KING CRIMSON: Starless and Bible Black (1974)

1. The Great Deceiver
2. Lament
3. We'll Let You Know
4. The Night Watch
5. Trio
6. The Mincer
7. Starless and Bible Black
8. Fracture

THE GREAT DECEIVER

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

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 the bubble's burst

Although you know there was a time

When love songs gathered in my head

With poetry in every line

And strong men strove to hold the doors

While with my friends I passed the 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

(Instrumental)

THE NIGHT WATCH

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 councillors

In armour bright, the merchant men

Official moments of the guild

In poses keen from bygone days

The city fathers frozen there

Upon the canvas dark with age

The smell of paint, a flask of wine

And turn those faces all to me

The blunderbuss and halberd-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 hand

Request you all to understand

TRIO

(Instrumental)

THE MINCER

Fingers reaching,

Fingers reeking.

Jump for the scream,

Good night, honey.

You're all alone,

Baby, breathing.

They come better looking,

But they don't come mannered

STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK

Sundown dazzling day

Gold through my eyes

But my eyes turned within

Only see

Starless and bible black
old friend charity

cruel twisted smile

and the smile signals emptiness

for mestarless and bible black
Ice blue silver sky

Fades into grey

To a grey hope that oh years to be

Starless and bible black

FRACTURE

(Instrumental)