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Red (King Crimson album)

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For other albums called Red, see Red (disambiguation) § Music.
Untitled

Red is a 1974 album by progressive rock group King Crimson.

It was their last studio recording of the 1970s and the last before the lead member Robert Fripp temporarily disbanded the group. Fripp and Bill Bruford are the only personnel on this album to appear in later versions of King Crimson.

Production

David Cross left King Crimson in 1974, reducing the group to the trio of Robert Fripp, John Wetton and Bill Bruford. The trio recorded Red with the help of Cross and former band-members Ian McDonald and Mel Collins. Fripp disbanded King Crimson on September 24, 1974, and the album was released later that year with no accompanying tour.

While musically similar to its predecessor Starless and Bible Black, Red was produced very differently from previous King Crimson albums. For instance, while the acoustic guitar features prominently in previous releases, on Red it is heard only for a few bars in "Fallen Angel". Also, unlike previous King Crimson albums, Red features extensive use of guitar overdubs. Later albums lacked acoustic guitar entirely and reverted to a minimum of overdubs, though by that point the band featured multiple guitarists playing simultaneously.

The album opens with the title track, a driving, hard rock instrumental. It makes extensive use of the whole-tone scale for a dissonant, angular sound, and features multiple time signatures including 3/4, 13/8 and 4/4.[original research?] It also features a cello section.

The fourth track on the album, "Providence", was recorded live at Palace Theatre, Providence, USA, on June 30, 1974, and is the album's only live recording. Charles Snider refers to the album as a "swansong," and notes that "'Providence' packs just about everything improv-related from the last two albums into its eight short minutes."[1] A longer, unedited version of the track is available on the live four-CD set The Great Deceiver.

The lyrics and melody for "Starless" were written by John Wetton. He originally intended the song to be the title track of the group's previous album Starless and Bible Black. Fripp and Bruford initially disliked the song and declined to record it for that album. Instead the group chose an instrumental composition as the title track for the Starless and Bible Black album. However, "Starless" was later revived during the Red recording sessions. Fripp then added the instrumental guitar section to the song. As the title "Starless and Bible Black" had already been used, the original title was shortened to "Starless".

Legacy

The record faltered on the British charts. In the United States, it reached #66 on the Billboard Top 200.

However, it remained a popular album with fans and critics. In 2001 Q magazine named Red as one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time,"[2] and Kurt Cobain has cited the album as a major influence. [3][4] Musicologists Eric Tamm and Edward Macan both consider Red, and particularly the track "Starless", to be the highlight of King Crimson's recorded output. Users of Rate Your Music.com have rated it the Number 1 album of 1974, and 49th greatest album of all time.[5]

Releases

The album had CD releases in 1989 and 2001, each newly remastered by Fripp at the time. The newest version is due on September 21st 2009, containing a 5.1 Surround Sound mix on DVD-A (created by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, in collaboration with Fripp).

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Red" (Robert Fripp) – 6:16
  2. "Fallen Angel" (Fripp, Richard Palmer-James, John Wetton) – 6:03
  3. "One More Red Nightmare" (Fripp, Wetton) – 7:10

Side two

  1. "Providence" (Bill Bruford, David Cross, Fripp, Wetton) – 8:10
    Recorded at Palace Theatre, Providence, USA, 30 June 1974
  2. "Starless" (Bruford, Cross, Fripp, Palmer-James, Wetton) – 12:16

2009 CD bonus tracks

  1. "Red" (pre-overdub trio version)
  2. "Fallen Angel" (pre-overdub trio version)
  3. "Providence" (unedited live version)

Personnel

King Crimson

Additional musicians

Notes

  1. ^ Snider, Charles (2008). The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock. Lulu. p. 181. ISBN 9780615175669. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time
  3. ^ Interview with Robert Fripp
  4. ^ Interview with Bill Bruford (in italian)
  5. ^ http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/king_crimson/red/
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