Year: 1974
Country: United Kingdom
Running time: 12 mins. 19 secs.
YouTube link
Had this top 20 been voted for by a large number of prog fans instead of only myself, I believe the most likely #1 would have been one of two alternatives. One of them is Close to the Edge, by Yes, which I have dared to place sixth. I think it would have been the less likely winner in a general poll as well. The more likely winner would have been Starless, by King Crimson, which I have dared to place third.
Starless seems to be almost everyone's favourite prog song, probably because it allows easy access to prog also to the fans of hard rock leaning a bit towards heavy metal. It doesn't have the ethereal quality of, say, Close to the Edge which might seem a bit too whimsical to many straight rock fans. Starless has immense, undeniable power. It contains very strong notes and riffs. It represents masculinity in a genre that, in general, seem to savor feminine traits. To put it shortly, it kicks ass in a way few prog songs do.
I have no problem admitting that Starless is an extremely powerful piece of music that can easily leave the listener stunned and speechless, and is definitely one of the best of its kind ever made. Why the third place, then?
When compiling the top 20, I listened to my favourite long prog pieces over and over again. As a result of repeated listening, I came to realise that, while my top 3 songs were almost equally great, I was able to point out one flaw in Starless. A very, very minor one, but a flaw nonetheless. The same thing applied to #2, which we will get to soon enough. But I couldn't find a single flaw, not even a minor one, in my third winner candidate which has now ascertained its place as #1.
Starless is the closing track of Red, which in turn is the closing album of the trilogy recorded by the Fripp - Wetton - Bruford incarnation of King Crimson (1973 - 1974). The opening track of the first album of said trilogy, Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 1 was already discussed a while ago (#10). The middle album of the trilogy, Starless and Bible Black is a forgettable affair, with no standouts on its track list.
Red, on the other hand, is one of the most highly appreciated albums by King Crimson, right up there with the group's classic debut In the Court of the Crimson King (1969). Starless is not the only outstanding track on it: both the instrumental title track and Fallen Angel are fan favourites. Overall, we are talking about an album of exceptional quality. Sad, then, that Fripp decided to disband King Crimson in its wake. The group didn't return until 1981, with the vastly inferior album Discipline, performed by a vastly inferior lineup.
Starless begins with a beautiful melody played with mellotron, guitar, bass and drums, and sung by Wetton with a genuine feeling as only he knows how. This introduction occupies only approximately three minutes, after which we face the track's real challenge. The beautiful theme is replaced with Fripp's guitar playing a theme that soon starts to sound a bit repetitive. But slowly, it keeps on building and ascending, while Wetton's bass and Bruford's percussion begin to accompany it with increasing presence and volume.
This phase uses several minutes: the slowly building guitar theme, with bass and percussion background growing ever more forceful, until it is finally time to up the ante with a fast, jazz influenced sequence that has some fine saxophone work by guest musicians Mel Collins (soprano) and Ian McDonald (alto). When the song has ascended to new heights unimaginable at the beginning, it is then suddenly closed by the opening theme which now receives a whole new meaning when played in high volume and new strength. The song reaches an incredibly strong climax and then ends.
It is this contrast between the mellowly played and sung, beautiful opening theme, and its aggressive, extremely powerful instrumental repeat at the end that gives Starless its strength. When listening to the last minute of the track, you kind of relive the beautiful opening in a totally different context, and cannot help being overwhelmed by the masterful handling of the theme in its two vastly different forms.
The very, very minor flaw of Starless that I referred to earlier, is the repetitive quality of Fripp's guitar work in between the opening and closing sections. One cannot help thinking that Starless would have been an even stronger track had the middle section been a little shorter and less repetitive - and as such, ineligible for the top 20. This is a minor complaint but, at the great masterpiece level we have now entered, significant enough to determine the difference between #1, #2 and #3 of all time.
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