KING CRIMSON/STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK ILPS 9275 (-74) UK

A good thing writing this blog is I get to dive deeper into my collection and reconnect with LP:s I haven't heard for some time. Listened a lot to King Crimson lately. The music from most of their albums has been with me through the decades, but a few that for some reason didn't hit me at first just remained on the shelf collecting dust. This is one I re-discovered a while ago. All numbers but two - "Great Deceiver" and "Lament" - were from live recordings made in Glasgow, Zurich and Amsterdam. Four of the songs are instrumental and four have lyrics written by Richard Palmer-James (earlier in Supertramp). The reason it didn't get to me back then was I thought it lacked the consistency of their previous albums and just came through as a random collection of tracks. Three almost regular songs - "Great Deceiver", "Lament" and "Night Watch - mixed with demanding instrumentals consisting of improvisations built around fixed themes. Today, having a more mature conception, I can hear one thing that ties the album together - Robert Fripp's sovereign guitar play. From the cheeky "Great Deceiver" riff to the almost impossible licks in "Fracture" it's a veritable guitar orgy. Even if Cross, Wetton and Bruford also do lots of good, it's Fripp's work that makes the record. Favorite track - "Great Deceiver" also for its attack on mindless commercialism. First US on Atlantic (SD 7298). Early UK had label as shown here, structured fold/out cover and lyric inner. (KYK*)