Paul Clark, guitarist with the David Cross band, has posted a cracking little tribute to KC anthem, Red, on his myspace site. Here’s what Clarky has to say about the creation of this track.
“I’ve always loved Red, it has a sort of wildness about it. The style of harmony is a typical display of Robert’s phenominal 6th sense when it comes to handling dissonance. Additionally, Robert does things with a guitar in the song Red that were simply years ahead of it’s time - technical tricks that were later to become stock tools in the modern shredder’s arsenal.
In my opinion, Robert had an integral contribution to the evolution of the modern rock / metal guitarist - it’s not obvious on the surface, but look a little deeper and suddenly it stares you in the face. Hmm.. "not obvious".. but then nothing with Robert ever is.
This song - Purple - has taken the principle themes and general structure of Red and stuck them in a big ol’ pot to be mixed with a liberal helping of metal and blues.. Red and blues... seems like Purple to me.
So why did I do this? I play for David Cross - which has been an amazing and significant part of my life both as a musician and as a person and David being a former member of King Crimson is obviously completely immersed in that unique tonalty. Much of what has inevitably rubbed off on me.
Purple is my own personal way of "tipping my hat" to Robert, David, John and Bill, my way of saying thanks and celebrating what is in my mind, the absolute source of the great river that was to become progressive rock/ metal. That source being King Crimson."
Paul adds "I hope the hard-core KC’ers don’t brand me a heretic for doing this and I find I’m woken up in the middle of the night by the villagers armed with pitch-forks and flaming torches storming my lil’ castle."
You can check out more about Paul over on his main website.
