Underground Sound—King Crimson's Red

By Paul Tsikitas
Collegian Editor
April 12, 2006

This Week’s Band: King Crimson
Featured Album: Red

One of prog rock’s greatest bands seems to get forgotten in the shuffle. King Crimson, guided by mastermind Robert Fripp, often gets overshadowed by the likes of Rush, Yes and Genesis. This doesn’t change the fact that they are just as good, if not better than each of these bands. Their 1974 album Red takes the genre to a level that it wasn’t totally ready to be. With ridiculous riffs and long, sweeping half-jazz-half-rock structures, Red pointed to the likes of Primus and what Floyd would become with next few albums.

Red begins with an instrumental kick to the teeth. The titular song shows what a band consisting of three members can do with their instruments. Bill Bruford has the ability to fill any musical crevice with percussive magic that will make any drummer scream for more. John Wetton on bass also knows how to keep things rocking with complicated bass lines that never drift from being a backbone to the structures of the songs. Fripp goes nuts on all tracks with his famous “Frippertronic” guitar work.

The next two tracks are quite possibly some of the best in the Crimson catalogue. “Fallen Angel” is a sad yet beautiful song that brings the feel of the early Crimson style with the new edge that would soon take over the later albums of the band. “One More Red Nightmare” is an exercise in sound that ends abruptly in the most glorious way.

“Providence” shows the jazz influence that the band has with a sweeping instrumental that seems to take a while to start up in full gear. But when the engine reaches full speed, there is no stopping the fury of the instruments. The highlight is the closer. The 12-minute track “Starless” builds into a musical crescendo that explodes into an all out jam. The track could melt any music lovers’ face to the most basic of goo that would be unbelievably hard to fix.

Red has five songs, but in those tracks, the band excercise all the best parts of what they are known for—great musical skills and amazing sweeping epics. King Crimson needs to be entered into your catalogue. With jazz and rock undertones, they truly are the kings of prog.

tsikitp1@lasalle.edu