauty of Trio, the impressionistic, sombre moods of the title track, and the complex, cross-picking rhythmic brilliance of Fracture all stand testimony to the musical ESP that existed between Cross, Fripp, Wetton and Bruford. A classic and compelling blast of King Crimson as you’re likely to hear.

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Yet another King Crimson masterpiece...I’m speechless. What do you guys think?

 

It's indeed a masterpiece--"Great Deceiver", "Lament", "The Night Watch" and "Fracture" are classic Crimson songs. "Trio" is quite a lilting gem (one that Bruford famously got a writing credit on for opting to hold his drumsticks against his chest and refrain from playing when it was recorded live).

I don't hold the rest of the improv material on the album (though it is fantastic) in the same esteem as the rest of their album output at the time. Regardless, I think I have to go with essential listening for this record as well.

 

One of my top three Crimson LPs. Saw them live for the first time the year released. Unforgettable.

 

"Fracture", "Trio", "The Night Watch" — all indescribably lovely, all recorded partly or wholly in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw before a smitten crowd on a magical evening in November. Legendary stuff

Unfortunately the title instrumental improv track doesn't really click for me, and while kind of fun "We'll Let You Know" is also forgettable. By contrast, "The Mincer" and "Lament" fall just shy of masterpieces. I vacillate on "Great Deceiver"; some days warm some days cool

Overall a strong 'solid' album, but not as notably brilliant compared to the ones either side of it

 

Their best album IMO. I need to do a song by song thread on this album. I don't expect a huge turn out though.
Their most ingenious use of poly rhythms and nutso scales into songs that are beyond devastating. All of their other albums fall short of SABB as far as originality goes.
Great Deceiver alone makes this album a masterpiece.

 

Huge fan of all KC's output from 69-84, but this and Lizard are the best of the best, as far as contemporary (as opposed to archival) releases are concerned, IMHO.

 

My most-listened studio album of the Wetton-Bruford era by far. This and The Power to Believe are my go-to Crim albums (other than that I prefer live recordings).

The riff in "Lament" starting at 2:25 is probably the most perfect sonic equivalent of a spiral I've ever heard.

 

Pretty solid effort, very good from start to finish but the two albums surrounding it feel much stronger.

On an unrelated note, I feel like these album poll threads are coming way too fast and it affects how much each one is discussed. Maybe wait a few days, even a week between albums? also linking past album poll threads on the opening post, like the guy doing all the Pink Floyd polls did, is a very good idea.

 

Solid. I prefer it over Larks' Tongues.

 

Probably my three favorite KC songs of all time.

"Fracture" shows just what an amazing drummer Bruford was, but he also tears up the xylophone with Fripp blazing away that incredible guitar riff. Its ominous: an instrumental that sounds darker than any goth rock or 'evil' heavy metal track about demons or whatever.

"The Night Watch" is just beautiful, hopeful. I know it is about the Van Gogh painting, but it sounds like so much more. One of my favorite solos from Fripp.

"Trio" proves how amazing improv music can be without bewildering or difficult to listen to.

Being an improv fan, I love all of those tracks from this lineup as well such as the title track. Losing Jamie Muir must have been quite a blow, but this proved that the quartet was incredible in a slightly different way. I envy anyone who got to see this live for the first time: particularly the audience at the Concertgebouw. David Cross really got a chance to shine on this album. I only wish they got to record a studio version of "Dr. Diamond", which I would have preferred to "Great Deceiver" as an opener for this album.

 

I picked solid only because after listening to the Starless box, I'm not sure these are the best versions of these songs. hahaha

 

Or perhaps "Doctor Diamond" in place of "The Mincer" or "We'll Let You Know"; though typically, they averaged three songs with vocals on each album of this band's trilogy (not counting what sounds like the largely improvised lyrics of "The Mincer").

I first heard S&BB (and Lizard) on a CD Walkman while recovering in the hospital from a bad car crash, really out of my mind on demoral.

 

My favourite (possibly!) of the Wetton-era Crim.

The material has a tautness and drive that Larks' Tongues doesn't; probably a result of the quartet having a couple of tours under their belts. (In comparison, Larks sounds tentative, like they'd rushed from rehearsal room to studio immediately following learning the new repertoire. A quick listen to Asbury Park shows what could have been, once they'd lived with those compositions.) The "art metal" Crimson credited to Red actually begins here: the Swiss-watch Mahavishnu sprint of "Great Deceiver", the dynamic slam of "Lament", the immense unfolding crunch that is "Fracture". "Starless And Bible Black" astonishes still; I was amazed to find out -- some time after the album's release -- that it was an improvisation, and live recording to boot. Like the equally amazing "Providence", the power and telepathy on display never fails to leave me gobsmacked. "Trio" and "Night Watch" give the record balance, sheer beauty and melodic invention.

 

I have 7 of their albums (mostly the 70's) but not this one. In might get this soon.

What do you guys think of this album and which is the best version for cd?

 

A pretty solid effort. I really like Fracture.

 

just realized i dont own this!! Will order it today. Are there any reissued that should be avoided ? Any advise would be appreciated

 

Side 1 is a little hit or miss for me, but side 2 might be the single best side of vinyl in their catalogue. Great album but not my favorite.

 

Another essential for KC fans along with Island.

 

Never has the qualifier for fans been more important to me when voting for essential. S&BB is not an easy album or one that you can just stick on for background listening. The dynamics are extreme and the style (for the most part) closer to Jazz than any other genre. This is really an album that I put on when I'm ready really to listen to something, and it repays that effort.

That said, the album does contain 'The Night Watch' which I think is such a beautiful song that it would be far more widely known were it not on this album.

 

I think it's this Rembrandt:



It's an enormous painting, the figures are almost life-size. While possible that Richard Palmer-James would have seen a smaller copy of it in London at the National Gallery, he probably did take in the original at its permanent home in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam

"The golden light all grimey now" refers to the layer of varnish that darkened the colours significantly over the years, which gave the painting its nickname and the KC song its title!

 

I have all the Wetton-Bruford era CDs but for some reason I've listened to Starless And Bible Black less than a handful of times. In comparison I must have played Red a hundred times. I'm not sure why that is.

--Geoff

 

Essential.
I just listened to this again last night. It's beautiful.

 

Essential Wetton/Fripp/Bruford era album.

 

Essential by all means.

 

Thanks so much for putting this up. I've read about the painting and seen small pictures in books, and knew that the lyrics were a thumbnail sketch of the artwork.

But years before I read any George RR Martin, I always pictured while listening to this song a bunch of weary medieval adventurers not unlike Martin's Jon Snow-led Night's Watch. Like a lot of prog, sometimes your mind dreams up a Tolkien-esque fantasy feel without it being referenced in any of the lyrics for some reason. Its funny what the imagination can do with music. I now understand why some lyricists don't like to tell people what to think or how to interpret music.

Yet another way to appreciate this song at it was meant to be.