In January 1974 King Crimson entered Air Studios to begin work on what would become Starless And Bible Black. In one of his regular visits to the archives, DGM’s Alex Mundy has unearthed this fascinating extract of the band as they get to grips with The Great Deceiver. One of the first things they tackled in the studio, as we join this previously unreleased ten minutes of music and chatter, the atmosphere seems a little tense.
“Listen, wait a minute, wait a minute. Before we go on and on doing this we have to figure out what parts everyone is playing,” says an exasperated Bill Bruford after a couple of attempts to record the backing track for the song. “Well, can I make a point,” retorts Robert Fripp from the other side of the studio, sounding a little terse. “We haven’t been through the fucking. . .”
Sadly the rest of Fripp’s point is cut short after engineer George Chkiantz presses the pause button. That we can even hear anything at all of what Fripp and Wetton are saying is only due to Alex Mundy’s sterling work in boosting the speech inadvertently picked up by the microphones in front of the guitar amplifiers.
