This Day in Music History: King Crimson/Red (10/06)

Red is the seventh studio album by progressive rock group King Crimson, released on this day in 1974. It was their last studio recording of the 1970's and the last before the lead member Robert Fripp temporarily disbanded the group.

Tours in 1974 had seen King Crimson's musical approach becoming louder and more brutal, an approach primarily driven by bass player John Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford (guitarist and group leader Robert Fripp once compared their powerful playing to "a flying brick wall"). This had had the effect of drowning out the band's fourth member, violinist and sometime keyboard player David Cross and led to tension within the band. Deemed not strong enough as a musical personality, Cross was ejected from King Crimson after the end of its tour in summer 1974, reducing the group to the trio of Fripp, Wetton and Bruford. Having already begun to record Red with Cross, King Crimson finished the album with the help of former band-members Ian McDonald and Mel Collins.


The album opens with the title track, a driving, hard rock instrumental.

The fourth track on the album, "Providence", was recorded live at Palace Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, on June 30th, 1974, and is the album's only live recording. Charles Snider refers to the album as a "swan song", and comments that "'Providence' packs just about everything improv-related from the last two albums into its eight short minutes."

The original 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 had initially disliked the song and declined to record it for that album, with the group then choosing an instrumental composition as the title instead. However, "Starless" was later revived, its lyrics altered and a long instrumental section added to it, and performed live between March–June 1974. A discarded verse was later used by Wetton in UK's "Caesar's Palace Blues". 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." 

Early in the recording process, Fripp had had a spiritual revelation and consequently withdrew formally from the sessions' decision making. Although plans were considered to add McDonald to the lineup again for the next tour, Fripp abruptly disbanded King Crimson on September 24th 1974, and the album was released the following month with no accompanying tour.

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.

In 2001 Q magazine named Red as one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time", and Kurt Cobain had reportedly cited the album as a major influence. 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 title track was ranked #87 in the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs list of Rolling Stone. Pitchfork ranked Red #72 on the Top 100 Albums of the 1970's stating that "For a band that was very obviously about to splinter, King Crimson's music sounds remarkably of a single mind. On Red, they achieved a remarkable balance between bone-crushing brutality and cerebral complexity." Rateyourmusic voted Red as the #1 album of 1974 and the 47th greatest album of all time.

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