| Red | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by King Crimson | ||||
| Released | November 1974 | |||
| Recorded | July–August 1974 at Olympic Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 39:55 | |||
| Label | Island (UK) Atlantic (North America) |
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| Producer | King Crimson | |||
| King Crimson chronology | ||||
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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.
The title track was ranked #87 in the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs list of Rolling Stone.[1]
Contents |
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 24 September 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 features multiple time signatures including 5/8, 7/8 and 4/4. It also features a cello section.
The fourth track on the album, "Providence", was recorded live at Palace Theatre, Providence, USA, on 30 June 1974, and is the album's only live recording. Charles Snider refers to the album as a "swan song", and notes that "'Providence' packs just about everything improv-related from the last two albums into its eight short minutes."[2] 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, its lyrics altered and a long instrumental section (based on a bass riff contributed by Bruford) added to it, and performed live between March–June 1974. For the Red recording sessions, the lyrics were again altered (with contributions by Richard Palmer-James). The haunting introductory theme, originally contributed and played by David Cross, was taken over by the guitar, with Fripp making minor alterations to the melody. As the title "Starless and Bible Black" had already been used, the original title was shortened to "Starless".
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [3] |
| Robert Christgau | (A-)[4] |
| George Starostin | (9/10)[5] |
| Mojo | [6] |
The record spent only one week on the British charts, at #45, whereas all the band's previous studio albums had reached the Top 30. In the United States, it reached #66 on the Billboard 200. However, it remained a popular album with fans and critics.
Retrospective reviews were resoundingly positive. In theirs, Allmusic declared Red to be weaker than its two predecessors, but nonetheless a superlative work: "few intact groups could have gotten an album as good as Red together. The fact that it was put together by a band in its death throes makes it all the more impressive an achievement."[3] Robert Christgau also applauded the album, calling it "Grand, powerful, grating, and surprisingly lyrical" and commenting that "this does for classical-rock fusion what John McLaughlin's Devotion did for jazz-rock fusion."[4] George Starostin repeatedly compared the album to the work of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, concluding that "These guys had all of ELP's talent, plus the artistic integrity ELP threw away..."[5]
In 2001 Q magazine named Red as one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time,"[7] and Kurt Cobain has cited the album as a major influence.[8][9] Musicologists Eric Tamm and Edward Macan both consider Red, and particularly the track "Starless", to be the highlight of King Crimson's recorded output.
The album had CD releases in 1989 and 2001, each newly remastered by Fripp at the time. The newest version appeared on 21 September 2009, containing a 5.1 Surround Sound mix on DVD-Audio (created by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, in collaboration with Fripp).