The Long and Winding Road: 2019

Thursday 10 October 2019

Epitaph

King Crimson’s classic debut album In The Court Of The Crimson King was released half a century ago today. Groundbreaking in many ways, it held a pessimistic view of the future that has sadly largely come to pass. Here is one of their best ever songs…

Sunday 6 October 2019

Red - King Crimson

King Crimson’s album Red was released forty five years ago today. By then, the band consisted of just three members...Robert Fripp, John Wetton and Bill Bruford following violinist David Cross being voted out just before the recording of their swan song LP began.

The group had been formed in late 1968 and had released their seminal debut album In The Court Of The Crimson King in October 1969. Robert Fripp was the only original band member who remained by the Summer of 1974 and was going through some mounting spiritual turmoil which he later described as feeling like “the top of my head blew off”! Recording began in July going into August, and by late September Fripp had decided to disband King Crimson. This was disappointing news, but Red was the perfect way to say farewell.

The instrumental title track begins the LP and sounds almost like a less leaden heavy metal outing with a feeling of foreboding permeating throughout. Fallen Angel is the next song and is one of Crimson’s very best. A tale of vicious gang warfare in New York, it harks back musically to earlier incarnations of the band with shades of Lizard era oboe and cornet to the fore. However, One More Red Nightmare ends Side One with the earlier heavy foreboding feeling now one of panic as the lyrics describe John Wetton’s nightmare of being on a plane about to crash only to wake up to find he is really on a Greyhound bus. The song signals also the return of original group member Ian McDonald on saxophone

Side Two opens with Providence which is an improvised live performance featuring David Cross on violin shortly before his leaving the band. However, King Crimson left their masterpiece till the last. The final track on the album is Starless which is one of the greatest songs of the late 20th Century. Musically it is superb with McDonald again on alto saxophone joined by another former band mate Mel Collins on soprano saxophone. Beginning slowly with mellotron and Fripp’s weaving guitar, Wetton sings of despair and hope before the piece settles into a lengthy instrumental passage that builds slowly as Wetton’s bass is joined by Fripp's relentless guitar and Bruford’s increasingly fevered percussion. The next section sees the band go crazy with the saxophones joining in along with mighty power chords from Fripp, before the final minute of the song ends beautifully the LP and also the first and best era of King Crimson. Here is that final masterpiece...

Wednesday 18 September 2019

Rapper’s Delight - The Sugar Hill Gang

Released forty years ago this week and still sounding as good as it did then. 😊

Friday 30 August 2019

My Feet Keep Dancing - Chic

Sounding as good as it did forty years ago. The fabulous Chic with my favourite song of theirs.

Monday 26 August 2019

The Supremes - Stop In The Name Of Love

The 1960s produced some of the greatest music ever made. Tamla Motown was responsible for a lot of the songs that made that decade so special. Groups like The Four Tops, The Isley Brothers and especially The Supremes released so many great singles, but for me the finest of all was this one:

Friday 23 August 2019

Kimono My House

Ian MacDonald said the album was “paradise regained” in his 1974 New Musical Express review. It was indeed a masterpiece and here is the first single taken from it...