From
Starless and Bible Black (1974) by
King Crimson
The Great Deceiver (Fripp/Palmer-James/Wetton) - 4:03
Health-food faggot with a bartered bride
Likes to comb his hair with a dipper ride
Once had a friend with a cloven foot
Once he called the tune in a chequered quit
Great Deceiver
In the door on the floor in a paper bag
There's a shoe-shine boy with a gin-shop slag
She raised him up and she called him son
And she canonised the ground that he walked upon
Great Deceiver
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, cadillacs blue jeans
In the night he's a star in the Milky Way
He's a man of the world by the light of day
A golden smile and a proposition
And the breath of God smells of sweet sedition
Great Deceiver
Sing hymns make love get high fall dead
He'll bring his perfume to your bed
He'll charm your life 'til the cold winds blow
Then he'll sell your dreams to a picture show
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cadillacs, blue jeans, dixieland playing on the ferry
Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry
Lament (Fripp/Palmer-James/Wetton) - 4:02
I guess I tried to show you how
I'd take the crowd with my guitar
And business men would clap their hands
And clip another fat cigar
And publishers would spread the news
And print my music far and wide
And all the kids who played the blues
Would learn my licks with a bottle neck slide.
But now it seems to the bubble's burst
Although you know there was a time
When love gathered in my head
With poetry in every line
And strong men strove to hold the doors
While with my friends I passed that age
When people stomped on dirty floors
Before I trod the rock'n'roll stage.
I'll thank the man who's on the 'phone
And if he has the time to spend
The problem I'll explain once more
And indicate a sum to lend
That ten percent is now a joke
Maybe thirty, even thirty-five
I'll say my daddy's had a stroke
He'd have one now, if he only was alive.
I like the way you look at me
You're laughing too down there inside
I took my chance and you took yours
You crewed my ship, we missed the tide
I like the way the music goes
There's a few good guys who can play it right
I like the way it moves my toes
Just say when you want to go and dance all night...
We'll Let You Know (Bruford/Cross/Fripp/Wetton) - 3:41
Instrumental
The Night Watch (Fripp/Palmer-James/Wetton) - 4:42
Shine, shine, the light of good works shine
The watch before the city gates depicted in their prime
That golden light all grimy now
Three hundred years have passed
The worthy Captain and his squad of troopers standing fast.
The artist knew their faces well
The husbands of his lady friends
His creditors and councilors
In armour bright, the merchant men
Official moments of the guild
In poses keen from bygone days
The city fathers frozen there
Upon with canvas dark with age
The smell of paint, a flask of wine
And turn those faces all to me
The blunderbuss and halbert-shaft
And Dutch respectability.
They make their entrance one by one
Defenders of that way of life
The redbrick home, the bourgeoisie
Guitar lessons for the wife.
So many years we suffered here
Our country racked with Spanish wars
Now comes a chance to find ourselves
And quiet reigns behind our doors
We think about posterity again.
And so the pride of little men
The burghers good and true
Still living through the painter's hands
Request you all to understand.
Trio (Bruford/Cross/Fripp/Wetton) - 5:41
Instrumental
The Mincer (Bruford/Fripp/Palmer-James/Wetton) - 4:09
Instrumental
Starless and Bible Black (Bruford/Fripp/Wetton) - 9:14
Instrumental
Fracture (Fripp) - 11:17
Instrumental