STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK

Starless and Bible Black was my first introduction to the world of progressive rock outside of the Yes on rock radio and Rush Chronicles. I remembered a quote where Geddy Lee stated he and Lifeson used to pretend they were King Crimson when they first started out when I found a cassette of Starless and Bible Black digging through the crates at a local Big Lots store. I think I was 17.

I'd gone through the heavy metal phase at 14, graduating to led zep and rush and the who et all on rock radio. Was this the next logical listen for my burgeoning prog ears?

Yes and no. Of course I tried Starless right away and thought it was weird. Loud. Creative and abrasive, but even then Starless and Bible Black and Fracture back to back made my jaw drop.

Soon I found the Weirdness of FZ appealed more to me. After thoroughly exploring his razor sharp ideology and absurdist wit I sought other hills to climb and came back to the dollar Starless and Bible Black cassette at university after quickly tiring of Dave Matthews, Phish, and Mighty Mighty Bosstones dreck.

Everyone around me hated it, but I finally got it and loved it double for that. AHA!

Crunchy, haunting, gorgeous, menacing, pastoral, a lot of adjectives can be used to describe the overall sound Fripp and co. display. For young, impressionable ears like mine at age 20, the most authentic descriptors would be influential and mindblowing.

I learned another lesson from this album when I bought it on CD in 1999, how different(better) remastering technology makes these classic analog recordings sound. I didn't listen to many cassettes after starting to make a bit of money.

The verdict is I'll be giving my male children a copy of this prior to enrolling at university (My daughter will get a copy of the first Return to Forever album)

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