Starless and Bible Black: 40th Anniversary Series

This review is for the Starless and Bible Black album in general. This is album has had several "re-issues", including the new 40th, 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. Why 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. Enjoy - SS

King Crimson is the perfect band for multichannel sound, in my opinion. People who like labels frequently toss Crimso into the progressive-rock pot, but the truth is that, since its inception more than four decades ago, and despite numerous personnel shifts, King Crimson always has sounded unique. "Starless and Bible Black" is from the era featuring David Cross on violin and keyboards, John Wetton on bass and vocals, Bill Bruford on drums and the ever-present Robert Fripp on guitar and Mellotron. While it's never been my favorite KC album, it's always ranked well -- I'd put it far ahead of discs such as "Islands," "Lizard" and even "In the Wake of Poseidon." The vocal tracks are consistently good; Wetton is in great voice, and the pieces (with one exception) all feature strong lyrics. "The Great Deceiver" references Lucifer but also seems to be some kind of indictment of materialism, while "Lament" mourns the loss of innocence from the point of view of (what else?) a rock star. "The Night Watch" refers to the Rembrandt painting, and comes across as an exceptionally thoughtful piece of rock 'n' roll poetry. For me, the only disappoint is "The Mincer," with abstract lyrics that make very little impression. Of the instrumentals here, my favorites are the two closing pieces, "Starless and Bible Black" and "Fracture." Note: Buyers should beware that "Starless and Bible Black" is, as I've written here, an instrumental, and not the moving, vocal-with-lyrics piece "Starless," which actually appears on "Red," the album that followed this one. Confusing, yes -- and it seems to happen in this genre. Led Zeppelin's song "Houses of the Holy" actually appeared not on that album but on "Physical Graffiti." Anyway, "Starless" the instrumental is a fine, tense, exploratory piece. As for "Fracture": A (noisy) guitar masterpiece written by Fripp, who has said on more than one occasion that it's the most difficult piece he's ever composed/played. The surround mix: There's not a lot of gimmickry here, but the presence of several channels does allow the listener to hear the individual instruments more clearly.

I bought this because I lost my old copy. Most of the great King Crimson albums have been remastered and I bought this for the remastered copy. I was blown away when I got it and saw it had a DVD Audio disc as well as the CD in the package. I love DVD audio and Blu Ray Audio discs for their clarity and superior sound on a good HiFi system. When I played the DVD Audio disc it was like listening to Starless and Bible Black for the first time. The Stereo separation and clarity of Bill Bruford's percussion and Fripp's Guitar was awesome. Starless is the follow up to Larks Tongue in Aspic with the same bandmates. John Whetton's vocals have never been better. I loved this disc set.

29 de marzo de 1974, Fripp Wetton Bruford tocaron con las yemas de los dedos el pináculo del rock progresivo, amo este álbum casi tanto como mi vida, mentiría si no admitiera que lo compre solo porque quería escuchar Fracture en la mejor calidad de audio conocida por el hombre y el mono y planeo ser enterrado con este disco cuando muera DEJA DE LEER ESTA RESEÑA Y COMPRA YA EL MALDITO VINILO

素晴らしい👍

excellent, I recommend

One of their best efforts from their 1970s albums. This album sounds like a bit of engineering genius with the combination of studio and live recordings seamlessly melded together within a single song. A must have for the fan of King Crimson or one who is getting to know the band.

Before I got really into King Crimson in the late 1970s I knew their music but buying albums was much more of a financial commitment then and my older friends were into other bands. Then I got friends with a guy who was really into KC and his favourite albums were Starless and Bible Black & Red, so this is where I went first. I loved them both from the first listen and never looked back. It is funny having now heard so many live versions of some of these tunes and reviews that judge the relative merits of individual track because back then I hardly considered those two albums as separate entities let alone the individual tunes on them. The changes in pace and instrumentation is what make the high points work. The Steven Wilson mix is excellent and the bonus material is really good. I am an extremely biased reviewer, I love this band, I have this on vinyl, CD (30th anniversary edition) the CD/DVDa (40th anniversary edition) and the Starless Box which contains all the CD and DVDa material already. Whichever one you go for, this is an essential King Crimson album, not least because it is quite challenging in places. Some music is worth having to have a few listens before you get it and everything by this band is well worth the effort. I also take great exception to the idea of a definitive period of this band. The current 8 piece (and the 7 piece it developed from) are as great as any incarnation and I have become fixated on many of the versions, the 1980s band was perfect at the time but I still loved In the Court of the Crimson King, when THRAK came out I had it along with Vrooom on a C90 tape and listened to nothing else on my Walkman for a month. Starless and Bible Black is a brilliant album and 40th Anniversary CD/DVDa is probably the best place to start and the Zurich Volkhaus tracks offer peak behind the scenes of the structure of this album but it is the original album that counts so whatever version you can get, or is in your budget get it and allow this music to expand your horizons. Nobody need chemical consciousness expansion when there is great, challenging music to do the job, and there are no side effects.