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A central piece in the Crimson's prog-metal trilogy, "Starless and Bible Black" (a title borrowed from Dylan Thomas) is, in fact, a live album disguised as a studio album; most of the tracks are actually live recordings (mainly from the 1973 concert at the Amsterdam ConcertGebow, later presented in full in the posthumous "The Night Watch") and thus constitute the first testimony of the group's frenetic concert activity back in '73.
The three studio tracks (with lyrics by Palmer-James) are almost all noteworthy. The opening of "The Great Deceiver" leaves you breathless: a powerful bass and violin attack is followed by Fripp's supersonic guitar ostinato that relentlessly hammers this sarcastic track dedicated to a truly "diabolical" character; it could have been a hit-single if the band had ever wanted one. Released as a single instead, "The Night Watch" is a cultured ballad narrating the life of the painter Rembrandt and his difficult relations with the bourgeoisie of the time, which he then represented in his paintings (such as "The Night Watch" itself). Musically, it is a small masterpiece: from the wonderful introduction (recorded live) with Fripp's rapid arpeggio and Cross’s raw violin to the beautiful guitarist's solo in the central part. A step below is "Lament", a nervous bluesman-like ballad-confession with a frenetic final coda (notable, however, is Wetton's excellent vocal performance). The instrumental tracks, in their turn, offer an overview of the group's musical proposal: "We'll Let You Know" is somewhat the prototype of their improvisations, which move from an initial primordial chaos to gradually recognizable rhythmic or melodic hints (better exemplified in the subsequent "Providence" on "Red"); a similar trend follows the delicate "Trio" (where Wetton's bass, Fripp's organ, and Cross's country violin dialog sublimely); the elusive "The Mincer" (which abruptly ends) and the dark title track. The latter then serves as an introduction to the album's masterpiece, as well as one of Crimson's best instrumentals: "Fracture". It is not an improvised piece but a meticulous and calculated composition where the musicians' undeniable mastery is put at the service of Frippian musical "discipline". It is especially in tracks like this (with their metric complexities, time fields, exotic harmonies) that Bartok and Stravinsky's influence on the group's music becomes evident.
In conclusion, an album that stands as a testament to the English band's best moment but which, in my most humble opinion, also lacks a defined identity: too imperfect to be an excellent studio album (like "Larks"... ), too sketchy to worthily document the live performances at their best by the greatest progressive group that rock history remembers.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 The Great Deceiver (04:02)
Health-food faggot with a bartered bride
Likes to comb his hair with a dipper ride
Once had a friend with a cloven foot
Once he called the tune in a chequered quit
Great Deceiver
In the door on the floor in a paper bag
There's a shoe-shine boy with a gin-shop slag
She raised him up and she called him son
And she canonised the ground that he walked upon
Great Deceiver
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, cadillacs blue jeans
In the night he's a star in the Milky Way
He's a man of the world by the light of day
A golden smile and a proposition
And the breath of God smells of sweet sedition
Great Deceiver
Sing hymns make love get high fall dead
He'll bring his perfume to your bed
He'll charm your life 'til the cold winds blow
Then he'll sell your dreams to a picture show
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cadillacs, blue jeans, dixieland playing on the ferry
Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry
02 Lament (04:05)
I guess I tried to show you how
I'd take the crowd with my guitar
And business men would clap their hands
And clip another fat cigar
And publishers would spread the news
And print my music far and wide
And all the kids who played the blues
Would learn my licks with a bottle neck slide
But now it seems the bubble's burst
Although you know there was a time
When love songs gathered in my head
With poetry in every line
And strong men strove to hold the doors
While with my friends I passed the age
When people stomped on dirty floors
Before I trod the rock'n'roll stage
I'll thank the man who's on the 'phone
And if he has the time to spend
The problem I'll explain once more
And indicate a sum to lend
That ten percent is now a joke
Maybe thirty, even thirty-five
I'll say my daddy's had a stroke
He'd have one now, if he only was alive
I like the way you look at me
You're laughing too down there inside
I took my chance and you took yours
You crewed my ship, we missed the tide
I like the way the music goes
There's a few good guys who can play it right
I like the way it moves my toes
Just say when you want to go and dance all night...
06 The Mincer (04:08)
Fingers reaching
Linger shrieking
Jump at a scream
Goodnight honey
You're all alone
Baby breathing
They come better looking
But they don't come mannered
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By macaco
"Starless And Bible Black" is the album that has most contributed to developing my way of perceiving music over the last twenty years.
King Crimson is rarely taken as a model, and in "Starless..." they are at the peak of antithesis.
